I was online chatting with a Realtor friend of mine in Orange County, NY & he told me a pretty funny/disturbing story. Apparently, a sales associate at Woodbury Junction in Orange County, New York called & told him that she does NOT want him advertising her community on his website. I do a pretty heavy amount of real estate marketing online, and I definitely include community profiles – buyers love the fact that they can go to my websites & educate themselves on an entire market & all the neighborhoods involved. I have never come across a sales agent who didn’t love the fact that I am pushing their community online – I’ve even gotten together with sales agents to design community profiles – like this one I did on Mayfield Ranch a few months back.
Regardless – it really got me thinking about why this on-site wouldn’t want the free publicity. Apparently, the community profile in question was outranking her website in the Google SERP’s – and that’s why she got mad. Now…I’m not a doctor or anything, but that sounds pretty ignorant to me. Isn’t that why they offer commissions to agents? Commissions are offered to agents so that they can outsource their real estate marketing efforts – and it’s very effective for everyone involved. The agent gets paid only if they perform. Man – I wish I could work out a deal like that with someone.
Anyways…the only thing that made sense to me is that the Woodbury Junction on-site in Orange County, NY doesn’t want her buyers to have representation. Now, this is only speculation – but can you think of any other reason why? As a real estate broker, I constantly eductate buyers & sellers on the importance of representation. If you go into a sales office – like the office in Woodbury Junction – the agent there does not represent you, they represent the seller. You really need someone to look after your own best interests.
If you’re interested in Woodbury Junction in Orange County, NY – give my agent friend a call. He has over 5 years experience as a buyer’s agent, and works with new home communities like Woodbury Junction quite a bit. Here’s his contact info:
Joshua Ferris – Real Estate in the NYC Suburbs – 888.218.8468
Just a quick disclaimer – everything above is based on what I heard from NY agent friend, and what I’ve written is merely my opinion.
Call it ignorance or stupidity, but that lady isn’t doing her builder any favors. Builder reps should love agents. Treat us right and what will we do? Bring more buyers.
By the way, yesterday my office mate Moe got a call from Kinan about something. It was funny recognizing his name. We’re all connected, aren’t we?
That builder rep is ignorant, if she thinks she doesnt need the assistance of Realtors.
Love that your post hit the 1st page of Google, we should just take over the first page :) and make her really mad!
Nice post Eric. That sounds absurd to me. I agree, what an amazing deal for a builder to have a network of agents marketing their property for them and bringing in buyers. Haa. I’ve got to check out the serps on your post. That’s great. By the way, how has your response been on the new builds you have advertised on your site. I have a few I want to throw on my site.
Thanks,
Barry
Try a few variations of “woodbury junction” & community, Orange County, and/or New York. You’ll see a few blogs about this. A few of us with decently powerful websites decided to blog on this to rank for these terms…now if a potential buyer searches for this community, they’ll more than likely find one of these blogs.
The community profile pages are killer – I don’t only do write-ups on new communities…I’m trying to get write-ups on every neighborhood in the areas of Austin that I work.
Thanks for the comments!
Very good Eric, Some of these home builders and their sales managers can be so deceptive in the way they work, and work to cheat their home buyers representative (the buyers agent) out of the offered payment (commission). One of the things that many home buyers still do not understand is that, if the home builders will try to cheat the buyers agents, they likely will do the same to the buyers as well.
I can’t help but wonder what the fall-out was from their site being outranked by blogs with negatives about the community. Did anyone ever post any follow-up on the story?
I know Josh pretty well…the on-site basically tried to ruin his name in OC – she called around to a bunch of other new home communities & tried to bad mouth what he’s doing. The other on-sites actually called Josh & asked to have input on their community profiles – they absolutely appreciate the marketing & want to work with him. I think/hope he’ll end up getting some listings out of the whole deal.
It’s been an experience to say the very least. If anything I can only thank Virginia Brodksy, sales manager of Woodbury Junction, for putting me in touch with so many enthusiastic home builders who wish to sell their homes quickly!
Eric,
Something similar to this happened to me about a year ago. A small gated golf community in Carlsbad CA had one real estate company located inside the gate. The sales manager called me and threatened me because I was displaying their listings on my site (IDX listings).
After doing some research I wrote an article about how that company was not very cooperative with other agents, how they failed to post any photos of their clients homes online, and what their approach was in dealing with agents who wanted to help them sell the residents homes.
In addition, they pissed me off so much that I decided I would list any home in that community for practically nothing. :)
Bob that is classic. Hope you’ve been well. I viewed a few pages of your site again–it had been awhile. Damn it is sweet! I remember when it was the feature website of REW when I was just getting started by purchasing a blank template…on credit.
The power of the RE.net is great for holding builders, etc. accountable. I’ve had several write me depending on whether they liked or disapproved of what I had to say about the community or building. I just seek the truth and believe consumers have a right to know it all. Transparency sells. It’s that simple. And when your article ranks at the top for long tail searches associated with their building they have to take you seriously….It’s important to be responsible with that kind of influence though. Often there is another side to a story….
jay
Check this out…
Haha. But look at this one for “beauregard at 2100 st” — new condo in DC I wrote about.
Here’s the link
Hope I did that right–tried to do it like your response. I knew the realtor associated with the story so I ran with it….I’m sure the builder is a bit more careful how they treat their buyers now….
J
Sorry man….trying to figure out how to show you the code without it actually being the link. Shoot me an email & I’ll send it to you.
Hey Eric, This is even better, you rank #1 and they are doing PPC just to be above you. I remember when this all started and there were several Blogs written about it. After all these months you outrank them all. You the man! :)
Too funny! The internet has turned into a pretty powerful microphone for the smaller, local agents now, huh!
congrats of the long lasting blog post. Have they ever contacted you? That lady from woodbury junction called me about a week after I wrote my piece on it. I guess I really got her goat. She kept going on about how I made her look like the Monster lady from 101 Dalmatians. The phone call was just way to funny.