Like most people I remember hide and seek as a kid to be a great fun thing to do outside and to put off homework for as long as I could. As a parent now with young children...it still is...it allows me to play with the kids before I have to do my work around the house.

I always liked hiding more than seeking because you wanted to outsmart the person who was seeking but you knew eventually you were either going to be seen or you had to run to "home base" -depending on the rules you followed. Yes the rules of hide and seek always seemed to vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood but the end result is that someone gets found and they then become "IT" This can be the same for your next house.

Real Estate on the internet can be like that in the opposite...the houses want to be found but the seekers all have variations on how they seek. Some like maps that they can move and zoom into. Others like to fill in search parameters including size, # of bedrooms and baths, price, formal dining room, garage etc etc. Most people selling their homes (the ones hiding) dont want to hide and they want to be the first ones that everyone sees when the internet page loads (ie the game begins)

It is a difficult thing to be able to have a system that plays by everybody's rules. Google is an interesting assistant (kind of like having GPS as a kid in the backyard) but in the month of August our office site received over 3800 of visitors just from Google and other search engines. But of those visitors they used over 3100 different search terms to land on our site or even one of the listings. As you can imagine it is quite difficult to master the art of Google for all of those searches.

If you are thinking of putting your property on the market....ask your REALTOR what they do to help your property get "found"

• Do they have a professionally run Google campaign for their office, agents, properties and neighbourhoods ?
• Do they offer a web domain for your property that they can promote in their print media, sign riders etc ? You can forward your domain to others in your address book, post on your facebook page, twitter etc as someone who has been in your house may know someone who would like it.
• Can they post it on an open house site for others to find propr to planning their weekend drive ? www.openhouses21.com
• Do they provide the consumer with enough photos that are clear and provide the data that can equal a showing without disturbing you ?
• Are they able to give you a detailed web report showing the visits to your property and how they got there ?

Contact any of our agents to get in the game and how we can help your house get found using those and other tactics.

Ollie Ollie Oxen Free !!!  You're It !!