Real Estate at a Crossroads

by Gregory Charlop

  Entice with content

  The crown jewel of inbound marketing is content—generally free material that you publish online that’s useful for your target audience. The goal is for your target clients to discover your content via organic (Google or Facebook) search. The prospect reads and appreciates your content and then discovers you. Examples of content vehicles are blog posts, video blogs (vlogs), and curated content such as reposting interesting articles. Your content can either be on your website, social media accounts like Facebook or LinkedIn, or on standalone blog sites. If you enjoy video, consider creating a YouTube channel for your material. YouTube has the added bonus of showing up on Google search results.

  Does content marketing create a better connection than someone clicking on your outbound ads? You bet! For one thing, content doesn’t cost you anything to post. It’s hard to beat free! More importantly, you create a relationship with your ideal prospect. If they read and enjoy your content, you generated some good-will. They’re more likely to trust you and view you as an expert. They may feel indebted to you and ultimately decide to hire you.

  Imagine Jane, an ideal potential client in your primary neighborhood. Jane is considering selling her home, but she isn’t sure. So, she jumps on Facebook in search of information about the ideal time to go on the market. Up pops your article. She reads it and likes what you have to say.

  Who do you think Jane is going to call to discuss selling? You!

  Do the math. You just scored a new client in exchange for an hour of writing. Not a bad deal. Even better, your post might be read by dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people. How many Janes are out there searching for your post? Share your neighborhood knowledge, and the prospects will come.

  As a real estate agent, you’re loaded with local expertise. I bet you know a lot more than you think you do, and you should use that knowledge to your advantage.

  Perhaps you have some insight into local real estate trends. Or maybe you have some info about the new shopping center or fancy restaurant opening in the neighborhood. You should write about it! That’s useful information and your local prospects want to know. Someone buying or selling their nearby home will appreciate the news you shared about the development. They just might turn to you to be their agent.

  Your material should have good information; it also needs to be well-written and engaging. There are lots of books (and blogs!) about how to write the best content. Check those out to help with your style and improve your SEO.

  Two suggestions to improve your posts. First, don’t do any hard selling. If your piece reads like an advertisement, folks will treat it as such and tune it out. Remember, your goal is to impress your prospects by generously sharing knowledge, not to make a hard sell on your services. Secondly, the only way you’ll get better at writing is to write frequently. Practice all you can, and you’ll see your writing improve before your eyes. Reading about writing helps too. My favorite book is Stein on Writing by Sol Stein.

  Audio is another emerging communication platform. I’ve engaged with a lot of great people on my Alexa show, The Real Estate Flash. You can make your own flash briefings with the help of companies like SoundUp Now. They’re the company I use to publish my flash briefing and I highly recommend them.

  I asked Sean Mckenna, the co-founder of SoundUp Now about the importance of voice technology like Alexa. “As a Realtor, the use of audio and voice cannot be overestimated. Home search and valuation with the simple ask of a question to a voice assistant device isn't the future - it's the ‘now’.”[9]

  From connections to clients

  Now that you’ve connected with prospects using a mix of inbound and outbound advertising, SEO, social media, blogs and videos, your next task is to nurture these folks. You need to convert them from connections to clients.

  In an ideal world, prospects will read your post, be swept away by your insight, call you and hire you on the spot. That does happen, but not often. Usually, the first step is to capture the prospect’s contact information: email address, phone number, or social media account names will do.

  Congratulations! Now you have one of the most valuable resources for any business: a list. Your list is full of folks who live in your target area and like what you have to say. They may already view you as an expert. And they are players in the real estate market. These are the people you want, and they already know you.

  Technology cuts both ways

  The good news is that modern technology makes client cultivation easy. Tools like customer relationship management (CRM) software, enhanced email services like MailChimp, manual and automated social media engagement, webinars, and Facebook Live are fantastic ways to manage and interact with your list and generate business. The bad news is that these modern tools of engagement aren’t optional. Your tech-savvy competition is already using these techniques. You have no choice but to keep up. Otherwise, the technology meteor shower will rain down on your town and leave you like the dinosaurs.

  One last thing about content. Don’t regurgitate! I strongly advise you against signing up for some Facebook content factory that makes generic, bland posts. People will be bored by it and pass right over your posts. Your Facebook or LinkedIn ranking will fall, and soon nobody will see your stuff at all. So, if you post something, make sure that it shows your personality. Make it original or add meaningful commentary or opinions to someone else’s information. Don’t plagiarize or repost generic junk!

  Be sociable

  Social media is meant to be, well, social. Yes, you can use Facebook and Instagram as one-way conduits of information for your interesting posts, pictures, and information. But to really harness the power of these networks, you need to actively engage with your prospects.

  There are a number of different ways to increase your social media engagement. The first and best is for you to post frequently. Your followers will lose interest if you rarely post. You can accomplish this by either posting directly to the social media channels of your choice or by using products that post to multiple social media outlets at once like Buffer or HootSuite.

  To rule social media and wow your followers, you must go beyond just posting to your account - you must engage with theirs. Like their posts, scan for any comments that mention you, and comment on blogs or forums that are popular with your community. When folks see that you’re active, they will engage more with you. And the more active you are, the more visibility you’ll enjoy.

  To boost your social media presence, consider hiring a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant (VA) is someone who typically lives in another country and can help you by engaging with others on your behalf. They’re surprisingly affordable and some are very good. Most large companies have a social media person who does this stuff for them—and thanks to VAs, you can have one too! If you do hire a VA, I suggest you use a real estate VA service or a reputable site like Upwork to hire them. Make sure they come equipped with great reviews and experience. We discuss VAs in greater detail in a later chapter.

  Rather talk than write?

  Check out Facebook Live. Facebook Live allows you to create and stream videos right from your phone’s Facebook app. Your video will spring to life and your friends will be notified that you’re broadcasting.

  Live makes creating simple videos easy (and even publicizes them for you). Your job is to make your videos fun and engaging. While you can use Live to promote your listings, I think it’s real power is in introducing yourself by sharing useful information. Show your audience that you’re the neighborhood expert.

  Leading real estate coach Tom Ferry’s advice about videos: be authentic. “The best videos are always real, "Hey guys, I'm just walking to this open house. Oh my god, look at this bathroom! What do you think?" It’s you being you.” Click here to read the full Ferry Interview.

  For example, imagine you’re walking near a new housing development near downtown and you want to share your insights about the place. You simply fire-up Facebook Live and engage with you
r followers in real time. Your friends will be notified about your broadcast and can immediately click over and watch you. It’s also interactive, allowing your followers to type and ask you questions while you’re presenting. And Facebook will save and post the video for you so folks can view it long after you’re done with your broadcast. Don’t forget, you can also transfer the finished videos to a YouTube channel, website, or LinkedIn page. Just Google how to download Facebook Live videos, and you’re off to the races.

  Picture this. Li and May are relocating to your town from another state. They’re researching condo communities online and discover your video review of a wonderful new development. They love what you have to say, laugh at your jokes, and are inspired by the footage of the swimming pool and playground—perfect for their young daughter. Who do you think they’ll contact to buy that beautiful new condo? You!

  One last thing. As of this writing, Facebook favors showing videos created using Facebook Live over other platforms like YouTube. Therefore, your friends are more likely to see your Facebook Live video than other videos you upload. So, if you like making videos, give Facebook Live a chance.

  Custom domains

  Imagine you’re real estate agent Jack Garcia in the fictional town of Fall Oaks. You have some serious drive. You want to own this town! You want folks to think of you when they think of Fall Oaks. Most importantly, you want them to go to you first when they want to buy or sell in Fall Oaks.

  How best to do it? You need a website and email address that is yours and yours alone. Own a website such as www.falloaks.com and the email address: JackGarcia@FallOaks.com.[10] (Warning: they aren’t real.)

  When people search for Fall Oaks online, they’ll find your website. Whenever you email someone from your custom email address, they’ll know what you’re all about. Each email you send will build your brand.

  Real estate guru Saul Klein said, “Your domain is more than the “address” of your website. Owning your own domain also puts you in control of your most important asset, your client communication. By combining your domain with your email solution stack, you make every piece of email you send a marketing piece.”[11]

  Another reason to own your identity online: If you end up leaving your brokerage, you want to take your name with you. You don’t want to rebuild your internet presence from scratch if you take a new job. You must own it!

  I recommend picking a website that ends with .com or the newer .realestate, which is now available from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). You can easily search for available domains from GoDaddy or My Real Town. Once you reserve your domain, make sure you get a matching email, like in the JackGarcia@FallOaks.com example above.

  How do you pick your domain? If you have a business name already, you might want to choose that as your website name. Here are a few other options to consider:

  ● Geography - Pick the name of the city where you focus most of your efforts, as in the Fall Oaks example.

  ● Neighborhood - If you specialize in a particular part of town or large housing development, pick it.

  ● Your name - For example, use JackGarcia.RealEstate. Depending on how common your name is, you might need to be a bit creative, since it’s a little tougher to find available sites with someone’s name. Fortunately, the .realestate domain is more available.

  It remains to be seen whether the .realestate or other novel domains such as .io or .info ever take off. Since it is impossible to tell, and domains are cheap, I suggest buying as many relevant domains now and holding them. You can always use them later, sell them, or let go of the useless ones.

  Beyond Facebook - How technology can help you close

  It’s hard to sell a house if it doesn’t look good, but sellers often don’t know how to fix their place up before selling. They’re often unwilling to spend money, or they don’t see anything wrong with their green shag carpet. These design decisions are tough!

  My first startup, Visionary Remodels, made it easy to prepare a beautiful home for sale. My housing research data combined with computer algorithms and AI, took the guesswork out of selecting colors, materials, and finishes. These tools even took the pain out of finding available contractors and tradespeople by finding them for clients!

  I eventually closed down Visionary Remodels because I wanted to focus my efforts on helping seniors find affordable housing with my newer company, Dignified Housing. But there are many other good companies that use augmented reality and other tools to help real estate agents showcase a beautiful home and close deals.

  Visual aids

  Once you’ve prepared your home for sale, there are some great products to promote it. Your buyers are visual people. Make your listing crackle online. Show the place off! Some of my favorite tools are Virtual Tour Cafe and RoOomy.

  Buyers expect video. Virtual Tour Cafe and similar sites make it easy to create fun and effective video tours accompanied by music and social media integration using simple images of the home. Don’t settle for flat pictures!

  RoOomy creates interactive 3-D models of your home and will even virtually stage it! Check out the site, you’ll be impressed. Your home will look its best even if you use a regular camera. Remember, Millennials represent the largest segment of homebuyers, and they love this stuff. Make ads that will appeal to this crowd.

  Porchd uses the wisdom of the crowd to make your listings look great. You can upload your potential listing pictures to their site and receive anonymous feedback from other users. More on Porchd in the chapter on brokerages.

  Matterport is the gold-standard in online walk-through home tours. You’ll probably need a pro to use their camera, but the beauty of their final product is undeniable. If you’re listing a high-end home or you’re targeting foreign buyers who might purchase the property sight unseen, you need Matterport. Even better, CoreVR converts your Matterport images into shareable virtual reality. Go to their website and check out how great this looks!

  Two younger companies in the augmented reality space with cool tech are restb.ai and Magicplan. Restb.ai uses computer vision to tag and classify your property photos. You have to watch the videos on the company’s website! Magicplan creates detailed floor plans and virtual tours using computer vision.

  Facebook Live is another useful video tool. In addition to using vlogs to promote your personal brand by sharing useful neighborhood content, you can also use Facebook Live and YouTube videos to narrate a tour of your client’s home. Try it! Turn on the camera and create a 2 to 3-minute walkthrough of the house. Point out the highlights and share what you love about the property. This is your chance to sell the benefits of the home without interruption - use it. Once you’ve made the video, post it to Facebook, YouTube, and your home’s website and make sure you’ve optimized it for search.

  Here’s how going the extra mile with video can help you. Imagine Juan and Gerald, ages 30 and 32, are considering moving to your area. Like most Millennials, they’re active Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram users. They stumble on your page after reading your post about how young people are relocating to your town. They’re intrigued and feel like you “get them.” With permission, you add them to your real estate CRM and send them periodic updates about interesting events in the area. They enjoy your Instagram posts of new restaurants and bars in town. Now, they’re excited.

  Then you release a narrated video tour of a new lifestyle condo loaded with amenities like a first-class gym and racquetball courts. They can’t resist! They call you up with their pre-approval letter in hand.

  Once you have some interest in your property, it’s time to send out disclosures. Many agents consider this one of the most painful parts of a transaction - but it doesn’t have to be. Disclosures.io streamlines the entire process of preparing and sharing disclosures. It even tracks and measures the disclosures, so you know who’s really interested in your property. Very cool.

  Adam Gothelf started out as a real estate agent. That’s how he discovered that managing disclosu
re documents was harder than it should be. He founded Disclosures.io to remedy the situation.

  “We build software that helps real estate agents manage property disclosures,” Gothelf says. “We provide one online location for agents to manage important information like documents, marketing materials and offers for their properties. We have all the crucial property info, whether for listings or buy sides, in one location.”

  “Imagine you share a property package with 10 different buyer parties who came to an open house. If you're just sending out a pdf or a DropBox link, you have some idea who's looking at the disclosures, but you don't have a sharp sense of how many of the 10 agents are really interested. With our product, you can see that two parties are very interested and they're highly likely to write an offer. Our product gives you that insight. To read everything Gothelf had to say, click on this link.

  With technology, it can be this easy!

  Real estate is becoming more competitive by the day, and you can bet your competition is using these tools as a weapon against you. It’s a fight, and you want to be armed. Use social media and SEO to boost your online presence and locate prospects with a mixture of inbound and outbound marketing. Nurture your leads using a real estate CRM and social media engagement. Build your brand with useful content and videos. And close sales with photo optimization, video, 3-D tours, and automated disclosures.

  Success through specialization

  Your potential clients already know the top performers. They read the reviews on Yelp and checked out the top sales on Zillow and realtor.com. They know who closed all the best deals—and it isn’t you.

  The simple fact is you won’t be able to compete directly with the top agents. Period. To beat them, you need to change the rules to the game.

  Leveraging technology is critical, but you’ll need to do more. You need smart specialization. There are a lot of books out there that address different types of specialization including A Guide to Making it in Real Estate by James R. Carter. Here, we’ll focus on how you can segment the market so you can get your foot in the door without directly targeting the top performers.