Surfing the Net across the country, I see agents with sites that are virtually identical to those of other agents in their same Realty firm office. The only difference on each site is the agent's photo and his bio info. To me, this is about as distinctive as living in a home exactly like 200 other homes in your neighborhood, except in this case you'd nail a big photo of yourself on the front door above a sign showing your bio.

These pre-formatted "template" sites are actually quite good site in themselves. They include a means for the visitor to search for homes locally and nationally, typically at sites such as Realtor.com and HomeSeekers.com, plus they have links for weather, making maps, news, stock reports, yellow pages and perhaps one or two more "info" links.

They may also include links or information about mortgage rates, title insurance, school and community information, actually most all the informative stuff that a good Realtor site ought to offer. The problem is, if everyone's web site looks the same and offers exactly the same stuff, how can any one individual agent stand apart in the minds of the visitor? Hey, isn't that the goal?

Now, don't get me wrong. The agents buying these "me-too" sites are better off than when they had no site at all, or just a single page "epitaph" site (lookie, lookie me!) like many still do. It's just that a web site ought to project something of the agent's personality to the visitor. And that is difficult to do when you've not taken a hand yourself in the development of your own site (except for some text), opting instead to have a web design firm fit you into a canned, graphical format - one that merely satisfies your need to tell prospects, "Yes, indeed, I do have a web site."

The danger here for agents who may be jumping onto this seemingly quick, easy and inexpensive quick-fix solution to having a good site, lies in the answer to this question: How do you tell one Hershey bar from another? Answer: You don't. And that's what Internet home buyers and sellers may think, too.

Ultimately, they may decide to ignore ALL Realtors who have gotten those canned, look-alike sites. Why shouldn't they? After all, they'll be saying to themselves, "Well, I can skip this Realtor's site because after seeing the others, I already know what's in it."

So now you know, too - maybe what those web site design firms touted to some big Realty firms and to some agents as a good deal was really not completely thought through to its logical conclusion. Maybe the good deal goes away once dozens of agents all display basically the same site. Once again, we are reminded that there are no free lunches!

If you already got one of these sites, what can you do? Sadly, not much, since most of the site is in a set format. Next time you'll opt for a custom, changeable site, not a canned one.

Think of your web site as your home and yourself as the host. Offer guests the same meal each visit, and they won't return. Vary your menu, offer exciting, exotic choices - and they will.

Also See:

Published: June 1, 1999

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Editor's Note: This article reflects the opinions of Bill Koelzer only and not necessarily the views of this or any other publication, organization or Website owner.

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 .