Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!
A couple of years ago, I read an article about a woman in St. Paul, Minnesota who, for 15 years, had led exercise classes twice a week.
Why this caught my interest is that this woman, Loretta Taggart, was 100 years old, which means she began her exercise-training career at age 85.
Taggart chalked up her longevity and stamina to three things: “Moderation, attitude, gratitude … that’s it,” according to KARE-TV’s Jana Shortal.
The Big Thanks postcard is available in the postcard section under the Customer Appreciation Series.
Since we’re approaching Thanksgiving, this is the perfect time to discuss the many benefits of gratitude.
Gratitude and the soul
An attitude of gratitude doesn’t often happen naturally; it’s something that may require conscious practice. But, the practice is well worth the results, according to researchers at the Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley.
“People who practice gratitude report fewer symptoms of illness, including depression, more optimism, and happiness, stronger relationships, more generous behavior . . .”
This increased happiness leads to more success in life, they continue.
Which flies in the face of most of our beliefs. Starting at a young age, most people believe that they’ll reach a state of happiness once they’re successful.
Turns out, that’s backward. Living a life of gratitude is the first and most critical step to success and happiness. In fact, the roadmap to success involves three steps, according to the researchers:
Step one: Gratitude
Step two: Happiness
Step three: Success
Other perks inherent in an attitude of gratitude include an increase in “financial patience,” according to a study cited in the journal Psychological Science.
Why is this important to real estate agents?
Think about how many in your ranks fail to reach out to those in their database. Instead, in their pursuit of “now business,” they chase after new leads. This, despite clear evidence that real estate consumers are ready and willing to work with the agent they used in the past.
It’s that old “immediate gratification” thing. The one thing that makes us spend too much, smoke too much, eat too much.
The Thank You postcard is available in the postcard section under the Customer Appreciation Series.
Anyway, back to the study. Researchers learned that the amount of gratitude felt is in direct correlation to the degree of patience one exhibits.
How to get that powerful gratitude juice?
Ok, without getting too “woo-woo” on you, cultivating an attitude of gratitude starts with counting your blessings.
Every day.
Start a “gratitude journal” to help you out, jotting down those little blessings that made you feel grateful.
Apparently, just the act of journaling your appreciation for the small blessings in your life will help build happiness, according to psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky.
Her research shows that journaling just once a week (for six weeks) is ideal and that “people who wrote three times a week” didn’t experience a similar boost in happiness.
Don’t just create lists in your journal. Give some thought to how your life would look and feel without a particular person or event that makes you feel grateful and then journal about it in detail.
“Try to record events that were unexpected or surprising, as these tend to elicit stronger levels of gratitude,” they suggest.
Even nasty surprises, however, may offer a valuable lesson or insight; something to definitely be thankful about.
Real estate agents may find that free time with their families, new clients, a colleague that goes out of her way to help or a challenging transaction that met with success ends up in their journals.
The peaceful calm you feel when petting your dog, the love that surges when you hear your child’s laughter, a warm smile from a total stranger – these are also things to consider if they make you feel grateful.
Use tech to help you out
If you prefer using a pen and a bound journal, by all means, go for it.
If, on the other hand, you prefer tech, we’ve rounded up some journaling apps to make the task a little easier.
The Thinking of You postcard is available in the postcard section under the Customer Appreciation Series.
This year, as always, we’re grateful for you. Thank you!
Send the Thinking of You postcard from the Customer Appreciation Series to all of your past clients. Let them know you’re thinking of them and here to help with anything they may need.
Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!
PLUS: When you have time…here are Free killer tools to help your success this year!
1. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Planner – NEW 2020!
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here
2. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan – NEW 2020!
Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here
3. Get the ALL-NEW Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”
The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted mailing list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here
4. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
5. The Free Online ROI Calculator
Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here
What a year, right? With 2019 pretty much in the rearview mirror, the experts are whipping out their crystal balls to prognosticate what we can expect from the 2020 real estate market.
The only problem is that the future seems foggy to most of them
On a national level, “The housing market is in the midst of a normalization period, one that is characterized by slowing price growth, moderate sales and new supply that is slow to market,” Ralph McLaughlin, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic, according to Suzanne Da Vita at RisMedia.com.
“Hey, that doesn’t describe my market!” we hear ya’all yelling.
And, for good reason. The “location” 3x thing isn’t just a mantra but a rule when it comes to discussing the real estate market. It’s the hyper local that matters to the ones asking the questions.
Then there’s the fact that home prices have slowed their upward trajectory, “but could potentially resurge, as demand picks up,” claims Da Vita. Notice the hedging of the bets there.
Another guy says we’re approaching the “end of the cycle,” but he doesn’t foresee a collapse or even a strong correction.
See what we mean by “fog” in the crystal ball? It’s more of a looking glass in many ways.
The Too Much House postcard is available in the postcard section under the Life Events Series.
So, regardless of whether the economy contracts (no surprise there; we’re overdue), the yield curve inverts or the real estate market corrects, who will you be working within 2020?
That depends
Your 2020 listing clients will, hopefully, come as a result of your 2018 and 2019 marketing efforts.
Who was your target? Aside from buyers and sellers in general, if you leaned more toward one than the other with your 2019 marketing efforts, concentrate on that group now until spring.
The same goes for the agent pursuing referrals from past clients and their sphere, those with a specific niche and agents who farm.
Looking for listings?
If it’s potential sellers you’ve been pushing down the sales funnel (with consistency, we hope), 2020 may be the year a lot of them pop out of the bottom (one can only hope, right?)
NAR studies find that the average age of a home seller is about 45 (a 25 percent share of the seller pool).
“Sellers age 64 to 72 made up the second-largest share of sellers at 22 percent with a median age of 68,” according to the 2019 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends report.
Baby boomers are aging out of homeownership in increasing numbers, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the share of older sellers increase in 2020.
Whether the move is to senior living communities, managed care or a desire to downsize or be nearer to the grandkids, many of your potential sellers in 2020 will likely be in the 65 and older age group.
The Watch Out For Instant Offers postcard is available in the postcard section under the iBuer Series.
Since the majority of real estate agents are in (or very close to) baby boomer age, you’ll have no problem appealing to them. If you’re younger, read up on generating baby boomer real estate leads and how to work with them.
Don’t let iBuyers woo your seller leads
After a lifetime of living in the same home, the thought of the work required to prepare the home for the market may be daunting, so many would-be sellers are getting letters from iBuyer companies on a weekly basis.
Steer them from these disrupters by letting them know that:
They’ll lose a pretty significant chunk of their equity. “In all, the typical cost to a seller [using an iBuyer] appears to be in the range of 13% to 15% depending on the iBuyer vendor,” according to research by Collateral Analytics.
You may also want to debunk the iBuyer claim that selling with them is quicker. Last year, it took 64 days, from listing to close (national median) to sell a home with a broker (probably quicker in 2019).
Most iBuyers promise that the longest their process will take is 70 days
It’s also time to remind potential sellers that inventory is still squeaky tight and demand high and they should strike now, while interest rates are still attractive to homebuyers.
Let them know that some housing industry experts believe that the market will shift away from seller-favorable to a more beneficial buyers’ market sometime later in 2020.
“We anticipate 2020 to continue to shift away from a seller’s market, especially if GDP slows and inventory ticks up,” McLaughlin says.
Urgency – that’s the ticket
Now is the best time to go through your CRM and pick out your seller leads in the older demographic. Drip on them from now until spring, with valuable and urgent information on selling.
Don’t discount the Gen X upsizer
Remember that the average age of a home seller is 45, putting that group in gen X (age between 44 and 55 in 2020).
This group of around 62 million made up the largest group of sellers last year and 60 percent of them were looking to upsize, according to a Value Insured study.
Many of these folks are still raising families, believe it or not. The Pew Research Center finds that “In 2014, 80% of women ages 40 to 44 with a Ph.D. or professional degree had given birth.”
Meaning those highly educated moms have 6-year olds. But having little ones in the home isn’t the only reason this cohort is looking to sell and buy a home.
Members of Gen X make up the largest pool of larger and multi-generational homebuyers. More than half of them did so to accommodate adult kids who are moving back in with Mom and Dad, according to NAR.
The Best Time postcard is available in the postcard section under the Get More Listing Series.
No, we haven’t neglected our ProspectsPLUS! buyer agents. We’ll have a rundown of what you can expect in 2020 soon.
Send at least 100 The Best Time is Now postcard from the Get More Listing Series to an area where you want more listings.
Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list toolto create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!
PLUS: When you have time…here are Free killer tools to help your success this year!
1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
2. “Get More Listings” Free Online Webinar
“Get MORE Listings & Begin to Dominate Your Market!” Free online webinar. Learn the 3-7-27 strategy for explosive growth, why 95% of agents have less than 20% market share, and how to become the agent everyone competes against. – Click Here
3. Get the ALL-NEW Real Estate Marketing Guide “Crush It”
The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted mailing list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here
4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan
Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here
5. The Free Online ROI Calculator
Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here
There’s a lot to do when those shiny new real estate boots hit the ground. While your head was pumped full of real estate law and the know-how necessary to tell clients the number of square feet in an acre, you still have so much to learn.
While that’s happening, however, and unless you’re fortunate enough to have a stack of money to tide you over until your first deal closes, you’ll need to also be marketing the you-know-what out of yourself.
Your business isn’t going to start itself, so while you’re learning how to do an agent walk-through and about the intricacies of the listing agreement, consider creating even a rudimentary marketing plan.
The Looking For Advice postcard is available in the postcard section under the Get More Listings Series
And, since it’s free (unless and until you start buying ads), Facebook should be at the top of the list.
Already on Facebook?
If you already use Facebook for its social aspect, hold that thought (the “social aspect” one). You’ll want to get the word out to your Facebook friends that you’re in real estate now and you’ll need to continue to remind them during the first year or so.
In reality, you’ll be reminding them as long as you’re in real estate, but it’s critical to do so now.
But, do it subtly. Don’t be that obnoxious agent who starts seeing his or her social media friends as dollar signs.
Tell them how excited you are overpassing your exam and that you’re going to hang your license with a broker who promises to be behind you, guiding you through your first few deals. You’ll also need to increase the number of followers you have and to do that you’ll need to increase engagement.
The folks at Facebook even prioritize posts that encourage engagement; posts that “spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people.”
“Oh, goody,” we hear you saying, “yet one more time suck in an already-overfilled schedule.”
Just promise yourself you won’t post spammy stuff – that you’ll start using Facebook to help get your business off the ground by thinking before hitting the “share” button.
The Should I Stay or Go postcard is available in the postcard section under the Get More Listings Series
When you’re done beefing up your personal page, it’s time to create a business page and our friends at Facebook walk you through the process, here.
It can be painful
Posting routinely to Facebook without receiving feedback from our audience is beyond painful. It’s borderline humiliating as well.
You can avoid common mistakes by changing your goal. Instead of considering Facebook as a lead generating or open-house-attendance-generating platform, change your mindset to make your goal “follower engagement.”
Sort of like how you looked at it before you got into real estate.
When you do this, you’ll naturally start thinking of content to post “that your audience will care about and react to,” according to the Forbes Communications Council at Forbes.com.
In the beginning, you’ll be forgiven
You’ll soon learn that sellers expect all kinds of things that we feel are pretty lame marketing methods. Open houses, videos and, yeah, sharing their listing and open house on social media.
Plus, there’s that little voice inside that will be screaming at you – reminding you how bad you need that commission check and the urge will strike you to plaster that listing everywhere possible.
So, go ahead and post that first, second and even third listing. Show people, you’re getting business but then move back to being social.
As you get busier, consider more creative ways of sharing listings. One agent we know used to create a contest out of his new listings, asking his followers to guess the list price. He gave a small prize to the reader who got the closest to the price.
Or, consider setting up another page for your listings (and to satisfy your sellers) and reserve your current page for engaging with your followers.
Don’t be selfish — spread the love
It’s not enough to come up with brilliant Facebook post ideas; engagement with others is key. It goes without saying that you should respond to anyone who leaves a comment. The next step is to visit their pages and interact (charmingly) with their content.
The Need a Nudge postcard is available in the postcard section under the Get More Listings Series
To get value from social media you have to provide value. It’s not a set-it and forget-it marketing method; it requires effort, time and, sometimes money to successfully generate real estate leads on social media.
Send at least 100 Need a Nudge postcards from the Get More Listings Series to an area where you want more listings.
Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list toolto create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!
PLUS: When you have time…here are Free killer tools to help your success this year!
1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
2. “Get More Listings” Free Online Webinar
“Get MORE Listings & Begin to Dominate Your Market!” Free online webinar. Learn the 3-7-27 strategy for explosive growth, why 95% of agents have less than 20% market share, and how to become the agent everyone competes against. – Click Here
3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here
4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan
Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here
5. The Free Online ROI Calculator
Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here
