Cora Bett Thomas Realty Launches New Web Site Interview by Bellini Lacey, Public Relations Coordinator for Luxury Real EstateDecember 22nd, 2005 -- Luxury Real Estate member, Cora Bett Thomas of Cora Bett Thomas Realty of Savannah, Georgia asked Jon Mendoza, Creative Director of the LRE Web Design Team to redesign her company’s web site from the ground up. The results are impressive and the goals clearly accomplished.Q: What is most improved in CBTR's new site when compared to her old site?A: Cora Bett’s personal and professional manner and style really come through. The company’s market knowledge and extraordinary service is clearly expressed on the site. The goal was to provide her clients with the same incomparable real estate experience, regardless of whether they were entering her brick and mortar door or her portal door. Q: Name the top three most exciting new features on the site. A: We are very proud of the property pages. Content is deep but the design is clean, manageable. Even some less than average mls listings from her competitors look good on her site.The maps are very advanced. You roll over any of her districts and you know exactly how many properties are available. It also allows you to go straight into the properties. No one in her area comes close to providing this kind of technology. (To give you an idea of how involved and particular our client was, Cora Bett even determined the zoom speed on her maps.)
The Extraordinary Services web page: It is comprehensive and cross promotes itself at every turn. But it is all expressed and managed in that same Cora Bett manner – professional, smart and stylish. The visitor gets pulled in and not put off by information overload. CBTR’s uniqueness really comes through. Q. What was the biggest challenge?A. To get into Cora Bett’s mind set. To make sure that every piece of technology that came from us was tailored to fit the company’s personality and aesthetic. She has a fine level of refinement and professionalism. To her credit, she hand picked everything and was extremely involved in building the site. She chose the fonts, colors and signed off on every page to make sure the look and feel of it represented the agency through and through. I highly recommend all brokers to get involved with their designers. It’s a huge time commitment, but definitely worth the effort.
Q. What do you consider to be the "LRE signature" on CBTR's site?A: The Design! We really pride ourselves in getting the unique personality of the firm. Most sites that are high on technology will give design the back seat. We approach it the same way Apple approaches the iPod. Design is just as important to the user as is the technology. The iPod, like Cora Bett’s site, is so stylish and simple to use - form meets function at an amazingly high level.
Q. What is the most common mistake most realtors make on their web sites? A. They copy what everybody else is doing and never manage to set themselves apart from their competition.
Q. You once predicted that a company’s web site would soon become its main operating switchboard. Can this be said of CBTR's new web site?A. Most definitely. Regardless of whether their property lead is online or offline, we have provided them with Lead Farmer to track all business. The system we built for Cora Bett is different, however, in that it is built into her site and runs off the same system so the information is always up to date and synchronized. We also streamlined the features to fit Cora Bett Thomas Realty’s business model. Most Lead Managing systems are created with a one-fits-all approach. Our Lead Farmer is customized to meet our client’s individual needs.
For a complete overview of Luxury Real Estate’s Web Services and Products, please visitwww.LuxuryRealEstate.com/products or call 1-800-488-4066.Cora Bett Thomas Realty: www.corabettthomas.com