On-Line banking: Small Banks Link Web Sites to Realty Listings

Aiming to snare extra mortgage business through the Internet, several community banks have linked their World Wide Web sites to real estate brokers.

"This has been one of the single greatest marketing tools I have ever seen come along," said Michael R. Fitzgerald, a senior vice president at Salem (Mass.) Five Cents Savings Bank. "Not only does it provide some good will to the real estate community, but it also intercepts some homebuyers and sellers early on.

"This is one of those tools that just doesn't come along very often."

Internet surfers who click onto Salem Five's Web site see an icon that can link them to pictures of thousands of homes for sale or for rent in New England. About 700 people browse the real estate listings every week, Mr. Fitzgerald said.

The bank - which appears to have been the first to introduce the concept - also allows its customers to do a variety of banking transactions over the Internet.

"The number of listings on the site has grown to the point where we can say we have the largest on-line resource for homes for sale in New England," Mr. Fitzgerald said.

This month, Salem Five is adding the ability to list entire communities on its site.

"People who are building communities can put a whole development on-line and describe it," Mr. Fitzgerald said.

"We created an entirely new Web site and gave it to the real estate community, more or less. A number of our brokers use it to get more listings. A lot of people put up their homes directly," without using a broker, he said.

For Long Island Savings Bank, a $5.4 billion institution based in Melville, N.Y., the decision to hook its Web site to real estate listings was "driven by our interest in expanding our distribution channels and having greater exposure," said Tony Morris, senior vice president of marketing.

Since June, the bank's site has had links to thousands of homes for sale on Long Island. The real estate listings get 600 "hits" a day, Mr. Morris said.

"We cooperatively put together the site with the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, to put what was on paper on the Web," he said.

"It lets people go through the selection process without having to go to each and every home they're interested in."

Mr. Morris said the bank has not quantified the mortgages the site may have produced. "The benefit to us is that we have advertising rights for the site," he said.

Some of the first banks to test this type of Internet link are located in winter and summer vacation spots. In the heart of ski country - Kingfield, Maine - the $130 million Kingfield Bank is preparing to build Web links to realtors.

"We have asked our branch managers at our eight branches to submit names of brokers that they do a good referral business with, and we're in the process of getting those names listed on the Web," said Bob Stone, vice president of operations at Kingfield.

"We have had a number of people interested in locating into Maine contact us through the Web, and we have made referrals to local realtors, so it has worked," Mr. Stone said. "I think our most distant contact was from Germany, and that did result in a sale for the realtor and a loan for the bank."

Mr. Stone - who said his bank was the first in Maine on the Internet - called the link-up technology "easy and inexpensive." Another bonus: "We can be right out there with the big boys in terms of Web presence."

The next step, Mr. Stone said, will be to scan in actual pictures of the homes for sale. "We just haven't had the time or physical resources to do it."

In South Florida, BankAtlantic has taken a slightly different approach toward luring in newcomers, setting aside a portion of its Web site for Relocation Services. Visitors to that page are treated not to pictures of homes, but to a mug shot of a bank employee named Pearl Bradley.

"People can fill out a slip on-line, and we will send them one of our newcomer packages," explained Ms. Bradley, whose title is relocation specialist manager. This package includes mortgage information and calculators for people who want to see if they can pre-qualify.

"We have had different real estate companies calling us to ask us to link up to them, but we probably won't be doing that until next year," Ms. Bradley said.

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