Your Web Site and the Second or Vacation Home Buyer

There are statistics all over the Web that point out the growth in the second home and vacation home markets. Though it helps, you don't need to serve a resort area for this to be of importance. Baby Boomers are buying second homes for more reasons than vacationing:

To retire near their children.

As a vacation home to test an area for retirement.

To stay in the real estate market until a retirement decision can be made.

None of those items require that the home be in a resort area. So, all agents and brokers should pay attention to what these type of buyers are wanting for information from web sites and blogs. A bullet list of their main information requirements includes (not in any order):

Statistics on growth and home appreciation.

Shopping, entertainment and restaurant resources.

Proximity and quality of medical care.

Transportation alternatives and traffic information.

Museums, arts, education, sights and attractions.

Information on associations, groups, & community activities.

Government and political links and resources.

Environmental hazards or positive environmental data.

What you want to accomplish with your web site and/or blog is to provide extensive and useful information to your site visitors. Yes, you want the search engines to get them there, but it won't help if the information after the click is not what they seek. Forget the "real estate" key phrases for this phase of your site planning. Develop informative content that will actually help your site visitor to understand the area and the real estate market.

What would be the difference in this content plan for a web site or a blog? Though I highly recommend you do both, it is basically what we call "evergreen" or dated content. If the information doesn't change that often, you can do a good job with a static web page article about a topic. Let's use government for an example. Talking about the format and divisions of government in the area is likely to remain fresh for long periods, thus a web page item. Commentary on recent developments or political issues would be better served in a blog.

Both types of content are highly valuable to your site visitor who is trying to make a purchase decision based on areas and quality of life. You can serve them well with either a site or a blog, but both work best. Using WordPress as your blog platform, you can even do both at one site quite well.