Online communities or local forums are growing each and everyday. In Real Estate specifically we know that buyers and sellers are starting their real estate journeys online. We know they are doing online searches for their communities and property types. In addition it can be seen users are becoming more interactive within an online community of homebuyers and sellers.

Forums like Yahoo Answers have a dedicated Renting and Real Estate section in their forum. Here realtors can find questions regarding renting and real estate. Realtors can allow themselves to become a valuable resource within these online communities, not only generating new clients but generating self-branding within that specific group of users. This can be used as a new way of connecting to prospective clients. All that is needed is setting aside time to answer or commenting on answers buyers and sellers have. You may even find other realtors supplying questions; this is a great way to become a resource within a realtor community. Growing and connecting with users is the main goal of this operation. Finding new ways to promote yourself and your company is something to always keep an eye out for.

Within answering questions you can direct traffic back to your site, whether it is your real estate site or your real estate blog. Working links into your answers and pointing questioning users to past blog posts is a way of generating traffic and links which are great Search Engine Optimization tactics. It is also possible to write a blog post on questions found within these online communities.

Here is a list of some great Real Estate Community Forums.

1. Trulia Voices

2. BiggerPockets Forum

3. Zolve Forums