About 5 years ago we were deep into research about the commercial use of text messaging.  At this time there weren’t many companies that were providing commercial text messaging services.  We actually managed to find about 5 in the country at the time, none of them had a product specifically designed for the real estate industry.  So we set out to create the best real estate text messaging system possible.  We wanted to create an easy to use lead generating system that REALTORS would love.

Along the way we learned a number of things abut what REALTORS want and need and how to generate leads for REALTORS.  As it turns out we didn’t create the best real estate text messaging system possible.  We ended up creating what we consider to be the best real estate digital marketing system available on the market.

Why is Digital Home Info the best Real Estate Marketing system?

Customer Service- Yes, Customer Service is the number one reason we are the best.  Our customers are the most important part of our business.  Without them we wouldn’t have a business.  So we listen to them when they have an issue or request.  Many REALTORS work everyday of the week, so do we.  When our customers have questions they can pick up the phone and get a live person.  When you send in an email we guarantee you’ll get a response and the issue/question will be addressed. This level of customer service has enabled us to grow and retain our customer base.

Technology- Second only to Customer Service is our technology.  We have yet to find a competitor that offers the same combination of technology that Digital Home Info does.  Some of them have some of the components but there isn’t one that does everything we do:

• Text Messaging
• Toll Free Call Capture
• Virtual Tours
• Mobile Virtual Tours
• Social Media Integration
• Automated Video Creation
• Syndication
• Lead Reporting
• REALTOR.COM Posting

Value- This is the final piece of the puzzle that makes us the best.  While our service and technology are enterprise class our pricing is not. We know that many of our competitors charge double or triple what we do and all they offer is just one of the services included in Digital Home Info.  Our philosophy is that by providing a great service at a reasonable price everyone wins. This is value.

Want to learn more?  Try giving us a call, 877.250.5277

We often get asked about the signs required to use our service.  What size are they?  Do you have riders? Are they color? Are they reusable? etc…  So here are some answers to many of the questions we have been asked about signs.

How much are they?

18″x24″ 4mm (light weight) Cor-X Panels (including H-stake) are $18.00 each for qty less than 10 and $13.00 each for qty greater than 10

18″x 24″ 8mm (heavy duty) Cor-X Panels (including H-stake) are $25.00 each for qty less than 10 and $20.00 each for qty greater than 10

6″x24″ rider (Cor-X Panels or aluminum) are $12.00 each for qty less than 10 and $8.00 each for qty greater than 10

Shipping is included in the cost of the signs.

Are the Real Estate Signs reusable?

Yes, they are!  Each sign will have a unique code on it.  This code is assigned to a listing when you set it up in our system.  Once you sell the listing you can reassign the code to another property and use the sign again.

Where are the holes in the riders placed?

We will confirm the placement of holes with you before we order the signs.

What do the signs and riders look like?

See image at the end of this post.

I have my own Real Estate sign company, can I use them?

Yes, you can.  We will provide you with a template and guidelines on what is required on each sign.  You can then take this to your sign company and get them or use the guidelines to create your own unique sign.

Do I have to order signs to use your service?

No, but if you want to get the most out of our service it is advisable.  We have many REALTORS® that promote their text messaging and toll free call capture in many other mediums and are quite successful but they still place signs in the yard to get the most impact.

Are the signs full color? Double sided?

Yes and yes.  All signs are full color and double sided.  The colors are designed to match your agency’s colors to provide consistent branding.

There is an interesting article on realtor.org about what might happen in the housing market in the next few years.

Below is an excerpt and link to the full article.

Underproduction in the past three years may lead to a housing shortage in future years.

By Lawrence Yun | June 2010

In the current market, the idea of a housing shortage may be hard to accept. There are simply too many For Sale signs and delinquent mortgages threatening to turn into foreclosures to make a housing shortage seem like a serious possibility.

http://www.realtor.org/rmonews_and_commentary/economy/1006_economy_housingshortage

Does mobile marketing generate leads for Real Estate? Yes!!! Real Estate is a business founded on the concept of marketing property to prospective buyers and representation for sellers. It’s all about marketing and reaching prospective buyers. One of the key success factors is providing information to buyers in a quick and timely manner. Consumers are accustomed to being able to get the information they want fast. Time is of essence for Realtors. This is where mobile marketing comes in.

Mobile marketing has the ability to deliver information to buyers in a quick, easy, and timely fashion helping Realtors be responsive to requests for information automatically. Over the last few years our society has become more and more mobile oriented. There are approximately 260 million cell phone plans in use in the USA, out of a population of just over 300 million. That covers about 86% of the population. With such a deep market penetration and the growing capabilities of these devices, mobile marketing becomes a natural space for Realtors to reach new buyers.

The question is what mobile technology should I use? There are many technologies for use in mobile marketing and in order to use it effectively you have to be able to reach buyers in the way that they are most willing to communicate. For some buyers this is a phone call directly to the agent, others prefer to get information before talking to agents. This is why a program that offers a well rounded mobile technology package is required to reach the majority of buyers.

What is a well rounded mobile technology package? Based on what we’ve seen and heard, we think a well rounded mobile marketing package incorporates voice, email, text messaging and the web. By using all of these technologies Real Estate Agents can enable prospective buyers to retrieve information instantly via text, listen to a recording about the home property, contact the realtor directly, and get in-depth information via email or web site. At the same time the agents are enabling buyers to learn more about their properties, the mobile marketing package should also be capturing lead data for the agent. While we are seeing many home buyers take the initiative to reach out to the Realtor, we also provide the agent the information about when a request was made, the phone number the request was made from and the property that was inquired about.

Is Mobile Marketing in your marketing plan?  Has it been effective for you?

Mobile Marketing is growing fast in the real estate industry and there are a lot of players out there offering different components of mobile marketing to their customers.  Below is a short list of those offerings:

• Real Estate Text Messaging
• Mobile Optimized web sites (Corporate)
• Mobile Optimized Virtual Tours
• Mobile Applications (for the iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, Smartphone)
• Toll Free Call Capture

These are just a few of the mobile offerings in the real estate industry.  Which of these are important to you?  What do you use?  What would you like to see offered?  We would like to know.

Virtual Tours have become such an integral component of Real Estate Marketing, we thought we would provide a top 5 list of features to look for in your Virtual Tour Service provider and why they are important.

1. Large Photos – Large photos allow viewers to get a better feel for the size and feel of a home.  Small photos, even very good ones, make it hard to see details and look for features a viewer wants.
2. Share Features – There should be a number of sharing features on a virtual tour.  Viewers should be able to share with their friends and use social media sharing links.  This helps spread your message and information out as far and wide as possible.
3. Appointment Scheduler – Allows the viewers to schedule an appointment to see the property.  This is a great way to collect prospect information in an indirect manner while providing an easy path for the viewer to meet you.
4. Contact Me/Information - All of your contact information should be visible on the virtual tour at all times and there should be a contact form that the viewer can fill out to reach you.  An interested buyer is not going to hunt through a number of links to find your information.  They will find another agent if your information isn’t easily accessible.
5. Agent Branding – Every agent has a brand.  They work for an broker, agency, or real estate company.  Each one has a unique brand.  Utilize this brand and piggy back your own branding on top of it.  The more consistent your message and branding the greater opportunity for recognition.

You may have noticed that most of these features are about using media to either get direct contact with a viewer or to share your information with someone the viewer knows.  You don’t know where your next buyer is going to come from and utilizing every opportunity to spread your message as far and wide as possible just makes sense.

Text Messaging is an emerging technology in the Real Estate industry.  REALTORS are using it in many different ways.  We thought we would list 3 ways that REALTORS could use texting to generate leads.

1. Mobile Flyers – Many mobile services (like Digital Home Info) offer a mobile real estate flyer that returns the property and agent information in a text message.  Many of them also offer an instant notification that provides the lead information to the agent.
2. Mobile Virtual Tours - If your virtual tours are mobile optimized include a link to the mobile version at the bottom of mobile flyers and messages that you send to prospects.
3. Text Card – A text message business card.  Puts your information on a prospects phone and provides you with their lead information at the same time.

These are just a few of the many ways that text messaging can be used by REALTORS.  Let us know how you are using text messaging by leaving a comment.

Since we just rolled out our new REALTOR.com® enhancement, we thought it would be a good idea to explain some of the benefits of posting your virtual tour links to REALTOR.com®.  Aside from the ~90,000,000 page views/month that REALTOR.com® receives, some of the benefits include:

• Your complete Virtual Tour is linked to your listing on REALTOR.com® – This allows potential buyers to see all of your photos, your contact information, flyers and relevant information.  While at the same time distinguishing you from others that don’t link to their virtual tours.

• Greater Distribution – Your listing link is displayed not only on REALTOR.com® but also on the entire REALTOR.com® distribution network which includes many national real estate portals such as homes.com, move.com, and national franchise brand sites such as ColdwellBanker.com, Century21.com, ERA.com, and REMAX.com.

• Better Search Results – The volume of links generated through the REALTOR.com® distribution channel increases the chance of your home being found when potential buyers are searching the Internet.  All of these links connect back to your virtual tour leading potential buyers directly to you.

The list above is a small portion of the many benefits and marketing opportunities that Realtor.com provides.  If you are interested in learning more we recommend that you check out their site at realtor.com.

The REALTOR.com® logo is a registered trademark of the National Association of REALTORS®

Digital Home Info is excited to announce that we are now capable of posting Virtual Tour Links to REALTOR.COM.  This has been an often requested feature and we are pleased to make it available to our customers.

To use this feature simply click on the “Realtor.com” link in the Active Listings section of the management portal and follow the directions presented.

If you have any questions please feel free to call or email us.