Doud has set up a response system that sends an immediate e-mail to each lead following up by offering them a regular custom home search that meets their needs. “The Internet leads are more long term and there are a lot of false inquiries, but it is still the greatest source of guaranteeing my growth.”

2. Michele Sullivan became determined to get into real estate in Las Vegas when in 1999 she received extremely poor advice and service from a local agent. Clearly she made a great career choice. She is now the new broker/owner of Las Vegas Realty World and the inspirational leader of a personal team of 10 Buyer’s agents and an office of 25 sales people. “I now aggressively use the Internet and it has become at least 25 percent of my business.” She adds the following warning: “Unfortunately I was too casual and consequently made it easy for my original URLs to be taken from me by an opportunistic employee.” Remaining steadfast in her quest however, she has rebuilt her connections with the search engines and now is guaranteed to be in the top-three responses. “I also get an amazing 5,000 to 8,000 eyeballs a month to my company Web site. In total, I get about 100-150 working leads a month.” She distributes the leads and trains her people to make at least five contacts before deleting them. “The $3,000 I spend a month is a small price to invest in building a solid future.”

3. Theresa Griffin, ERA Suncoast Realty, Crystal River, Florida was recently recognized and honored by the Wall Street Journal as the No. 1 Transaction Agent in the USA (891). “I love the Internet,” says Griffin, adding that she is online everyday. “I will use anything from the MLS listing site to our Citrus County Property Appraisers Web site to www.whitepages.com. I also have our own Web site and there are various search engines that, when a person types in key words, we are guaranteed one of the top three sponsored link spots.”

One thing is very clear-Griffin does not allow her success to be limited to a single use or concept. She overwhelms the Internet and drains it in every way possible. “Definitely our biggest use would have to be e-mail though. It’s so much easier to be in contact with clients or potential clients without having to worry about getting an answering machine or voice mail.”