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She showed the prospect one page with a graphic- and text-filled historical walk through Cranford; another with information about schools, houses of worship, private
organizations, and local demographics. There were notes on commuting, parking, weather, hospitals, and recreational sports. Then they got to the real-estate pages, which included virtual "open houses", with
photographs and details such as room sizes. There was information on market activity, relocation, and financing--and on the Devlins themselves. If the couple listed with the Devlins, Barbara told them, their house would
be on the Web for all to see. "That clinched the deal" recalls Bob. "They saw we had taken a quantum leap above our competition." The Devlins first considered setting
up a Web site after attending the Customer Care '95 Internet Conference in Washington, D.C., in October. "We began to surf the Web and look at the real-estate pages," says Bob. "Century 21 and all the big
players, including Coldwell Banker, had their own Web sites, but they didn't cover the local niche, so we focused on our home town of Cranford, where we've lived for 33 years. Our method of doing business is customer
service--you receive what you give. We've put this information out there for people to use." The Devlins didn't get a dime from Coldwell Banker nor did they want one. "We wanted to be free as a
bird with no corporate restrictions," explains Bob. It took three months to set up their site, which has about 50 pages of content to date but is expanding rapidly and currently features other towns in the area.
Bob managed the information; Barbara and a friend handled the technical work. Since all the labor was done by family and friends, the cost was relatively minimal: about $6,000, including registration of the domain name,
photo expenses, books, computer equipment, and software. The Devlins will pay Eclipse, their Internet service provider, about $250 a month, depending on how many people visit the site. "The biggest
investment is time," says Barbara. "It takes weeks of thinking just to come up with the theme. You have to know who your audience is. Then from each idea comes links. Then you have to research your material
and type it in. That's just the start. You have to constantly change things or no one will come back." The investment has already paid off. Local newspaper articles about the Devlins' Web site have
spurred calls for price opinions and questions. They've gotten several of those listings and are hoping to close a few of them soon. |
