3 places to find inspiration for your website blog posts

Apr 17, 2019

I hate to sound like a nag, but if you aren’t blogging in 2019–why?

I recently read a blog post directed at real estate agents about various forms of marketing. One of them was blogging and the writer listed the pros and cons:

It is time-consuming or “costly” (if you hire someone to write your posts)
The results aren’t instant: It takes time and a commitment to a strategy to build traffic to your blog.

Neither of these “cons” should be a consideration. In 2019, blogging is non-negotiable. You simply must have a blog on your website. Then, you simply must promote it.

And, by the way, which real estate marketing method is “instant,” I wonder?

So, clear a spot on your daily “to-do” list for either the writing or the hiring of someone else to write your real estate blog posts. Then, take a look at our 3 places to find inspiration to get you going.

By the way, your blog posts don’t all have to be about real estate. In fact, the best agent blogs offer a mix of items of local interest, real estate and homeowner topics. All three offer a ton of opportunities to show your expertise and personality and to engage with potential clients.

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1. Amazon.com

Knowing your audience (what they’re thinking about, their pain points, etc.) is critical to crafting a winning blog post. A brilliant way to find out what’s currently on many homeowner’s minds is by checking the best-selling products on Amazon.com.

For instance, high on the best-selling products list right now is a gadget that keeps hair from going down the shower/tub drain. A post on clogged drains, how to unclog them and prevent them in the future would work well.

Several floor cleaning products make the list, from vacuums to mops. A post on caring for different types of flooring may be interesting to your audience. Or, write about the different types of floors and how they stack up against one another.

It’s spring, so don’t neglect checking out Amazon’s patio and garden category to get a feel for what potential clients are doing around the home’s exterior.

Right now, for instance, their battles seem to be with flying insects, ants and cockroaches. Write a post about DIY Spring Pest Control. You’ll find inspiration at Angieslist.com, FamilyHandyman.com and Clark.com.

To get started, go to Amazon’s best sellers list. On the left side of the page are the various categories you can browse. Home & Kitchen and Patio, Lawn & Garden are two good places to start.to discover what subjects are currently on peoples minds.

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2. National real estate sites

Since you should rotate homeowner-focused blog posts with real estate-related posts, use your current clients’ questions and concerns for blog post topics.

When you get stuck, visit national real estate sites for inspiration. Zillow.com, for instance, offers Porchlight, its consumer-facing blog.

Current topics include many addressed to sellers:

Curb appeal boosters
To-dos before listing
How to negotiate the counteroffer

Check the site’s Tips & Advice section in particular. Redfin has a busy blog as well, and you’ll find endless inspiration for your blogs.

Today I took a spin around it and found posts about the best day to list a home for sale, home staging tips and digital home closings.

3. Local flavor

The most share-worthy posts you will write will be hyper-local and one of the best is published in spring: a guide to local summer camps for kids. No time to research your area’s summer camps? Hire someone to do it for you. Find inexpensive freelance researchers online at Fiverr.com and Upwork.com.

Keeping with the spring/summer theme, and keeping it local, check with your local parks and recreation department to learn about upcoming events.

Then, head to Yelp.com. Find the best eateries that offer patio dining, the best ice cream or fro-yo shops, places where kids eat free or dog friendly restaurants and create a listicle around each one.

Create a perfect Father’s Day scenario, complete with brunch or lunch and his favorite local activity. Or, choose a summer month and show how it’s celebrated locally. For inspiration, check out Anchorage, Alaska’s Unity Home Group blog.

Inspiration for your real estate website’s blog posts is everywhere. All you need to do is get them written, posted and then shared on social media.

Beats cold calling.

Send at least 100 Free Home Market Analysis postcards from the Call to Action Series to an area where you want more listings.

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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 ways we can help you have an INVINCIBLE 2019!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

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Customer service! The best gift you can give your clients & Yourself

Apr 15, 2019

It’s the shortest path to being remembered & referred.

Knife sets, branded bottles of wine or Home Depot gift cards won’t make you memorable to your real estate clients, months or years after closing.

Only brilliant customer service and consistent follow-up can do that. To provide them with the best service, you’ll need to know what they want and need from you and go about providing it.

NAR recently released its 2019 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Report and while it’s heavy on millennial information (as usual), there are tidbits of information that apply well to all generations in the real estate market.

Understand who you’re working with

While it’s challenging to make blanket statements about a group of people based on age, it’s crazy to lump them into the two broad categories of “buyers” and “sellers.”

The NAR report at least gives insight into what the different generations are seeking in an agent and in a home.

Your most likely clients will be millennials and baby boomers (sorry, Gen X). Thirty-seven percent of recent home buyers are millennials and 32 percent were baby boomers. Two completely different sets of real estate consumers with completely different sets of wants and needs.

Millennials choose neighborhoods based on how convenient it is to their jobs. So, it should come as no surprise that commuting costs are a big factor when they search for a home.

Many baby boomers, on the other hand, are buying a home because they’re retiring. Their minds are on saving money as well, and their hot button is energy efficiency. A home that won’t burn through their retirement funds with heating and cooling costs.

These, again, are broad generalizations, but they give you a starting point to understand who you’ll be working with this year.

The initial client consultation is your opportunity to dive deeper into their specific wants and needs. This is true whether they are buying or selling a home.

Send a special thank you to those who matter most (Available in the postcard section under Customer Appreciation Series)

Prepare your clients

Millennials, especially, crave knowledge of the process. However, all buyers can benefit from a thorough buyer or seller consultation. How’s yours?

If it’s done on the fly, lasts about 15 minutes and doesn’t include anything they can physically hold in their hands, you have some work to do.

“The biggest benefit of using a real estate agent during buyers’ home search was the help they provided understanding the process,” according to the new NAR report.

In fact, 60 percent of all buyers surveyed claimed that the biggest benefit of working with an agent was getting help to understand the process.

Ensure that your consultation covers every step in the homebuying process and answers every conceivable question they may have.

Then, create handouts and copy them to the buyers’ section on your website. This might include a Mortgage 101 guide. More examples include explanations of the various government-backed loan mortgage programs or a walkthrough of the appraisal process and what a home inspector does.

The more time you spend with buyers in helping them learn the process, the smoother it will be and the more memorable you become.

Let your clients know you are thinking of them (available in the postcard section under Customer Appreciation Series)

Get your team in place

I once met a waitress who played a game with every customer she served. No, the customers weren’t aware of the game.

She called it “Anticipation,” and the rules were simple. To declare herself the winner for the day, she would need to anticipate what each table of customers needed and wanted. This rule was in place from the time they were seated until they paid the check.

This meant remembering the mint jelly for the guy who ordered lamb, ensuring the bread basket remained full and that there was sufficient butter on the table. Each table had a myriad of small details hat needed attention and if a customer had to ask her for something, she lost the game that day.

You can’t anticipate everything a client needs during the selling or buying process. However, you can fulfill many of them with your preferred vendor list.

If you are new to real estate, these are the professionals you turn to for mortgages, title and escrow, staging, cleaning, movers, repair work and legal advice.

While it’s a bit lengthy you can find a list of the types you may want to consider partnering with at TheRealEstateTrainer.com.

Then, tell your clients that it’s all part of your world-class “concierge service.”

Funny thing about we humans: we vividly remember the bad service we receive. Good service? Not so much. Which is why consistently following up after the transaction is so important.

A subtle reminder of just how awesome you are can get the referrals rolling in.

Send the Thank You as Big as a House postcard from the Customer Appreciation Series to all of your past clients.

Let your past clients know you’re there for them (available in the postcard section under the Customer Appreciation Series)

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!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

2. “Get More Listings” Free Online Webinar

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

Avoid these 3 Listing Video Mistakes

Apr 10, 2019

Did you know that there’s a difference between a video tour and a virtual tour? Indeed, there is.

While both describe a “digital rendition” of something real, think about the many ways we use the word “virtual.”

Virtual assistant
Virtual reality
Virtual storage

None of these include video. So, the first difference between the two involves the very definitions of each.

Then, there is that little issue about who is in control of the home tour. With a video tour, it’s the agent or producer of the video who decides what features of the home will be shown.

In a virtual tour, the viewer has the control, able to virtually walk through the home at his or her leisure, stop, change directions and pause in areas that are interesting.

Which one do you think is of most value to a homebuyer? If you said “virtual tour,” pat yourself on the back. In a NAR survey of homebuyers, 40 percent said they found virtual tours “very useful.

This same survey, by the way (2018 Real Estate in a Digital Age), asked buyers which sources of information they used while home shopping. Mention this study to your sellers, because “online video site” came in last.

Sadly, the opposite is true for sellers. They want a video tour of their home. Until sellers become more educated about the popularity of 3D virtual home tours, such as those via Matterport, home sellers will continue demanding useless and expensive listing videos.

But that hasn’t happened yet. If you’re one of those agents who offers video tours, let’s get you up to speed on how to NOT make the 3 most common video mistakes.

Compel your target market with a Free Report Offer (available in our Free Report section)

Mistake 1 – Going the cheap route

There are two routes you can take when deciding how to produce your listing videos:

Hire a professional videographer
Do it yourself

Both can be expensive (after all, your time is worth something), but the DIY route is probably less expensive.

It’s also probably the least effective. And, if you list luxury properties, DIY listing videos are career killers.

We ran a quick search of various videographer sites and found prices that start at $300 for a very basic video. Most pros tend to charge at least $500.

We all want to save as much of our “paycheck” as possible, but there are expenses in small businesses that can’t be avoided. Marketing and branding are but two and they’re crucial for your success.

Take the leap, hire a professional and write the expense off on your taxes.

Mistake 2 – It’s a listing video, not “War and Peace”

Saying that we humans have dinky attention spans might just be the understatement of the century.

In fact, 56 percent of all videos published in the last year are less than 2 minutes long. Fewer than half of video viewers (46 percent) stick with a video all the way to the end, according to research published by Vidyard.com.

Smart marketers know this, which is why that same report shows that 75 percent of videos produced by businesses in the last year are less than two minutes in length.

Encourage spring selling with a Free Report (available in the Free Report section)

Brevity reigns when it comes to getting someone to press the start button on your videos. Then, you need to engage them immediately. Avoid putting yourself in the frame at the beginning of the video. Head straight to the most compelling aspects of the home.

Mistake 3- Failure to promote your real estate videos

Like any content you create, promotion is the key to success. After you upload your listing video to YouTube, embed it on your website and the home’s dedicated page, if you created one.

Then, start pumping it out via social media (especially Facebook and LinkedIn) and email.

The days when homes practically sell themselves may be coming to an end this year. If you aren’t producing walk-throughs of your listings, you’re not serving your listing clients.

Hire a pro and get the job done right.

Order the “Nine Strategies for up to 17% More” Free Report and offer it in person, through direct mail, email, and add to your website as a free download in exchange for an email address.

Excite sellers and get them calling you (available in the Free Report section)

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 ways we can help you have an INVINCIBLE 2019!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

2. “Get More Listings” Free Online Webinar

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

Earn the Respect You Deserve From Your Clients

Apr 8, 2019

Just curious: Why aren’t you telling your clients what you do for them? Sure, we’ve all seen the memes or infographics that list the tasks agents perform, but do you supply these to each and every client that signs on with you?

Do you outline on your website and in your listing presentations what you actually do for clients? And, no, we aren’t talking “negotiate to get you the best deal,” or “make suggestions on how to get your home ready for the market,” although those items do have a place on the list.

We’re talking a lengthy and impressive list of everything you do to earn the money you’re paid.

It’s truly a pity that this is even a suggestion. Do you wonder what your doctor, lawyer, veterinarian, hair stylist or plumber does to earn the money you pay them?

Apparently, buyers think that all you do is run MLS searches and open doors for them and sellers think your biggest contribution is helping to figure out home value and sticking a sign in the yard.

Unfortunately, the real estate agent’s “respectable profession” has been downgraded to a pastime, according to Justin Fox at Forbes.com.

Unlike other professions, to get the respect you deserve, you’ll need to earn it – to prove your worth.

Sucks, I know.

Provide them insight (available in the postcard section under the Get More Listings Series)

From their mouths to your ears

“With the press of a button, the home was online and buyers began touring the home,” a home seller told Andrea Requier at MarketWatch.com.

“However, my listing agent was not giving the tours, the buyer’s agents were. After the home sold, I realized that my agent did very little to earn his share of (the commission),” he concluded.

Notice how the seller credits both technology and buyers’ agents for the traffic through his home. He doesn’t seem to have a clue that his listing agent is responsible and exactly how much work it took to generate that traffic.

We can place the blame for real estate consumers’ ignorance of your job duties on others, but since so much of what you do is performed behind the scenes, the blame lies with agents.

It’s not enough to tell prospective clients how amazing you are. It’s not enough to list your statistics and to sling a snappy slogan at them.

This is not your parents’ real estate industry

“Emerging technologies and data-driven startups are empowering consumers and fundamentally changing the way they buy and sell properties,” according to Tommy O’Shaughnessy at ListWithClever.com.

“What’s more, discount and nontraditional brokerages are challenging the longstanding reign of the traditional realtor model.”

There are real threats to what we once assumed was a pretty bullet-proof profession. Now is not the time for complacency; not when all of these emerging technologies and alternative brokerages are busy proving their worth to the consumer.

What else real estate consumers don’t get

Interestingly, nearly half of home sellers think the buyer pays their agent’s commission, according to the results of a Clever Real Estate study published in February 2019.

Other interesting tidbits from the study include:

Nearly half of listing clients were unaware that they would be paying the buyer’s agent.
Nearly 40 percent of the survey respondents feel that artificial intelligence technology can sell a home better than a real estate agent.
Millennial home sellers were twice as likely to say that their agent was “unimportant or not important at all in the home-selling process.”

Yikes!

Far too many agents aren’t educating their clients and it’s to the point now where their ignorance of the process and what you do to earn the commission is discounted below that of artificial intelligence.

Provide peace of mind and confidence (available in the postcard section under Get More Listings Series)

It’s time to let them know a few things

To prove your value, start with explaining every last detail of the buying or selling process.

Explain to your buyers what to expect from the mortgage process, from start to finish, including the major players (loan processor, underwriter, etc.) and what duties each performs. This shows your knowledge – stuff they wouldn’t get if they were winging it on their own.

Go over the purchase agreement and all other forms the buyer will be expected to sign, explaining when he or she will receive it, what it means and what happens after it’s submitted.

You’ll naturally want to explain your part in the process as well. Assisting with repair negotiations and stressing the importance of performing the final walk through with a professional at hand are two you don’t want to neglect.

For instance, you might want to explain to a home seller:

“After you sign the listing agreement, I’ll head back to the office and call the sign company to ensure a sign is placed in your yard. I’ll begin the marketing campaign by writing a description of the home for the MLS entry. Then, I’ll …”

Step-by-step, what you do from list to close, or from the time a buyer signs on with you to close.

It should go without saying that you should explain complicated terms. Even some you don’t think are complicated, such as contingency, escrow, earnest money and title search.

A glossary of common real estate terms on your website can streamline this process. Just steer them to the right page.

Speaking of your website, how about creating an infographic outlining all the steps that you take when working with clients and posting it on your site?

So much of what a real estate agent does goes on behind the scenes. How are consumers going to know what you do—the value provided by working with you—if you don’t let them know each and every duty you perform?

Send at least 100 Just Curious About Selling postcards from the Get More Listings Series.

Let them know you’re ready to listen (available in the postcard section under Get More Listings)

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 ways we can help you have an INVINCIBLE 2019!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

2. “Get More Listings” Free Online Webinar

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

Provide a fresh perspective (available in the postcard section under Get More Listings Series)

March Contest Gift Card Winners!

Contests

Apr 3, 2019

1.Congratulations Haeyoon Jacobus on winning our 1st Prize $250 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card!

Haeyoon shares the following experiences with ProspectsPLUS!

“I can’t wait to see the results of the Market Dominator System I’m using with my co-advertiser. I am also using postcards to market to my neighborhood. I’ve had a great ROI!

I love the easy, breezy process and the great customer service! I’ve dropped all of my other postcard marketing companies.

ProspectsPLUS! is the one for me!

Haeyoon’s Latest Marketing Pieces Include – the Market Dominator & Neighborhood Specialist Flyer.

2. Congratulations Sue Wise on winning the 2nd Prize $100 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card

Sue shares the following experience with ProspectsPLUS!

“ProspectsPLUS! postcard mailings are an easy way to reach clients”.

Sue’s Latest Marketing Pieces Include – The FSBO Door Hanger & The Fence Sitter postcard.

We understand why Sue likes door hangers, they’re the ideal tool for branding yourself as the neighborhood expert.

In addition, they catch attention, provide the perfect reason for canvassing, and are an easy and effective leave behind. It looks like Sue’s last door hanger choice (below) was meant to target FSBOs.

FSBO Door Hanger, Fence Sitter postcards

Take the lead from Haeyoon and Sue and send at least 100 marketing newsletters and/or postcards to an area where you want more buyers or sellers!

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!

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1. Amazon.com

2. National real estate sites

3. Local flavor

Send at least 100 Free Home Market Analysis postcards from the Call to Action Series to an area where you want more listings.

It’s the shortest path to being remembered & referred.

Understand who you’re working with

Prepare your clients

Get your team in place

Send the Thank You as Big as a House postcard from the Customer Appreciation Series to all of your past clients.

Did you know that there’s a difference between a video tour and a virtual tour? Indeed, there is.

Mistake 1 – Going the cheap route

Mistake 2 – It’s a listing video, not “War and Peace”

Mistake 3- Failure to promote your real estate videos

Order the “Nine Strategies for up to 17% More” Free Report and offer it in person, through direct mail, email, and add to your website as a free download in exchange for an email address.

From their mouths to your ears

What else real estate consumers don’t get

It’s time to let them know a few things

For instance, you might want to explain to a home seller:

Send at least 100 Just Curious About Selling postcards from the Get More Listings Series.

1.Congratulations Haeyoon Jacobus on winning our 1st Prize $250 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card!

2. Congratulations Sue Wise on winning the 2nd Prize $100 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card

Our Real Estate Experts