Internet marketing of real estate?

Question

Recently established property website - marketing exclusive South African property. Using newsgroups to advertise to, but find that although fair response to ads, it seems to be mainly a inquisitive reaction (South Africa?) or maybe all are doing what I am doing and are not real investors using the newsgroups.

What items would interest i.e USA EU etc users of internet about SA?

If you would like to visit the site, you may do so at http://www.exclusivepropertiesza.com

Thanks

Answer 1

That's a great site Andre. My advice would be to hook up with companies around Europe who are very well known. In Ireland for example check www.myhome.ie and www.daft.ie, I known for a fact that both are looking to expand their overseas sections at the moment.

Answer 2

US real estate investors usually like to deal in conservative real estate investments. Usually they will be listed with a licensed real estate firm. The firm has a specific broker who works that property to secure a sale and purchase. That broker takes care of marketing, negotiating and walking things thru to closing the sale. They are paid a commission, a percentage of the sale based on the gross sale price. Commission usually is between 5% to 10% with the lower the sale price the higher the commission. There is a cost to market and sell, the commission is also shared with another broker, either internally or externally. That expands the opportunities of a sale taking place numerous times over, as the entire licensed real estate community is now able to receive compensation for working a successful deal on the property.



If advertising on the internet was the most effective tool we'd no longer have real estate brokers. It is mostly who you know in commercial real estate sales. The internet is a good tool but not the be-all, end-all. A quality real estate broker will make things happen, make you money thereby covering their expense and best guide you in the process.

Answer 3

I think posting to property / real estate forums or blogs could be useful.



Firstly you can add useful comments with links back to your web site. Will help rankings in Google but "clients" will also click through too.



Second, your "credibility" as an authority will be increased.



Concentrate on getting organic search engine traffic to the web site. Create content based around your most important keywords - the keywords should reflect your USP



Howard