While these real estate agents hit the lottery, there’s another way to win in your marketplace

Real estate agents are finding a new way to make money. Big money. They are hitting the lottery.

What? Yep, it’s true. In just ONE real estate office in St. Louis, THREE agents won the lottery big time.

On Oct. 4, Jennifer Elam won $3.8 million. In May, 2013, Jamie Aldridge won $1 million and last October her cohort Kim DeLapp won $100,000 on a scratch-off.

Seems easy. But getting back to reality. There is a way you can hit the “lottery” in a sense in your marketplace.

And that’s by being the broker or agent who adds a wealth of hyper-local real estate data on a map-based platform from companies such as Home Junction Inc.

Hate to break the news to you, but buying lottery tickets is not exactly a wise investment for your business. But, if you do invest just a relatively small amount to add real estate big data to your website, the payoff can be enormous.

First of all, in today’s Internet environment, it’s data that attracts the attention of homebuyers. It’s not the fancy BMW, or the nice pants suit or the landscaping in front of the real estate office (although, you certainly want to still make a good appearance).

Homebuyers are generally not making their first visit with you at your office. They are meeting you first online. The first impression they get of you is your website.

And basically, what does a website consist of? Content. When you boil it down to the basic purpose of a real estate website, the purpose is to provide content.

Now, here’s where most real estate agents and brokers are lacking. Sure, they will add a bunch of photos and descriptions of properties for sale. Maybe a few videos.

Some will go to great lengths to make sure they have a really pretty website with cool colors and appealing graphics. That’s all good. That’s a great way to make a strong first impressions as a professional.

But remember, the web is basically about content. That’s how viewers judge a site. That’s how search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing judge a website.

So, as you dress up your website, also consider the breadth and depth of the content you are adding.

What’s great today, is that real estate agents and brokers literally have a bonanza when it comes to the accessibility of enormous amounts of hyper-local content.

With a big data real estate provider such as Home Junction, a broker or agent can literally put access on their site to millions of pieces of data about nearly every market in the US.

That data of incredible interest to homebuyers includes: schools, businesses, recent sales, market trends, demographics, etc. Home Junction offers more than 100 layers of local data.

The second way to impress homebuyers is how you present the data. Home Junction for example, has a geo-spatial platform that feeds MLS listings plus all this hyper-local data into a map based app.

So when a consumer searches for a house, they can all pull up all the relevant data they want in regard to the neighborhood and view it on a convenient map.

Say Jane finds a 3/2 she likes but is just as concerned about schools in the area. With SpatialMatch, she can find out the following: a) the distance of schools from the property b) the enrollment in the schools c) the student/teacher ratios d) the demographics of the student body. And more.

Now, we’re going to let you in on a little secret when it comes to the lottery. There is absolutely no way to rig the lotto results or game the system so you have an edge.

There’s no proven strategy you can use to increase your chances unless you buy EVERY combination of numbers possible. That’s generally in the $14 million to $52 million range. Then if you do win, ironically, you might have to share the winnings with other players.

But there is a way to influence the market in your neighborhood. Adding the right content to your site can generate more leads for you, higher rankings on the search engines, more referrals and more content for your social media site.

You might not hit the real estate lottery by selling a $500 million listing, but you can certainly hit a bunch of local sales that will add up to a substantial winnings over time.

That’s how you achieve success in this country. One step at a time. Spend less time chasing lotto numbers and more time attracting leads – that’s the guaranteed way to hit the jackpot.

Here’s where you”’ find Home Junction’s big data real estate map search tool.

Read about those lucky real estate agents here.