Each day, instead of reading useless, utterly forgettable world news articles, take a few minutes to scan through each local news source you’ve bookmarked, looking for any new articles about anything to do with your local farm area. Be particularly on the lookout for any real estate related articles. It could be an article on a new residential or commercial development or a stat about the local real estate market you’ve gleaned from your local real estate board’s latest Market Watch report. For instance, the website Buzz Buzz Home is an excellent site for Canadian real estate professionals, particularly those involved in selling condos. Continue reading
Category Archives: Marketing Tips
Landing page conversions and Lead Nurturing. What you should know?
An ideal landing page helps target an audience that has viewed your information through an ad or an external medium based on a specific campaign. This page is used to capture the information of the visitor through a form.
Landing pages allow the website owner convert visitors into transactions. It is extremely important to ensure the information on your landing page is clear and concise.
Target areas to optimize on your Landing Page
Title – Your headline should tell the story of the value you are offering to your potential leads. Your headline has to be captivating enough for someone to fill out a form. For e.g. Form A headline: Please fill out this form, Form B headline: Get more information on reverse mortgages. Which form do you think your potential leads will fill out?
Description- There should be an incentive offered to fill out the form. E.g. “To find out more useful tips on saving for a down payment, fill out the form for more information.” This also states a clear call to action for the potential lead to fill out the form. It is one thing to describe in detail the information you are trying to convey and it is another thing to instruct them on what to do after they know what you are talking about.
Social Sharing – This encourages your leads to share content from your website.
Form Structure – Clients usually dread forms that are too long so keep it simple and straight to the point.
Thank You Page – Your thank you page should suggest other offers you have based on the type of form the clients filled out. For example; if a client filled out a form to find out more information on mortgages, your thank you page can have a link to a mortgage calculator. This shows the client that you are thinking along the lines that they are thinking as well.
Once these landing pages are set up and you are receiving leads, you would need to nurture these leads so they can turn into transactions. Many clients fill out a form and forget in the next few hours after they filled out the form that they were even on your website. The earlier you follow up with clients, the better. I usually say give yourself latest a 12 hour window and even that is too long.
You as the real estate professional needs to make sure that you develop a follow up system that sends out targeted messages through your drip campaigns based on the forms that a client fills out. If a client filled out a form wanting to know more ways to save for a down payment, their lead nurturing emails should not contain information about home renovations.
Are you nurturing your leads appropriately? Are you sending out targeted drip campaigns? Are your landing pages converting?
What are you doing to improve your Email-Marketing?
The Importance of Negotiating in Real Estate
In Real estate, negotiating is part of everything that salespeople do. Negotiating is perhaps most obvious when we are at an offer presentation. However, we are also negotiating every time we communicate with clients.
For example. working ad callers and sign callers to get appointments and phone numbers, closing the seller for a listing appointment, attempting to get a price reduction, getting the signature on a listing contract, gaining buyer loyalty, persuading buyers to make an offer, and even (believe it or not) co-operating with other sales people are all part of the art of negotiating.
Ultimately, salespeople need to realize that learning this art, and using it to deal with people, is all-important to their closing success.
Here are some negotiating do’s and do not’s to take note of.
Introduction to Google Online Advertising
I have always stressed the importance of being found in Google when clients are searching for real estate in your target market. Although this video training tutorial is lengthy I stress taking the time when you have it to review it. There are some amazing statistics that you will find useful for listing presentation. Stay ahead of your competition. Hope you find this information useful
The Power of Video in Real Estate
In the social media era of business, new potential clients trust peer reviews more than the actual information on your site. The information on your website is for search engines to rank you with when clients are searching. The listings and testimonials you have on your site will earn you the client. These clients are quick to trust what others say about you before they begin to consider what you say about yourself. This leads to the question; “What is the most powerful way to get this message across?”
Video Testimonials
The second largest search engine on the web as we speak is YouTube. This shows you the importance of video marketing and how powerful it is. If you perform a search, some YouTube results come up even before the website results come up. Having video testimonials on your website is a powerful way to let potential leads know that you are a reliable agent and you can get the job done. This also helps people find you quicker based on the keywords you have optimized your videos for.
Another great strategy is to include a link to your website in the description portion of the video so you can drive traffic back to your website depending on how the client stumbled on your video.
Here are some factors to consider when making these video testimonials;
Keep it short!
Research has shown that the online community would typically not watch a video that is longer than 2 minutes. Keep your videos short and straight to the point.
Have Various Clients in the video
It is always better to get multiple clients to do testimonials for you. The more people say good things about you, the more reliable these potential leads perceive you to be. Make sure you highlight in the videos your key qualities and what makes your services unique. Ask your clients targeted questions and use those answers to make your videos.
Optimize
Optimize your videos! Do you have a pool of keywords that you use in your online marketing efforts? Select from those targeted keywords and use them to optimize your videos. The title, description, and tags should have information about you, your location and the type of property you handle.
Your videos should be both creative and informative. The information your video has will get people clicking and watching it but the creativity of your video will get people sharing it.
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Convincing the Seller you can get their house sold.
Here are some pointers you can discuss with your client explaining to them how you intend to get their house sold.
1. MARKET ANALYSIS
- Thoroughly inspect your home and outline all the important features and upgrades.
- Determine the Fair Market Value of your property by doing a detailed written market analysis.
- Provide an estimate of the selling expenses to show your net proceeds.
- Execute a listing agreement authorizing us to market your property.
2. PROPERTY ENHANCEMENT
- Prepare a written home enhancement proposal and budget for your approval.
- Recommend repairs and improvements to sell your property for the highest price. Prepare the most comprehensive home staging report in the real estate industry.
- Schedule and supervise the home enhancement program, with your approval.
- Suggest additional enhancement and repairs based on buyer feedback.
3. HOME MARKETING PLAN
- Prepare and submit accurate information to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
- Schedule a professional photographer to take “perfect” digital photos of your property for the MLS and Internet web sites.
- Engage a professional to draw an accurate floor plan.
- Install a high-security, computerized lock box to facilitate showings (optional).
- Display your home to our sales staff and other agents by hosting a broker caravan.
- Promote your property by networking with other local and out of area sales people and active agents from other companies.
- Create a custom colour photo brochure outlining the key property features.
- Mail photo brochures to the executive offices and human resource departments of San Diego’s top 100 companies.
- Install a for sale sign on your property to generate buyer calls.
- Prepare 1,000 small “listing cards” for you to distribute to your friends and business associates.
- Mail just listed brochures to your neighbors inviting them to the broker caravan.
- Feature your home on the Internet including (your website, your company website and all online portals) plus others.
- Create an enhanced Internet presence on realtor.com with the upgraded service.
- Design a home page on your property features exclusively for your home to give the best Internet presence.
- Produce a video tour to prospective buyers.
4. COMMUNICATION
- Send you a printed copy and a link to the MLS presentation for your approval.
- E-mail you links to all the Internet presentations for your approval.
- Visit your home weekly to check on showings and refill brochures.
- E-mail you direct feedback from other agents on all showings.
- Call or meet with you weekly to report on the activity and review market conditions.
- Provide regular updated written market reports showing the latest market activity.
- Constantly review our marketing strategy and adjust as needed to get your home sold.
5. STRUCTURING THE SALE
- Carefully review and present all offers for your consideration.
- Qualify the prospective buyers to be sure they are able to purchase your property.
- Prepare a strong counter offer to create a solid transaction that will close on time with no surprises.
- Determine an adequate purchase deposit to solidify the transaction.
6. TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT
- Manage all the details of your real estate transaction.
- Arrange for the property inspection, termite and other inspections.
- Supervise any agreed-upon home repairs.
- Oversee the loan approval process to be sure your transaction closes on time.
- Coordinate and supervise the appraisal process to ensure the proper value.
- Order the preliminary title report and review the condition of title.
- Provide updated preliminary closing statements for your review.
- Stay on top of all other matters to be sure your real estate transaction closes on time and is hassle-free.
7. SERVICE AFTER THE SALE
- Arrange for your net proceeds to be wired into your bank account.
- Review the final closing statement for accuracy.
- Give you a CD containing all your real estate transaction documents. This is a valuable reference for the future.
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What should a Real Estate Professional take on a Listing Appointment to Justify Commissions
- What should Real Estate Professionals and Agents take on Listing Appointments?
- Is your Listing presentation worth the commission you are asking?
- What tools do you use?
Gabrielle Jeans, The Real Estate Web Trainer offers advice on what to use during your listing appointments to WOW clients and get the clients to list with you.
How Real Estate Professionals use Pinterest: Just Pin it!
Pinterest for Real Estate Professionals
Pinterest is an online pin board that lets its users share photos and videos of things or people they are interested in or they found online. The verb used to describe this sharing process is called “pinning.” Pinterest also lets you browse other pin boards people have uploaded and it gives you inspiration to create better things. Pinterest is still a growing social network and as other networks, no one can confidently say how long it will be around for. For now, it’s still by invite only and if you would like an invitation; Email me at atim@mm4a.com
Most users on Pinterest pin, re-pin, like and comment on pictures of food, home decor, weddings, clothes etc. This site is said to be used mostly by women although a good number of men still use the site.
Pinterest Terminology
A pin is an image that is added to Pinterest either from a website or by uploading images from your computer. Each pin added from a site links back to the site that it came from through Pinterest thereby driving traffic there.
A re-pin is adding an image you found on Pinterest to your own board. This image that is re-pinned grants the original author credit and still showcases on your own board.
A board is a set of pins and can be created on any topic.
Liking a pin shows your appreciation for the pin and automatically adds it to the like section of your profile.
Following someone or a board on Pinterest means subscribing to the updates of these boards and the owner of these boards. You can choose to subscribe to individual boards people have or choose to subscribe to all the boards and you get updates from all of them.
How does this affect the Real Estate Professional?
It has always been said that women are usually the decision makers when it comes to buying homes in a family. Wouldn’t it be a great strategy to focus your advertising on the decision makers?
Imagine this scenario;
- A family is looking to buy a home in the Richmond Hill area in Toronto.
- You the real estate professional service the Richmond Hill area
- You have just joined Pinterest and you have a few listings in this area.
- You create a few boards for the Richmond Hill area. A board on the listing itself, restaurants, schools, hotspots and the neighbourhood in general.
- The wife of the family is surfing Pinterest and types in the search box “restaurants in Richmond Hill. Your board comes up, she follows your board and sees the other boards you have.
- She sees professional pictures of the listings you have in the Richmond Hill area. She is sold on this listing already even before she contacts the real estate professional to ask to view it. Being that she is the decision maker of the home, she convinces her husband that they must buy that home and you the real estate professional has successfully closed a deal.
This is just an example of a strategy that you can use to market your listings which also means that for the real estate professional, you can no longer use average photos to promote your listings as the powerful photos may be the selling point.
What types of boards can you make?
- Make boards with listings you have–> Upload or pin photos of every room in the house, floor plans, amenities in the building if it is a condo etc.
- Staging board –> Upload or pin photos of staging options
- Achievement board –>Photos with clients that you have closed a deal with during the listing presentation. Also upload or pin photos of clients that you have helped sell their home or bought their home.
- Neighbourhood board–>Upload or pin photos of restaurants, schools, hot spots in your farm area etc.
- Video board–>Pin videos from your YouTube or Vimeo account.
- Personal Interest Boards–>Upload or pin photos or videos of things that you as a person are genuinely interested in. It makes your clients know you are still human and you may be able to bond based on those interests and they would be more comfortable listing with you just because they found a common ground to bond with you on.
Tips
- Make sure to add the “Pin It” button to the bookmark section of your browser so it would be easier for you to pin items from your site or any other site you find information from. Instructions are available once you sign up for a Pinterest account.
- Label your boards for search engine optimization. Boards with listings should have the full address and all your keywords on the photos. The initial photo uploaded to your website or on your computer should also be properly labelled for optimization.
- Re-Pin and follow people so they can do the same for you and re-share your own pins. This is the fastest way to get viral within your network and beyond.
Connect with Gabrielle Jeans, CEO of Webtech Dezine
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Flipping Real Estate: How To Sell New & Pre-Construction Properties Part 24
There are two main things most investors are concerned about with any investment property:
- whether the property will have positive (or at least break even) cashflow on a monthly basis (IE revenue will be at least equal to or greater than total monthly expenses)
- whether the property will appreciate in value substantially over time. Appreciation includes both real financial equity (IE the amount of money paid off the mortgage’s principal) plus market appreciation (IE whether the value of the property increases or decreases over time).
Note that there two types of investors: the “flippers” and the “buy and holders”.
Condo Investors Language: How To Sell New & Pre-Construction Properties Part 23
Why is this? Simply because home investors have completely different wants and needs than normal home buyers, and yet most real estate professionals don’t recognize this and deal with investors in the same way as they’d deal with normal home buyers and sellers. This is an absolutely critical error and is no doubt most of the reason real estate sales reps have had mostly bad relations with would-be investor clients.
Difference between Buyers
Understand the key difference between these two types of buyers. Home buyers and sellers are buying real estate for themselves and their own interests. Real Estate Investors are buying real estate to make money and are acting in the interests of the real estate market. Investors want to buy what the market wants IE what normal home buyers, sellers and renters want. Consequently, everything to do with how you work with investors is very different than how you’d approach normal home buyers are sellers.
This lack of understanding was almost painfully evident in a presentation I recently attended. Continue reading
Real Estate Twitter Training: How to use Twitter in your Real Estate Business
There has been a lot of buzz about Twitter but many real estate professionals do not realize its potential or do not know how to go about using twitter as a marketing tool for their real estate businesses. Twitter is more than just a time-waster as most real estate professionals view it. It is a solid marketing tool and if done consistently with a great content strategy can be a great source of leads and referral clients. Our social media director at Webtech Dezine hosted a brief webinar on Twitter today. The webinar addressed:
- Set-Up
- Twitter Language
- Why you should be tweeting?
- Developing your content strategy
- Area of optimization focus
- Types of content to post
- Twitter Time Budget in your first month
- Additional Tips
The slides from the webinar are available for download here
Condo Marketing: How To Sell New & Pre-Construction Properties Part 22
So early on in the lineup process approach the top few people in the lineup and ask them how many units they anticipate selling. If that number is less than the maximum allowed then ask them if they would allow you and your clients to buy units with them at the sales event so that the number of units they are allowed to sell is maximized. For instance, if they have 2 confirmed buyers, and the limit is 5 buyers, ask them if they will allow you to buy 3 units with them.
You need not necessarily give up a large percentage of the sales commission to the sales rep you are buddying up with. After all, any money they make through you is found money. If you can’t agree on terms with them you can always speak to the next person in line and keep talking to these reps until you can strike a deal everyone is happy with. You can help make life much easier for these people by offering to pay for a substitute to attend some (if not) all future roll calls. Doing that may be enough for the rep to let you piggyback with them! Continue reading
