Move up market

Winter Blog Topics Every Agent Should Consider

Jan 13, 2022

If you find yourself craving a piping hot peppermint mocha, going home and lighting a cozy fire, and wishing you could wear your hoody to a listing presentation, it must be winter.

Winter this year started on December 21 and lasts until March 20, 2022. Before the winter season ends, there is a lot happening, although local pandemic regulations may restrict some winter events.

These festivals and other celebrations make welcome blog post topics. Today we take a look at some of what your readers are craving.

1. Winter blog posts for homebuyers

“3 must-have tips for buying a [name of town] home this winter”

Need more ideas?

What’s going on in the local market? Is inventory still low? Are prices softening or rising? What are interest rates like? Warn readers that interest rates are expected to rise in 2022, so choosing to buy now is a wise decision. Check out this example Neil Kearney of Boulder Real Estate.
Handy with Canva? Head on over there and create an infographic addressing the age-old question of whether to buy now or wait.

2. Fishing for sellers?

“3 must-have tips for selling a [name of town] home this winter”

Most potential sellers want to know what’s happening with home prices. A market update, such as the one for buyers, mentioned previously, will most likely be quite welcome.

Few agents do reader-friendly and hyper-local market updates like Kirkland, Washington’s Jim Badgley. Check it out at badgleyhomes.com.

Don’t forget to add local keywords throughout all blog posts.

3. Winter events in the community

Winter events and festivals abound in the US. There’s Wintersköl in Aspen, CO, the amazing Winter Carnival in St. Paul, MN, the Winter Festival in Portland, OR, and more.

Even non-snowy regions have winter events, like the Borrego Springs Film Festival in San Diego, CA, and Gasparilla Music Festival in Tampa Florida.

Details about these events are ideal for a hyper-local blog post. Plus, they’re immensely sharable.

Use various smaller holidays as topics. For instance, January 27th is Chocolate Cake Day. Write a listicle naming all the places in town one can get a great piece of cake.

Other holidays that are easy to hyper-localize include:

National Frozen Yogurt Day (February 6, 2022)
National Pizza Day (February 9, 2022)
Valentine’s Day (February 14, 2022)
National Puppy Day (March 23, 2022. Great opportunity to write about the various pet shelters and rescues in your area).
St. Patrick ‘s Day (March 17, 2022. Who has the best corned beef and cabbage?)

Then, there is the old standby “Best places” in your town to (or nearby):

Take out-of-town guests
Sled, ski, etc.
Celebrate Valentine’s Day
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
Ice skate
Indoor and Mall walking tracks in your town

There is far from a shortage of hyper-local winter real estate blog topics. Write ‘em up and don’t forget to link to them on social media.

Discover Move-Up Market Prospects in Your Area and GET THE FIRST 100 FREE!

5 Reasons To Go After the Move-Up Market Right Now!

Two sales in one (they’re selling their current home and buying another larger home.
They’ve purchased real estate before and understand the process, making for an easier transaction.
They know what they want, so less guesswork on your part.
They typically have a nice amount of equity in their home, meaning more money to spend on a new home.
They’re excited to enter the marketplace and take advantage of the low mortgage rates and buy bigger.

To get the first 100 on a Move-Up Market Prospect List Free use PROMO CODE: MOVE100

CLICK HERE to create your list (From a desktop/laptop computer) with the Demographic Search tool.

This sale expires on January 15th.

Watch this video: to learn how to create a Move-Up Market prospect list with the Demographic Search tool and launch a campaign.

Once You Have Your Move-Up Market List, Launch a Campaign

*FARM, Move-Up Market* Campaign shown above, **learn more**

Schedule a Move-Up Market Postcard Campaign in Just Minutes!

Scheduled postcard campaigns not only save you time, they’re sent standard class postage saving you money.

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

CLICK HERE (from a desktop or laptop computer) to get started on your campaign.

To send a one-time postcard mailing to the Move-Up Market postcard series, CLICK HERE

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 Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – 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

Build Your Real Estate Business for the Long Haul. Choose a Speciality

Oct 21, 2021

In the medical field, a physician that deals with the masses is a general practitioner. In the real estate industry, an agent that deals with the masses is . . . well, a real estate agent.

Just as there are medical specialties like neurosurgery and psychiatry, so are their specialties in real estate, yet the industry professionals have been slow to catch on.

Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker, in a speech to a group of real estate agents, talks about micro-specialization and claims that it’s the best way to build financial assets for the long haul.

Micro-specialization is drilling down into the various specialties you might offer and choosing just one. So, instead of being the guy or gal in town that handles everything from condos to ranches, you would be the Empty-Nest expert or the Move-Up Market, expert.

Then, you can employ hyper-targeted marketing until you own that specialty. It’s not a quick process, but if you stick with it, you will find long-term success.

Some Markets aren’t Conducive

Niche marketing in large real estate markets, such as Los Angeles or Chicago is easy. Agents in tiny markets, however, will probably find that the strategy narrows your potential client pool drastically and the benefits you might find in a large market just won’t present themselves.

Sure, it’s a Scary Thought

Many real estate agents are cut from the same cloth. They present like they’re unique in their market yet copy other agents. Does “It’s a GREAT time to buy a home!” ring a bell?

Why?

Because everyone else is doing it and because breaking away from the pack is frightening to many people. So, they allow the fear of driving away even one potential client to fuel their march, in lock-step, with every other agent in town.

Godin likens this fear to burning all other bridges in the industry. But to become memorable – to own a specialty – you must burn those bridges. You must step outside the safety zone of the pack.

The Bonus

Choosing a specialty comes with a bonus – branding and targeted marketing are a snap. Once you’ve settled on a niche, you know exactly who your audience is, you know where to find them and, sometimes, even their ages.

“Let me tell you, the day I decided to cut all the other specialties loose to concentrate on my niche, I was terrified. The future was so unsure, but I did it anyway,” one of our Florida clients recently told us.

“Am I sorry? No way!”

If you want to stop chasing business, choose a niche and own it. Become the First Time Buyer Specialist, the Absentee Owner Expert, or go after the Move-Up Market and let prospects come to you instead of you chasing after them — while competing with every other generalist in town.

You won’t be sorry.

Ready to own the Move-Up Market? Discover Move-Up Market Prospects in your area and get the first 100 prospects for free – for 3 MORE DAYS!

Right now, the first 100 on a **Move-Up Market Prospect List** are FREE TO YOU! (sale expires Oct. 23rd).

HOW TO FIND MOVE-UP MARKET PROSPECTS IN YOUR AREA.

Hit “CLICK HERE”, below (from a desktop or laptop computer) and choose the Demographic Search Tool.

USE PROMO CODE: MOVE100 to get the first 100 prospects free.

Discover Move-Up Market Prospects in your area, now, CLICK HERE!

This sale expires on 10/23/21. 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

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

Struggling in real estate? Try breaking away from the herd

Sep 28, 2020

Never will you find a cardiac surgeon dispensing advice about gynecological problems. Nor will you likely find blog posts on pet websites counseling readers about DIY home projects.

Yet, many real estate agents have the notion that they can be everything to everyone. Those that typically sell single-family homes think nothing of listing a condo. Those that list mobile homes don’t hesitate to take on a luxury home listing.

While this may be ok for your bottom line, it does a real disservice to real estate consumers. In all other professions they have a choice of specialists.

They can consult a divorce attorney instead of a bankruptcy lawyer. When they need a root canal, they see an endodontist not an orthodontist and they can take their Porsche to a mechanic who specializes in them.

Remaining a real estate generalist is easier. It’s safer. After all, you don’t want to miss out on even one deal by narrowing your business focus, right?

What’s unique about that?

It’s unfortunate so many real estate agents harbor a reluctance to break away from the herd. The truth is, however, if you always follow the leader you will always be behind.

Then, there’s that lump in the gut when you think of closing off your business to some parts of the real estate industry and narrowing your focus to only one or two specialties.

This move away from being “a jack-of-all-trades but the master of none” is necessary if you’re to become the best in the market in your niche.

Seth Godin, blogging master and best-selling author, suggests that real estate agents should consider “micro-specialization.”

Choose a niche and work to dominate it.

Step away from the Herd

“… you’re either the best in the world (where ‘world’ can be a tiny slice of the environment) or you’re invisible,” Godin continues.

He says that to become “visible,” requires “… being Draconian in your choices. No, you can’t also do a little of this or a little of that. Best in your world means burning your other bridges and obsessing,” Godin says.

Scary thought, right?

Let’s look at a scenario:

You’re an agent in Las Vegas, chasing after every lead that comes your way – single family homes, duplexes, condos, whatever, you’ll take it. Your website even proclaims as much – “I can help you will all your real estate needs!”

If you consider yourself the average agent, you make about $45,610 a year, give or take a few dollars, according to Daniel Bortz at Realtor.com.

Suppose you decide to step away from being “average” and that you will specialize in listing and selling high-rise condos. Last year, 607 Las Vegas high rise condo units sold, with an average sales price of $598,728. This represents a commission of about $17,962 per side (based on 6 percent total commission).

As a generalist, how many of these condos would you have listed or sold? Be honest. The average Las Vegas agent was lucky to have listed one or two in an entire year.

The specialist that targets the high-rise condo market with a laser-like focus and dominates the brand as the niche expert in the area increases his or her chances of taking more than a handful of those sides from other agents.

Let’s be conservative and say that you only close one of these condo-deals a month. Even on a 50/50 broker split, you’d be making nearly $9,000 a month in GCI, give or take a few dollars and nearly $108,000 a year – almost three times what the average agent in the Las Vegas Valley brings home.

Remember, our scenario is based on conservative estimates. Your mileage may be a lot better.

The bonus is that the more you enforce your condo-specialist brand, the more condo leads you’ll get and folks that want to buy or sell high-rise condos will seek you out.

Imagine selling 5 of these condos a month.

If you’ve been casting as wide a net as possible in the hope of reeling in the maximum number of leads, consider setting yourself apart from other agents by claiming a niche and dominating it.

Send the Tired of Being a Landlord postcard from the Absentee Owner Series to a targeted list of Absentee Owners in your area.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search 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 some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. 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.

2. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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

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4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

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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. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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

The 3 Most Common Website Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Sep 9, 2020

Most agent website mistakes are easy to fix once you know how. Let’s take a look at the three most damaging agent website problems and their solutions.

1. Lack of focus

Many agent websites seem to reflect a common agent mindset: “I am a jack of all trades and master of none.” When agents are trying to reach every, last conceivable prospect, their websites end up with a vague and meaningless focus.

No, “Buyers” and “Sellers” aren’t target audiences – at least not in a way that sets you apart from every other agent in town. If you truly want these two, overly-broad groups as a target, create two websites, one for each.

Your buyer’s site can then be narrowed down even further. Are you looking to work with renters? Condo buyers? Move-up buyers? Retirement buyers? or Luxury homebuyers?

The same holds true for the seller-focused site: first-time sellers, downsizers, selling the luxury or waterfront home, for instance.

“One of the biggest marketing mistakes is to attempt to appeal to everyone at once.”

Suggests Tom Hallissey at Fat Guy Media. “The most-efficient way to reach more qualified consumers is to target smaller, more specific groups.”

We once worked with a woman who specialized in mobile home buyers. Sure, one mobile home here and there seems hardly worth the effort, but this lady specialized and marketed herself as the expert. She made a killing in the mobile home market and, her website was one of her best lead generation tools.

2. Overly-focused on the wrong things

Real estate prospecting is all about building relationships and each visitor to your site is a prospect. What happens then when visitors are immediately bombarded by how great you are, how many homes you’ve sold and how much money you make?

Is the braggadocio the person you would want to build a relationship with? Of course not. Self-important bragging is unattractive and doesn’t tell your website visitor one thing about “what is in it for them”.

So, skip the hype about you and, instead, make your website client-focused. If your ideal prospects visit your website, what do they want to know? How can you help them find it? Use your knowledge of and experience in real estate to demonstrate why you are the agent they should hire.

3. Wait … isn’t real estate all about location?

We recently read a Facebook post from an agent who was complaining that, after six months, his website just wasn’t “working.” He was blaming the website company.

Yet, one look at his site points the finger right back at the agent. The only mention of his market – his geographic location – was in his email address, posted at the bottom of the page.

He bought a template website and did nothing to customize it, except to plaster his own name all over it. This, despite there being numerous opportunities on the home page alone to stick in at least the name of his town.

His neighborhood pages consisted of his IDX for the area. That’s it.

According to NAR’s study, Real Estate in the Digital Age, nearly half of homebuyers using the internet are interested in neighborhood information.

Many agents ignore this section (if they even have one) of their websites, and it’s a pity. What’s it like living in a particular community? What are the good points? Why would I – as a first-time buyer, a move-up buyer, a commuter, retirement buyer, someone with a family or any other type of buyer want to live there?

Use your website to show pictures, discuss local news and events in your blog posts and anything else that captures why this neighborhood is a great place to live.

If your website isn’t converting as you hoped it would consider tweaking it to be more consumer-focused and offer the information they’re craving.

Send the Dream Neighborhood postcard from the Move-Up Market Series to a Move-Up Market prospect list.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search 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 some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. 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.

2. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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

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