Dave Carey, The Examiner
2007-08-01 07:00:00.0

BALTIMORE – On the information superhighway, Brendan Cooke made his Web site a must-see.

A recently added Realtor-associate broker with Re/Max Firehouse Realty in Baltimore, Cooke brought with him a unique vision for expanding his Web listings. After filming one of the properties he was selling for a repeat client, he edited and uploaded a version of the film onto a site marketing the house. Within a few weeks, Cooke had serious buyers inquiring on the house.

By providing sellers with more interactive information, real estate agents are finding a new way to jump-start the current lag time of homes on the market. On average, homes in the Baltimore region sit for 82 days before they sell, June data from Metropolitan Regional Information Statistics Inc. indicated.

“There is an abundance of inventory and still, buyers are looking. But when they look at listings with only three pictures, they go on to the next listing,” Cooke said. Video is a new method, and “people are going online so that is where we are trying to reach them.”

Noticing a substantial jump in his Web site views after adding the video and working on the overall appearance of his sites, Cooke created a separate digital destination for each property. Since the enhancement, he has logged more than 17,000 visits in the past 30 days.

High-dollar properties seem to benefit most from the sheer amount of data and information Cooke can put at buyers’ fingertips — such as Cooke’s listing on South Charles Street, priced at $275,000.

“We are reaching people who haven’t even moved yet,” he said.

Cooke’s work has garnered national attention.

AgencyLogic, the largest Web provider of single-listing real estate on the Internet, named Cooke’s Web site its “Site of the Month,” recognizing the impact he is having in the Baltimore-area market.

dcarey@baltimoreexaminer.com

Examiner