That might seem like a strange statement from someone who spends a lot of time writing online and until recently answering questions in some social networks.
What my experience has taught me is that you can provide a lot of information to people. It certainly helps to get them interested in an area, but it rarely goes beyond that.
Being interested and actually doing something like moving to an area are two totally different things.
Where my posts on social networks have been most effective are with newcomers who have already moved and are looking for area information and having a hard time finding it.
Part of the challenge with social networks is the people running the networks. They are so convinced that their networks hold the only key to business success that they police them like some homeowners associations who have nothing better to do than making sure someone's tomato plants don't stick out beyond the side of their house. Don't laugh I actually saw that happen in Columbia, MD.
I recently got banned once again from City-Data forums. My sin this time apparently was suggesting that if the poster had any specific questions, that they could send me a private message. Apparently that was "soliciting business." As you can see from their response they were happy to talk to someone who knew the lay of the land. They are a long way off from buying property.
Thanks for the awesome reply on my post...I am going to look into everything you mentioned.
Question...is there an airforce base nearby? I have heard that there is one on the East coast of NC...any ideas of the name of it and is it close to Carteret County?
Last question, if my family and I wanted to go and check out Carteret County and do so on a mini vacation with the kids...where would you recommend staying? I have a 3 and 5 year old, so we would hit the beach a few days and then drive around the county to get a feel for it...
I ended up sending them a Google Map to Cherry Point from our area. That's probably not something of interest to many people besides them.
About a year ago, I used to get excited about responses like this. I even drove several couples from City-Data around the county.
After a while I learned an obvious fact, most of these people are just dreaming and doing what if scenarios with their vacations. While some of them might choose to move to our area, there are usually far too many hurdles in their way, like jobs and selling their current home.
Even the people who got as far as visiting the area are far beyond the vast majority of people on the forums.
I have stayed in touch with some, even helped one get a job offer, but the results stay the same. They come for a visit, love the area, but then get back to reality and usually stay where they are.
It might be a function of the current state of the economy and the housing market, but I think it is more than that.
While there are some legitimate folks prowling these forums, most are Sunday afternoon lookers. We are all guilty of that sometimes. If I want to look at new cars with being hassled by salespeople, I visit a car lot on Sunday afternoon when it is closed. At least in Roanoke and much of North Carolina, Sunday is a day of rest even for car salespeople. I hasten to add that as a real estate person I worked last Sunday afternoon.
So how do you look over areas if you don't have enough interest to actually get in the car and visit? Well the online forums are the first stop for Sunday afternoon area lookers. You can hide behind an anonymous handle and get all sorts of opinions, some of which have nothing to do with reality.
How much more risk free can you get than anonymous folks answering questions about places which sometimes neither have visited? I love the generalities. Some of the moderators will answer any question with authority even if they have never visited a place.
I once had a lady who saw me on the forum, took the trouble to search out my phone number and called not surprisingly on a Sunday afternoon. She had decided to move to Emerald Isle but wanted a home not in a flood zone. I suspect she thought she was giving me an impossible assignment, but I found her some places.
It wasn't long before she had more questions and eventually found a red herring, there wasn't enough shopping in the area so she was going to consider Nags Head and Wilmington. I was happy when she started looking in other areas because I had figured out that she was a compulsive looker. I forget how many thousand posts she had done.
Whether you call it skin in the game or serious interest, most people in online communities don't have skin in the game. Their visits to the forums don't cost them anything. No one even knows their name.
They can drop the idea whenever it pleases them.
So why do I keep trying. Well in spite of online forums not being a good way to find true clients, it is a good inexpensive way to get information out about an area.
While it is impossible to convince the idiot moderators that I am marketing the area more than anything else, that is what I found that is working.
Almost 100% of the people who don't have a previous relationship with a real estate agent, take the agent who is at the desk when they walk in the door. Sometimes they drive around and see who has the most listings and ask for that person, but beyond that they take the person in the seat when they open the door. It is the same at car dealerships.
It is not a good way to do it, but it is a fact of real estate life.
Maybe down the road some of those folks who used my time and gas will show back up, but I am not holding my breath.
Most people should perhaps interview a few real estate agents, but everyone is convinced they know what they need to know to buy property.
Maybe they should check with the guy that I met the other day who has a lot with over 40% of it listed as wetlands. That's fodder for another post.
I'll keep working with online forums, it is an effective way to get our Coastal Paradise near Emerald Isle in people's minds. I am just being a realist and recognizing that most people you meet on the forums disappear whenever they feel like it. Almost none will turn into clients.
It is just the nature of online forums.
Of course some buyers who walk in the office do that, but at least I have gotten their real names and numbers and had a chance to size them up.
Blogging has actually been far more effective for me. People know who I am and it is pretty easy to figure me out from what I write. If they like what they see, they contact me and work with me.
Some of those who have contacted me based on my blogging have actually bought property. That's why I will keep blogging.
My latest real estate post is a good one for buyers and sellers to read.