The expansion of mobile technology has affected every area of our lives – our business, the way we communicate, and how we gather information about the world around us. Well, the pervasiveness of smartphones and the internet has also changed the way buyers search for homes and look at real estate listings, and you can see it in just two statistics:
- 64% of American adults own a smartphone
- 44% of those owners have used their phone to look up real estate listings.
This means that homebuyers are looking at listings, scrolling through real estate photos, and mapping out potential houses 24/7. They have this information at their fingertips when they are walking or riding through a neighborhood looking for homes. They have it at work. While running errands. At home.
In short, everywhere.
The ease and availability of searching through listings means that they can look at more homes than they can remember – and many do! Because of this, it is more important than ever to make your listings stand out.
How? As you set up your website and market your business, keep smartphones and other mobile technologies in mind. Ask yourself the following questions to make sure your business is smartphone-ready:
How Does Your Website Look On a Phone?
Not all webpages look the same on both desktops and mobile devices. Look up your business on a smartphone to make sure your site is still organized, easy to navigate, and simple to read. Many hosting sites will allow you to optimize your website for a wide variety of platforms – if yours doesn’t, find a new hosting site. Yes, it’s that important.
Worried that optimizing for multiple platforms will be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive? Don’t. There are a variety of ways to handle this issue, some of which require little more than a few button clicks. And even if you decide to opt for a more extensive, intensive course, it is worth it to make your web site look professional to clients and homebuyers.
Is All of My Information Updated?
If smartphone owners can’t quickly find your listings on the internet, they will just move on to the next house and the next realtor. Same goes for your business. So how do people search for real estate online? What can you do to make sure your business and listings show up?
Put your business on as many directory sites as possible (Yelp, YP.com, Google Businesses, etc.), and make sure that the information is all correct, up-to-date, and optimized for search. In other words, people are going to be searching specific areas for homes, so make sure to mention states, cities, neighborhoods, and other information of local importance in your description. Getting your listings noticed works similarly, except that you are going to want to add them to mainstream realty sites such as Realtor.com, Redfin, Zillow, and so on.
Would My Business Benefit from Having Its Own App?
In addition to having your own site, adding your business to directory sites, and adding your listings to realty sites, you may want to consider creating a smartphone app for your business as well.
A well-constructed app will help homebuyers and your clients find information easily while allowing them to bypass the World Wide Web entirely. Moreover, having an app will serve as a way to passively market your business to users since they’ll see it every time they use their phone. An app can really help you to stand out from other realtors around the area.