The first things prospects want to see is not necessarily your smiling face along with a list of your accomplishments. Sites that offer free, valuable information of interest to the real estate prospect are more likely to keep people at their site and earn repeat visitors. You can earn your potential customer's respect and confidence by sharing your hard-earned knowledge and increase the likelihood of them contacting you for help. This is where it can all fall apart. Most often, that initial contact will be by email or by the submission of a fill-in form on your site.
People have a tendency to perceive Internet as populated by nameless, faceless entities.
It's easy to do as the medium lends itself to being impersonal. A prospect can't build a relationship with an autoresponder, and in many cases having your assistant respond to email doesn't work very well either if your assistant can't provide the necessary expertise. Most importantly, you have to be prepared to provide the prospect with the information they ask for. On the internet, that information is easily available elsewhere with a click of a mouse. If you make it too difficult for them to obtain what they want they will get it from someone else.