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Why choose quadcityhomeshow.com over the competition? That's easy, we have:
If you are selling a home, chances are you have browsed the internet looking at all the different site that offer online advertising. Before deciding where to advertise, make sure you ask other companies if you have to sign a contract. There is one local fsbo site which insists on a mandatory contract that does not allow you to advertise your property elsewhere. This fsbo site does not make note of the restrictions anywhere on their website. The fact that they do not post this vital piece of information on their site should convince you that they are not working in your best interests - and - care more about their silly contract than they do about helping you sell your home. They also like to state they are "The most popular site in the QCA", which is completely untrue. In just saying that should lead you to the realization that a "lot" of the stats and propaganda posted on that site is to be severely questioned. False stats showing new homes posted vs other sites are inaccurate & padded to try and make them look better. Stats showing millions of dollars worth of homes are unproven and exaggerated. Recent sale pending stats are exaggerated with the dates manipulated. And finally, attempts to put other sites in poor light are shown in a feeble attempt for they are afraid of direct competition. |
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June 2008 |
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April 26, 2008 |
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Since the competition likes to produce graphs to "attempt" prove they are better - look at the graph above. It shows what is most important to the seller - how much of a success rate these site have. I have been compiling information on all Quad City fsbo sites for years. I have a huge database that is updated three times a week to show me who is listing where - etc, etc... This graph shows the percentage (rounded to the nearest whole) as a comparison "for those who know" that successful sellers only want to be that -successful in selling their property! The amount of properties listed on a site is not "the" major concern - the percentage success rate that site has "is" a major concern. Even if a site has 300,000 properties listed - if they have a small percentage success rate - why would you bother listing with them? Especially if there are other sites that have a greater percentage success rate.
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Although you will read on the other site that the other fsbo site does not post "all" the sold properties (for whatever silly reason) - the information used to provide this graph was posted on January 2008. If the competition has more than stated - it seems weird how they would update the amount of sold properties monthly throughout the years. Always increasing it, and always posting numerical banners showing amounts sold (until 2008). My guess is they do not have more than they have posted. My guess is they want you to believe there are more - but choose not to post them to prove it (I know - doesn't make sense). They also state "over representation" is part of the reason - not sure what that truly means... How can there be "over representation" to a property or website??? Regardless, I have taken the information provided and placed this graph for you to consider as a reasonable representation of our success rate vs the competition. And one last thing - I am sure you will hear them rebuttal this as not a true comparison of fsbo successes as we do list homes for realtors as well. We enjoy our realtor clients very much but they account for less than 10% of our total yearly listings - and less than 10% of the sold properties. The other thing to consider as well is that there "are" listings posted on the competition's sold pages that "did" have realtor cooperation when sold. (Sellers that had their buyers represented by an agent). Even though the seller was advertising for sale by owner to sell it on their own (without listing it) - there was realtor cooperation involved in some of these cases - and sold via the efforts of a realtor.
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| March 11th, 2008 | |
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As a born Quad Citian - I am tired of hearing commercials stating less that the truth - reading competitor's silly banners & pages, unproven stats, etc that are intended to do nothing more than deceive. The people of this area are in my opinion the friendliest and most trustworthy people in the nation. I traveled much in my youth - and always came back home to the QCA for that very reason. I cannot expect other companies that are run by people that were not raised in this area to understand that. They have different views on life, business, and appear to take advantage of our trustworthy nature. If you have any comments - please feel free to Email me Thank you & God Bless America! |
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“Providing better service, results, exposure, and getting smeared by a competitor for it” |
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Today's entry is to address an issue with a local competitor who revamped her website recently and decided to run a smear campaign. The unfortunate result of such will no doubt lead to an ugly mess via legal means. I want to address some of the statements this site has placed on their WebPages in order to assure my viewers and clientele that I am an honest businessman and will not stand for slanderous accusations to go unanswered. 1) Graphs and more Graphs... Simply put - our databases do NOT reflect the information placed on the competitor's silly little graphs - hence - they are inaccurate. The information they placed in these graphs have not been proven - there is no information on how they achieved the information for the graphs - and they are simply not paying attention to the truth in advertising laws. If you are planning on stating something - you had better have full information ready to prove it. Those graphs are biased, unproven, misleading, and typical of a company that is running scared because they feel they are falling behind. The scenarios are ridiculous - and it is painfully obvious they appear to be reaching for excuses. Seems by their graphs that the competition feels the better site is the one that has listed more properties vs the amount sold in a short period of time in 2007. I feel the the percentage of successful customers definitely indicates the best exposure. If I take the total amount of homes listed vs total amount that sold from each of these websites for an entire year - we have definitely had a greater percentage success rate. Our site is becoming more popular by the day - and we currently have more listings than any other fsbo site in the QCA - We also have more Sale Pendings and More Sold properties than any other fsbo site in the QCA - but, that will not lead me to make similar statements such as the competition's self proclamation of being the #1 site in the QCA... that is simply wrong... and their statement is completely unproven to anyone. 2) Tricks of the trade This one really cracked me up! I could barely even get through the garbage written on there without laughing myself to the ground. Do they really think everyone is so gullible that they believe some of this?... We do not list numerous lots as individual listings - we have had several listings of vacant lots of over 50-100 separate lots - and have never even counted them separately in the sold section. If it is a listing with 2000 lots - it would be 1 sold listing. Listing as commercial & residential - All of our listings are grouped into a single database - that way they show up on the search engines results pages. The commercial/Vacant lot section is separated from the database results only to help those who are actually looking for that type of property. They do not count twice - and It is a matter of convenience for the viewers - not deception. Listed until it sells - Wow - great idea! At least that is what all of our customers think. Why would this fsbo site think something is wrong with that? Well... she thinks that it adds to our sold section - and it DOES! These people have all the time they need to sell - show every room and more -and- that is GREAT!.... By the way - most do sell within a 90 day period... The purpose of the site is to effectively advertise properties for sale - that is what we do - very effectively (Without a restrictive contract)
3) Trust Factor - Statements targeted concerning our actual date of start up. A local fsbo competitor is attempting to slander our name by accusing us of false advertising about our "Successfully advertising fsbo & realtor homes since 1999" at the top of our pages. The state our registration date for qchomeshow.com was not until 2000 and that we are somehow trying to attempt to make ourselves look better by being a few months into 1999. Our business started in late 1999 as a sole proprietorship. The domain used back then was of a personal domain with a different name other than qchomeshow.com. As a startup business - it is always a good idea to try it out before dedicating a lot of money to the business. I noticed the business was working out and purchased the qchomeshow.com domain amongst a few others. Our whois registration states 2000 because that is when I decided to spend the money to move ahead with the business. This does not mean we were not already in business as the competition would like you to believe. We were. I didn't even know of the other fsbo site's existence when I started this business. When I went to advertise the business in the local papers - I was then told of them - and looked up their site. They had a total of 9 listings, and were evidentially starting up as well. This issue has been ridiculously placed on the competitor's website in an attempt to prove to viewers that we cannot be trusted. Check the Better Business Bureau website, anywhere else you would like - The fact is I am probably the most honest person I know (and I am not just tooting my own horn) - all that know me - even other local competitors & businessmen will tell you - I believe in doing work worth doing - honestly, efficiently, and with pride. Check another smear off the competitor's chalkboard - unfortunately - there is more... keep reading.
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4) Realtor ads vs fsbo ads. A local fsbo competitor states that our sold properties, listings, etc are not a true measure of our success since we have realtor listed properties that have sold as well. They state you cannot tell if it sold by realtor or fsbo and that the information is too limited. Yes - we advertise fsbo & realtor properties - that is of GREAT benefit to our clients. Anyone wanting to advertise a home - realtor or fsbo - may do so on our site. Our sold properties show a portion of the address to protect the new buyers best interests (You wouldn't want anyone to look through your new home - would you?). I decided long ago that if I sold my home on a website- the LAST thing I would want is for ANYONE to be able to view all the pictures, details, and map showing everything to anyone! I have a family - I want them to be safe & secure - and I couldn't even sleep at night knowing my new house is still on some website! The site does show whether the property was sold fsbo or realtor - all you have to do is click on the link - if a realtor's card is in the contact area - it was sold via a realtor. If it does not - it was not. Simple as that. *Update: as of March 07, I have conveniently indicated on the status bar of the sold section which properties were sold via realtor & fsbo. Maybe the competition should do a little more looking before they decide to look completely silly with a statement like that one... And, they ought to look at their own sold section... why don't they show them all - not just a fraction and claim there are more. What? - they cannot afford the extra webspace - what does that say about their success? Show all the sold properties - you have no reason not to (unless you don't have as many as you state)? - that is the only reasonable assumption why you would claim to have more but refuse to show them. Please - let us know "why" As for a measure of our success - just view the amount of properties sold - the amount of success stories - and the amount of sale pendings on the site. We are not attempting to send a "compete with us" message - simply letting the public know we do have a very high success rate for fsbos & realtor listed properties - and are working hard everyday to maintain that. And as a side note: we enjoy our realtor clients very much but they account for less than 10% of our total yearly listings. If you think everyone should compare fsbo to fsbo- maybe you should be more concerned with keeping your own clients happy. I am grateful to have to take calls from your clients who are very unhappy with the service they have been given - and even more grateful to have them state they really love how we provide them with a better service that helped them sell their property. The competitor tries to tempt viewers with claims of millions of dollars worth of homes from years gone by - place bar graphs with unproven data - self proclaim their site as being #1 (not just #1 fsbo site - but #1 site in the QCA) - and they expect you to take it all as if it were completely true - without any real proof to back it up. The trend software they use provided by an isp is not completely accurate as they will have you believe. It is not "hits" that is the software's purpose - it is "trend viewing software". Move from one place to another -and back - and forth - and again - a single viewer can achieve hundreds of "hits' and if on dial up - can create numerous "distinctive" visitor counts. It is easily manipulated via scripts or just by sitting at your pc refreshing the page. |
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5) Brick and Mortar - Stick and Stones |
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The competition feels they have the need to make themselves feel better by stating they have a "brick and mortar" presence. It is quite hypocritical of them as they too were a home based business for many, many years. If not for the help of a local mortgage business, it is likely they would still be a home based operation. The statement of "brick and mortar" presence has absolutely nothing to do with how your account is handled. The fact is their office is overhead which is the cause of their increased prices throughout the last couple of years. We handle our clients in a very timely manner - return calls the very same day - make all changes including posting open houses three times a day - and we place the ads on the site the very same day the photos are taken! Even with their so called staff - they cannot accomplish that. I have had their clients tell me the ad took several days and up to a week to even show up on the competitor's site. Open houses can only be posted on Wednesdays, and updates were not made promptly at all... Maybe they are too busy sweeping floors at the office???
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Information is free - but - truth must be sought after - just be careful where you get your information from - and ALWAYS ask questions if there is no proof given. (And don't be afraid to question the proof). |
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We appreciate any and all feedback and/or questions you may have. Feel free to contact us anytime.
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