New website for The Burkhardt Group

So the previous site I built myself with some assistance. The idea was just to keep things simple and straight forward, aligned with my ideas that that you didn't need a lot of bells and whistles and fancy branding to create a successful brokerage business.

Norman Brannon came on board as a partner and had some other ideas about creating a stylistic and useful website along with a complete new brand identity. Some of you will already know Norman who worked for me previously, not only is he very talented musician, he was formerly a professor at Brooklyn college.

He connected us with friends of his at a boutique design company, right in Brooklyn that worked with us to create our new website. Anyway, let me know what you think, any changes or suggestions would be appreciated.

www.Theburkhardtgroup.com

Best,

Keith

Congrats on the redesign, Keith.

I’m a numbers guy, so my eyes went straight to the numbers and saw the following:

> Since then, we’ve been responsible for over $1 billion in gross sales transactions—and we’ve given back more than $6 million in commission rebates to buyers and sellers just like you along the way.

> Almost 20 years ago, we pioneered a unique buy-side collaborative model that rebates between 50-67% of the commission we receive back to our clients.

> Our seller-side reduced commission formula is simple (and always negotiable): We recommend a 3.75% commission. That’s 2.5% reserved for the buyer’s agent and 1.25% to The Burkhardt Group

On the face of it, the $6M of rebates amount to less than 0.6% of “more than $1B” but the rest indicates 1.25%, if not more. I would suggest providing a more consistent set of numbers.

Good catch. I'll have Norman correct that, I think they pulled that from two different sources, one of which was very old on the original website.

Thanks!

I like the information on it but the design looks ancient to me. The splash page should be animated And exciting. The rest needs to read more like a power point presentation at worst, and Toy Story 5 at best, and lest like a page out of Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Thank you, David. In some ways though, I think that was the look Norman was going for, a bit more analog and less flashy. And didn't want it to look like a typical real estate website. The site went live just as I began some summer travels, I'll give it a good read. Maybe we can relax it a little bit?

I've emailed you a few observations.

People only spend 55 seconds on the average page. I just don't think they will have The patience for all those words

Good point on time spent reading a website they randomly clicked on.. However, for better or worse, about 90% of our clients come from direct referrals. We also have a very large percentage that are repeat clients. It seems that the referrals that find their way to our website appreciate the detailed information. These are typically well educated buyers who are already in the market and are now looking for representation or different representation.

That said, it would be nice to capture some of the people randomly searching the internet for real estate brokers. But I really do appreciate the fact that the clientele that we get are very serious buyers who have a friend or work colleague that has had a direct experience with us.

Keith

Just back from a couple of weeks spent on the North Shore of Oahu. Talk about an area that's seen an absolute boom in real estate prices post covid! You can't buy a tear down for less than $1 million on a tiny spot of land. And when I say tear down, I'm talking about a 800 square foot house that's just slightly better than a barn. What's nice is that it has retained its charm and authenticity. No chain stores or restaurants or fancy boutiques etc. it's still just a rural country area, however, with some of the best surf on the planet (winter). Essentially the only hotel is the Ritz-Carlton at turtle Bay at the north tip of North Shore. An absolutely beautiful property! And unlike the four seasons in the Ko Olina resort area, the property is completely isolated in a good way.

That's where I learned to fly a glider.

You are full of surprises, David! I actually thought about taking a flight there.

Friends have told me Hawaii is beautiful to visit but personally I would have a big problem living somewhere so isolated whereas I would need to get on a plane to visit almost anywhere. But I suspect as I age, my loathing of travel will diminish and I’ll eventually make a visit

Certainly every island is very different. We were on Oahu, sort of planted ourselves on the North Shore. What surprised me was how much I loved Waikiki, some great restaurants and just overall a really great vibe and scene. Not the touristy nightmare that I was expecting. Actually pretty hip for lack of a better word, once he got past all the big hotels on the beach. Only a 5-hour flight from California. And the weather was amazing!

I forgot the name of the place, but our favorite restaurant had umbrellas covering the ceiling and had an appetizer which was tomatoes which they managed to grow in exactly the same dimensions and then they cut in 1/6s and reconstituted as alternating slices of different tomatoes