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Featured Client of the MonthApril 2007: Toby BarnettToby Barnett Contact Information: An Interview With Toby Barnett Advanced Access: What is your role on the Barnett Associates Real Estate, LLC website? Toby Barnett: My role for the company website includes developer, photographer and SEO. The site started out as the basic canned website but over the last few years it has taken on a life of its own in design, style, layout and rankings. AA: How did you get started in the Real Estate Industry? But I didn’t really get my start in the real estate industry until my senior year in college. While attending the University of Washington, I started doing marketing material for Barnett Associates Real Estate, LLC that began with building a marketing plan. After the marketing plan was done it was time to get started on the listing presentation and development of a lead generating website (had lots to learn in that arena). AA: Does Barnett Associates Real Estate, LLC have specialty or favorite niche market group? TB: Our niche is focused around the style of living in Marysville and Snohomish County, single family residencies. Ramblers, two stories and split levels comprise every neighborhood so it challenging to target a specific group that can be done in bigger cities. AA: At what point did you realize your need for a website? Describe your journey to Advanced Access and why you chose us as a provider? TB: Mickie actually was the one who decided a website was needed which was long before I came on board. The website came about when Mickie attended a REALTOR education conference where Advanced Access was a vendor, and from her previous experience, she knew that a website was needed to compete in the 21st century. The reason to choose Advanced Access was the platform looked user friendly, from both a web surfer and web designer standpoint, and it came as a all-in-one package with the necessary functions a real estate website needs. AA: What is the most profitable section of your website? TB: I would have to say it’s our IDX solution in conjunction with ever increasing amounts of local information. The local information is what drives prospects to the website but it is really the IDX that keeps people returning again and again. AA: What resources through Advanced Access and life in general have contributed to your success? TB: Advanced Access has provided excellent customer support in the forums and over the phone for which I am so grateful. There have been times, especially early on, when I totally dismantled the homepage or function in the website and needed immediate assistance to get the site up and going again. Advanced Access was always there, I mean always. Also, having an a drive for knowledge and success has enabled me to learn how to build the website, without fear of breaking something, and studying what it takes for a website to become a lead generating company asset. It has been a long road but it has been so much fun to watch the site grow and see the statistics climb month after month. AA: Can you share with us some information about a recent transaction that began as a result of your website? AA: What are some of your goals for your website and your online presence? TB: This year it is my goal to build a page for every neighborhood in Marysville which I am finding to be quite an undertaking but high priority goal that will give long-term benefits. Also, I would like our average monthly hits to increase to 25K by the end of the year, currently we are at 18K+ average per month and by adding all the neighborhood pages I hope to accomplish that. Getting users to spend large amounts of time on the site will lend itself to converting leads while gaining authority for our local market. AA: Tell us a little about your family, your history, and what you like to do in your spare time. TB: Both my parents still live in Marysville, though divorced.
My brother, Bryan, his wife, Michelle, 1st son, Aiden and 2nd son who is 4 weeks old, Jase,
all live in Maryville as well. Currently I am the only one that has moved out of Marysville, 30 miles south, to Kirkland and commute to Marysville everyday. Marysville is the town I grew up in but
I moved to a city that is on lake which is a very active. A Couple of Favorites... TB: The Virtual Office because it is easy to use and it didn’t take me long to learn and feel comfortable with the interior layout and functionality. AA: What is your favorite page or section of your site? TB: The Marysville Page of the website and all the neighborhood pages. Upon building this section I realized how little I know about my hometown. AA: Toby, thank you for sharing your experiences with us. We admire your dedication to your family business. Thank you for also being a website adventurer! |
 
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TB: I have grown up in and around the real estate industry because my mom, Mickie Barnett, was an agent with a local company in town that was conveniently located across the street from a school in which my brother and I attended. In those early years, my brother, our dog, and I would spend time with mom doing showings,
Broker’s opens, open houses and even previews. It was definitely a family affair and I can even remember getting lost out on Camano Island for a whole day while looking for some addresses.
TB: Last week, Mickie and I were sitting in the office starting out the day over a cup of coffee and chatter when a call came in from a buyer looking at one of Mickie’s listings in Kayak Point, Washington. The buyer is Anesthesiologist from Portland, OR looking to reinvest monies from a property sale in Seattle and his price range is a million dollars. The property had to have special characteristics, 1 mile from a golf course and no more than a mile from the Puget Sound. After talking with the gentleman for a bit he decided to drive up the next day from Portland to look at property. The buyer found one he like and Mickie is working out the details.
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