Comments on: Adding Real Estate Statistics Doubled My Website Traffic

By: Matt Stigliano

Matt Stigliano — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:49:13 +0000

Tiffany – Great negotiating tools and great tools for showing clients exactly why you’re thinking what you’re thinking. I’ve found that giving them the numbers and discussing them helps them see the points I’m trying to make.

Claudia – Perhaps it’s a cultural difference (from the stand point of both locals and foreigners buying in your area)?

Lisa – Your point about them being interested regardless of their housing plans rings true to me. I’ve had a few people ask me about numbers and after some discussion they told me that they were just interested in seeing how it all worked. With all the talk of our housing markets in the media, it’s no wonder people have a heightened awareness of the statistics and want to know more, especially locally.

Keith – I definitely encourage you to give something a try. Definitely visual, but with solid analysis from you to back it up. The words are good to explain and of course help bring the SEO value to the post too.

Joe – I’ve spoken to a few agents recently who have been really ramping up their market reports and using them to their advantage. Good to see you’re one of them. Whether home grown like yours or computer-built like mine, the visual is important. The analysis are what seals the deal.

Bruce – You hit on something super-important there. I know my market better thanks to paying attention to these reports. When someone asks, I can visualize charts in my head and spit out numbers for them to get a better picture. And when I can’t remember a particular, I can always pull them up on my phone as well so I can show them right then and there the answer to their question.

Claude – One of the great things I learned recently by using my own statistics was that sometimes an area will defy the laws of supply and demand. When I saw the chart, I thought “wait a minute, that doesn’t make sense.” So I sat there, thinking of that area and trying to figure out what was happening. Turned out, after some thought, I could see several outside influences that would make supply and demand not work properly. When I had that “a-ha” moment, I realized that not only did the stats help me show my clients what was going on, but also helped me gain perspective on something I might otherwise not have noticed.

By: Claude Labbe

Claude Labbe — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:28:45 +0000

I’m with Bruce on this one, so I’m not “adding” to this dialog other than to say, I started working with stats in the early summer. Four months later, I have a different appreciation and understanding of the market behaviors around me. This allows a different discussion for those sellers or buyers who are more numbers driven. When those numbers represent $, it makes sense.
Now I’ll have to monitor this topic because I suspect Matt has a lot more suggestions that will help us all out.

-Claude

By: Bruce Lemieux

Bruce Lemieux — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:52:47 +0000

For me, an unexpected benefit from doing stats for my blog was that I became a better, more knowledgeable agent. My local market is like a Tale of Two Cities — one’s booming, the other’s not. The difference – price range. Knowing the data helps convert buyers and sellers. I know which areas and price ranges are hot, and which are not because I look at these numbers at least once per month for my site.

I think it’s important to keep the stats as simple and straight-forward as possible. It’s very easy to throw up a complicated charts that confuse rather than clarify. That’s always a constant challenge for me.

I’ve seen super-sexy graphs produced using http://www.maani.us/xml_charts/index.php For me, I stick to Excel>Chart>Jpeg.

By: Joe Loomer

Joe Loomer — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:52:37 +0000

Wow Matt – great post and helps edify things I’ve been doing recently. Although our MLS provides some market data – none of it is in readable or micro-level format. I pump the info into excel sheets to generate graphs – which are much more visual and help my listing appointments end up with the price I recommend. In other words, I don’t take the blame for the market.

Now I’m going to take a page from your book and figure out how to post them on the front page of my site.

Navy Chief, Navy Pride

By: Keith Lutz

Keith Lutz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:09:46 +0000

This is an excellent article. I used Altos Research for awhile about 2 years ago, when it was just a chart on my page, it was free to me then. Have to reconsider this.

By: Lisa Heindel

Lisa Heindel — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:15:07 +0000

Matt, I’m a numbers junkie, so from the moment I started blogging, I included local market stats. Those first reports were absolutely horrid, but as time went on I learned how to interpret the data enough to have sellers pick up the phone and provide enough visuals for the scanners.

Keeping a database of 6 years of sales info makes it very easy for me to see trends in my area and (hopefully) communicate them to my readers. My most popular new posts each month are market reports – IMO, people truly are interested in what the market is doing, whether they plan on buying, selling or staying put.

By: Claudia Gonella

Claudia Gonella — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:27:44 +0000

Really interested in reading this post as, so far, we’re finding that our market data posts get less attention and feedback than our ‘how to” or ‘top tips’ posts.

The goal of our website is to bring data to real estate buyers and sellers looking at Central America. (Official stats are not released so we’re hoping to help fill a data gap).

We’re exploring different ways of presenting the data – the latest is a 2009 Price rank for master communities something that is hard to get anywhere else – but so far these posts get less attention. Maybe it’s too early to tell and we have not experimented enough with different formats or data types but that’s the result so far.