by Michele Gillis
Staff Writer
The Internet is a powerful tool in marketing your properties today and Lifestyles Realty Web in Jacksonville Beach is trying to make the most of its power.
“Everything with real estate now starts on the Internet and that was our original focus,” said Dan McCarthy, broker/owner of Lifestyles Realty Web, which opened in 2009. “I was brought up in the Internet age so I know everything starts with the Internet. We need to bring people in with Internet, then we are there as a real estate company. We are Web savvy and up on technology, making us sort of a New Age real estate firm.”
The original Lifestyles Realty opened in 2001, but closed its doors about five years ago.
McCarthy, who owned Florida Realty Web, has two partners: Kris Pedersen, former vice president of Lifestyles Realty, and Geoff Burt, formerly of JP Morgan Chase. Pedersen is the association manager, and Burt is the sales manager.
“One morning at Starbucks, Kris and Mike Bugg, the previous owner of Lifestyles Realty, gave us our blessing if we want to bring Lifestyles back,” he said. “They always had such a great name in the area, so it was a no-brainer to combine Florida Realty Web with Lifestyles Realty and create Lifestyles Realty Web.”
The new company opened in 2009 at 2447 S. Third Street in Jacksonville Beach.
“Because we are a local company, we offer more options than a national franchise can offer,” said McCarthy. “We work with a lot of investors and do a lot of short sales. We have options that national franchises can’t offer clients.
“Being founded at a time like that when the market was coming down, we really get this particular market and get how the new way of doing business. When I say ‘new way of doing business,’ I mean low overhead and better options to agents and clients. Our main focus on the Web site is property searches. We want to make it easy as possible for clients to search our properties. We just try to make it very user-friendly.”
Lifestyles Realty Web has 22 agents, some working from home.
“At the end of the day, you have to have your agents doing the exact same things,” said McCarthy. “You still have to offer clients the open house or whatever they need. Real estate is so different today and you are working with more educated clients.”
When clients are shopping for a house, says McCarthy, many already know everything about the neighborhood and how much the houses around it sold for. They just call an agent to get in the door.
“The difference in this market is that you have to bridge that information gap,” he said. “You meet the client, be honest with them, show the place, walk them through the contract and financial options. There are still a lot of things that go into it, but you are dealing with clients who know so much about what they are looking for, which can make our jobs a whole lot easier.”
The agents don’t do floor duty. They forward their calls to their cell phones and take them with them, so they can answer calls and help clients while they are out of the office or doing an open house.
“We just try to use all the technological advances there are and institute them in our business,” said McCarthy.