Tech-savvy agent reaps rewards of larger market

Blogs and podcasts aren't just the prerogative of geeky techs and political pundits. A real estate agent credits her online efforts for a solid one-third of sales last year.

Diane Cohn with Chase International's Damonte Ranch Parkway office casts a wide net with Web site, blog and podcast.

Cohn credits her Web presence for 20 percent of transactions turned last year, but that represented 33 percent of the total dollar volume.

"The people who came from the Web bought more expensive houses," she says. "Plus, they were the most fun. Those kind are pro-active, they're on top of things, they want to know what's going on."

How do people coming from other states find Cohn's Web site? She taps into the power of the search engine, Google, on which she purchased a pay-per-click service. Key words that lead to her Web site include homes, relocation and Reno real estate.

And how did a real estate agent figure out how to do those programming tasks? Cohn says, "I found a really good book, 'Winning Results with Google Ad Words.' It's the Bible of making it work online."

From her Web site, www.dianecohn.com, visitors can link to real estate reports on which she comments from a blog page. And, they can hear a seven-minute podcast.

The first podcast was a general Reno market review. Next came an interview with Shari Chase, chief executive officer of Chase International.

Cohn also writes an article each month for realtytimes.com, a real estate news site.

"The core of my marketing efforts are online," she says.

Cohn went into business here a year ago, having lived in the area for a year, before two years at Lake Tahoe and 15 years in the Bay Area. She worked at Apple Computer prior to joining Chase International, which is headquartered in Lake Tahoe, with four offices around Lake Tahoe, an office in Reno, one in London and now one in Truckee.