I attended a presentation by Realtor.com which spoke about the age groups that were currently buying real estate and those most likely to become the next loyal customers. Their information showed Generations X and Y to have the majority of buyers in the market today.With these age groups driving the market different opportunities for the real estate professional to market themselves are popping up daily. Many with a Web 2.0 focus, which especially appeals to Generation Y who spend much of their life online; for them the process of buying a home naturally, starts online.

Zillow.com is one site that takes advantage of this generation’s internet savvy by bringing real estate to them in a way they are accustom to. It offers services for buyers, sellers, owners and real estate professionals, all parties reaping their own benefits from the site.

For our clients at Union Street Media we highly recommend creating a profile on Zillow.com. It allows you to create a profile, post your listings, become a neighborhood expert and communicate directly with the consumer, all for FREE.

Setting up a Zillow.com account is easy. Follow this link to set up your profile: Create a Zillow Profile

From there you can add your bio, listings, answer questions on Home Q&A, and join discussion groups to become a neighborhood expert, even create EZ Ads.

Adding your bio to the “About Me” section of your profile is as easy as copying and pasting your existing bio into the space provided. We do, however, recommend that if you copy out of Word paste the text into Notepad first to remove all the formatting that can live on a Word file. Then when you past from Notepad into Zillow you won’t run into problems.

The “My Listings” section allows you to quickly upload photos and enter important listing information. After you enter the listing address you be prompted to choose a Microsoft Map view of the property. You can zoom in or out and set the map to this view. Every listing is accompanied by a Microsoft Map. It’s a pretty handy tool. Once you listed you property you can also consider highlighting it with an “EZ Ad” for an additional fee.

“Home Q&A” gives Zillow users the opportunity to quickly post questions directly to you about your listings. The question will appear on the listing itself, as will your answer for future customers to learn from.

The “Discussion” section allows you to reach out to sellers, buyers and other real estate professionals. You can also become an expert on a particular neighborhood by participating on the Neighborhood pages. Every time you comment in a Neighborhood Discussion page your profile is linked to that discussion; the more you participate the more free publicity you get.

Overall sites like Zillow are fairly straightforward and pretty user-friendly. By getting on these Web 2.0 focused sites and becoming involved in the online culture of their communities, you will more than likely generate leads you may have missed otherwise.