Featured Client of the Month

Contact Information:
Email: Homes@hartanovteam.com
Business: (949) 481-3739
Cell: (949) 422-3739

Advanced Access: How did you get started in the Real Estate Industry?

Drew Hartanov: I always wanted to do get into real estate and I got my license 15 years before I finally got into it. I was relocating every couple of years to follow an upward corporate career path. I was on the east coast in a top-level corporate job, but with traveling and not being able to spend quality time with family on the west coast. I decided it was time to try real estate or it would be too late. I moved back to Orange County, jumped in and have never looked back.

AA: Do you have a specialty or favorite niche market group?

DH: Our niche is the internet and we consider it as our farm. We spend hours every day working internet leads. We only work the internet or work by referral. We no longer do what some would consider "traditional" marketing. Our target market is what we call a "relo" buyer. Basically, "relo'' to us means anyone who is looking to buy in the area we serve, yet they do not live here, hence they do not know a local agent. That "relo" buyer could be someone just moving here from an adjacent city or a different state. Many times, we are contacted by an out of state agent who finds our site for a referral client. Typically, we do not compete with the many agents that are farming a specific area or tract.

Also, we tend to focus on the mid-range price range in our area as those are the buyers generally searching for homes on the internet, and those are the homes that are most easily sold.

AA: At what point did you realize your need for a website?  Describe your journey to Advanced Access and why you chose us as your provider.

DH: Getting into real estate was like going back in time to an entry level sales job. I started door knocking, cold calling, mailing newsletters, postcards, etc and I felt there had to be a better way. Fortunately, within my first year, my then manager told me that a website would never get me any business and it would be a complete waste of money. Frankly, since he only thought cold calling was the way to success, I just had to prove him wrong. By coincidence, AA was having a seminar at our local board and if you signed up that day, you could save $200...so it began with no knowledge other than knowing that not many at that time were using websites and I could save $200! I liked what I heard and I signed up as I had no other plan. I had no clue what a domain was, URL, HTML, etc. That was at the end of 2000. Little did I know that I was signing up for one of the premier template real estate web site companies. My extensive research since then has proven that to be true.

My first year in Real Estate (6 years ago), I did just over $7.5M, mostly by doing open houses. Realizing I needed help, I convinced Linda, my wife, to get her license. The very week she got it, I accepted an out of state consulting job for a year and Linda took over and sold about $7.5M her first year. She is an open house queen! We spoke nightly about what needed to be done with each transaction and I worked the website and internet leads into the early morning hours. It was when I returned back to real estate that we realized that this could become a successful venture if we started to treat real estate as a business, not just selling homes. At Advanced Access, Kristina, over many months of politely trying as I recall, finally convinced me to upgrade to the new version site at the end of 2003 (and with much reluctance from me!) . It was during that time and during one of the major Google updates (Florida update) when my site lost position and I panicked. Oh well, what could I lose with an upgrade? Once Kristina convinced me that I could really control my web content with the new version, I switched over. I had no clue about WYSIWYG at that point. I spent two weeks full time totally revamping my website. As a result of great advice from AA and the forum participants, we have increased our business yearly. We enjoy a relatively good income and are among the top 10 for transactions out of 2500 company agents in our county... Can a website work? How about how can you work without one? It is the one of the primary reasons for our success and AA has been a major partner with us.

AA: How has your Premium Marketing Package impacted your business?

DH: It protects me in my area from having another competitive Advanced Access site benefiting from the program and allows me to know that I will benefit from any new ideas AA may have for my website. It allows my site to maintain premier positions on the internet. It also gives me access to monthly reports as to how my site is doing without effort on my part. Plus, I am not willing to give up something that contributes to our success.

AA: What other resources through Advanced Access and life in general have contributed to your success?

DH: Using Intellicards campaigns for automated email response allows us to be in constant contact with those who sign up on our site. We are all about automation. The fact that they are personalized emails is impressive to the client. We have customized our campaigns. Our goal no matter where we advertise is to drive traffic to our site. The only reason to have a web site is to generate leads. Our site is not fancy looking or glamorous, but it has information a visitor is looking for and it works for us. Having an "I love me" or "Cyber business card" site is not the path to success on the internet. Being able to set up third level domains is also a huge benefit for setting up property listings, tract pages, community pages, etc.

AA: Can you share with us some information about a recent transaction that began as a result of your website?

DH: Many of our transactions begin as a result of our website. Otherwise, we would have far less business. The most recent transaction that will close escrow in March is a relo buyer that bought a $750,000 condo. In December of last year, it was a $1,100,000 transaction. Currently 3 or 4 of our listings came as a result of being found on the internet. For the most part, the internet user is more prepared and has done some homework before they contact us. The fact that we are sending personalized follow ups or personalized daily IDX property updates to them keeps our name in front of them is a huge benefit. It is not unusual to get a call some 6-12 months after someone first visits our site. Most transactions are a result of having an IDX program requiring sign-in. If they really want more information and they do not want to sign-up, many times they will call us after finding our site easy to use. It's all about being able to find properties for sale and having a site easy to navigate.

AA: What are some of your goals for your website and your online presence?

DH: Our goal is to retain some dominant search engine positions. We also want to upgrade and reorganize our site with new 4.0 website platform. We want to add more relevant content. We need to streamline it and work on page size, new meta tags, etc.

As far as online presence, we have developed some exclusive relationships with top local community websites that drive traffic to us. So, when a visitor to those local information sites are looking for real estate, it redirects to us. There are several premier directory sites with which we have managed to get featured agent status and they drive traffic to us as well. As a result, we find that many locals know who we are based on our name being found in many places on the internet. In some cases we may have several organic first page placements as a result of these relationships. We are continually looking for new opportunities on the internet to get found.

AA: Tell us a little about your family, your history, and what you like to do in your spare time.

DH: The reason I got into real estate is family. I had a great corporate career, but it seemed I was always on a plane. Sounds glamorous, but being in Japan for one day, then Europe the next week took it's toll. I once even commuted weekly to an office in Chicago from Orange County for over a year and weekly to Canada and bi-monthly to France. Flying some 150,000 miles a year is not glamorous and it did not leave time for family. I heard Ira Serkes, an agent in Berkley, speak and he said, "I don't want to be the biggest agent in our area, I want to be the happiest agent" and that hit home for me.

My wife, Linda, and I have two highly successful sons, two gorgeous daughter-in-laws (who we hope will join the business one day) that treat us like "mom and dad" and we are blessed with 7 grandchildren, the oldest being 9 years old. We all live within 5 miles of each other. So, if we are not doing real estate, it is enjoying family or being at the beach.

One of my other goals was to not always have to work weekends, have some downtime from real estate and to enjoy the freedom and sights of our beautiful country. So, my weekends are usually highlighted by riding my Harley with 30-50 members of the 500 member club in which I am an officer (also the webmaster, of course!). In the last two years, I have ridden up to Canada and around 10 western states, as well as a yearly 4,000 round trip scenic ride to the Sturgis, So. Dakota - Black Hills Rally with 6-8 riders. There is nothing more exhilarating than riding in the open air, exploring new mountain passes and side roads and meeting new people in every state. It's amazing how many strike up a conversation with us because of our rumbling "steel horses!" Going up, down and over two 10,000 ft high mountain passes in two different states on any given day gives one an appreciation for the scenic beauty of this country!

Some Favorites...

AA: Favorite / Most Notable Lead?

DH: The most notable lead was someone who called us while they were on our website at 10:00pm. They were shocked that we answered our phone. At the end of a 45 minute conversation, we had an appointment to show them a property the next day. We spent an hour at the property, they called us an hour later, asked us to join them for dinner the next evening as they decided that they wanted to write an offer on the property. Although they had spoken with other agents over many months, they liked the fact we had an informative website and answered our phone. After dinner, we wrote the offer and subsequently closed escrow on a $2,650,000 property!

AA: Favorite Advanced Access Feature?

DH: Being able to add or modify pages whenever we want. Many other sites are not as flexible or have a limit to the number of pages of what you can do to the pages. Some sites even require you to have the supplier add a page.

Another huge AA feature (and major benefit) is the Member Forum. When I first started, there were only a couple of dozen or so of us there who knew basically nothing about websites. We all shared and learned together as information was not as readily available as it is today. Today, one learns exponentially about websites compared to "the early days". Most of us are now highly successful with our websites due to that willingness to share. We learned by trial and error and by doing it ourselves. The long hours required to get our sites to where they are have paid off, beyond our wildest imaginations!

AA: Favorite Page / Section of your site?

DH: My favorite page is any page that generates a lead or gets a visitor to return! I normally put on my site what I feel a visitor wants to find if they do not know anything about our area. It's not about what I think should be put on the site. Too often agents put their resume, awards, accreditations on the front page and, frankly, no one cares.

AA: Thank you so much Drew.  As a long-time client of Advanced Access it is great to hear about your journey and about all the things you have learned.  You have helped a lot of other real estate professionals to learn and become more comfortable with having and using their website.  All our best on your continued success