Should REALTORS Own Their Own Content?

If I’ve said it once when talking to other REALTORS over the years, I’ve said it 599 times. In my opinion, it is best to “Own your own content.” Of course, not everyone agrees with that statement and that’s ok.

By content, I’m not talking about the stuff in your home, I am talking about your digital “stuff.” Sure, we mostly talk about home ownership here at the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, and I certainly am a fan of REALTORS and non-REALTORS owning their own homes. But, for today, I am talking about digital and online content. Web sites / blogs, photos, social networks, listing data and stuff like that. Content that shows your expertise, content that shows you care, content that connects you to people you want to work with.

Own or Rent – The choice is yours. Both can be effective, depending how they are used. A good example of content you own would be your own web site on your own domain. An example of something you rent might be a blog on a platform that you don’t own or control. ie: A group or company-owned blog or a blog provided by your broker. Sites like Active Rain, Zillow and most brokerages allow people to add content and can often entice people with “great SEO” benefits, great branding opportunities, a large number of eyeballs on their site, etc. Some are free, some charge monthly or annual fees. One of the big differences is that, if you change brokerages or if a platform changes their terms of use or gets sold, you run the risk of losing a lot of your work or not knowing if the future will be better or worse for your business. On the other hand, if you own your own site, you control it as long as you want to and you get to decide what is put on the site, how accurate it is and how people will interact with you. You also probably won’t have to share space on a domain with a bunch of other agents in your marketplace. Of course, many will argue that there is strength in numbers and that “The Google” loves having massive amounts of content on a domain. They might also argue that it is pretty tough to compete against large companies who have millions in development dollars and massive departments dedicated to keeping these large sites on page one for any relevant web search.

Can You Compete?

So, is it even possible to compete with the big dogs? I have this conversation a lot, too. In my opinion, it’s possible but only if you are willing to put a LOT of work, dedication, blood, sweat, tears and probably some money into being found for search terms that are relevant to your business. For the vast majority of agents, it might be easier to buy “leads” from web portals instead of trying to be one of the 10 spots that show up on page one of a search result. BUT, if you want to be found online, it can be very rewarding. My advice would be to begin by trying to compete for less competitive key words than things like “your city” REALTOR or something like that. Start with specific neighborhoods, find a niche and own it, etc. Over time, you will begin to see results if you are consistent and learn the basics of how web sites are found by the average consumer who wants to live where you want to work.

One of my favorite examples of people doing awesome things online is Ines Hegedus Garcia over at the amazing Miamism web site and blog. You want to find a home in Miami? She’ll tell you exactly what it’s like to live there, and she’ll tell you what is for sale or how the market is doing. I’ve been a BIG fan of the work she and Rick have been doing for a long time.

Over in Chicago, Shay Hata does an amazing job connecting with Chicago home buyers and sellers. Her community involvement and personal touch offer a unique perspective that are hard to beat, and her web site helps generate real business in a very competitive environment.

Over in Georgia, Maura Neill can tell you what it is like to live in Atlanta better than all of the big box web sites put together. Maura and her team help people understand the location, lifestyle and market in their area, and their clients love them.

These are just a few examples of people who create online content for their real estate success. I could list dozens more from other friends across the country who have decided that they CAN compete by working hard and creating great content that they own.

Of course, I know of a LOT of examples of REALTORS who prefer to pay for leads from places like Zillow, Realtor.com and MANY others promising fortune and fame for any agent willing to write a check. Like agents who want to create their own content, many of these agents do very well, and they never have to write one blog post, send one tweet or worry about the next Google or Facebook algorithm change.

Remember… No matter how you decide to be found online, don’t listen to some guru who promises to “get you on page one of Google” with some piece of crap template web site they want to sell you for $29.99 per month or one they want to give you for free. Believe me, that site or some lame single property web site with one home on it might rank for “four bedroom home with purple walls in Anthem on cul de sac lot” but it ain’t getting you to page one for Phoenix Real Estate or any real key terms that have a chance of building your business.

The Choice Is Yours:

So, if you want to own your own content or if you want to rent space from a social network or national blogging platform, just think about your business goals, your online strategy, your budget and how you want to spend your time. Heck, maybe you want to do both… I truly don’t think there is a right or wrong answer for anyone until they put some serious thought into how they want to run their business. Around here, we like to blog and we like to share information. For many agents, that isn’t the right formula. If there really was a perfect answer, I’d probably be working on this blog post from the deck of my yacht instead of working on it from my home at 10:00 pm.