The first thing you'll discover about Mike Parker when you get onto his 182-page Web site is that he likes hats -- a lot. And another thing he's got is ideas -- a wealth of them -- about how to market himself to house-hunters in Northern Kentucky. Parker, who started his own office, Mike Parker Real Estate, last month, took a different approach with his Web site. Instead of making a mad rush to compile multiple home listings and post them on his site, Parker remained comparatively unfazed by listings and instead spent a year developing content -- about schools, relocation information, builder information, personal information, and information about the tri-state area (Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio) in which Parker and his associates sell properties.

Taking yet again another unconventional approach to his selling strategies, Parker -- realizing that Northern Kentucky was a world unto itself -- decided to focus his selling efforts strictly within this region. But he also recognized that he sat on the tip of two other states. So he formed alliances with a network of agents to whom he refers clients interested in Ohio and Indiana. "I'm not after just a sale," Parker says. "I want a consumer for life; I want to get them the right person who really knows the particular area."

Mike Parker

Parker began working with Kentucky Utilities during college and ascended the ranks while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. Following an accident at a power plant in 1984 that burned more than 50 percent of his body, Parker shifted gears and began an extremely successful career in real estate. The "hat man" has been a Realtor for 12 years and has compiled a slew of professional accolades, including designation as one of RE/MAX's top producers for six and a half years. Parker ranks in the top 1 percent of Realtors in the United States. His office of just four people produces a yearly average of between 105 and 110 sales transactions, and 1997 sales volume reached $15 million.

A.N.: You're at an interesting vantage point in terms of sales, being in a tri-state area. Are you licensed to sell in all three states?
M.P.: I have a license to sell in Ohio, but I don't sell there. And I'm not selling in Indiana, either. I refer people to other professionals within a network I've established over the years. The laws and tax brackets in the three states are all different. There's no way that one agent can know this entire tri-state area. Northern Kentucky is just like Europe -- we have 33 little cities with one tax bracket, one police department, et cetera. But even within Cincinnati, the north, east, and west sides are all different. All of the new construction is in the northern part of the city. Some people would never consider moving from one side to another. I have seven or eight agents set up within the tri-state area -- about two people in each locale. I've been working with these people for five or six years. I want to get consumers to someone who's familiar with that area. I also try to match clients' personalities with the appropriate agents.

A.N.: You've obviously put a lot of thought into your site.
M.P.: Come back in two weeks. We're added detailed demographics of every neighborhood -- we're starting with 15 neighborhoods. We're going to list the builders in each area, what the price range of that neighborhood is, and the characteristics of the neighborhoods -- if there are any parks or pools nearby, for example. And we're going to add school reports. People will be able to get detailed reports about Northern Kentucky schools -- more than 30 of them -- by downloading them, or by fax. I also have a real estate newsletter that I want to start e-mailing to clients. I'm out to educate the consumer more. A lot of agents out there are scared of that, but I'm not. The average visitor to my site spends eight and a half minutes there; the national average is two minutes.

A.N.: Why are agents scared of more educated consumers?
M.P.: It's the unknown. Buyers and sellers are pulling information off of Web sites, they're going to open houses, and agents are realizing these people have information they didn't provide them. But including all of this information on my site saves me about two hours with buyers. Consumers will soon be twice as educated as they are now.
Also, a lot of agents don't want to put any money into their sites. They'll just go on the company site, and they need to have their own sites. Agents are good at target marketing, except when it comes to the Web. And that's all the Web is -- target marketing. That's what I hope to do by including all of those neighborhoods and demographics on my site. The more of those I have, the more URLs I have, and the better chance I have of being located through an area-specific search.

A.N.: You've taken a somewhat different approach -- a content over listings approach -- with your site. Tell us about that.
M.P.: In August of 1996, I was celebrating my 10-year anniversary of being in the real estate business, and I took six weeks and surfed 3,000 sites. I didn't have a site at the time. And I learned that for Realtors, there are three types of traffic: other real estate agents; the public -- "the locals," I call them; and relocating people. A lot of agents put their properties on first. We're just getting into the property listings now. We took a year off from that and really focused on content. Now the site's 182 pages deep. We're about to bring builders online with us, and we're working with golf courses -- running banner ads with them that allow users to click on the ads and go straight to my page. My site also has a "Webmasters" section that tells you everything about the site -- the 10 most-visited pages and the 10 least-visited pages, for example.

A.N.: Give us a little background on the Northern Kentucky area -- what its selling points are and the condition of the housing market.
M.P.: We're the second-largest hub for Delta Airlines behind Atlanta; we're about the same size. We're within one day's shipping to 72 percent of the United States -- New York, Washington, D.C., Florida, Minneapolis. We're growing at about 3 percent to 4 percent appreciation per year. The average cost of a home here is about $105,000 ... that's probably a three-bedroom ranch or bilevel. But you pay a little more here than you would in other areas. We have basements, and the land costs are higher. Whereas you might pay $90,000 for a 1,500 square-foot ranch home with a two-car garage in Dallas, you'll pay $125,000 to $130,000 for the same house here.

A.N.: Do you work with consultants to develop your marketing techniques, or did you develop them on your own?
M.P.: On my own. I go through a lot of training at seminars -- Howard Britton, Pat Zuby. And I teach seminars, too; I do about 20 to 25 speaking engagements each year.

A.N.: So you believe it's necessary for agents to stay current by attending seminars on a regular basis?
M.P.: If they don't, they'll be out of business. This is all about networking.

A.N.: Are you pulling any other ideas out of your hat for 1998?
M.P.: I'm in the process of getting five other domain names -- mikeparker.com, and NKYhomes, which will have for-sale-by-owner homes and an MLS link. Having MLS links might take people out of your page and lead them to other agents. Mikeparker.com won't have MLS listings. I'm trying to maximize my opportunities by increasing my number of domain names and providing a little variation.