NAR's 1999 Member Survey reported some rather surprising statistics, given how all-pervasive the Web is these days. When asked if they have "home pages for business use," only 25% of the sales associates responding said yes. In response to another question, "what percentage of business is generated (by sales associates) from on-line sources," the survey found::

• 45% reported no business
• 42% said that only 1-5% of their business was generated online
• 8% said that 6-10% came from online sources
• 3% said they got 11-20% of their business from online sources
• 1% said that 20% or more of their business came this way

Statistics like this continue to surprise me, probably since I'm associated with the CyberStars(tm), who use technology as an integral part of their business. When I surveyed them in January of this year, for example, I found that they earned from $20,000 to $330,000 from their Web sites alone!

There is a direct correlation, of course, between the number of sales associates who have good Web sites and the business they generate. One place that a good Web site pays off is by featuring it in your local real estate magazine. Very few sales associates have a Web site address in their ads. Far fewer of them include a personal Web site address by their name. Even fewer FEATURE their site on a page. I see this again and again as I look at magazines I pick up in my travels. For example, I got one from the Big Island of Hawaii recently. A quick count showed 128 individual agents advertising in the magazine: 68 of them had an email address by their name, while ONLY 8 had a personal Web site address in their ad. That's 54.6% displaying an email address and ONLY 6.25% showing a personal site address! None featured their site in the ad itself.

You can start generating more business from your real estate magazine ads by doing the following:

Published: August 8, 2000

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