What are home sellers looking for?  Is your website giving it to them?

You spend a lot of time marketing yourself, consciously or unconsciously. But how often do you take a step back and think about what problems your home sellers have that you're in a unique position to solve? And how often do you look at your website and ask yourself if it's telling potential home sellers how you solve their problems?

Here are some things you ought to make sure your website tells people, clearly and succinctly:

• How many homes have you sold in the past year? If you're a newer agent you'll obviously want to sell yourself on some of your other qualities, but you can't escape the fact that this will be the first question a home seller who's never heard of you will have. Put this information on your home page (through the content wizard, on an Agent XSite).
• Do you have satisfied home sellers you've helped who are willing to be references for you? Say so on your home page. Ask potential home sellers to contact you for their information.
• Do you belong to professional organizations? That tells home sellers you take your profession seriously. Say so on your home page, and briefly explain what each designation you may have entails.
• You have home sellers listing their home with you sign a listing agreement, right? Explain what's involved. They want to know what they're "getting into," contractually.

Those are some examples of what any home seller will want to know about you. On your website, it's important to answer the questions any potential seller might have. But viewers of your website are also self-selecting, in a way. They're people who are on the Internet and have found your site. That means they're a certain type of person, expecting certain things. Like what?

• Listings, listings, listings. Internet users looking for a seller's agent want to see how you market your listings, and be satisfied that you do it professionally and well. When you consider that the most important thing to buyers that find you through your site is also going to be listings, this couldn't be more important.
  
  
• Computer-savvy buyers "learned how to use computers when they were in grade school, and they learned how to use the Internet when they were in junior high. They expect you to respond back on your e-mail ... the same way you do with your cell (phone)," Richard Mendenhall, 2001 president of the National Association of REALTORS®, recently told a group of Realtors.

So many websites are online brochures or postcards. (Not Agent XSites!) Differentiate yours by making it clear it's a resource sellers can use to keep up with the market. Make it clear that you keep in touch via e-mail as well as phone and that you're quick to respond to questions or concerns.

• Leo Berard, charter president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, estimates that 75 percent of buyers use the Internet to survey property listing information before choosing what homes to visit. To reel in sellers and get their listings, you need to have a "sticky" website where buyers can research more than just your listings.

  An Agent XSite has 60-plus customizable pre-made content pages on everything from How Escrow Works to Creative Financing. And you can create unlimited custom pages as well. You may not want to "overwhelm" site visitors with links - remember, people reading marketing have short attention spans - but it's important to select useful, comprehensive content to keep buyers on your site. Do that, and your sellers will be happy!

• Mold is a front-and-center issue in home selling and buying. Chances are good that both sellers and buyers who come to your site are going to know they should be concerned about it (even if they don't understand the ins and outs). Don't "hide" the mold issue from site visitors - include a page on your site that explains the issue. Your Agent XSite has a pre-made, customizable page with lots of good information and links on mold.

If you have an Agent XSite, you're on the right track, because its rich features and superb content are just the medium you need to tell your story to people who will listen. And customizable content - ideally, without having to phone it into your web design firm and wait a few days - is the best way to get your information in front of prospective listings.

Remember, a website isn't just a way to list properties on the Internet. Sellers know that there are dozens of agents in their area who can do that. Your website should clearly answer your potential sellers' most important questions, and should be a resource for buyers.