Archive for Real Estate Marketing Tips
I just read a post at Active Rain by Roberta Kayne. She pointed out an issue that I’ve never really thought about.
It’s about something that is so much a part of the industry, but it can be deadly to your clients’ children.
Take a look. Add to your Seller’s To Do list!!
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This guest post was contributed by Pavel Webb, the affiliate manager at TextMagic,
a bulk SMS software company based in United Kingdom.
There is something irresistible about receiving an SMS text message. We tend to treat our phones as a member of the family (and sometimes better than we treat our family members!).
Research shows that over 95% of text messages are opened by their recipients. So, as a method of connecting with clients, property owners and leads, it’s got to be the medium of choice.
Here are four ways you can use SMS messages to build your business and connect with your clientèle.
1. Owner notifications
You know the scenario. You have a potential buyer who wants to view a property but you can’t seem to reach the property owners to check that a time is suitable – sometimes for days!
By sending an SMS text message, you can be sure that apart from being (rarely) out of range, your property owner will get the message. The response can be easier to get too, as the owner doesn’t need to talk to you to confirm. A simple SMS response is all that’s needed.
Telling property owners that you use SMS to manage these kinds of details and that you’ll send out a reminder before the appointed time is great customer service and makes property owners feel like they are more involved in what is happening.
2. Get instant requests from online searchers
You are out often and it’s not always possible or convenient to receive email notifications from the online property services.
You could set SMS notifications for when online users request more information via property portals. SMS text messages can reach your phone even when voice might not be available. Plus, it’s more discreet to check your messages than answer the phone.
Best of all, you’ll be able to follow-up faster, often while the lead is still engaged in the viewing and searching process.
3. Fast follow-up for hot leads
By gathering the mobile numbers of your leads, you’ll be able to follow-up for a quick ‘thank you’ and include your contact information and v-card.
Making yourself reachable via SMS text message shows your lead that you’re open to multiple methods of contact; something that mobile users report valuing in their relationships with businesses.
4. Reminders and service messages
These kinds of SMS messages are the most welcomed of all by the end-customer. Acting as a service message, you can remind renters when it’s time to pay for the rent or their utilities.
Crafted as a polite reminder, you’re able to get the message to your renter without having to ‘trouble’ them with a phone call, potentially saving you and your landlord much hassle later on.
SMS use by businesses is on the rise, and savvy agents can benefit from the personal touch that mobile text messaging services offer.
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This guest post was contributed by Sam Chapman.
Sam specializes in homes in Austin, TX
A QR, or Quick Response, Code is a bit like the bar code you find on merchandise at stores. It can be scanned with a code scanner on a cell phone and doing that immediately transfers information to the phone. I just added a QR Code to several websites and it took very little time.
If you have an iPhone or an Android, look for a QR Code Scanner app or a barcode scanner app that also scans QR Codes. I downloaded one simply called Barcode Scanner for my Android and it works great.
Scan this code with your mobile phone scanner
to capture Sam’s contact information.
The QR Code above contains my name, title, phone number, email and website. I have it on my website below my contact information. I’ve tested my phone’s scanner and it picks the information up off the website very easily. After scanning, the information shows up on the phone and there are buttons I can click to share it via email or text message.
In addition to being on a website, a QR Code can be added to print ads, signs, flyers and business cards. It can also be added to the signature of your email. You can even put a QR Code on a T-shirt or on the side of a vehicle. For listings I can see having a QR Code on the sign in the yard. It could be as simple as printing the QR Code on a sheet of paper, laminating it and attaching it to the sign.
QR Codes can also be used for listings. What I am thinking is making a separate page on my website just for a listing and having a QR Code go directly there. Scanning this would be a lot simpler for someone, compared to typing a long web address into a mobile web browser.
Something we can all do to help educate people about our use of QR Codes is to send a brief letter to our sphere of influence showing them how tech savvy we are. The letter would briefly explain QR Codes, tell people how to download a mobile phone app and it can contain a QR Code going directly to a listing’s page. What I recommend is having a sample listing page rather than an active one. This page could be a permanent page on the agent’s website.
A lot of people do not know what QR Codes are, but more people are learning about them all the time. If you add a QR Code to a website, email signature, yard sign or whatever else, place some explanation below it like I did in the example above.
To generate a QR Code, visit http://qrcode.kaywa.com/. You can make a QR Code for a URL, for text like I did in the QR Code above, for a phone number or for an SMS.
Happy coding!
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Well, I’m sure you can fill in the rest of the post title.
I read an amusing but meaningful post on Active Rain about the frustrations that can come your way as a real estate professional. It was written by Dick Greenburg, and you should take a minute to click over there are read it.
Dick talks about the fact that he thinks the real estate industry has more than its fair share of bad behavior. And, I agree with him.
As he says, it’s true that there is a lot of money at stake. The agents feel it, the buyers and sellers feel it and the brokers feel it. And, it very well could contribute to the amount of bad behavior you have to put up with.
I think there are other issues too, for example:
- It’s relatively easy to get a real estate license. No, I’m not minimizing the effort required, but it doesn’t compare with becoming a brain surgeon.
- Due to the ease of entry, a fair number of real estate agents are playing at real estate, not making their living with it.
- There is a lot of information a real estate agent needs to absorb to run their business.
The way I experience this problem is more from the service/technology side. I’ve noticed what I feel is an unusual number of vendors who are just waiting to take advantage of some overworked agent. It means money out of the agent’s pocket, and so often, there’s no return on investment.
I talk to lots of agents who have been egregiously burned by real estate website vendors, SEO vendors, contact management vendors, and the list goes on. It gets to the point where a lot of folks in the industry are afraid to make any decisions at all.
But, I think Dick has some good advice about handling the frustration. If you need something stronger, try this sure fire stress reliever!
I know a lot of real estate professionals who are doing a lot of short sales. For many, it’s necessary for survival. Their markets are heavily populated with short sales, and it’s either do short sales or quit.
Unfortunately, not everyone who is handling short sales today likes it. Short sales can be frustrating, time consuming and just downright miserable.
If you see yourself in that position, you need to forget how much you wish your market was different and focus on your client. The emotional impact on a homeowner facing foreclosure is extreme.
What can you do to help your client and make a short sale process as smooth as possible? Well, first, of course, you have to learn how to do a short sale and have confidence in your ability to get your client out from under their mortgage.
Once you’ve accomplished that, the next order of business is to break the cycle your client has been running around and around in. A hopeful short sale client is much easier to work with through a difficult process.
Read this short post on Active Rain by Philip Faranda. The simple assurance he gives a short sale client comes right before he hops in a telephone booth to don his super hero cape.
