Part II: A Beginner’s Guide to Listing your home on the Web

This is the second part in a three part series.  To read part 1 Click Here

Part Two:  One Great Website is Good, Many good Websites is Great
Unfortunately for those who work in the SEO field, no one website will show up highly in all relevant search fields.  While an individual brokerage can climb search rankings for real estate related searches in their market, like Chautauqua County, competition because much harder if not impossible for larger fields, such as New York, or heaven forbid, simply Real Estate.  Good Brokerages recognize this and develop relationships with larger sites to make sure their listings are displayed there as well.  The technical term for this is syndication.
To explain this, I will use our company, Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate as an example.  Our main websitehttp://www.howardhannaholt.com does very well if someone was going to search a general market term like. “Chautauqua County Real Estate”.  We also run local office and agent websites, such ashttp://www.hhhfredoniahomes.com to cater to individual market searches such as, “Fredonia NY homes for sale”.  However many of our buyers come from outside markets.  Our listings also are displayed on howardhanna.com, which has the largest market share in NY, PA, OH, and WV.  Additionally our listings are displayed on qualified member sites of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, the largest network of brokerages that exists.  That same listing will also be displayed on industry staples such as REALTOR.com, Trulia, Zillow, Yahoo Real Estate, and many more.  While we like to keep some of our cards in hand, a listing with us will not just go up on our local board, office, or agent’s website, but over 500 other sites nationwide.
Simply put, the more places a buyer can find your home, the better.

Nick Holt is a licensed sales associate, member of "The Peak Team", and director of web-based marketing for Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate.  Chautauqua County-headquartered Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate, offers comprehensive residential and commercial real estate sales, leasing and related services including real property appraisals, property management, development services, vacation property rentals and traditional rentals. Owned by the Holt family, the local affiliate of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services has offices in Fredonia, Mayville and Westfield, on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution, at the Bemus Bay condominiums and at Peek'n Peak Resort and Spa.

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is the third-largest independent real estate company in the United States, the country's fourth-largest full service real estate company and the sixth largest mortgage banking company in the nation. The company serves the Western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia real estate markets.

A Beginner’s Guide to Listing your home on the Web

A Beginner’s Guide to Listing your home on the Web.By Nick Holt
Hello to everyone out on the blogosphere.  Fair-warning, today’s post is going to be different from our usual press releases, updates, and announcements. This will be the first of a three-part series on Internet Marketing for Real Estate.


According to NAR’s 2010 “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers”, 89% of home buyers searched the internet ‘frequently’ for a home in 2010. And the share of home buyers who found their home on the internet jumped from 8% in 2001 to 37% 2010.  In meeting with my clients and other agents, it’s very clear to me that while everyone recognizes the importance of using the internet effectively to sell real estate, many have little to no idea what exactly that entails.  To help answer these questions, advise for sale by owners on how to do this, and to try to explain why a job-title like “Director of Web-Based Marketing exists; I’d like to touch on three important aspects of utilizing the internet as a marketing tool.


Part One:  All Web Listings Are Not Created Equal
Many discount Real Estate Brokerages, Craig’s List Aficionados, and For Sale by Owner Sites, are happy to tell you that they will put your listing up on the internet, and then give you the link so that you can see exactly where it is.  It is important to realize that, while this makes up part of internet marketing, it does not mean that your home is being effectively marketed on the internet.  Remember, possible buyers for your home do not have that direct link to the listing, they have to find it organically.  Try using your favorite search engine to find a home like your buyer does, i.e. search real estate in your county, town, village or neighborhood and see if the broker’s website shows up.  If you are having a hard time finding it, the buyers probably are too.  You wouldn’t advertize in a newspaper nobody reads,  the same goes your listing website.
Good real estate companies and listing services recognize this and employ tech wizards (like this guy), called SEO’s tomonitor the algorithms that search engines use, and tailor their websites so that they show up at or near the top of the search engines’ rankings on relevant searches.  Without doing this, all a company is doing when talking about their “web presence” is giving you lip service.


Thanks for reading and check back tomorrow for Part II "One Great Website is Good, Many Good Websites are Great".
Nick Holt is a licensed sales associate, member of "The Peak Team", and director of web-based marketing for Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate.  Chautauqua County-headquartered Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate, offers comprehensive residential and commercial real estate sales, leasing and related services including real property appraisals, property management, development services, vacation property rentals and traditional rentals. Owned by the Holt family, the local affiliate of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services has offices in Fredonia, Mayville and Westfield, on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution, at the Bemus Bay condominiums and at Peek'n Peak Resort and Spa.

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is the third-largest independent real estate company in the United States, the country's fourth-largest full service real estate company and the sixth largest mortgage banking company in the nation. The company serves the Western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia real estate markets.

Holts attend Managers' Advance

George (Pete), Steve, and Nick Holt had the pleasure of attending the Howard Hanna Managers advance in Cleveland this week.  The Holts put their brains together with Howard Hanna's 130+ Office Managers from across PA, OH, NY & WV, Department Heads, Regional and Senior Management in downtown Cleveland for the company’s annual ‘Manager’s Advance’ meetings.
The Hanna Team of 170  were welcomed at the Intercontinental Hotel by Hanna Ohio President, Hoby Hanna along with Cuyahoga County Executive, Ed Fitzgerald.
This afternoon ‘Positively Cleveland’ designed a ‘Discover Cleveland Scavenger Hunt’ for the group to get out and see the sights of Downtown and all it has to offer.
Special guest speakers on the agenda include Dick Finnegan of Finnegan MacKenzie, The Retention Firm and Sandra Pinalto, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
The goal of Howard Hanna’s Manager Advance is to bring all Hanna Managers together for camaraderie, networking, knowledge and enhanced customer service initiatives with emphasis on the traditional values of the 54-year old company as the company moves forward into the new year.
CEO Hoddy Hanna’s presentations include an overview of the real estate market today – both locally and nationally, an update on operations in Cleveland, Erie, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Youngstown regions, along with the company’s mortgage, title and insurance companies.
How many offices does Howard Hanna have? The company has more than 130 offices across the four states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia with more than 4,000 sales associates, management and staff.
How many of the offices are in Ohio? Currently, Howard Hanna has 49 offices in the state of Ohio with approximately 2,000 sales associates.
How does Howard Hanna’s Manager’s Advance Meeting affect local people? The company’s sales associates and management team influence the real estate activity in every market they are in. By being the most knowledgeable and up-to-date, they are able to better serve their clients.
Howard Hanna is pleased to be contributing to the city of Cleveland economy rather that a resort or hotel in a market in which they do not do business. The company will be purchasing approximately 170 rooms at the Intercontinental Hotel, providing meals and entertainment for two days and bringing many people to Cleveland who have never been before --many of which will venture out to the shops and dining establishments on their free time.