In the blink of an eye, what do people think of your real estate site?

It’s no great revelation that things move fast today. Real fast.

People surf the world on the web in seconds. You send letters in a snap. When you call a friend, you don’t look up his number, your virtual phone assistant does that for you.

A few weeks ago, we talked about Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “The Tipping Point.” He wrote a follow-up book, “Blink” that has some very interesting observations with valuable implications for real estate professionals.

In “Blink,” Gladwell basically notes that our minds have a highly accurate mechanism to make a decision quickly. In seconds. It probably stems from our caveman days when we surveyed a landscape and happened to see a saber-tooted tiger over in the corner – and in a blink knew, I’m outta there.

This “adaptive unconscious” is an internal computer that gathers and quickly analyzes a ton of data to help us make decisions. Decisions as important as whether it’s safe to cross the street and as mundane as whether I think I want that chocolate donut instead of the vanilla donut.

But there’s a new factor that’s come into the equation – technology. Today, people check out a real estate broker or agent in seconds.

What’s the gut feeling created in their minds?

Every broker and agent wants to be known as the professional who knows the local market. But how well do you convey that message?

Do you even mention that you have local knowledge on the home page of your website? Do you display any tools that show you are the local expert? What separates you from the thousands of other brokers and agents that are all trying to say the same thing?

One way to give yourself a big advantage is with the SpatialMatch IDX and lifestyle search engine. You embed this enormous hyper-local database right on your site.

You can show a snapshot of the SpatialMatch tool right on your homepage.

You can invite people right on your homepage to explore the neighborhoods they are considering for the type of lifestyle amenities they enjoy – whether it’s stretching in a yoga studio, browsing books or just sitting down for coffee with friends.

SpatialMatch creates hyper-local results. Type in a search for a certain type of home, 3 bedroom-3 bath, priced at $300,000, you will get a map displaying those results.

Then, go further. Type in the amenities you want – a Costco, a golf course, a Starbucks, a park, a middle school, whatever, all those locations will appear on the SpatialMatch map.

Home buyers will be able to see which locations better suit their needs.

Home buyers will be able to see, this broker has incredible hyper-local knowledge, because duh, they have a database on their site with 2 million business, 300,000 schools and local property listings.

Not only that, but the hyper-local results are transferable – email them to people, post them on Facebook for feedback.

Try this test – create a few different versions of your homepage, then show them to people for…you got it…just a few seconds.

Ask them what stands out. What they remember. What gut feeling they get.

The book “Blink” starts out with a story about how a statue on loan to the J. Paul Getty Museum in California didn’t look right to a few art experts.

This was serious stuff. The owner wanted $10 million to purchase the work.

Other experts were brought in and they concluded the statue was authentic. The museum purchased the statute.

A lingering doubt prompted a deeper investigation. Some of the letters of authenticity turned out to be fake. Other bona fides started falling apart.

The Getty Museum now posts this about the statue in its catalog, “About 350 BC, or modern forgery.”

When it comes to be being an expert on hyper-local knowledge, don’t fake it, don’t leave any question in the minds of your prospects. Show them you are the real deal.

Here’s a screen shot below showing the Getty Museum on SpatialMatch.

For a demo on how to make sure you are seen as the local expert in your marketplace, click here.