During the past few months, Ray Guest of RE/MAX Platinum in Brighton, MI, has gotten 22 leads via the Internet. This is a marked increase and he attributes it to his steady and strategic posting on Agent Insight.

“My website and Agent Insight are linked together so they each lead potential clients back and forth between the two,” Ray said. “Without a doubt, my Agent Insight submissions have driven more viewers to my website. I have seen the number of leads climb since I have been making regular posts. Of course, they haven’t all led to immediate sales, but my name is in front of a lot more potential customers.”

A contributor to Agent Insight since early 2014, Ray is very tactical with the placement of his submissions, which currently number about 125. So far, he has posted on one county page, 12 towns and 36 subdivisions. For most of these subdivisions, he is the only agent who has posted, allowing him to appear constantly as the Featured Local Expert. Any questions made by site visitors about those subdivisions will be sent to Ray. On the week of this interview, he was actively working with four clients who came from his Internet leads.

Ray has discovered another bonus of appearing as the Featured Local Expert on a location page. During listing presentations with clients, he conducts a web search to find subdivisions of interest to them. Every time they open an Agent Insight page where Ray appears as the Featured Local Expert, it gives him more credibility and authority with his clients. He says he has found this to be a very powerful tool.

Ray also includes short videos that he shoots himself of all the subdivisions and many community amenities he covers on Agent Insight. He attaches his cell phone to a holder stuck on his car’s dashboard and drives the neighborhood describing the local features, age of the homes, current sales price per square foot, proximity of nearby schools, and other items of interest. The videos, which are 30 to 90 seconds long, are conversational, informal and informative. They are posted first on YouTube, then on Ray’s Agent Insight pages and his website.

“These short videos are so easy to do,” he said. “They take the same prep work I would do getting ready to show a neighborhood listing, and they make a really nice post. Also, if I shoot one for a subdivision I’m planning to farm, I can include the URL code on my postcard. That’s just a little addition, but it’s another great way to bring potential clients onto my Agent Insight pages.”

Ray has found the results of his Agent Insight work to be a huge motivation for him to increase the number and expanse of his submissions. “I think I’ve enjoyed a very strong response for making only about 100 posts,” he said. “Looking at all the Michigan agents, I see that only a few of us are submitting regularly and a few more have a dozen or fewer posts. A submission is so easy to do, especially if you just take a cell phone photo and post it with the phone. The process takes less than five minutes, so there’s no reason why we can’t all do it.  If we all contributed to Agent Insight regularly, we’d put the other real estate companies out of business!”

Here are a couple of the written submissions and accompanying videos that Ray has posted for a subdivision and a park.

Spring Lake Heights
Spring Lake Heights is a subdivision on the northwest end of Wolverine Lake. There are lakefront and non-lakefront homes. Homes here were built in the 1970’s in a variety of sizes and styles. It is close to Hickory Glen Park and the Lakes Community Trail which gives it easy bike access to a number of other parks.

Orchard Lake Nature Sanctuary – West Bloomfield Township
The Orchard Lake Nature Sanctuary is just one of many community amenities in this area and is located on Pontiac Trail about one half mile west of Orchard Lake Road. There are 1.5 miles of hiking trails here and views of both Upper Straights Lake and Orchard Lake. The preserve does have abundant poison Ivy and mosquitoes. Bear in mind that you can get poison ivy even in the winter, so stay on the trails. If you do get exposed, wash, wash, wash, wash, wash, wash, wash, and if you think about it – wash, asap… and by asap, I mean immediately! That being said, It is very beautiful here. Enjoy!