Murphy & Murphy says Internet savvy has done wonders to beef up business

Located on busy Portsmouth Avenue in Exeter, Murphy & Murphy Real Estate has the look of a typical real estate office. Agents talk to clients in person or over the phone; visits for prospective buyers are scheduled. But this is not a typical real estate operation, and co-owner Bill Murphy is not shy about saying why.

"The Internet has changed, is changing the way we do business in ways that are hard to keep up with," says Murphy, who has seen the decade-old firm he started with his wife Dot grow from a two-person operation to one with seven employees, all of whom are computer- and Intemet-savvy. A second office was opened last year in Bedford and business has increased 130 percent since 1994, when Murphy began investigating what the Intemet was all about and how it might help his business.

"There's no doubt that the strong economy has helped (increase sales) here and throughout the real estate industry in the state. But I think our growth can also be traced to our presence on the Intemet. We have leamed this is how more and more buyers from across the country and the world communicate, through e-mail and gathering information through search engines and Web pages. In fact, people are coming to expect this type of service, and our industry is no exception. though I think many in the business have been slow to realize this," says Murphy, whose business is split between about 70 percent residential business and 30 percent commercial.

According to figures from the National Association of Realtors, an estimated 30 percent of homes sales in 1999 were generated through the Internet -- a significant increase from only two percent of such sales in 1996.

The firm's clients have taken notice, and Murphy & Murphy has been recognized Outside real estate circles as well. The company is a candidate for the prestigious Inc./Cisco Growth with Technology Awards, which recognizes "companies that use the Internet and networking technology to increase profits, gain a competitive edge and achieve new growth," says the invitation to Bill Murphy. Among the company's innovations is its use of digital cameras to take numerous photos of real estate locations and then post them on specially constructed Web pages with private Web addresses for prospective buyers. "The problem with MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is a lack of photos, and this hurts potential buyers who now expect these services," says Murphy.

Speed and change

Murphy & Murphy hosts three related Web sites -- www.realestatenh.com, www.irenet.com and www.NHomes.com -- which contain numerous listings and vital demographic information, links to other related sites and even commentaries about hot political and social topics by Bill Murphy, who is not adverse to expressing his bullish thoughts about the Internet or most anything else that he has on his mind.

The firm's main site (realestatenh.com) also offers free "We Love New Hampshire" bumper stickers, which are mailed to hundreds of Web site visitors from across the country and from more than 20 countries throughout the world including Russia. "We eventually had to stop sending the stickers to international locations because the mail costs were killing us," says Murphy. But the site's popularity, which can be measured by the hundreds of comments browsers leave, is evidence of a new way of doing business and reaching a much larger client base.

What the Web site also offers, Murphy says, "is a chance for clients to interview us without us knowing about it. Before, it would be a time-consuming process of one agent in another state contacting another here. Now clients can take matters into their own hands, and we respond quickly to every e-mail inquiry because people expect quick responses today. It's a way to give immediate and personal service we couldn't have done even five years ago."

Speed and change were a couple of reasons that Gail Lehman, a veteran of 20 years in the business, joined Murphy & Murphy a few years ago.

"I was frustrated because I could see what the Internet and using the huge amounts of data out there could do for the business, but only Bill seemed to have the vision." says Lehman, who works out of the Bedford office and personally designed the NHomes.com site.

Next stop: sellers

Because of its Internet presence, Murphy & Murphy has attracted sales agents with technological devotion who happened to be clients who learned about Murphy & Murphy via the Internet and later joined the firm after moving to New Hampshire.

For example, Alison Mann came from Colorado, Delores Cerecedo-Newman moved to New Hampshire from Spain, and Bob Soucy, a former high-tech marketing executive-turned-real estate agent, relocated from Oregon last month.

Soucy says he and his wife were planning to buy a bed and breakfast, but was persuaded by Bill Murphy to join the firm and help it evolve further into Internet-related activities.

Murphy says it's his staff that's now pushing the business into directions through its own initiatives and innovations. Murphy also describes himself as a big Web shopper and purchases most of the company's major office supplies and equipment through the Web.

To meet business growth, Murphy & Murphy recently doubled the office space at its Exeter location, and each of the agents has his or her own computer and has Intemet access.

Bill Murphy says his company has come a long since "making the mistake of starting a real estate business at the start of business cycle bust" in the late 1980s. As for the future, Murphy says, he and his staff are already formulating ways to tap into the mostly benign territory of sellers who have yet to use the Intemet the way buyers have.

"It may take a while, perhaps until this current generation of buyers become sellers themselves," he says.

- By Michael McCord