They may get a website that their nerdy nephew makes for them, or else they buy the most minimally featured one from some local web design company that themselves has little clue about web -- or any other kind -- of marketing beyond perhaps making "pretty flyers."

Naturally, the best option for new agents is buying the best site that they can afford from a nationwide real estate web design company that has made websites for at least 20,000 agents. Those firms know what they are doing or they wouldn't still be in business.

Consider the new agents dilemma about search engines -- "Should I hire Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts to eventually get my site to come up high, organically, on search engines? Or should I take the easy route and spend that same money instead on gaining high Pay Per Click (PPC) position on search engines in the sponsored search results"?

I think that most agents who get a website don't have a clue about how to get high on organic search engine results pages (SERPs) so they just forget about it and buy PPC. When they do, they are figuring that if you throw enough money at it, it will begun to work. Problem is, you can never stop paying when using PPC to get people to visit your site. But when you get high on organic search results, you stay there for free.

It is easy to understand why most Realtors are minimal in Web marketing talents since the median Realtor age is the mid 50s, meaning that they did not grow up with computers and the Internet. So all this new fangled stuff is pretty alien to them.

At least some of the veteran Realtors knew most of the tried and proven non-Internet methods of marketing, and thus some were able to convert a lot of their tactics over to the web. Oddly, most, however, weren't.

If there had been some good local courses in how to transfer and apply off-line marketing skills to online marketing, would many of these same seasoned agents have gained good Internet skills? Who is to say? But it seems logical.

Sadly, too, many of the newer Realtors in their late twenties or early thirties who actually are facile with computers seem to know little about web marketing, or ANY kind of marketing. And most Associations of Realtors (AORs) do little to teach them. (Of course we must always remember that knowing computers and knowing Internet marketing are wholly different skill sets.)

Most AORs seem to fill this gap in teaching by hauling in an endless succession of vendors, and associate AOR members, who "claim" to be offering the agents group seminars on how to market on the web. As you may have suspected, most of these "seminars" are thinly disguised pitches for their own products, gilded with promises of great results "if only you will give it a try," oh, and of course "give us your credit card."

Most of these seminar-conducting firms that sell "web marketing packages, including a website" actually provide little "after the sale" help to Realtors (AdvancedAccess.com is a big exception to this rule), once the credit card charge has been approved.

After money changes hands, the Realtors are mostly on their own with their new, and for the most part, mysterious-to-them, website. "Gosh, how do you change the misspelled word I accidentally inserted into the text? Eek, my picture looks like someone pulled outward on each of my ears … how do I fix it, and fast?"

To newbies, making mistakes in text or photo additions to their sites, and not knowing how to fix a grossly wrong entry, can be a horrifying thing. (What will everyone think when they see what I've done?)

Fortunately, the positive attitude for many is, "Oops, now that I've got a site, I better learn how to use it." But then they go to the next vendor-conducted "Get rich on the Web" seminar sponsored by their AOR, and spend more money there buying the next software gadget for making pretty emails, doing online farming, sending greeting cards or football schedules, etc. and all the while getting little results. It never ends.

Most AORs foolishly think they are providing a service. They think that by offering the mostly-worthless vendor seminars, they are training agents in web marketing without having to spend money for their OWN instructors or training classes and computer rooms.

They equate, say, seminars on how to use 1031s with those for learning Web marketing. The first is a single body of knowledge that one can pretty much become expert in after a bit of diligent study and a number of diverse, real life deals. The second is such a vast, vast subject that only prolonged training, much like a college curriculum, will teach a new agent how to do the job.

And where are the big name real estate companies in this process? Why, they are doing the same thing as the AORs -- presenting their own cadre of kissy-kissy partnership-vendors which each give the franchise company a piece of the action as Realtors sign up.

Oh yes, at their national sales meetings, the big name realty firms do get some motivational speakers and nitty-gritty web marketing experts to lecture. ("I made $50 million in Real Estate and You Can, too!") But bottom line, those speakers are mostly there to sell their books, CDs, and DVDs. And not every Realtor, especially newer ones, can afford to attend national sales meetings of their big name realty firm.

So you can see why I feel sorry for most new Realtors in their efforts to develop their web marketing tactics and strategies. There must be a better way to prepare a Realtor for a career future in which virtually everyone (It's already about 80 percent) will be hunting for homes and real estate agents on the web and no longer walking in the front door of the realty office.

NAR's e-PRO designation includes a test of what you already know, and the studying for it actually does touch many of the basics of web marketing and email. But everyone knows that getting an e-PRO designation is minimal in its contribution to a new Realtor's tools that he can use everyday. (I often wonder how many web-savvy assistants of Realtors were the ones who actually took the online e-PRO exam.)

Ignoring the greed factor for a moment, there is one way to handle this education problem. The key entities in the real estate industry should set up regional schools, as in unified school districts, to teach new Realtors how to do responsible and effective, consumer-serving web marketing.

Big name Realty firms and their individual local franchisers, title and escrow companies, home insurance firms and the like, appraisers, etc., national, and state, and local associations, would all sign onto an agreement leading to the setting up of AOR-based Web marketing training programs for Realtors. Participating AORs would get funds to hire one or more instructors and secure in-or outside facilities for training.

Where can new Realtors predictably go to learn Web marketing now? Think about it. Most of us cannot think of a place. Oh yes, you can find thousands of articles on the web, but to new Realtors, much of this may be like throwing a history major into a calculus class and expecting him to independently sort the wheat from the chaff.

What might work is my proposed regional or statewide network of instructors, much like a local unified school district has, that would regularly conduct courses in predictable semesters or terms, just like in a college. Another approach would be to teach the courses in community colleges, but of course someone has to fund such programs, and convince the schools to offer the vocational courses.

Let's all ask how we can get our city and regional association heads together and start some bottoms-up requests for local Internet marketing programs that can assist new (and older) Realtors.

It's important! These agents are about to advise clients in a field that deals with the single greatest financial investment that most people will ever make! Let's teach them better Internet rules that will help them touch all the bases in their career.

Published: November 14, 2006

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Bill Koelzer is a Web marketing consultant to web-proficient agents nationwide. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, Internet Marketing in Real Estate and Internet Marketing. Bill is also webmaster of Orange County Real Estate, among the most-awarded known Realtor® sites. Visit his website, Koelzer.com or e-mail him at .