Daily Real Estate News | September 6, 2005 |
New Orleans REALTORŪ Makes a Difference
Like many Americans who watched initial news coverage of Hurricane Katrina, Vikki Morvant thought New Orleans had dodged a bullet. But as hours went by and the situation in the New Orleans area worsened, she began to realize the scope of devastation that was occurring.
Morvant, co-owner of Keller Williams Realty in Mandeville, La., a suburb north of New Orleans, fled her home on the Saturday before the hurricane, traveling to Houston to stay with her son. But seeing the images and hearing the stories of what was happening in her hometown, she couldn’t simply sit back and watch.
“I felt so much despair,” Morvant says. “Then some ideas starting popping into my head.”
Using a network of New Orleans neighborhood Web sites she developed over the past several years as part of her e-marketing strategy, Morvant has helped reconnect friends, family, and colleagues who lost one another during the hurricane.
Her efforts have been noticed by Keller Williams International, which will fly her to the corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday so she can coordinate hurricane relief efforts on behalf of KW Cares, a nonprofit organization that provides emergency assistance to Keller Williams real estate professionals. One of her main jobs will be locating missing practitioners.
Community Web Sites Become Lifeline
At the core of Morvant’s efforts are the 60 community Web sites she developed for subdivisions around her Mandeville market area—subdivisions that were hit hard by the hurricane.
Each Web site includes private message boards for neighbors, in addition to news and information about her services. Morvant is using the sites—all accessible from the banner site
Browse all of today's news
Subscribe to News
Daily and weekly real estate news, trends, NAR press releases, convention coverage, plus exclusive features and columns.
RSS Feed
Get the Daily Real Estate News delivered straight to your desktop or news aggregator. (New to RSS? Learn the basics here.)
How did you sell it?
Tell us how you overcame hurdles to sell a challenging or very unique listing!