It’s possible. You are a secret real estate agent to most of the world if your website doesn’t reveal your location. And, you’re a secret to most of the rest if you don’t talk about your career and actively market your services.
Not revealing your location is just as bad as not having a website at all…
…because people searching for an agent in your city will never find you.
Think about this… there’s a couple who has been notified by an employer that one or the other of them is being relocated to your city.
One of the first things they will do is go on line and search to see what it will cost to buy or rent a home in that new community.
They’ll search the major sites, but then they’ll start looking for community information, and that will take them to agent websites. There, they can begin narrowing down the choices by reading the profiles for agents in their target city.
I am always amazed by how many agents keep their location a secret – on their personal websites, on Active Rain, and especially in their email signatures.
Is your location front and center on your website, or are you a secret real estate agent?
And if you’re a secret, why have you chosen to hide?
I have to assume that some people do have a reason, but if so, they might as well not have the website at all.
For instance: Several years ago an agent contacted me asking for help with her website. If I recall correctly, she needed copy for buyer and seller information pages. First things first, she asked me to take a look at her site and let her know my thoughts about how it could be improved.
I wrote and told her that the first step I’d recommend was to add her location and her photo to her home page. I honestly could not tell if this was an agent page or a franchise page, and I said so. I guess that made her cranky because I never heard from her again.
What if you don’t have a website?
Then I recommend that you get one and get busy building it into the hub of your marketing efforts. As you fill it with good content, you’ll have more and more reasons to send your visitors to specific pages to learn more about you and your services.
Pages filled with good, useful information will show your visitors that you know your territory, know your niche, and know how to help clients reach their real estate goals.
This blog post offers advice about content and readability.
If you don’t have your own website yet, purchase a URL and get moving.
Regarding that URL: Remember that while you might love your current brokerage, things can change. So
do NOT include the franchise or independent office name in your own URL. Make that one exclusively your own. And, keep in mind that you are not allowed to use the word “realtor” in your URL. That word is a registered trade name.
And no, a website supplied by your brokerage is not enough. Should you decide to move on, you’ll lose all the content you might have spent years writing and gathering. Make sure your website and its content belong to you and you alone.
If you don’t own a website…
When a potential client receives a letter from you or if a friend gives them your card, one of the first things many people will do is try to find you on line. If they can’t find your website, some people will assume that you aren’t very active as an agent or aren’t very serious about your career.
Won’t social media keep you from being a secret real estate agent?
A presence on social media will help, but it won’t replace a website, either in building your stature or as a marketing tool. Social media puts you in front of some people, but it doesn’t give you the opportunity to organize and cross-reference your topics to make it easy for potential clients to learn what they need to know.
Lastly, if you want a vibrant real estate career, you have to promote yourself.
In addition to sending prospecting letters and doing the things you do on line, promote yourself in 
person. Make sure your friends and relatives know you are a real estate agent and can help them.
Make sure the people you know at your church or in different organizations know. Make sure your parents’ and kids’ friends know. Make sure your hairdresser and car mechanic know. And make sure they know you’re ready and willing to help, even if all they want right now is information.
Do approach it that way. Tell them “I can help,” NOT “I need business.”
