Look at this. Isn’t that…?
Yes — that’s a custom yard sign, mounted right there in the yard. Here it is up close:
The sign was made by Mike Rohrig, a Portland Realtor and Broker who is pushing the boundaries on his marketing.
Here’s a note Mike wrote to me:
The accidental brainwashing in the real estate industry is almost staggering. The saying ,”think outside the box”, is almost cliche anymore but once I saw your custom sign on the Blog, it left me perplexed that neither I, nor anyone else in my market has created a custom sign.
It is a simple and effective tool. It truly will get the home noticed as well as allow me to separate myself from others. It cost me less than an typical ad in the Oregonian newspaper. We have certain regulations that don’t allow me to make signs the same size as yours but I think I did okay for my first try.
For single property websites I have been using WordPress and learning some tricks to make it easier. I had an idea that you might find helpful. I added a FAQ page. After talking to my client about some buyer feedback I realized that this would be a perfect way to answer questions, objections or concerns ahead of time.
One question was about a school boundary line that moved so I put the email response from the school in the FAQ.
I am not the wordsmith that you are so I use a lot of pictures. I take pictures of nearby parks and anything else I think will help someone make a decision.
I also make pertinent links on the side in case someone is not familiar with the area.I think I will work on business cards soon as I implement these ideas into my business practice.
Here are two of my sites that are getting compliments.
http://1140swhuntingtonave.com
http://2904seberkeleypl.com
Mike’s main weblog is the aptly named MikeCanDoIt.com.
There’s a lot that we do, at BloodhoundRealty.com, that no one we compete against does. But everything we do, in one way or another, is built upon work that came before us. We watch, listen and learn, and we rebuild the ideas we find out in the world in ways that make sense to us.
I think it’s sweet for Mike to credit us for the work he is doing, but we only count for a piece of his efforts — and the easiest piece at that. He had to work out how to do what he wanted done, and then he had to make the effort — and take the risks — to get it done. His use of weblogs is beyond anything we’re doing, and his FAQ idea is beyond brilliant.
Here’s the challenge for us — and for you: What can we do to improve upon what Mike has done? Because of the internet, we have the ability to show off what we’re doing, and that makes it that much easier for us to learn from each other. So what can you do to push this to the next level?
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing, real estate photography, real estate training, technology
Rob says:
How would Mike be able to have the photos advance via an arrow button vs. having to hit the “back” button to click on the next photo? I think the sites look great.
Rob
April 16, 2008 — 9:30 pm
Todd Coleman says:
I agree with Rob. Looks fantastic, but I was slightly frustrated not to be able to: 1) see the photos larger — even larger than when you click on them now, and 2) experience the “narrative” of the photos in a seamless flow via a slide show, one-click arrows, etc. — so I don’t have to click to enlarge, go back, click the next photo to enlarge, etc. That said, it’s a great model. The peanut has officially moved forward.
April 17, 2008 — 12:02 am
James Hsu says:
Since he’s using wordpress, go download some free wordpress plugins that handle photo galleries really well. A really good plugin is called NextGEN Gallery. An example on my site of it running is here:
http://www.nwupdate.com/for-sale/5012everett/
scroll down.
April 17, 2008 — 12:50 am
Tom Vanderwell says:
Greg,
Good questions – I like Mike’s website. I’m working on some ideas that will, I believe, create an better avenue for many in the real estate arena to “show off” what we’re doing. I’ll keep in touch.
Tom
April 17, 2008 — 4:14 am
Todd says:
Flickr has awesome tools to manage and display photos, plus hundreds of third party galleries and WordPress plug-ins. This is just one of them:
http://fabiocavassini.com.ar/SlideShowGenerator.html
Request: Consider assigning one of the Creative Commons licenses to your photos and participate in the “sharing” nature that Flickr was founded on.
April 17, 2008 — 8:59 am
Mike Rohrig says:
Thank you Greg for the kind words. And thanks to everyone offering up ideas and tips.
Rob: An arrow button directing people would be great so if anyone has an idea I would be interested.
Todd: I have been playing around with photos. I learned in the last couple of days that if I add each thumbnail individually that one click will take you to full size. If I input them as a gallery, which takes one click for many photos, the viewer clicks on a thumbnail which opens to a smaller version then they click again to see full size. I didn’t realize this until Tuesday and it is not optimal. From now on I will put them in one by one.
I really like the Thumbnails below the main picture as they give a quick sense of the home. I may incorporate the Airtight Interactive plugin James wrote about in place of my main picture. This way they can pick and choose or go through a slide show
I just started playing with Flickr and Google Maps more deeply. It took me awhile to find the icons for Google Maps but now I have those maps on the sites.
And to what Todd said, I added my photos of the parks to the CC area of Flickr. I must have done something wrong because they still aren’t showing there. Something else to fine tune but it is fun.
I expect over the summer I will have a lot of areas in Porltand on the Creative Commons search since I use it a lot in my blog.
Thank you to everyone in this community for sharing their ideas.
April 17, 2008 — 9:54 am
Greg Swann says:
Mike, Ryan Ward is using killer slide shows in his single-property weblogs. And if you can wait a few days — I keep getting clobbered by this “awful” real estate market — I’ll have engenu available, and you can make slide-show based web sites in seconds.
April 17, 2008 — 10:03 am
Barry Cunningham says:
Hey Greg,
As he uses wordpress and as we do as well..we are also inserting audio podcasts about certain homes so people can listen to while on the blog or on Itunes they can download it as well..just adding another wrinkle…
April 17, 2008 — 10:23 am
Ryan Ward says:
Thanks Greg,
The FAQ is a plugin for WP “google FAQ-Tastic”. That’s a great idea and I’m using it on a couple of blogs, but not on my single poprerty sites, although that might change as it seems like it might be a good thing to add.
Other cool plugins for WP that might be useful on a single property website:
* IImage Panorama – create a “virtual tour” out of a handful of photos shot around in a circle from a tripod and stiched together using a free program called autostitch.net – very easy to do. Can be seen on the link Greg shot me above.
* NextGen already mentioned, but, you need an addtional file for the good looking slideshow. It’s better than the standard one in nextgen – see the nextgen website or contact me through my name in this comment if you need help…
* WP-Email – make sure they can email that slick new website to their friends or agent…
I promise to write a detailed how-to once I work out a few last kinks.
Heck, I’m gonna give them away with a free download once I clean the code and write a tutorial.
April 17, 2008 — 8:17 pm
Rob says:
GREG,
STANDING-BY FOR ENGENU!
April 17, 2008 — 11:27 pm
Kirk says:
Ideas like these are changing the way we do business online. With the increasing number of buyers shopping online before getting an agent, you can see the importance of your online presence and eye catching listings. Great job.
April 18, 2008 — 11:48 pm
Barry Bevis says:
Mike,
This may be a bit obvious but where is your contact info on the website?
Greg,
Your way of doing business has captured my thoughts….
Glad to know you don’t mind us copying your ideas. I am experimenting with my first custom yard sign this month.
I’m not adept at building sites from scratch- I have a few friends working on templates for me. For my first attempt at an address specific site I’m just linking the custom url back to the listing detail page on my website.
It was easy and fast if not elegant!
April 21, 2008 — 5:54 am
Barry Bevis says:
Oops- Sorry Mike!
I do see you contact info on Huntington just not on Berkley.
Maybe I’m to programed by the establishment to look for a “contact me” or “schedule a showing” button….
April 21, 2008 — 6:03 am
Greg Swann says:
> Glad to know you don’t mind us copying your ideas.
To the contrary, it’s why I talk about this stuff. If I share my ideas, others will share theirs and we’ll all end up doing better work. Nobody’s copying. We’re each being inspired to adopt, adapt, improve and perfect upon things we pick up from each other. This is the path of progress since before the Greeks.
> For my first attempt at an address specific site I’m just linking the custom url back to the listing detail page on my website.
Check. Rome wasn’t built in a day. You can add one new idea at a time, working out the mechanics of getting it done, then deploy another new idea with the next listing. Before you know it, you’re untouchable, simply by doing the work no one else wants to do.
My hat is off to you. This is the kind of thing that is going to make all the difference in the long run.
April 21, 2008 — 6:17 am
Mike Rohrig says:
We have a rule with our MLS that we can’t have links in the public area to personal promotion. I left the contact info out for that reason. In the middle of the night I remembered that we can’t have addresses in the public field either. The domain address killed that so I don’t have the home linked in the public area anymore. I may play with other address names.
Since word press has a pretty handy import/export feature I might play around with domain names. More ideas to work with and rules to follow.
I only remembered to add my information into one of the sites.
April 24, 2008 — 4:28 pm