But like you said, Joe, very few agents seem to realize the power inherent in these local sites.

In the meantime, I don’t feel that I give any one or two neighborhoods enough special attention. Even after five years I’m surprised at how many agents don’t even begin to understand this — though I’ve yet to put it all together in a cohesive package that I’m happy with. I am working on it though and I’m looking forward to continued discussion in these areas.

It’s quickly becoming easier for single agents and small brokerages to have the kind of internet presence that large local franchises have. Nice local sites Jonathan and nice job with your quick site Jay.

Your neighborhood blogs are very well done and what a great resource for the community!!! Who you gonna call? Jonathan!!!

BTW, I think that this could still get you listings. I know a lot of people that are very interested in knowing the price, closing price, etc for every house in their subdivision. If you added a ‘What Did It Sell For’ page, and sent a postcard advertising the website address to the subdivision owners, I bet that they would use it every time there was a new listing in the subdivision to check it out. Even better if you included FSBO closed sale info on the sold page (which could easily be found in the tax records).

What about the time you put in to create and maintain the site. That has a cost as well. I’m not trying to diminish the value of the idea but all costs need to be considered: if it’s not monetary then there’s an opportunity cost.

I’m in a more rural area so I have a blog about a town of 450 and a town of 1500 (which you’ll note is much smaller than your recommended neighborhood). Similar to Mack, I have pages devoted to neighborhoods in those towns and write individual posts about local attractions with links to those neighborhoods. I follow exactly the same approach as you have outlined and it’s working fine for me. I’d also like to ad that marketing in this manner can seriously reduce your costs. (Tip: Produce a small flyer with your site and put it in local businesses in exchange for an article about them) I’ve got 60+ subscribers to my blog about the town of 450 (with probably 200 homes) in a year of casual blogging, so while my traffic probably can’t compete with most of your readers websites, my market penetration is unrivaled with next-to-nothing spent on advertising so far.

You might think that the laser focus you apply on a neighborhood will preclude you from getting business outside of your chosen area? Not true. In fact, it’s quite easy to “step outside” of your neighborhood to touch on topics that are relevant to surrounding areas too. (Think “downtown businesses” or “schools.”)

Today’s buyers don’t need agents to find homes. The internet has taken over that role. They DO need neighborhood experts to advise them on which street is better than the next, and who the principal is at their local elementary school. Piloting a neighborhood blog is a big step to winning that position.

Great call, JD!

Lisa – Wow. I honestly had forgotten that beast still existed. Best advice is to get involved in the process and work with like-minded people to get your board to pull their head out. Some brokers unfortunately still view the listings as their private playground and would rather treat the agents as serfs and not professionals.