I can't stress enough the importance of timely local real estate market reports, statistics and alerts. Most MLS software and online systems have some very detailed reporting available to members. Many times these reports can be printed out to a PDF file with a single click. You can also copy the content out and paste portions of it into blog posts and articles. Summarize and comment, as this will illustrate your competence and knowledge of your market.
How you deliver this information is up to you, and combining methods is usually the best approach. I get market information to my site visitors and others by:
- writing blog posts summarizing current sold stats
- offering email delivery of more detailed reports to get their email address
- alerts of property price reductions and those that I've identified as approaching bargain pricing
- regular market inventory status reports
- average days on market reports by price range
Some reading this might be concerned about what they are allowed to place out there for information due to MLS rules. It's really not a problem if your MLS is restrictive of what you can place on the Web. It even becomes a great lead generation opportunity. I've already been reported to the state association attorney for advertising other Realtors' listings because I offered an email link to special reports based on certain criteria. The attorney's answer freed me of problems, and was quite logical. To serve a client, I should be able to provide them with the information they request and need to make good decisions. When something is restricted, I just make it an email delivery item, and they send me an email to get it. That's a request, and I'm free to provide the info, just not publish it for all to see.
The beauty of this type of content is that it is always renewing itself, with new data every day. You'll never run out of material, and it's really valuable stuff for your site visitors. And, your blog posts are short and sweet, with some simply a line or two giving the most recent week's sold property numbers. They're fast, and quite valuable to the search engines as well, if you always title them something like "YourTown Real Estate Sold Statistics for Week ...."
Offering current and historic market information, reports and statistics is the best lead generator I've ever employed on a website. My first year in my current market, I added hundreds of leads' email addresses to my prospect list by offering the previous month's sold property statistics report via email. It's rare that a marketing or business tool is free, fast, easy and effective all at the same time.
