Friday 5 for May 10th
Happy Friday everyone. On this wet day, the best thing you could do is find a nice place to hide and do a little quality reading. Hope you enjoy this week’s Friday Five!
This year, it’s all about video. As the mini-video-taking Vine app recently hit the top of the charts for free apps in the U.S., everyone seems to record their own videos and post them online.Why? Because people are watching it!Andy Warhol once said: “I don’t read, I just look at pictures”. That’s what we all do today. This is a great one from @coskills http://communicateskills.com/2013/05/08/video-social-media-strategies/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CoSkills+%28Communicate+%5Byour%5D+Skills%29
There is nothing like the feeling of standing out from all of your competitors and generating more business than ever before. Due to how most buyers base their buying decision on pricing, it can be easy to get into a pricing war with your competitors. But that is no fun and you end up compromising your profit margin. It’s time to develop a unique selling proposition via @steamfeedcom http://www.steamfeed.com/how-to-create-a-killer-unique-selling-proposition/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+steamfeedcom+%28SteamFeed%29
Twitter is often seen as one of Cinderella’s ugly sisters when it is compared to the multimedia beauty and the wealth of numbers that the 800 million plus engaged users that the Facebook social network offers. But if you take the time to get to understand Twitter with its quaint 140 character limit and its charming simplicity, it can be a very powerful tool to distribute information and ideas in real-time to enhance your marketing and promotion efforts.Thanks @jeffbullas http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/02/03/the-explosive-power-of-the-retweet-revealed-by-twitter/
Brand storytelling isn’t a new concept, but with the explosive growth of social media and content marketing, the opportunities to tell stories as part of direct and indirect brand marketing initiatives have become a strategic priority. The following are five secrets that brand storytellers understand and use to intrigue, engage, and connect emotionally with consumers. http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2013/02/05/5-secrets-to-using-storytelling-for-brand-marketing-success/
The way we communicate on a daily basis has changed radically over the last ten years. In our ever-changing world of communication, social media is what’s in vogue. Everywhere you turn you can’t escape it whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Linkedin or one of the many others that are cropping up daily. Social media is a way of keeping in touch with the world around us. With new forms of communication, come new rules of the game, especially for real estate agents. http://sem-group.net/search-engine-optimization-blog/social-media/5-ways-real-estate-agents-fail-at-social-media/
Mastermind for may 8th. Can you change the mindset of a buyer? and How To Convert Clients At Open Houses
Today’s Mastermind wasn’t the winner in the attendance department but nevertheless we had some great discussions started by a newer agent looking for ways to counter a potential buyer who wants to postpone a purchase. Specifically, the client’s father had grave concerns about the market. What is it with parents? How many dads fly in at the last-minute with the famous “you’re paying WHAT for THAT”? The reality is that it doesn’t take much to change a buyers mindset. It’s kind of like watching playoff hockey. You can actually see the momentum shift.
The truth is people get it in their head that the market is heading one way when the evidence you see is that it is going in the other direction. They concerned the market is falling or their purchase will lose value. Did they just read an article about poor job numbers and the impact that will have on home values? Could it be that they are just hesitating because they are afraid or have zero motivation? For first time buyers it’s the parents from out-of-town who just don’t get the big city pricing. So what can you do? Step one of shifting the mindset is to identify the concerns into several smaller, more manageable pieces. Challenge the source. Keep a level head and provide nothing but facts and make sure you have the documentation to back it up. You can’t go in with an argumentative stance as that will just entrench them in their beliefs. The fact of the matter is that your job is to keep buyers posted on whats going on with the market. First time buyers need support and encouragement. Research shows that first time buyers take an average of 5 months to buy their first house so don’t be discouraged with buyers who don’t jump at the first place they see. They need to see the market for themselves.
Next we talked about agents having trouble converting open house visitors into clients. I think every new agent wonders how much contact is too much contact. Agents know that it is important to contact all the people who signed into their open house as soon as it is over, but how many times do you reach out before you give up? NAR research indicates that you should make 8 point of contacts before calling it quits. That’s 8 times over the course of a few months, not 8 days in a row. Talk about determination. Do you have enough patience to leave a message 8 times? The point is, you don’t want to be the pebble in their shoe….just the cozy insert. The whole idea of calling the “visitor” is to build trust, show your knowledge and develop a relationship. You can do that easily by knowing what to say every time you make contact. Here are 10 we came up with. Feel free to add to the list.
1. Just wanted you to know that a similar house is coming on the market this week.
2. The house we met in sold this week for….
3. I know you are just starting your search but I wonder if you would be interested in looking at a few other houses in the area.
4. The open house was pretty busy and we didn’t have a chance to talk. I will be there again this weekend if you want to swing by.
5. I noticed you had a new car, well the house on the next block over has a big garage.
6. My office is holding a real estate seminar that I would like to invite you to.
7. I work with a lot of buyers in this area and I wanted to share this link with you on the schools/bars/clubs/galleries/shops in the hood.
8. I just got 2 tickets to the home show. Thought you might be interested.
9. How actively are you searching for a home right now?
10. I remember you asked a question about the electrical system and just wanted to let you know that the owner has confirmed…..
Hope this helps. Have a great day.
Can You Build a Real Estate Market Where One Doesn’t Exist?
During a recent management meeting we discussed some topics for future office meetings. Sometimes a little brainstorming goes a long way. We came up with a handful of really good ideas. One in particular was started by the question….can you find a market where one doesn’t exist? Hey I’m always up for a challenge so at this week’s meeting I put the question to our group. Of course you have to get the ball rolling so I asked people to start throwing out general ideas with the hope of sparking something brilliant. In a matter of a half an hour we had a pretty substantial list. Check it out.
So here are a couple of questions, do you find any of these ideas a bit out there? how many of these ideas would you consider traditional? The truth is that all of these 36 ideas seem rather traditional. Now I suppose one could argue that farming a particular demographic profile on Facebook is thinking outside the box but Facebook has been around for sometime now and we shouldn’t be strangers to their ads. Let’s focus on a few that got the most comments;
First of all, there seemed to be a common theme around being a part of a group. I draw your attention to community BIA’s, business club networks, special interest clubs (like gyms, yacht clubs, etc), getting people together, philanthropy, and working for causes. In each of these suggestions the idea is to build relationships and trust within a group that may be unrelated to real estate.
Second, I loved the idea of leaving your business card everywhere. Okay so you might think this one is a long shot. Consider the local car wash. At the one near my office there is a board absolutely littered with real estate business cards. It’s actually kind of funny. But consider this, someone is looking at that board and maybe recognizes a name on the same day as he (or she) just got a big promotion and is thinking about buying a condo. A stretch? Probably. Impossible? Hey, nothing is impossible but I can guarantee you one thing, just like the lotto….you gotta play to win.
Third, creating your own niche. Whether it is marketing to groups with specific interests or hobbies, being the expert will go a long way. Sometimes the idea for a niche happens by accident. Consider this perfect example. There is a terrific agent in Coburg named Dave Chomitz http://www.cobourgclassic.com/ who is a wiz at video. Every time he lists a house he creates a website using the address. Once he got a listing of a beautiful stone century home but the owner didn’t want a sign on the property so Dave decided that instead of using the address he used www.astonehome.ca . Well he sold the house quickly and since he had the website already he started calling private sellers and putting their homes on his site. Dave tells me that in the last six years he has created a data base of 554 families that get his updates and newsletters and is averaging about 18 sign ups a month. While Dave admits that some are owners just watching what he is doing, the majority are buyers. Oh, and you will love this, for a small fee, other Realtors can advertise on HIS site.
Well, hopefully you have a couple of ideas on how you could create your own market. If you have other ideas and want to share them with me, I would love to hear them.
