Realtor Joyce Slous of Burgdorff ERA Realtors has been online with her new Web site since late winter of this year. She says she can hardly believe how the site has changed her life as a real estate agent. A top-producing Realtor since 1984, Slous is the new breed of Internet agent; once reluctant, now she's sold.

Within the past year, Slous left her previous office where she had worked for many years and joined the Burgdorff ERA office in Montclair, NJ. That's when she decided to make other changes and start investing more of her marketing dollars into a personal Web site.

Her research led her to Best Image Marketing and its Number1expert program where she purchased a 40-plus-page Web site.

Less than six months later, Slous is getting more traffic and far more leads than she ever imagined. According to figures supplied by Best Image, Slous is getting:

• 500 distinct referred* visitors each week;
• 8,000 pageviews (or "hits") each week;
• 10 pages viewed on average by each visitor.

So how is all that traffic translating into leads?

"Ah, that's the most amazing statistic of all," says Slous. "My site has generated more than 300 leads thus far, many of whom are buyers I'm currently working with. Every morning when I turn on my computer, I have at least one or two fresh leads -- even in the extreme heat and humidity of an East Coast summer. Some days, I have a half dozen leads waiting for me."

It doesn't hurt that Slous is marketing in a very hot relocation area. "Most are buyers seeking to move into Montclair or Glen Ridge -- these are hot Essex County, NJ communities," she says. "The people who find me aren't looking for 27 towns to consider. They make Montclair their top choice. It's a niche market."

What about closed transactions?

Slous already has sold a few homes as a result of these leads, including one last month for $900,000. "My $4,000 site has already paid for itself for the next 10 years," says Slous. "I'm closing a house next week for over $2 million that came from my site."

Yet despite her success, she says she is a little overwhelmed. "I thought I could catch each one of these leads, but I can't," says Slous. "I gave three leads away this morning as referrals. I realize that it is better to hand it off to someone than lose it. All of a sudden I have no life, no time to call my own. How do I handle this kind of volume?"

That's a good problem to have, but those leads need to be followed up before they turn sour. She's considering hiring a part-time Web assistant to follow up her leads for her. She is also considering hiring a buyer's agent or two, while she focuses more effort on finding and working with sellers.

"I had a feeling this would be an effective marketing tool, but I had no idea how much it would change the way I've always worked," says Slous. "I have four-and-a-half hours before I have to meet a friend for dinner, and I don't see how I'm going to help so many great buyers in so little time. And that's not just today; it's every day!"

Slous says she still has a long way to go before she masters all the lead capture tools and contact management software that's built into her site. For example, she currently has 23 listings on her site, ranging in price from less than $200,000 to nearly $2 million, some of which she is advertising with permission from other agents in her office. But few of these listings utilize extra photos and virtual tours -- items that generate even more leads because they cause a forced registration popup window, called "Be My Guest," to appear on the screen. Also, few of her listings include a street address, which means they won't show up on Best Image' partner site HarmonHomes.com. This is a listings partner that pushes all Number1expert listings to the top of the Harmon Homes list for each town.

So, for a Realtor like Joyce Slous who is both willing to learn and willing to change the way she's always worked, being an Internet agent is both a blessing and a challenge. Is she up to it?

"Bring it on," she says. "Once I have some help in place, I'll be able to handle this online success thing. At least I think so."

Published: August 20, 2002

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