NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Elmhurst, IL, United States, 11/19/2009 - Realtor uses a collection of digital real estate tools to market a green home built to the US Green Building Council's LEED standard.

Building a green home includes a careful focus on conservation. A “green” Realtor is making conservation a key focus of her green home marketing plan. Laura Reedy Stukel, an EcoBroker Certified sales agent, is the listing agent for 250 N. Myrtle Avenue in Elmhurst, Illinois. A first-of-its-kind in Elmhurst, the home was built using the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) checklist. Stukel developed a green marketing plan to compliment the green building plan.

“Why rely on paper to promote and sell a green home?” says the builder Linda Marick of LINDAM Property Group, Inc. Instead, the program uses digital tools including a custom website, a blog and the text messaging and photo functions on a cell phone. Other unique activities include digital staging and a series of educational open houses promoted via social media.

Stukel believes the unique package of online tools will attract the right buyer, and make it easier when it comes time to write a contract. Digital files encourage online sharing, can be referenced later, do not get lost, and eliminate at least one round of printing when making an offer.

The program will use 94% less paper than Stukel’s previous marketing plan. A double-sided postcard serves as the entire marketing brochure. The postcard provides room sizes and photos and directs buyers to the website for details. It replaces both a double-sided flyer in a flyer box outside the home and an eight-page brochure inside.

The marketing program is designed to appeal to buyers regardless of what content delivery method they prefer: a website featuring the property’s address as the URL for basic details, a custom blog for full details and a mobile text-back service for instant information. Both the website and the text-back service are provided by ListingDomains.com at 250NMyrtle.com. The blog is hosted by Wordpress. Disclosure forms and the home’s latest LEED checklist are hosted in the local multiple listing service by Midwest Real Estate Data.

“The blog is such a great alternative to the in-house brochure,” states Stukel. “I have much more freedom to include descriptions, photos and manufacturer links to really tell the story of this home.”

Buyers can browse by categories, keyword tags and the search function. Stukel explains that this flexibility improves the experience for each visitor. “One buyer might hit the kitchen description because that’s where they like to start and it was first up in the queue of posts,” she explains. “Another might search for ‘Viking appliances’ and a third might use the category ‘green features’.”

Stukel is partnering on the site and the digital marketing of the home with a lender offering green financing. Erin Griffin of Corby Mortgage is providing online links to green loan rates and a mortgage application. She is offering the unique Green Solutions Lending program on the home. The program rewards buyers with lower interest rates and discounted fees for purchasing a green home.

The digital marketing is a natural fit for Griffin. “There are no paper files in my office right now. Not one!” she says. Corby Mortgage uses a combination of secure servers to offer the online application. Then once an application is started, the Corby team scans documents or uses a digital fax system to store them. Griffin copies client files to her computer and backs them up on another secure server.

Stukel is also incorporating a new real estate technology tool: digital staging. Digital staging allows a single room to be viewed in several interior design options. Stukel used services from Virtually Staging Properties to showcase the front room as both a living room and a dining room. The service adds furniture digitally to stage a photo of a vacant room. “This is a case where trying to use fewer resources creates a bonus,” explains Marick. “The floorplan was designed to be flexible and digital staging allows a buyer to envision the option that suits them best. Digital staging is the only way to show off both options at once and really highlight what is special about this home.”

Additional social media activities have successfully drawn over 300 people to tour the home through special events. The main events were a series of open houses called “Green Reality Checks” to allow local residents to take a self-guided tour through the home and learn about green features from the local contractors who installed them. Stukel is hoping that making the home available beyond those who are actively shopping for a green home will make others aware of the unique features and could eventually lead to the right buyer. All the events were promoted using social media tools such as Stukel’s own blog, Evite for online invitations, Facebook, a local email distribution list for green-minded residents and local online calendars such as the ones offered by the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce and local newspapers.

The home was built by LINDAM Property Group. It is listed for sale at $829,900. Contact Stukel for full details.

Agency / Source: LW Reedy Real Estate, Inc.

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