Welcome!
Online Real Estate/Internet Company
Joined 06/23/2008
Justin Britt
Head-Web-Head
Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, LLC.
(808) 826-0026
Lead SEM, HTML/CSS, Programming for the Hawaii real estate search engine
(808) 826-0026
Lead SEM, HTML/CSS, Programming for the Hawaii real estate search engine
I agree with George, design is important, but not nearly as much as usability and content. Focus on your content and you'll be fine. You'll also want to get some more incoming links to your blog. I'd be happy to exchange links through my blog roll under friends at http://blog.hawaiilife.com. Let me know if you're interested. -- Justin Britt Head-Web-Head Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, LLC www.HawaiiLife.com www.RealAppy.com
@G Dewald - As always, very insightful. You have to do what works for you in your particular market. And I think Cameron is doing that. So right on Cameron. However, I follow the San Diego market which has changed drastically in the past year. Mr. Bob Wilson used to dominate that market in Google. Now he's been displaced by Trulia, Yahoo! real estate and a number of other sites. I was only trying to be nice, and maybe my remarks were taken in the wrong way because I am not as eloquent as G Dewald who said it perfectly, "If you are in fierce competition with aggregate sites...then you may want to consider opening your search/detail view due to competitive pressure." I just wish Bob was in my market instead of Jeff Manson who is a savvy business man. Jeff has recognized the change in our own market and has pushed his registration process back a step. Hats off to you Jeff, for real, this is a great move by you and I'm sure it will prove hell on my site traffic. @Cameron - I was in no way implying that you shouldn't have a sign up process on your website. @Bob Wilson - Why do you assume that I have something against people older than myself just because I want to target a younger audience with my real estate business (the fact that I read and respect Mr. Swanepoel should be evidence of that)? You assume way too much. First off, this has nothing to do with my Hawaii based real estate site. If you didn't catch the clue when I said, "I'm not only selling real estate in Kauai..." I'll have a site in SoCal within a year. And the search will be nothing like you see from real estate sites today. So I thank you for your comments, you have given me a lot to think about. Contrary to many young people, I do take advice very well, and I will take everything you've said into consideration as I plan my move into Cali. Your advice to not, "bank on a subset. It's a bad business model in real estate" is something I'll really take to heart. You've been doing this much longer than I have and I respect that (and when I say longer, please don't assume it's because I think you're older than me - it's because I'm not a real estate agent and I'm learning this business as I go). -- Justin Britt Head-Web-Head Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, LLC California real estate
@Bob - I never said that "anyone older than me doesn't have a clue". Thanks for putting words into my mouth. And I've done nothing but compliment Jeff on his business model. In a comment I posted above I said, "there's no doubt that you've (Jeff) been dominating the Hawaii real estate market through the web for many years and selling lots of homes." I've also said that I'd like to see your data so that I can learn from it. Again, I quote from a comment above, "stats don't lie. I'd love to learn more. We could share some info, who knows, maybe you'll make a believer out of me." Yet, you've shown me nothing... And you think I'm closed minded then why am I the one doing something new? And why do you care if I'm taking a different approach? Are you my Mom, or possibly an investor in my company? If my business model is so bad, let me fail. It will only benefit you, because I'm not only selling real estate in Kauai... You want to know what I'm reading? 1. A book by Stefan Swanepoel (just named one of Real Estate's top 100 influential people by Inman News) called Trends Report 2008, Top Ten Real Estate Trends (please don't read it). Page 21, "the immediate...impacts of both Generation X and Generation Y have already become very significant." So who's talking about the future? 2. Joel Burslem's (of Inman News) blog where he stated that he didn't like the fact that Estately.com required you to now login (when they made the change) to save property. 3. Papers from the NAR's chief economist who said, "Housing is a good long-term investment and the younger generation seems to understand that." All I did was comment on the website, zoomutah.com as requested by the original poster, Cameron. The thing is, I'm not a coder (as you labeled me). I'm a home buyer, just bought my first home, thank you very much. And my main business, http://www.wasabihawai.com focuses on website usability and what the consumer wants (Jeff actually just hired us to do design for one of his sites - so I guess he thinks we know something). I'm just a consumer, and I know what I want (which, understandably, is not what everybody wants) and it's not a hard opt in. What I truly believe is that there are clients, of all ages, that like your style; and there are clients, of all ages, that like my style. And there's room for both our business models. The difference is that most people are thinking "inside the box" and that's your business model. So even if more home buyer's want what you have, you have more agents to compete with for the business. Me, I'm not even a real estate agent, so I'm bringing a fresh, outside perspective to the industry (I actually thinking in a circle, because I believe what comes around goes around). And my circle is wide open because very few people are actually listening to what the consumer wants. So like I said, continue doing what you're doing, all the power to you, brah! I wish you the best of luck. But please, don't negate my strategy. It's called innovation. A lot of times, innovation fails, I'm prepared for that. But every once in awhile innovation works. You can't hit a home run unless you swing at the ball. And I'm swinging for the fences, duke. -- Justin Britt Head-Web-Head Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, LLC
