How Two Palmer Boys Became Tech-Savvy Realtors

March 13, 2012

10914 John Henry

Back in 2006 it became apparent that the internet was the new way to market real estate. I started marketing homes in the Mat-Su Valley in 1991 and my brother Jay joined me in 1996 so we have been working together for more than 15 years. Print advertising was the way to go back in the day but in 2006 we jumped onto the web in a big way. This is how we do it…

We started a blog…Valleymarket.com is probably the first blog in the area about real estate, likely the first one in Alaska.

Give each house it’s own page…like this one. It has it’s own URL that we can link to all over the web..

Glacier Point Drive

Get good photos… Sometimes you have to take to the sky to do it. Can you imagine living in this house over looking the Matanuska Glacier?
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Include a narrated walk-through video… like this.

Use Craigslist… I will be attending a special training session on craigslist tomorrow on the 14th in Wasilla. Anyone is welcome to attend. If you are interested in digital advertising you shouldn’t miss it. Go here to find out more. Or sign up on facebook here.

Feature listings on Zillow, Trulia, and Yahoo... Our listings are featured on these pages ahead the crowd.

Plaster the internet… Usually each property will have 40-100 entries if you google the street address.

Use QR codes and text…Our signs have a placard attached with a QR code and a number to scan or text to see more info right on your cell phone.

Embrace IDX, (internet data exhange)...I had an inquiry just today on this house from IDX.

Jump onto Facebook… That’s right, you can market on facebook if you are careful about how you do it. I put a link on the Palmer Alaska facebook page that immediately created a discussion about the house. You can’t beat that kind of buzz.

Keep an open mind…We are always thinking of new ways to use technology to market real estate…do you have any good ideas?