When you visit Homes.com, there are a myriad number of ways the site can help you and your real estate company grow, be it the informative articles, helpful blogs or thought-provoking webinars.
One thing that might get overlooked are the helpful widgets Homes.com offers, which can be customizable to your brokerage or firm’s website or blog and can be incorporated on any real estate pro’s site to enhance homebuyers’ experiences and to help everyone ramp up for the busy house hunting season.
For those unfamiliar with the word, widgets are small applications installed and executed within a web page to provide even more value to the visitor and keep them on your site longer. Examples include a mortgage calculator, home value and commute time estimators, a social networking widget and a slew of others that can even be customized with colors and other branding options to embed into your website.
Here is a look at some of Homes.com’s most helpful widgets.
Commute Time Widget: Most house hunters are looking at houses on the weekend, so they may not get a true sense of the traffic in the area and how long it will take on a normal business day to get to and from work or a child’s school. That’s where this helpful widget comes in. Simply put in any address and it will calculate how long the drive will take to and from the property and offer up the best directions to and from any destination.
Social Network Widget: With so much emphasis on social media sites today, it’s important not to let any of your sites get lost in the shuffle. This widget is designed so that all of your social networking links display on your website. That means visitors can quickly connect with you on all of your social media accounts with one click.
Mortgage Calculator Widget: One of the most stressful parts of the home shopping experience is trying to figure out exactly what you can afford and how much your payments will be once mortgage rates, insurance and taxes are factored in. With this widget, buyers can quickly and accurately calculate their monthly payments.
Featured Listing Widget: One of the best ways to showcase your entire listing portfolio is with this handy widget. You can customize your listing page to match your branding and set it up to show only the types of listings you want to be seen. Simply copy it to your site and clients can activate it with a click of the button.
Home Values Widget: This is a great way to let clients know the going rate for homes in any area and answer the “comp” question before it even comes up. This welcoming widget displays the average home value in any neighborhood and allows users to search property values in their surrounding areas as well.
Search Widget: One of the most popular widgets, the Search Widget provides access to Homes.com’s extensive database of listings. Each widget can be fully customized to your branding. Additionally, advanced search settings are also available.
Real Estate Search Widget: Just like the Search Widget, this tool provides access to Homes.com’s massive listing database, but also provides clients with a clean and streamlined design option, including a city skyline backdrop for a listing search on Homes.com.
It’s easy to connect and engage with more clients by adding a Homes.com widget to your website or blog and increase the probability that the visitor will linger longer and explore your site and ultimately contact your brokerage or one of your agents.
Aside from the widgets, Homes.com offers a host of innovative tools and resources that can improve business including new responsive design websites that would bring even value to the user experience especially if accessing via mobile devices.
Homes.com is always striving to enhance the user experience by offering innovative and helpful resources, customizable consumer guides and checklists that can help any real estate professional grow and find continued success. For more real estate marketing best practices, visit the Homes.com blog dedicated to real estate professionals.
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