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Racking up an impressive database of 25,000 contacts, this Victorian real estate agent set the stage for his future career before he had even decided to make the jump into real estate.
Extraordinary realtor Leo Edwards was working overseas as a marketing executive when he “assembled” a secret marketing weapon seven years before moving back to Inverloch, a decision that was always part of their plan as a family.
That “secret weapon”, according to @realty, is inverloch3996.com.
“We set Inverloch3996.com up seven years ago, because we knew when we moved back to Australia (from the Middle East) … we would need an audience although we weren’t quite sure what that audience would be for,” Mr Edwards revealed.
The website provides inspirational and entertaining content about people and places in this seaside town 143 kilometres south-east of Melbourne and covers townships by the bay such as the popular Cape Paterson and Venus Bay.
“We have built a database of 25,000 people that either love or would love to live in Inverloch, the region. The website focuses on the region, promoting small business, and our properties on the market,” he explained.
Aside from driving awareness about Inverloch, the website serves as a powerful digital marketing tool that generates leads and, ultimately, sells.
Now that Mr Edwards works in real estate, that database is really paying off. He’s explained that the website is where a lot of our leads come from, particularly the people who end up buying; most of them are direct from the source.
“We don’t rely too heavily on the property portals – we use them – but a lot of that data and information comes from our own sources.”
Mr Edwards said digital marketing had helped him put his business in autopilot mode, which has proven really helpful during the series of lockdowns in Victoria, while his alignment with @realty has also contributed to his success.
“I couldn’t fault that relationship in the two years we have been together,” he said.
It also matters that they are aligned when it comes to technology, as pointed out by Mr Edwards: “The support is always there when we need it. They obviously embrace technology as well, which plays a big role in what we do in terms of digital contracting and the back-end support they provide.”
Inverloch3996.com’s synergy with @realty is producing some very successful results.
Inverloch region’s average days on market of 60 to 90 days is a far cry from Mr Edwards’ agency average of just 24 days.
He attributed some of their success to the fact that they began as a virtual office even before the lockdowns were implemented and their use of the online purchasing platform Openn Negotiation.
“We run virtual tours within a 3D virtual environment, and these have been well received by the market. We are averaging 5,000 to 6,000 visits to those virtual tours – obviously, during lockdown, those numbers go up,” he said.
James Taylor, @realty CEO, has said, “what Leo has achieved is truly exceptional”, while expressing pride in Mr Edwards’ successful use of Inverloch3996.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Noemi Paminuan-Jara
Noemi is a journalist for Smart Property Investment and Real Estate Business. She has extensive experience writing for business, health, and education industries. Noemi is a contributing author of an abstract published by the American Public Health Association, and Best Practices in Emergency Pedagogical Methods in Germany. She shares ownership of the copyright of an instructional video for pharmacists when communicating with deaf patients. She attended De La Salle University where she obtained a double degree in Psychology and Marketing Management.
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