Rural Real Estate: How To Start A Web Site Business

February 15, 2021 $ by Tonza Borden $ Leave a comment

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Rural Real Estate How To Start A Web Site Business — Rural Real Estate: How To Start A Web Site Business

eCommerce For Rural Real Estate Is Here!

The web has changed the way rural Real Estate agents are doing business; so let me show you how to start a web site business.

Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Associate; therefore, this post may contain affiliate links for me to earn a commission. RuralMoney.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Traditionally, rural Real Estate agents would publish their listings in home buyer publications, on television, and in monthly newsletters that they may distribute throughout the area that they represent.

Now, Real Estate can easily post their listings online to attract a more global audience.

Having an online Real Estate web site can benefit you in two ways:

(1) Increased exposure for your rural Real Estate listing and;

(2) Increased exposure for your services.

There are two ways that you can approach this type of business.

If you are a rural Real Estate agent, you can launch your site to target potential clients in a specific geographic location.

This is the most common approach taken by many rural Real Estate agents.

Your second option is to offer your services to a larger geographic location such as the United States or North America.

As a rural Real Estate agent, you cannot possibly represent the interests of homebuyers on a national level, but you can provide other Real Estate agents with the opportunity to publish their Real Estate listings on your site.

You can then earn a commission from each sale that resulted from a referral from your site.

This is an easy way to earn additional income from your rural Real Estate business.

Skills Needed

Similar to an offline Real Estate agent, in order to sell rural Real Estate online you will have to be licensed to do so by the area that you represent.

Knowledge of various online advertising techniques would also be an asset.

Cost To Start A Rural Real Estate Business

Initially, you will have to pay for the web site, printer, scanner, and a digital camera.

However, you will NOT have to pay for web site development, design, and hosting.

If you currently have the first mentioned items, your initial start-up costs will be lower.

A major cost that you WON’T incur associated with the site is development of the database that will contain your rural Real Estate listings.

Why not?

You can easily develop the database in an Income Activator web site.

If you are going to include only your own listings, this will SAVE you money!

Even if you are planning to offer your services to agents across a wide geographic span, it will NOT cost any more.

You can also design some sort of tracking system to track your referrals to the agents that you represent.

Your web site will need Google Analytics comprehensive traffic analysis, which will enable you to track where your web site visitors are coming from.

This information can be quite beneficial for future marketing purposes.

Other costs that you will incur are related to the promotion of your web site.

Estimated cost is $60.00 per month to start.

Number Of Employees Needed To Start

The approach you take to operating this business determines how many employees will be needed.

If you are going to represent only your own rural Real Estate listings online, you will need one employee—yourself.

If you are targeting a wide geographic span, one to three employees will be needed.

They will handle the offline and online promotion, fulfill service requests, and take care of all administrative tasks involved with running the day-to-day business operation.

International Potential

This type of business has very high international potential, as people planning to relocate to the area(s) that you represent may be interested in your real estate listings.

eCommerce For Rural Real Estate Is Here

An eCommerce business would be appropriate for this type of business.

Since you will not be taking any payments online, there is no need for online payment processing capabilities; however, if you are enabling Real Estate agents to update their listings on your site, you will need a fully integrated database of rural Real Estate listings.

Read: START A RURAL APARTMENT LOCATOR SERVICE WEB SITE

Important Business Issues To Be Addressed

There are several business issues to be addressed when operating this type of business.

Like a traditional offline Real Estate listing, you should ensure that all listings you place on your web site are accurate and are not misleading.

If anything changes with the listing (e.g., the price changes, features change, it is no longer for sale or is sold), you should update your site immediately with the new information.

For example, if you sell a house but don’t update your listing with this new information, potential buyers may contact you.

When you tell them that the sale has been made, they may be discouraged from ever visiting your site again.

If you enable Real Estate agents to post their listings on your site, you are going to have to develop a system to track and monitor who is posting what on your site.

First, you should make sure that you don’t allow people to post listings on your site if they are not licensed Real Estate agents.

Since agents will be able to update their listings on your site with images and text, you are going to have to set up a password-protected area where they will be able to enter your database to manipulate information.

To easily track your clients, you might consider using their Real Estate license number as their unique ID.

This would make it easy for you to reference them when searching through your database.

Each listing on your site should have a unique listing number.

If visitors are interested in a listing on your site, they can choose to have a real estate agent contact them about the listing by filling out a simple form that will integrate with their selection to include the listing number.

Once you receive the request, it is your responsibility to contact the agent to inform him or her of the interest in their listing.

This will be an easy way to keep track of your referrals.

Online Marketing Techniques

Launch a strategic banner advertising campaign on web sites frequented by your target market such as Facebook, TikTok, etc.

These sites could include relocation and moving sites, Real Estate, homebuyer, and sites targeted toward particular geographic locations.

These are the types of web sites that will be viewed by your target market.

Develop as many links as possible from web sites and directories related to moving, Real Estate, and home buying.

You should also try to develop links from sites targeted to the geographic locations that you represent.

Participating in Facebook groups and discussion forums related to Real Estate or the geographic area that you represent would be quite effective.

Through providing valuable contributions, you will be able to exercise your professionalism and capture the attention of your target audience.

Make sure you include a cleverly designed signature or resource box in all of your postings.

This will act as an advertisement for your services.

Developing a newsletter mailing list related to your target market would be a great way to encourage people to visit your site.

Make sure you provide a valuable contribution and include your signature box.

Develop a sponsored listings campaign to bid on appropriate keyword phrases with the popular search engines.

Develop a viral marketing strategy where people can “Tell a Friend about “This Listing” via your site.

This will spread the word about your site.

You could have a featured rural Real Estate on your site.

If you represent multiple locations, you could have a featured listing for each location.

People will return to your site repeatedly to view the featured listing in a unique rural area.

You could ask people if they would like to be notified via e-mail whenever you update your featured listing.

This would be a great way to encourage visitors to return to your site.

You could ask new homebuyers if they would like to be notified via e-mail whenever a new listing is posted to your site for a specific town or city that you represent.

For example, if a couple were interested in buying a home in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia, you could notify them via e-mail whenever a new listing is added for the Chatt Hills area.

This would be a great way to stay in touch with your target market.

The Real Estate industry desperately needs new tools and ideas to stay relevant to the modern consumer. The modern consumer is more educated and has more choices than ever before. Counterintuitively, this has led to more confusion, doubt, and frustration in their Real Estate journey. Therefore, I recommend this book: Exactly What to Say: For Real Estate Agents

Additional Income

In addition to displaying Real Estate listings on your site, you could also sell advertising space to non-competing businesses that target the same audience.

This is a great way to earn additional income for your site.

Online Examples

ChattHillsRuralRealtor.com

This is a dynamite site that targets a North American audience. It has a huge integrated database of rural Real Estate listings, which is easily traced using individual number Ids for each listing.

RuralHomeSeekers.com

This is a great site that has listings for residential and commercial real estate. It hosts a contest for a vacation getaway directly on the site.

This is a great way to encourage repeat traffic to your web site.

Sample Case In Point Of Extraordinary Results

Before I list a sampling of rural homes sold in my zip code in 2020, read what a local rural Realtor had to say thanking their buyers in part…

After one of the most difficult years our country has faced, we would like to extend our most sincere THANK YOU to all of our clients, friends, colleagues and supporters. Despite all of the odds, 2020 was our most successful year to date, surpassing $21 million in sales. We have learned and adapted our business to provide exceptional service to our past, present and future clients while taking steps to ensure everyone’s safety during these uncertain times…
The STORAR Group | Atlanta Fine Homes | Sotheby’s International Realty

Now, check out what they sold during a pandemic, which should be an inspiration to you learn how to start a rural Real Estate web site biz.