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Outsourcing can be a very smart move for some real estate brokerages and should be considered to some degree in all our business strategies.

We are already accustomed to having sales functions performed by independent contractors. Perhaps thinking creatively how other independent contractors can handle some of the customer service, front and back office operations is a good exercise.

Does corporate relocation, leads management, payroll administration, accounting, data input, etc. etc. need to be done by employees in your offices? Perhaps it’s worthwhile to spend some time researching outsourcing alternatives and their impact on your bottom line.

Some obvious advantages are (1) independent contractor vs employee cost, (2) can more easily handle peaks and valleys in revenue, (3) avoid paying workers who will have to be paid whether or not there is enough work to do year-round, (4) the use of office space for more productive pursuits, and more.

The disadvantages may be the possibility of loss of quality and schedule control. These potential weaknesses can usually be overcome with strong management involvement.

In today’s economic environment, all options should be examined. There are small one-person home-based businesses springing up all over the place. People with excellent skills are offering them on a contractural basis, which may be a better, more efficient and more cost effective alternative for your business than maintaining your current employees.

Are you outsourcing some of your operations? What impact is it having on your company, your employees, and your bottom line?

Are you blogging?  Are you connecting and conversing with people on the social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, ActiveRain, or others?  Do you want to control content on your website so you can make your own text changes, place videos, post your company activities and news, create new pages and topics, place links and create back links, even change some design elements on your own?

If you answered yes to these questions then you’re ready! 

The consumer has been ready for a long time.  They’ve been waiting patiently (or not) for you to catch up.  The real estate industry is a little behind in this movement mostly because most brokers are pretty broke (I’m allowed to say that because I’m a broker, it’s fun to say, and also because it’s true).  Even though you’re a little behind, I bet your competitors aren’t there yet either which would mean you would actually be ahead!

Unless you are a complete geek, you will need to hire a professional real estate web developer to create the website with the design elements, original content, all the features, the IDX integration, and all the ways the data interactions take place.  Then you will need training so you learn how to begin adding your own ’stuff’. 

If you can commit to some extra time for developing good relevant content on your own, or you have a staffer that can take this on, you won’t have to pay a professional to continue to do everything for you after delivery.  As your company grows and changes you can keep your website completely up to date mostly on your own, except for adding additional MLS IDX feeds, completely new features, or other complicated techie things.

Why would you want to do this?  (1) Because doing these things will make a significant difference in the ability for consumers to find you on the web . . . significant!  Content is King! . . . Humans are the new black! . . . You’ve heard these things, so I don’t need to repeat the importance of search engine rankings to you, (2) Consumers crave information and the more relevant information you provide them the more often they will come back for a fix, (3) You will have much more control over your image . . . you can do cool fun things on your website . . . I don’t know . . . you’ll think of all kinds of cool things.  You can become a resource for community information and events and even a community blog if you can handle it.  I get excited just thinking of all the possibilities!

Looking into the future you shouldn’t see the need to scrap your old website and start over in a couple of years.  It’s not as disposable as your static site.  It can grow and change right along with you.

We are moving into a new platform built on a content management system as the base for new real estate website development, and are offering a significant discount on initial design and development services (below our actual cost) for qualifying brokerages who are willing to be “Early Adopters”.  What is the qualifying criteria? 

In order to be a good candidate as an “Early Adopter” the broker must be (1) a nice person to work with . . . we’re nice folks and we like to work with nice folks, and you know what they say about mean people! (2) be willing to give testimonials and be featured in our marketing campaigns. 

Our goal is to have one real estate brokerage website representing each of the major franchises, a couple independent brokers and a few special market niche websites up on the new platform by the end of the first quarter.  Once we get enough commitments to fill our first quarter schedule we will no longer be offering the “Early Adopter” program.

We’re not newbies by any means.  We are one of the original IDX data specialists, and have been making broker websites, as well as providing office management and leads management systems to the real estate industry for over 10 years . . . pretty much from the beginning of the Internet age for real estate.  So, I guess that makes us old pros.

We’ve been through all the different technology developments that have altered how real estate brokers market themselves on the Internet.  This is our favorite movement since the concept of actually displaying other broker’s listings on your website and getting their leads . . . that is my all-time favorite . . . what a concept! . . . it still makes me smile. 

If you are interested in being one of our “Early Adopters” please email me at patty@realestatepointe.com , give me a call on my direct line at 330-727-1851, or call me at the office at 330-729-3555.

Thanks for reading!  I appreciate it!

Patty Massare          www.realestatepointe.com