Julie

Chris
I suppose this answer can answer both questions this one and your neighborhood question. Typically on the search engines when someone is looking for a home it is the home they are looking at not the brand or person selling it. The difference between advertising and marketing is that an ad has an offer. Marketing is so that you are remembered when the consumer is in the market. Marketing yourself will always be more successful long term, having some stumble upon you may at times produce temporary results however filing the pipe line is will be more beneficial long term.

Problem with Real Estate websites branded or not is that they only market to 7% of the population that might buy or sell this year. How many real estate agents in your area? What is 7% of the population?

Marketing means being in front of the consumer consistently, for many reasons in order to have retention you must be in their mind when they are thinking of things other than real estate. The neighborhood web sites allow you to be in the home every day whether they are printing a recipe, kids are playing a game, someone printing off the weather, a local business coupon, posting a classified ad to the community, looking for a baby sitter, or a lost pet. You will be there on every page again and again and again.

According to the demographics of the search engines the top searches are local weather, local news, local schools, local business and phone numbers, local events, local directions, and of course local real estate. Because of the way the search engine works finding real local information is more difficult then it should be but by giving a community an online neighborhood that they can use for all their needs you benefit from the long term of subtle marketing your info and picture at the bottom or side of all pages except in Real Estate where you can shine at the top. If they are using the site for everything else they will use it for Real Estate as well and they will remember you if they go out and search the googles

In addition there is no better listing close when you can say you can do something no other agent can do feature their home in the exclusive online community. EZ Neighbors is exclusive watch the other one they will split an area into north south east and west all using the same community name confusing the residence and making it difficult to be successful with that type of program. - Mon Jun 2 2008, 15:43

Chris

Both companies are trying to capture the real estate market and your dollars. Connecting neighbors charges per number of homes you will end up paying much more for much less. EZ Neighbors has the flexibility to be as hands on as you want but more importantly they back up what they have. With connecting neighbors you have a site with alot of promises that never really come true. EZ Neighbors is more focused on helping you have a successful site rather than how much they can get per home. The best sites seem to focus on smaller communities so that the residents can identify with each other easily. It defeats the program to try to do too large of an area in a single community site.

EZ Neighbors has also recently launched an incredible magazine that is mailed to the homeowners in a community, that you dont pay for but you get all the benefit and credit for it. The magazine is just one example of what sets the two apart.

Would love to talk to you further about it email me directly ask@agent4bid.com
Julie - Mon Jun 2 2008, 15:06