marketing strategies

What Makes You Different From Other Real Estate Agents?

Sep 28, 2021

Have you ever puzzled over what value you offer potential and existing clients that no other agent (or few others) offer?

Or, do you bundle up the same service as every other agent in town in the hope that it will be enough to prove to consumers why you deserve their business?

Determining your “unique value proposition,” or UVP for short, is critical, especially if you work in a market saturated with other real estate agents.

Quick explainer for newbies

A UVP “… is a concise, straight-to-the-point statement about the benefits you offer customers,” according to Solomon Thimothy at inc.com. “In other words, it’s an explanation of what makes you different,” he concludes.

It sets you apart from other agents. “It’s the promise you make to your customers and clients to deliver a unique experience, claims Tony Khuon at agilelifestyle.com.

So how do I come up with this UVP?

Think about what you can offer that few other agents do. If you’re a veteran, brush up on the VA home loan. Your UVP is that you are uniquely qualified to work with veterans.

If you’re an ace marketer or come from a marketing background you no doubt offer creative marketing solutions to home sellers. Solutions other agents can’t match. That’s an amazing UVP.

While many agents have started offering free services to their listing clients, the number still remains small. Stand out from the crowd by offering one or more of the following:

Free staging
Free housecleaning
Free curb appeal consultation
Free handyperson services (such as two hours of services, or something similar)

Yes, the thought of paying for these services is uncomfortable, but homeowners value these and, therefore, they make a dandy UVP.

Two more “services” that consumers find attractive are discounting your commission or giving a portion of your commission back to the community.

You don’t need to spend money, however, for what you offer to be considered valuable. “Homes I list sell for an average of 3% or more above list price.”

If true, that’s a pretty compelling UVP.

Remember to add your unique service to all of your marketing as a powerful call to action.

FARM, **Call to Action Series** Postcard Campaign shown above

Keep it simple and human

Your UVP needs to be simple, both in length and in word choice. Here’s an example of what not to do:

We are “… a dominant online presence with a combination of innovative marketing and strategic outreach. Cutting-edge lead capture and unique tracking URL’s ensure exposure and buyer retention.”

Put yourself in the shoes of a consumer reading this UVP on the group’s website.

What is “lead capture?” And “cutting edge” these terms have become absolute turn-offs. Tracking URL’s? Buyer retention? Where is the part of the UVP that allows the reader to clearly understand the value this team offers?

Then, ironically, this same UVP shows up on seven other real estate websites. Seven agents trying to prove what makes them different share a UVP with seven other brokerages.

Here’s another that we found. “Our astute team creates a plethora of assets unique to your home.”

Aside from dumping the words “astute” and “plethora,” this real estate team needs to describe exactly what “assets” they will “create.”

If you can save consumers money on their real estate deal, make the process easier or make it quicker, you’ve got yourself the makings of a UVP that will attract real estate clients.

Did you know our Holiday Scheduled Campaign is currently on sale 10% OFF the first month?

Farm, *Holiday* Scheduled Campaign is shown above. Learn more, **HERE**

TO LAUNCH A HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN:

Hit “CLICK HERE”, below (from a desktop or laptop computer).

USE PROMO CODE: HOLIDAY10 to get 10% Off at check out.

And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before it goes out). This sale expires on 10/02/21.

Launch a Holiday Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 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

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here

3. The Automated Way to Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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The Real Estate Mailing List Guide outlines the top tools for generating targeted prospecting lists including Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Investors, Lifestyle Interests, High-Income Renters, Move-Up Markets, and more. The Guide also defines done-for-you marketing campaigns to match these markets. –Click Here

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

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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

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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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

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

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The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted prospect list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here

This Week’s ProspectsPLUS! $120 Gift Card Winner (Sept. 24TH)

Sep 24, 2021

Shown above: Postcards from various Just Sold Series and Donna Perri’s Just Sold postcard. See more Just Sold postcards HERE

Congratulations, Donna Perri you are the winner of this week’s $120 gift card!

Donna had the following words to say about her success after sending a Just Listed postcard through ProspectsPLUS!,

“I send these postcards to a 3-5 mi radius of each and every sale. They pay for themselves over and over. I have gotten five listings in six months from ProspectsPLUS!. I will continue using them in my marketing plan for sure. It makes farming easy and effective.”

– Donna Perri

Thank you, Donna! You are a real estate rock star! Keep it up!

NEW CONTEST STARTS NOW: Get the FIRST MONTH of Any Scheduled Campaign For FREE! ($120 value)

FARM, *Call to Action Series* Scheduled Campaign shown above. Learn more, HERE

Enter this week’s contest for a chance to win a $120 gift card covering the first month of ANY Scheduled Campaign.

The scheduled campaign includes 150 jumbo-sized postcards, sent standard postage (excluding data and tax. Includes only the first month free of a new campaign).

HOW TO ENTER: Just leave a review regarding how using marketing from ProspectsPLUS! has impacted your business, and you’re automatically entered into our next contest.

Mention a “scheduled campaign you’ve launched” in your review and your entry into the contest is doubled.

Leave a review on Google, HERE.

Leave a review on Facebook, HERE.

Don’t forget to watch out for next Friday’s email announcing the weekly winner!

**Ready to Schedule an SOI, Farm, Get More Listing, Holiday or Absentee Owner Campaign?**

*Holiday* Scheduled Campaign shown above, learn more HERE

Launch a Scheduled Campaign today and save time on your marketing by automating it!

You Can Launch a Scheduled Campaign to any of the following Markets in Just Minutes:

Sphere of Influence
Geographic Farm
Just Sold Follow-up
Holiday
Renters
Absentee Owners
Expireds
FSBOs
Fence Sitters*
Get More Listings*
Empty Nesters*
Move-Up Market*

(*Located under Farm Campaigns)

And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before mailing goes out. The price shown at check out is per mailing, not campaign total).

TO GET STARTED:

STEP 1: Create your prospect list using our mailing list tools, HERE.

STEP 2: Then, once you have your list, choose your Campaign, select your start date, and add your list, HERE or hit “Launch a Scheduled Campaign”, below.

Launch a Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you in your success.

Stop Struggling to Get Listings! Put Your Focus HERE Instead

Sep 22, 2021

So, what methods are you using to get listing leads? Cold calls? Pursuing FSBOs and Expireds? Throwing random methods against the wall to see what sticks?

If you’re like many other agents, employing one of those methods is how you spend a good portion of your workday.

There is another, way to go and it includes hanging out with people who know, like, and trust you.

Maybe it’s time to concentrate on SOI marketing for real estate.

That advice you got as a rookie to depend on the people in your sphere for business was spot on and remains so to this day.

If you’ve been running your business intelligently, you have a CRM full of warm leads to which you can make warm calls.

All the time and energy convincing a stranger to like and trust you is better spent tending to your sphere of influence, nurturing the amazing possibilities in your CRM.

The *SOI, Inspiration Series* Scheduled Campaign is shown above. Learn more **HERE**

For the newbies

The term “sphere of influence” didn’t originate as a sales term, but a political one. It first popped up in the late 1880s and it described a country that exercised “… exclusive or predominant control over a foreign area or territory,” according to britannica.com.

Today, the term is applied to a “business model” in which the aim is to attract customers and clients from people one knows instead of strangers.

Yes, it can be a terribly long list. It should include relatives, friends, friends of friends, the parents of your children’s friends, your parent’s friends and more.

Everyone you know. That is a lot of prospects.

These are people who will recognize your name on a direct mail piece and who won’t hang up on you when you call.

What can happen when you focus solely on your SOI?

Year after year, the NAR reports that home sellers sign up with the first agent they speak with. There are most likely a number of reasons that they do so but, primarily it’s because they forgot which agent sold them their home.

I recently read a blog post and, I apologize because I can’t remember who authored it and the website on which it appears.

In it, the author mentioned a real estate team whose coach advised them to focus on growing their SOI.

At the time, their CRM contained around 280 members of the team’s SOI. Within four years after heeding their coach’s advice, the team’s revenue skyrocket from zero to nearly $100 million.

It’s inspiring, isn’t it?

Like most lead generation methods, this won’t make you an overnight sensation. But if you’d prefer doing business with people you know, making warm calls instead of cold, it just may be the perfect way to generate listing leads.

Another way to grab your audience’s attention and keep it is with a Fence Sitters Campaign.

The Fence Sitters Scheduled Campaign is currently on sale for 10% OFF the first month – 3 More Days!

Fence Sitters Scheduled Campaign (shown above). Learn more, HERE

TO LAUNCH A FENCE SITTERS CAMPAIGN:

Hit “CLICK HERE”, below, to schedule your campaign (from a desktop or laptop computer) and select the Fence Sitter Series.

USE PROMO CODE: FENCE10 to get 10% Off at check out.

And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before it goes out). This sale expires 9/25/21.

Launch a Fence Sitters Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

3. The Automated Way to Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

This Week’s ProspectsPLUS! $120 Gift Card Winner (Sept. 17th)

Sep 17, 2021

Shown above: Postcards from various Just Listed/Just Sold Series and Anita Blue’s postcard. See more Just Listed postcards HERE

Congratulations, Anita Blue you are the winner of this week’s $120 gift card!

Anita had the following words to say about her success after sending a Just Listed postcard through ProspectsPLUS!,

“ProspectsPLUS! not only has a variety of postcards to choose from, they also deliver my postcards in a timely manner. It makes farming easy and effective.”
– Anita Blue

Thank you, Anita, for your supportive feedback. We are cheering you on!

NEW CONTEST STARTS NOW: Get the FIRST MONTH of Any Scheduled Campaign For FREE! ($120 value)

Enter this week’s contest for a chance to win a $120 gift card covering the first month of ANY Scheduled Campaign.

The scheduled campaign includes 150 jumbo-sized postcards, sent standard postage (excluding data and tax. Includes only the first month free of a new campaign).

HOW TO ENTER: Just leave a review regarding how using marketing from ProspectsPLUS! has impacted your business, and you’re automatically entered into our next contest.

Mention a “scheduled campaign you’ve launched” in your review and your entry into the contest is doubled.

Leave a review on Google, HERE.

Leave a review on Facebook, HERE.

Don’t forget to watch out for next Friday’s email announcing the weekly winner!

**Ready to Schedule an SOI, Farm, Get More Listing, Holiday or Absentee Owner Campaign?**

*Just Sold Follow-up* Scheduled Campaign shown above, learn more HERE

Launch a Scheduled Campaign today and save time on your marketing by automating it!

You Can Launch a Scheduled Campaign to any of the following Markets in Just Minutes:

Sphere of Influence
Geographic Farm
Just Sold Follow-up
Holiday
Renters
Absentee Owners
Expireds
FSBOs
Fence Sitters*
Get More Listings*
Empty Nesters*
Move-Up Market*

(*Located under Farm Campaigns)

TO GET STARTED:

STEP 1: Create your prospect list using our mailing list tools, HERE.

STEP 2: Then, once you have your list, choose your Campaign, select your start date, and add your list, HERE or hit “Launch a Scheduled Campaign”, below.

Launch a Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you in your success.

Get More Listings by Offering the Seller Services That MATTER MOST

Sep 16, 2021

Most real estate agents know that staged homes sell faster and for more money. Some, however, go beyond merely suggesting staging to their listing clients.

Rather than lay the burden of staging on their clients, these agents bring in a staging team, at no expense to the homeowner.

What seller services do you offer? Does that list on your real estate website include the usual?

“Complimentary home value analysis!”
“Open Houses & Broker Tours”
“Your home will be entered into the MLS”
“Your home will be featured on our website”
“Place a distinctive [name of brokerage] for-sale sign on the property”
“Active promotion to my expansive network”
“I will bring the buyers to you” (for more information on how to do this by becoming a Market Maker, watch this video)

These are actual “Seller Services” offered by agents on their websites.

If you are tired of not getting the listing and want to truly offer value, thereby standing apart from the crowd, it’s time to change things up. Read on for some tips.

Complimentary Pre-Sale Home Inspection

As you know, when a problem is unearthed by the inspector, the entire transaction is at risk.

Why not be proactive and head off as many challenges as possible before putting the home on the market? Offer your listing clients a free, pre-market home inspection.

Yes, some agents balk at the idea, claiming that the inspection now becomes a disclosure item. And that’s true.

The flipside to this is that the items on the pre-sale inspection list will most likely show up on the buyer’s inspection report as well.

A pre-market inspection allows the homeowner to make the repairs that the lender or buyer will most likely demand.

If for some reason your client can’t or won’t make repairs, you’ll have the time to determine upfront how to deal with repair requests and to have that heart-to-heart about lowering the asking price.

Professional Photography

I don’t need to tell you that there are far too many agents out there who are still snapping listing photos on their smartphones.

Since the first showing of a home typically happens online, it needs to be ultra-compelling.

We know many successful agents who have left the old ways behind and offer the services of a professional photographer to snap the marketing photos. Yet, that service isn’t listed on any of the websites we researched for this blog post.

Virtual Tours

Over the past few months, the popularity of 3D tours has outpaced other types of virtual tours, including video.

In fact, a recent study by the NAR claims that “Consumers Strongly Prefer Listings With 3D Tours.” Here are a few other things you should know about virtual tours:

“About 55% of survey respondents say they’d even consider buying a property sight unseen if there was a 3D tour available in the online listing.” (NAR)
Agents who use 3D tours in their marketing of listings sell them 20% quicker and for 9% more than agents who don’t use them. (Matterport survey)
Almost 80% of real estate consumers say they would switch to a real estate agent who offers 3D tours of homes for sale [Matterport survey]

Consumers are demanding more than a video of a home’s interior. They want the ability to virtually tour homes without someone else deciding what they can and cannot view.

If other agents in your market offer this service and you don’t, the chances are pretty good that you won’t get the listing.

Do yourself a favor and earmark some marketing dollars for at least one, true, seller service before the end of this year.

Another way to grab your audience’s attention and keep it is with a Get More Listings Campaign.

The Get More Listings Scheduled Campaign is currently on sale for 10% OFF the first month – 3 More Days!

Get More Listings Scheduled Campaign (shown above). Learn more, HERE

TO LAUNCH A GET MORE LISTINGS CAMPAIGN:

Hit “CLICK HERE”, below, to schedule your campaign (from a desktop or laptop computer).

USE PROMO CODE: LIST10 to get 10% Off at check out.

And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before it goes out). This sale expires 9/18/21.

Launch a Get More Listings Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

3. The Automated Way to Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

Unleash the Power of the Real Estate Postcard the RIGHT Way

Sep 14, 2021

Ah, the humble postcard. So simple, yet filled with so much power.

For a time, it appeared that the selfie would replace the non-business postcard, but recent statistics say no.

In fact, in the recent Harris Poll Essential 100, Americans named the U.S. Postal Service as the number one most essential business’ in the country.

Never has this been more evident than in the real estate industry, which is seeing a resurgence in the use of “time-tested” marketing methods and direct mail is at the top of this list.

A late April Valassis survey found that 30% of consumers are spending more time reading the direct mail marketing pieces they receive.

There is an art to creating an effective postcard marketing campaign, though.

No, it’s not difficult, but there are certain strategies that work better than others. Let’s take a look at the most important of these.

It all starts with your audience

A Scheduled SOI Campaign is ideal for keeping in touch with your past clients and other VIPs in your sphere. And, ProspectsPLUS! offers a 3 extra closing guarantee when you Schedule a one-year SOI Campaign.

Postcards are also ideal for another type of lead generation – niche marketing. Decide on who it is you want to attract, buyers or sellers, and more specifically which niche of buyers and sellers, and launch a campaign.

The narrowing down of possible leads to focus on helps the rest of your marketing plan go more smoothly and increases your potential ROI.

If you’re looking for listings, find out the median duration of homeownership in your area. ATTOM Data Solutions’ most recent U.S. Home Sales Report shows that homeowners owned their homes an average of 7.95 years.

As we know, all real estate is local, so if you can find the data for your area, rely on that instead of the national numbers.

For instance, ATTOM also finds that homeowners in five Connecticut cities have the longest tenure, while those “… in Colorado Springs, CO … Oklahoma City, OK … Grand Rapids, MI …Denver, CO … and Minneapolis, MN had the shortest.

The Absentee Owner Campaign is shown above. Learn more **HERE**

This information helps you narrow your mailing list even further. You’re now looking for homeowners who purchased their homes at least six years ago (or whatever number is appropriate for your market).

How far back should you go?

“If someone bought last year or 30 years ago, they’re probably not looking to sell,” according to James McGrath, co-founder at Yoreevo in NYC.

“You want to be in that sweet spot of owners of 5-7 years,” he concludes.

The more you drill down in demographics, tenure, and the like with tools like the Demographic Search Tool (for niche marketing) and MapMyMail (for radial and pinpoint polygon lists), the more targeted the list and the better the response will be to your real estate direct mail campaign.

Absentee owners have been a popular target market this year. A targeted list of absentee owners in your local market can be easily created with the MapMyMail search tool (just select the “absentee owner” radio button in step 2).

We offer a number of brilliant Absentee Owner postcards as well. Make your marketing easy by scheduling an automated Absentee Owner Campaign.

Prefer targeting buyers?

Why not bring YOUR OWN buyer to the table. NAR states home buyers move within 15 miles of their last location. This means there’s a good chance your farm’s home buyers are renters located in the same area.

Geographic farming in some of the most popular apartment and condo complexes in your market is a good place to start. Narrow the search to tenants between the ages of 30 and 49. You might also want to narrow your target audience further, according to income.

Then create a targeted renter prospect list and launch a Rent By Numbers Campaign.

Ready to launch a targeted direct mail campaign?

Did you know our Farm, Get More Listings Scheduled Campaigns are currently on sale 10% OFF the first month?

Farm, *Get More Listings* Scheduled Campaign is shown above. Learn more, **HERE**

TO LAUNCH A GET MORE LISTINGS CAMPAIGN:

Hit “CLICK HERE”, below (from a desktop or laptop computer) and choose the Get More Listings Series of postcards.

USE PROMO CODE: LIST10 to get 10% Off at check out.

And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before it goes out). This sale expires on 9/18/21.

Launch a Get More Listings Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

3. The Automated Way to Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

Two Common Real Estate Objections and How You Can Overcome Them

Sep 8, 2021

Don’t be surprised if, at least at the beginning of a new client relationship, you’re treated with skepticism and mistrust.

This is specifically true during uncertain times.

Building trust is a barrier that must be scaled for every agent when developing a new client relationship.

And, even after you’ve won them over, there are plenty of new objections you may have to overcome.

Objection Handling Brochure, *Pitfalls of Overpricing*

The following are two of the biggies you might encounter that prevent consumers from moving forward, specifically during a pandemic.

The commission negotiator

Agent commissions are the most common area of negotiation, specifically during a time when market stability is uncertain.

First, most consumers know that, by law, commissions are negotiable. What they don’t typically know is that you don’t pocket the entire commission. So your first objective is to educate them. Use numbers they can relate to in your example.

“Joe, suppose I earned $20 in commission. Half of that, $10, right off the top goes to the broker whose agent brought in the buyer for your home. The other $10 goes to my broker who then pays me my share, $5.”

If all else fails, fall back on a time-tested commission objection handling technique:

“Sure, Joe, you may well find another agent who is willing to cut her commission right now. But, ask yourself: If she can’t negotiate with you over keeping her earnings, how can you expect her to negotiate with the buyer when it comes to you getting the highest price possible? If she can’t convince you she is worth her full commission, she can’t very well convince anyone of anything”

The market challenged

Objection Handling Brochure, *Timing is Everything*

Then there are the consumers who have a misunderstanding of what’s happening in the market and how it might affect them. “We’d love to sell and buy another home, but prices are too unstable right now.” In the current housing market, you may be hearing this objection frequently. The alternative to this one is “We’ve decided to wait until the market gets better.”

Either way, if the market truly is conducive to selling and/or buying, crunch the numbers for them.

In the current market, most sellers will still get what they want for their homes. It’s the buy-side they’re concerned about.

What they’re often overlooking are two very important factors:

They have loads of equity right now
Mortgage rates are at all-time lows

Combine the equity with the savings from low mortgage rates and you most likely have a situation where they can afford to buy a replacement home.

The bottom line

Objection Handling Brochures, *Think It Over*

Objection handling requires a delicate balance – one that can be achieved through empathy. Dan Lok, entrepreneur, author, and founder of Closers.com uses what he calls the “3 Fs,” Feel, Felt, Found.

I understand how you feel
Others felt the same way
Here’s what I found

An example of this is the following statement, “I understand that you’re frightened you won’t be able to afford a replacement home. Others feel the same way. But this is what I’ve found.”

For a Limited Time: Download an Objection Handling Brochure PDF For FREE!

Just select “Download Only” from the Shipping Option and use the promo code FREEBROCHURE at check out to get your Free Objection Handling Brochure PDF, Click Here.

Now that you’re armed with an Objection Handling Brochure, it’s the ideal time to launch a marketing campaign.

Did you know our Farm, Call to Action Scheduled Campaigns are currently on sale 10% OFF the first month!

Farm, *Call to Action* Scheduled Campaign is shown above. Learn more, HERE

TO LAUNCH A CALL TO ACTION CAMPAIGN:

Hit “CLICK HERE”, below (from a desktop or laptop computer) and choose the Call to Action Series of postcards.

USE PROMO CODE: ACTION10 to get 10% Off at check out.

And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before it goes out). This sale expires on 9/11/21.

Launch a Call to Action Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

3. The Automated Way to Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

How to Become a More Productive Real Estate Agent in 2 EASY Steps

Sep 2, 2021

Much of your daily activity may be necessary, but some tasks may be keeping you from being the top-producing real estate agent machine that I know you can be.

And, some of the suggested methods for becoming a high-yielding agent might surprise you.

For instance, Sir Winston Churchill, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, insisted that he got twice as much done after napping (I’ve always liked that man).

“Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day,” he said. “That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more,” he concluded.

Fellow napper geniuses include Leonardo Da Vinci, who snoozed for 15-minutes, every four hours. President John F. Kennedy made it a habit to doze off every afternoon for one to two hours and who can forget the many photos of President Clinton, fast asleep, at some pretty inopportune moments?

So, go ahead and take a nap, but not before finding out other ways to become more productive.

1. Say “no” to overtime

Back in 2008, the powers-that-be at Microsoft Japan gave employees “five consecutive three-day weekends.”

While this cut operating costs for the company, it also increased sales. In fact, sales increased, per employee, 40% overproduction from the previous year.

Then, there is the study from a construction company wanting to figure out how scheduled overtime impacts their projects.

It turns out that working 60 hours or more per week over the course of two months correlated with a significant drop in productivity. Working more than 8 hours a day, 48 hours per week tanked productivity to the point where it was taking 3 hours to accomplish what had been done in 2 hours.

As a real estate agent, you need to be even more cautious of how much time you spend working. Without someone scheduling your work, it’s far too easy to keep working until you’re doused in that ‘midnight oil.

Set your schedule, keeping in mind the aforementioned studies. It may take some time to train yourself to turn off the lights and close the door at a set time each day, but it’s imperative if you hope to become a more productive real estate agent.

2. Take more breaks

You are your boss. As such, it is amazing how many agents treat themselves like sweatshop workers.

If you had a boss, you would be granted, by law, a number of breaks from work, scattered throughout the day.

Yet more than 60% of Americans claim to eat lunch at their desks.

Our brains need rest, according to Meg Sellg at psychologytoday.com. And to achieve it, avoid “Doing activities that don’t rely heavily on prefrontal cortex function [the area of your brain you are using when you work] but rely on different brain regions instead …,” says Nir Eyal, author of “Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life,” tells Sellg.

Need a tip to turn off that prefrontal cortex?

Get up and move. Whether it’s a 5-minute walk or any other physical activity, Stanford researchers have learned that movement makes us more creative and, thus, productive.

Eat your lunch at the park or even on a bus bench. Views of nature and streetscapes relax and rejuvenate.

Whether you work remotely or in a brick-and-mortar brokerage, stop chaining yourself to your desk. Take naps, take breaks and close your “office” at a specified time each day. Then, watch your productivity soar.

Looking for an attention-grabber? How about sending a Real Estate Times Scheduled Campaign to your Sphere of Farm? The Series contains trending real estate news and statistics.

And, guess what? The Real Estate Times Scheduled Campaign is currently on sale 10% OFF the first month – but only for 3 MORE DAYS!

Real Estate Times Scheduled Campaign (shown above). Learn more, HERE

TO LAUNCH A REAL ESTATE TIMES CAMPAIGN:

Hit “CLICK HERE”, below, to schedule your campaign (from a desktop or laptop computer).

And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY until each mailing goes out (cancel or change mailing up until the night before it goes out).

USE PROMO CODE: TIMES10 to get 10% off at checkout.

Launch a Real Estate Times Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

3. Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a NEW 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically every month to an exclusive carrier route (membership includes your own online Homes & Life Agent Magazine). Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

Become Unforgettable with the RIGHT Elevator Pitch. Here’s How

Aug 31, 2021

What do you tell people when they ask what you do for a living?

“I’m in real estate” is a common answer to the question. So is “I’m a real estate agent (or REALTOR®). Sure, those are answers to the question, but they aren’t exactly memorable.

Here’s how to craft a real estate agent elevator pitch that will make you unforgettable.

20 to 30 seconds

According to a Princeton University study, people form an opinion based on facial appearance within one-tenth of one second. Pass that test and then you’ll have a mere 20 to 30 seconds to wow them with your real estate elevator pitch.

Yup, it’s not much time, but if you can squeeze vital home information into the puny word count the MLS allows, you can certainly sell yourself in half of a minute.

It’s a tool you’ll use a lot

From responding to online leads to introducing yourself at cocktail parties and in marketing materials, a real estate elevator pitch is something you’ll find quite useful.

I love NextDoor.com, especially when a neighbor posts that he or she is looking for a real estate agent. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to see a really compelling response from agents. And, even sadder is that the agent responses are so similar they could be mistaken to have come from the same person.

“I go the extra mile” and “I go above and beyond” are common refrains. If that is your USP as well, please, do the industry a favor and dump it.

Agents can buy a NextDoor Neighborhood Sponsorship and, in my neighborhood at least, only three have done so. What they pay for, is an ad that looks like this (image left):

I haven’t come across an agent-sponsored ad yet that answers the questions suggested by the platform. Yet, they pay for the space.

Here’s a Sponsorship ad from another business (image right):

This phone and computer repair person understands the value of what he’s paying for and uses the space for all it’s worth with his or her elevator pitch.

Create your own real estate agent elevator pitch

“You know [the real estate pain point]? Well, I [solution]. In fact, [proof].”

That’s the formula for the ideal elevator pitch, according to author Allan Dib. “Good marketing takes the prospect through a journey that covers the problem, the solution and, finally, the proof,” according to Dibs.

Keep it quick. Keep it simple. Ensure it’s not too promotional.

Put in real estate terms, Dibs’ formula may look like this:

“You know how people who want to buy a home are having a hard time finding one? What we do is reach out to the homeowners in our database with a list of our buyers’ needs. This has been so successful that we have found homes for 25 of these clients just in the past 30 days.”

Go ahead and plug your elevator pitch into the formula or feel free to steal ours, if it fits.

Another way to grab your audience’s attention and keep it is with a Real Estate Times Series Campaign. The Real Estate Times Series has timely real estate news and statistics that is of value to homeowners.

Did you know, the Real Estate Times Scheduled Campaign is currently on sale for 10% OFF the first month?

Real Estate Times Scheduled Campaign (shown above). Learn more, HERE

TO LAUNCH A REAL ESTATE TIMES CAMPAIGN:

Hit “CLICK HERE”, below, to schedule your campaign (from a desktop or laptop computer).

USE PROMO CODE: TIMES10 to get 10% Off at check out.

And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before it goes out). This sale expires 9/4/21.

Launch a Real Estate Times Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

3. The Automated Way to Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

2 Tips on Writing for Real Estate Consumers

Aug 26, 2021

It’s safe to assume that most home sellers and buyers don’t know the meaning of “LTV,” they may have never used the word “contingency”, and the word “title” is just a name of a book.

Studies show that the average adult reads at a 9th-grade level and that we actually prefer our reading material to be at a 7th-grade level.

The words you choose to use on your website, in your listing descriptions, and direct mail pieces can make or break the visitor’s or recipient’s experience.

The good news is that writing for an audience of everyday people isn’t at all like what you learned in high school or college. It’s easier, and it’s more fun.

1. Ditch the insider lingo

Unless your audience consists solely of other real estate professionals, using real estate lingo is like writing in a foreign language to an English-only reader. Check out this real-life example:

“If you’re buying a home and apply for a mortgage, one critical factor in

whether you secure financing is your loan-to-value ratio.”

There’s no crime in using normal, everyday American English. So, let’s redo it:

“Something you’ve probably never heard of may stand between you and the interest rate of your dreams: The loan-to-value ratio, or LTV for short. Welcome to the world of real estate, my friend, this is just the beginning of a list of terms you’ll be hearing a lot in the months to come. So, what is the LTV?”

Don’t’ assume that your reader understands commonly-used words and acronyms used in real estate, such as LTV, CMA, contingency, addendum, consideration, and one that we see frequently in the current market, absorption rate.

Take the time to explain them, in plain, friendly English.

2. Why so overly-formal?

“Remember that the basic rule of vocabulary is to use the first word that comes to your mind if it is appropriate and colorful,” author Stephen King cautions in his book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.”

Let’s take another look at our first example. Check out the formal-yet-clunky vocabulary. “Critical factor” can easily be replaced with “an important factor” and “secure financing” should be changed to “get a loan.”

After all, when one of your clients gets the mortgage he wants, that’s exactly how he describes it: “I got a mortgage,” not “I obtained” “procured” or “secured financing.”

Take off your real estate hat for a minute and imagine that you’re a consumer, wanting to buy a house. You run across this on an agent’s website or a direct mail piece:

“Our agents will apply their extensive community knowledge and professional

resources to find your dream home.”

Is there anything in that sentence that would make you pick up your phone and ask to hire one of their agents? All we can imagine is sitting in a car, hour after hour, with someone who speaks like this.

No thanks.

Consider replacing some of the most common formalities you find in real estate blogs and other written content:

“Use our services” rather than “utilize” them.
“Talk about the process” instead of “discussing” it.
Dare we suggest this one? “home loan” instead of “mortgage.”
Finally, can we all agree that “real estate” and “properties” are things investors buy and that everyday people buy homes, condos, houses?

An engaging, friendly writing style will help potential clients get to know and like you, and offering them valuable information in an easy-to-understand form gets their trust.

Use the same, short, easy-to-understand sentences you use when speaking with a friend and you’ll be on your way.

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BUT ONLY FOR 3 MORE DAYS!