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The old Realtor motto "location, location, location" has a whole new meaning in cyberspace--Realtors now promote their URL location as diligently as their property listings.
The National Association of Realtors (www.realtor.com) lists 67,000 properties marketed by several thousand nationwide real estate agencies on-line. Colorado alone boasts approximately 400 agencies on-line, representing 6,000 Realtors and 12,500 properties, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors (www.colorealtor.com).
"The Internet is changing our business," says Vann Hilty (www.real-estate-service.com/ Hiltys), president of the Boulder Area Board of Realtors (www.babr.com). "I've got to be more knowledgeable about the Internet because today's buyers are using it more frequently to find a property. If I'm not on it and don't know how to use it. I could lose out."
As the Board's president, Hilty's goals are to get more Realtors aware of the Web, teach them how to use e-mail as part of doing business ("think of e-mail as voice-mail--you have to check it daily"), show them how to use the Web as a marketing tool and to "become more Internet-wise. Maybe 20 percent of Realtors know how to use the medium; the ones who learn will capture the future market."
Hilty practices what he preaches: He has an exclusive contract with Re/Max of Boulder of develop the Web presence for their 45 Realtors and help train them to use it.
Without training, knowing what to do even once you've got a Web page is tough.
Case in point: Kathleen Rubenstein (www.diac.com/==kltpearl/kathleen.html), a Realtor with Mock Realty in Boulder, worked with local Web designer tom Davis to create a...