Being visible online because your clients and potential new clients will check you out online. They will look at who you are what you do and what you want them to do next.  They want to make sure that you are professional and legitimate.  Leads will search up your website and social media, on their computers, their phones, their tablets, so mobile responsive is very important. Give them a good first impression!

Customers and leads want to check out your reviews, so they see if you can actually help them. It's a big thing in today’s marketplace. We see that the reviews page on a lot of sites that we're hosting is one of the most read, most looked at pages.  So I recommend by using a combination of reviews with text and reviews with video.  I've got a lot of clients bringing their iPhone or their Android and they have a little tripod and they'll record reviews at closings and then they post them directly to their website.

It allows you to become a Trusted Expert Authority. Being able to control the content on your website, rather than just having a company provide you a website that's really promoting them and their brand, NOT YOU, does nothing to prove to your leads that you are trust worthy and the best choice to help them. Your own website really will help you become a Trusted Expert Authority, build your brand.

Build your list to be able to stay in touch with people so that leads us right into your list. Do you have a lead form besides a contact page? Are you utilizing good call to actions? Are you utilizing lead generation aspects or stay in touch marketing to add people directly into a digital list? That is the gold standard to be able to market directly to those who have shown interest in what you have to offer.

Control your marketing! Again, it's kind of like controlling your brand.  Are you able to utilize Facebook marketing and Google marketing or even search engine optimization? Company sites that are provided to Agents don't really allow the kind of control that is needed for effective marketing. So one thing that I will challenge you to do is to look at the major players in your area, the people who are controlling neighborhoods, and ask yourself “do they have a company website, or are they utilizing their own website?”  Personally I've never found a top Realtor utilizing a company based website in any market that I've served.

A place for your blogs and your videos to live.

You want to make sure that you can upload content and videos because you want to make sure it's your hub, that you own all this information, if you're spending the time to write it or taking the time to record videos. You want to make sure it's uploaded, served and stored to a place that that you control.

Showcase properties on your own site. People do want to look at properties on your sites but you know if you're running a corporate website and it links to every other agent out there. Protect your listings because at the end of the day it really comes down to this. If you lose just one client it could cost you thousands.

At the end of the day it really comes down to how you look at building your business, how you look at serving your customers.  If you're not really going to do any marketing, and you don’t really want to stand out as an agent, then the company provided website is probably a good solution for you. But if you really see yourself serving your customers the right way and being able to really build a business, build digital list, and be able to control something that you own, then we believe you need a standalone website.