Hello everyone,

I am a student currently completing my final year in a degree in Computer Networks For Business. For my final year project I am planning to design and develop a website for a company called Lakey & Co based in the UK. Lakey and Co act as a business transfer agent. There is currently no real online community for such websites; the closest I have found is online real estate agents community. This forum has been helpful in my research.

As part of the final project I am researching the feasibility of online business transfer agent website designed to advertise available business for sale. I need to justify the development of such a website compared to traditional methods of advertisement.

I would be very gratefully if everyone who has time and experience with real estate websites could please answer my following questions

1. Has your online real estate website been a success?
a. If not why?

2. Compared to traditional methods of advertisement what percentage of customer interest is gained from your website?

3. Is there any hidden financial, legal, regulatory, environment or social factors which I need to be aware of when advertising business/real estate online?

Also any general advice of opinions are welcome.

Thank you very much I appreciate any response you can give.

Regards

Adam

Renton,
Wrong place to ask these questions.
You will be bombarded with answers rangeing from Search Engine Optimization
to
Free Reports
to
Email Campaigns
to
"she does 200 sales a year therefore her site is really successful"
to
"What in the world is an environmental or social factor and what in the world does it have to do with advertising business or real estate online".

Alot of fluffy definitions and reasons for the first bunch of answers but the last will either fall on deaf ears or be misinterpreted.

Try including "psychology needed to be interpreted and applied when approaching web or internet based marketing".

I understand what you are saying but i still need to try and gather some more informatin for and againt such websites.

This seems to be the best place, or the only place online to ask such questions to real estate website owners.

If people dont know what environmental or social factor are thats not a problem.

Any more feedback is welcome.

Thanks
Renton

What do you mean by "psychology needed to be interpreted and applied when approaching web or internet based marketing" ?

thank you

Drop me a private message or email. I'll explain what I'm saying.

Good luck with your project Renton, sounds interesting. I've barely started and my real estate business is residential, so I don't have much for you. I have recently gotten good leads of my internet sites so I'd say they are a success, they need lots of improvement.

As far as residential real estate, it's a no-brainer... our National Association says that 70% of homeseekers use the web in their search.

As for business ops...hmmm... the audience for a given business is very narrow and confidentiality is a big issue. I always wonder about advertising them in an MLS, much less on the web.

Although you have to have a real estate license to do it, the two are vastly different professions, you might search around for a community that specializes in selling businesses for better input.

Gary

Being from the US, I can't address the legal/regulatory issues. Lakey & Co are probably a good resource themselves for answering those questions. Even if they don't know the answer, they may be able to direct you to their local associations that regulate commercial real estate.

I would imagine that even if commercial real estate hasn't been fully involved with the internet, there's no time better than the present. Keep in mind it may take many months before the site shows up in the search engines.

As for my site, yes it is a success in my book. I've been in the business one year and have one closed sale entirely from it and currently a half dozen active buyers.

The reason it is a success however is because it was built from the ground up to be search engine friendly. Most agents buy websites from design firms that are built in frames. They are easy to build and maintain but will never rank highly because their content isn't spiderable. So really my advantage is the lack of technically competent competition.

There's a ton of information on the web available on how to make your site rank highly. Contact me if you need recommendations.

Good luck!