Real Geeks Blog

Boomtown ROI vs Real Geeks IDX Websites by Columbia SC Real Estate Broker

Written by Guest Contributor | Jan 2, 2013 6:43:00 PM

Comparison by Tonya Graves from Capital City Realty

I launched my Columbia SC real estate website in 2009 in order to target online home searches or as we say in the business to “get leads”. I quickly learned that I would need to do more than build a website to get buyers to register on my site. Online home buyers searching on the Internet want to see the entire inventory for an area or the MLS. They didn’t want to see just my couple of listings.

For a broker to provide the MLS to web users they must provide an IDX or Internet Data Exchange.  The first IDX solution I used was Boomtown (ROI). The Boomtown leads management was very expensive at $1500 minimum per month. It was actually higher because they required advertising budgets above and beyond that.

In August 2011 I switched from Boomtown IDX to Real Geeks. I learned of Real Geeks from a real estate colleague and web designer at One Wave Designs named Paul Coffman. He boasted how Real Geeks was very SEO friendly with clean sites that rank well. I know and trust Paul’s knowledge about rankings & lead generation websites so I considered the change.

I reached out to Real Geeks and found them to be super responsive and friendly. When they told me of the cost I was shocked! I could be up and running for less than $160 a month with no required advertising budget. The decision to jump ship from Boomtown and roll out my new website with Real Geeks was a no brainer for me.

Since the transition I have not looked back. My Real Geeks site is easy to use and has a very clean look. I can quickly create original content for my website and edit existing content. Our buyer agents using the system like the simplicity of the back end or lead management system. My site ranks well for my keywords and the amount of leads I get has increased. My daily unique visitors have also increased and I have a very strong conversion rate.  Real Geeks provides everything I need to convert more leads and I am saving a ton of money.