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People who drive by the white house at 116 Hobart Ave. in Absecon can see a for-sale sign from Century 21 O’Donnell. But just above the sign frame, there’s another plaque for a Web site, www.116hobart.com.

Enter that URL into a browser and a personalized Web page for the house pops up, complete with an online tour of the home, links to a digital map and information on the local schools. There’s even a mortgage calculator prospective buyers can use to figure out the house payments.

T.J. Washuta, a real estate broker associate for Century 21 O’Donnell of Brigantine and Egg Harbor City, said he came across the Internet marketing tool at a National Realtors Association convention and he said it’s been a great way to advertise homes.

“Most Realtors have their own Web site, or the company has it. But here, if someone’s very interested in Hobart Avenue, they can go right to the site and see that house,” he said. “It’s that specific.”

Washuta said he used Properties Online, a Santa Rosa, Ca., company, to create the site. It costs him $50 per online site and the domain stays up for a year. When that particular home goes off the market, Washuta said, he changes the site slightly to mention that it’s sold and uses it as an example to show other prospective home sellers.

Washuta said he used to create specific site only for high-end properties, but he’s noticed that more people are turning to the Internet, and it’s a good tool for out-of-state people interested in a second home.

He likes the fact that the site has a visitor counter, and he has been able to see many people have shown an interest in the home. “It’s a more cost-effective way to keep track of your advertising dollars,” Washuta said.

Linda Naame, a co-owner of Century 21 O’Donnell, said she recently used Properties Online to highlight a home in Mullica.

While the three-bedroom house is on a cul-de-sac in a rural neighborhood, Naame was amazed to find out that www.1313whiteoakcircle.com got 84 hits during its first month. The sign also lists a text number people can plug in to get information.

“It shows the house very well, and the thing I love is you can go in and change the setup of photos, change the background and music,” she said. “It’s just really neat and it’s something different.”

Amanda Cornelius, the CEO of Properties Online, said her company has been around since 2001 and about 15,000 agents across the country use its services.

Cornelius said her mother, a broker for Century 21 Alliance in Santa Rosa, was her impetus for starting Properties Online. Back then, Cornelius said, the real estate market in California was extremely competitive and the Web sites “make those listings stand out from the crowd.”

Another company that provides a similar individual real estate Web site listings is AgencyLogic, of Wappingers Falls, N.Y. Then there’s always more general listings on sites such as Craigslist and eBay.

Using individual Web sites to sell homes can have some downsides, Washuta noted. Some home sellers might not want their addresses posted on the Internet, he said, and some prospective buyers might be turned off when they visit the site and decline to walk through the home.

Herbert Hartman, owner and general manager for Boardwalk Realty and Ocean Club Realty in Atlantic City, has been using Properties Online and another Web service, Postlets, for more than three years. Hartman said his companies handle waterfront condo and homes for sale and rent within Absecon Island and other nearby towns.

Hartman said he thought the sites were good because it can be easier to find a home in a specific community and the page can link to other special features, such as a map showing all the other businesses and schools within the neighborhood.

“You pick up a magazine and there are thousands of listings. You breeze through to look for a town,” he said. “On the Web, you put in a zip code and everything’s displayed for you. It’s indexed more efficiently.”

Contact Michelle Lee:

609-272-7256

MLee@pressofac.com

1 comment:

• sinker'64 (124) posts 8:10 am

  OK. Here's a question for all of the real estate shills out to fool the public: If all the alleged "pent-up demand" getting set to go gang-busters this "Spring Selling Season" is so great, then who needs property specific websites to push these poorly constructed, overpriced pieces of cr@p? I mean, all the potential buyers out there should be letting the elbows fly, climbing over one another in frenzied states, begging, please, to be allowed just to participate in bidding wars! Of course, the truth is that there will be no bidding wars this "Spring Selling Season." I've said it before and I'll say it again: These realtors and their parasitic pals in the housing finance "industry" have sucked Joe Six Pack dry-- Juan Six Pack,too. There are NO QUALIFIED BUYERS, and there won't be without a revival of the "Liar Loans" these realtors loved so much. God help us if these realtors get those "affordability products" resurrected. Oh, by the way, there won't be any "Superbowl Bounce" this year either. Doesn't anyone remember that lie? Go back five years, Google it! Lying realtors were pushing the line that every year saw a "Superbowl Bounce," when idiotic American homebuyers would finally "start to pay attention" after the big game. As if all Americans suffer from the same ADHD that afflicts realtors and all their inbred offspring! THERE IS NO "SUPERBOWL BOUNCE," never was. Just another realtors' lie.

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