Every few years, a real estate boom occurs and dozens of new agents enter the field, all excited about the huge amount of money that can be made just by “being there.”
Then the boom ends, and those agents are faced with reality: If you want to make a living in real estate, you not only have to work hard on all the details of listing, showing, and closing sales, but you also have to work hard on marketing. If you don’t, customers and customers will be in short supply.
Before you have listings to sell, you need to market yourself to homeowners. And with over a million real estate agents working in the United States, you need to think of a way to stand out from the crowd. Placing the same tired “here I am” ads that everyone uses is more effective than nothing, but just barely.
So first you need to look at your own business and see what makes it better than your competition. It could be specialized knowledge in a certain niche, it could be an additional service, it could even be a fanatical dedication to returning calls promptly. But it has to be something. If you choose a niche, make sure it’s a certain type of ownership and not a certain type of person.
- Never suggest discrimination.
Then you need to find ways to get your message across to people. I recommend choosing a “farm area” and using direct mail. Just be very careful to write a professional, “addressed to you” letter. Tell them how you will help solve their problems; don’t ask them to solve yours.
Of course, you should hand out business cards at every opportunity, even if you have to create the opportunities. Talk to people and be willing to give free advice when asked. Befriend EVERYONE. You never know when that guy who carries your groceries will come home and tell his mom that he met the best real estate agent in town. Be creative, keep your eyes open, and market at every opportunity.
Marketing to buyers is more difficult, because you don’t know who they will be. The good news is that NAR conducted a study and reported that over 77% of home buyers search online first. That gives you the opportunity to promote yourself and your listings at the same time. Just make sure you create a strong presence, because a listing on page 44 of a search isn’t going to do you much good.
Marketing your listings is another two-part process. First you have to determine the words to use and then decide where to put them.
Where to put them is the easy part. The Internet is the obvious first choice, but you also have the MLS, a local Homes magazine, maybe the newspaper, and direct mail to customers who might be interested. Email also offers a good opportunity to reach a large number of people at no cost.
Words are a bit trickier. Writing an ad that sounds like any other ad will allow you to bypass MLS gatekeepers who insist on ad copy, but it won’t get buyers excited to see your listing.
The creative disappeared from house ads when the ADA and fair housing laws told us we couldn’t use words or phrases that could be considered discriminatory. Thus, we could no longer say “You can walk to the mall” or “You can hear the rustling of the leaves on the trees.”
When ads were financially restricted to a few words, it became impossible to write good descriptions. But now, the Internet allows unlimited words, so there’s no excuse for boring ad copy. Your real estate marketing can once again be creative, descriptive and exciting. Your flyers also leave room for your creative endeavors, so use that!
Stay away from the mother features and recapture the benefits. I don’t think anyone has banned the word “enjoy” yet, so you can tell shoppers that they’ll enjoy the breeze, the view from the deck, or the flickering fire in that massive rock fireplace. In other words, you can tell them there’s a view, you just can’t suggest that they can see it.
My first runner, way back in the Stone Age, said, “Put the reader in the house.” That advice is as true today as it was then. Make them “feel” how great it will be when they live in that house.
In return, you’ll get faster closings, more satisfied salespeople, an ever-improving reputation, and…more money in your pocket.