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Ugliest on the World Wide Web Real Estate Intelligence Report’s IR Tech Vol. 4, No. 2 In February, for the first time in the International Real Estate Directory’s two-year history, a buyer broker site was named one of IRED’s Top Ten sites, cracking a long-running tradition that buyer brokers have the ugliest pages on the Internet. The winning site (above) is operated by The Buyer’s Broker Co. of Shrewsbury, Mass. (www.thebuyersbroker.com). While there’s no law that says buyer brokers have to have the ugliest sites on the Web, they seem to occupy that niche with a vengeance. Problem One for buyer brokers is that they have no colorful pictures of listings to entice the surfing consumer. Problem Two is that many buyer broker sites plunge into mind-numbing discussions of agency that, while important, tend to suck the fun right out of looking for houses. Jack Harper, San Diego Web designer and co-owner of one of the glossiest new sites on the Internet, RealTown (www.realtown.com) doesn’t bother to be diplomatic about buyer broker pages: “I’ve looked at a lot of them. I’ve never seen one that thought was any good.” Nor does IRED’s Becky Swann (www.ired.com) leap to their defense: “Well…I wouldn’t say they’re the ugliest sites on the Web. I’ve seen lots of sites that are just as bad.” Most Web experts agree that while the Web can be informative, it is at its best when it’s also visually entertaining. In real estate, that means pictures of houses something buyer brokers can’t provide. Harper, however, rejects the lack of houses as a legitimate excuse for a lackluster home page. “The missing ingredients frequently are “content” and “engagement,” he said. “Content” is what brings consumers to the site. “Engagement” is what keeps them coming back. “Buyer brokers need to provide more educational tools: FAQs (frequently asked questions), good calculators on how much it costs to buy a home, some legal information. Those sites need to be buyer support systems.” Instead, Harper said, what the consumer usually gets is a lecture on agency. “Education is more than just preaching. They need to do more explanation of the process.” Buyer broker and Web site designer Bill Tolle (www.galveston-homes.com) of Galveston, Texas concurs. “What buyer brokers have to do is offset (listing agent) pictures with better information,” he said. “A lot of what a buyer broker page needs to do is provide information about the community, the real estate market. That information is especially important, if you’re going after relocation business.” |
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www.TheBuyersBroker.com |
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