iHOUSE Website Customer Close-Up
“Real Estate is way too much fun to call it a job!” says “Downtown Darryl” Hunt. “Downtown Darryl” is a RE/MAX® agent in Orlando, FL who loves what he does. “I don’t view it as a job. I have way too much fun in my business to even call it a job. Seriously I do!” “Downtown Darryl” has been a real estate agent for 11 years now and he is also licensed as a mortgage broker. Darryl has established himself in Orlando with a brand and niche that is recognized by many people in Orlando and his office even mentions his website in their recruitment interviews. “They ask, ’Have you heard of Downtown Darryl?’ Pretty much 8 times out of 10 they say yes.”
Darryl Hunt has not always been “Downtown Darryl”. He started business as a mortgage broker in Fort Lauderdale, FL. “I found out I don’t like working with numbers every single day like a mortgage broker does. I took a look at the REALTORS® I was working with and I thought, ‘That looks like a cool job…’ I actually did both for a time. I got leads from word of mouth because I sold income properties. I remember what it was like back then. I was struggling. I didn’t have my website back in Fort Lauderdale. I didn’t have my brand in Fort Lauderdale. I wasn’t Downtown Darryl in Fort Lauderdale. It wasn’t until I came to Orlando that everything jelled together.
“When I was looking for a website, I checked around with the agents I respected for doing good business in town and it just so happened that 5 of those agents whose websites I liked the look of had iHOUSE®. It’s a small town atmosphere in Orlando, where each person in town knows their neighbor next door. Everyone in town knows me now because of my branding. I’ve had my website for so long now I am not sure what I would do without it.”
Darryl has integrated his marketing system so that everything leads to his website and his brand. “Once they see downtowndarryl.com they know that I work in Downtown Orlando. When people think Downtown Orlando I want their second breath to be “Downtown Darryl.” Darryl uses his website in all his offline marketing. On special event days like the Citrus Parade, if you look up in the sky you can even see a banner plane that Darryl hires that just says, “DowntownDarryl.com.”
Darryl has also found that being targeted to a single niche has helped his online marketing as well. “My niche is of course downtown and I aim everything towards that niche. I have never cold called for a listing. Never. All those listings that I have, they have all come to me. They say, “Downtown Darryl, I see your name so much downtown, I want you to list my condo. I don’t have to do any sales pitch. Nothing.”
“I have quite a few ads on Google, Yahoo!, and AOL. Right now I target about 250 keywords with Pay-Per-Click. I target all the complexes downtown. With each building you have 400 different homes. I am also showing up in the natural results now, which allowed me to lower my pay-per-click budget.
“I love the traffic reports from iHOUSE. They are so cool it isn’t funny. Everywhere I have an online presence it tells me where those leads are coming from and how many hits I am getting from those places, so I can adjust my budget. I noticed I wasn’t receiving any hits at all from my MSN pay-per-click campaign, so I stopped it. That is the real secret, you always have to tweak.”
My favorite thing about my iHOUSE real estate website is that when I get a listing all I have to do is type in the MLS number and it pulls everything, even the pictures. Then you can click one button and your listing photos automatically show up on your home page slideshow. I put all of my new listings on the slideshow.”
Downtown Darryl also uses his brand recognition and real estate business to help out people in the local community. On December 12th last year he put on a charity event for the poor and homeless in Orlando.
“I have a home that looks like a Colorado chalet. It is completely different from anything in Orlando. It has 40 foot ceilings with wood beams that make it look like it should be in the Colorado Mountains. I had a charity event called ’Colorado Style Christmas in Orlando.’ I invited all the local dignitaries including the mayor. About 50 people attended. I collected unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots filling a huge bag and I also took donations for the Coalition for the Homeless. We received over $500 in cash donations. I am really happy with how that turned out.
Darryl definitely sees his future revolving around his real estate business. “I have a blast at what I do. Why would I want to do anything else?”