Out of Area Real Estate Buyers are Gold Nuggets

Does it get tiring trying to get real estate buyers when they're talking to their family, friends, and they even have a relative in the business? You're competing with your expertise against their relationship, and most often you lose.

Contrast local buyers with hundreds of relationships that connect to real estate agents or brokerages with out of area buyers moving into the area for employment or vacation properties. While vacation and resort markets are the most productive, most areas have some businesses or industry that has turnover or growth that brings new people to the area.

These buyers know few, if any, people or real estate agents in the area, so your competition just disappears—EXCEPT FOR ONLINE. Your competition is where your greatest opportunity lies, your website. If you address their questions and information needs, your chances of being their buyer representative will be great.

IDX Is Your Introduction

Surveys continue to tell us that more than 90% of real estate buyers want to search listings online. Out of area real estate buyers have even stronger reasons for thorough online MLS searches.

Action

This is where your IDX, Internet Data Exchange, search functions can increase your out of area real estate buyer leads considerably. If you have a flexible IDX system with the ability to place search pages around your site, you're in a better lead generation situation.

If you can create customized searches, even better. If you can create searches pre-set for certain areas, price ranges, or home features, you can place them on pages with relevant information.

That's half the battle, and your out of area real estate buyers will appreciate powerful IDX search. However, you also must put some lead generation calls to action on the search pages. The most effective is almost always the offer of customized search alerts via email for new listings and price reductions. An added benefit is that the site visitor who takes you up on this offer is probably a serious buyer in the near future.

Freemium Content is the Answer

Freemium is a content concept on the web that means some content on the site is free, while other content carries some cost—the premium content. Out of area buyers need a lot of local market information, from shopping to recreation.

In your real estate buyers content, you're going to offer a lot of valuable free content, but you're not going to sell premium content. Well, in a way, as the price for the premium content is their name and email address. You offer extra reports, data, and document examples for delivery via email, so you get what you want.

• MLS reports of sold properties by area
• The same but by price range
• Examples of inspection reports and repair negotiations
• Title binder example documents for local special situations
• Listing agreement example documents
• Any other transaction documents or information reports

Be free with a lot of information, but your visitors will understand the need for email delivery of documents and reports. You'll see your lead real estate buyers lead generation spike when you're doing this right.

To view the original article, visit the WebsiteBox blog.