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San Diego REALTORS: Please pick up your phone !

I hate being stuck at home during this COVID crisis. I hate it but I see an incredible opportunity for me and for you, the professional REALTOR.

 

My friend Leigh Brown is a real estate broker/owner in North Carolina-- I have known her for close to 14 years now. Leigh was interviewed by Housing Wire about what she is doing during the COVID crisis. While you would benefit by reading the full interview, please look at this:

 

The other thing that I’m doing to encourage my team is I’m just reminding them who we have to call and that we all have to be making phone calls. It’s not just the sales staff. It’s the admin team, too, and there’s different things that they can say, but they can still be touching their neighbors and checking on their neighbors because a lot of what we’re doing right now, of course, has zero to do with sellers and buyers, and everything to do with neighbors and humans. How can we help? Who needs help? What could we be doing? And that’s where we’re finding our positivity, is finding things you can take action on.

 

Russell Shaw, one of Phoenix's top real estate brokers has always said that lead generation is a REALTOR's most important job .

 

Your most important job...

 

Now is not the time to cold call for listings nor is it the time to push showings on potential buyers . You have probably heard the old saw, " People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care ".

 

Show everyone you know that you care about them during this crisis; pick up the phone and call them.

 

By the way, if you see my number come through on your caller ID, please pick up the phone and talk to me. I care about you and I care about your customers. Debra and I are here to help.

Realtors losing listings to iBuyers

Guess what?  Zillow is entering the San Diego residential real estate market and Realtors should take it seriously:

Zillow Offers is continuing its expansion, announcing Monday it will be buying and selling homes in San Diego.  Through its iBuying service, Zillow seeks to provide a solution by enabling sellers to forget about the hassle of cleaning their home, forgoing home repairs, open houses, and the like. They can even choose the date they want to sell and move by. (For more on what, exactly, is an iBuyer, read this.)

I know.  I know.  Zillow is no competition for a professional, local expert...or is it?  What San Diego Realtors often miss is that, while iBuyers may "low-ball" sellers, looking for homes with cosmetic repairs needed, the simple fact is that the iBuyers end up negotiating with sellers long before an agent has a chance to prsent his/her services.  Here is my friend, Phoenix real estate broker Greg Swann:

As for iBuyers being nothing to worry about: Ahem.

If they’re in your town, they’re in your potential-seller’s head – and maybe in his email in-box, too. They’re in everyone’s net.world, on billboards, radio, TV. If your prospect hasn’t solicited an offer yet, you need to get out in front of that eventuality.

The iBuyers are the elephant in the room at your listing appointment. If the seller doesn’t bring them up, you had better. It could be that iBuyer offers are already in play, so you may already be smoked. Or the seller may want your help going that way, in which case you just made the easiest money in your real estate career – although the party to whom you owe fiduciary duty may have just pissed away half or more of his accrued equity in the home. Or, god help you, he may want to be sold on the value of listing traditionally.

But to go in to a listing appointment assuming the listing is your to lose is a mistake, I think. In the iBuyer world, the listing is theirs to lose, yours to win. You got the appointment because the seller wants your advice, not because he wants your sign in his yard for six months.

Greg has done extensive research on just how poorly iBuyers perform and you should follow what he's doing.  More importantly, read the emboldened statement Greg made. I'll parse it for you here:

You got the appointment because the seller wants your advice, not because he wants your sign in his yard for six months

Realtors need a strategy to position themselves as a trusted advisor so that their clients contact them before the iBuyers do.  Gary Keller said, some 15 years ago, that Realtors are either going to be fiduciaries enabled by technology or functionaries working for technology.  Thus, San Diego Realtors are going to have to examine the way they charge clients for the knowledge, advice, and expertise.  For too long, Realtors have relied on the commission model ad the only way to charge for their services.  Developing a "menu of services", which includes pre-MLS solicitation of iBuyer offers seems like the only way to get ahead of the curve.

How REALTORs Are Getting Business Today

I've been on a bit of a mission these past two weeks.  Debra has a great handle on the loans and keeps our office running smoothly so I decided to stay out of the office and in front of real estate agents.  I met with over 20 agents in June and asked each one of them "What's working for you today?".  Here are some of the responses:

• Door Knocking- one agent said that his most effective tactic was to solicit listings by introducing himself, in person, to homeowners.  He is committed to doing this twice a week.

• Just Listed/Just Sold Post Cards:  the agent described this perfect "investment" to me.  She mentioned that she'll spend $2500 on post cards to generate 2-3 listings, which will produce $30,000 in gross fees
• Absentee Owners Post Cards:  two agents picked a town, found 500 investment property owners, who live more than 90 miles away, and mail a postcard to them every six weeks.  It's the exact same postcard and directs the recipient to a blog site which publishes just listed/just sold stats.  They have over 100 people who have "opted-in" to their investment newsletter and have closed 8 transactions from this strategy in the past 12 months.
• Geographic Farming:  I met an agent and a coffee shop (for the first time) and the barista asked if he was a REALTOR as soon as we walked in.  The barista remarked that he has "known him since he was a little kid".  The remarkable thing about that comment is that the agents has only been in business for ten years (he started when the barista was in junior high school).  This agent told me that he still "farmed", via direct mail and local newspaper advertising, and that the "farm" was located about a mile from the coffee shop.
• Referral Prospecting:  One newer agent told me that she has closed about 25 transactions in the past four years; mostly buyers.  She made an effort to try to take each homeowner to lunch, beginning in January.  At the end of the lunch, she thanked them for their business and asked if they know anyone they should be speaking to about buying a home.  She just took her 20th past client to lunch last week and has closed 9 transactions, year-to-date with three more in escrow.  She's on target to close 18-20 this year.  She has literally tripled her business from this strategy.  The cost ?  About $500.
• Telemarketing Expired Listings: A newer agent focuses strictly on calling recently expired listings.  She starts at 7AM, each morning, and has an appointment by 9:30AM each day.  She literally drives directly to the house when the home owner agrees to meet her and wins 25% of the engagements.  She lists 4-6 properties monthly, carries a dozen listings at any given time, and is on track to close 40 transactions this year.

You'll notice that none of these strategies has anything to do with online marketing or social media.  Each one is very "old school".  When I directed the conversation to social media, each agent remarked that their weblog was the most effective source of business.  When I talked about Facebook as a business generator we found the results to be much more effective.  Agents who successfully initiated and participated in online conversations found that Facebook was the most effective medium online to generate appointments. 

PS:  An agent emailed me, after reading this article, to ask what MY best business development practice is.  That's simple; getting in front of agents and asking this very question.  Don't be surprised if you get a call from me asking you to have a cup of coffee :)

Social Media Marketing for REALTORs: (Part 10): Tying It All Together

"Who the heck has time to do all of this?" is a question that may have entered your mind these past ten days.  Certainly, a social media marketing campaign neither:

• produces immediate results, or

• is easy to implement. 

 

An effective social media campaign develops over years, not weeks.  All of the ideas I showed you are free or extremely low-cost (less than $50/month) but they do require a time investment on your part.  To develop a web presence like I or Greg Swann have is kind of like eating an elephant; you have to do it one bite at a time.  Here are some tips to help you get started:

Social Media Marketing for REALTORs (Part 9) : Blogging

Blogging is an excellent way to practice all five pillras of social media marketing.  It is a great way to demonstrate your expertise, provide contect for the search engines so that you are "findable" for certain key phrases, and answer client-generated questions in the public's eye.

Oftentimes, mainstream media read weblogs to look for local experts when working on a story.  Ive been interviewed and quoted by:

Forbes
Business Week
Yahoo! Finance
CNN Money
CNBC
MSNBC

This topic is so complex that a short video wouldn't do it justice.  Interested people should read:

REAL ESTATE WEBLOGGING 101

Should you decideyou want to set up your own weblog, you have many platforms from which to choose.  I prefer Typepad because of its simplicity.  Here is a video about how to set up a Typepad weblog:

Social Media Marketing for REALTORs (Part 8): Twitter

Twitter is a quickly growing social network, designed around the simple question "What are you doing?".  Essentially, users answer that question in 140 characters or less and post it so that all of their "followers" can see the answer.  Before you dismiss the network as banal, think about how you might watch for sales oopportunities or broadcast useful information on Twitter.

Here is a directory of real estate professionals using Twitter to build their businesses, today.

Watch this video to learn how to set up and use your Twitter account:

Social Media Marketing For REALTORs (Part 7): LinkedIn

LinkedIn is perhaps the "Grand-Daddy" of the social networks.  It is far more "professional" in its presentation and appeal than Facebook.  Over 42 million professionals from 200 countries are using LinkedIn today.

From the Linked In "About Us" page:

When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. You can then form enduring connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts. Through your network you can:

• Manage the information that’s publicly available about you as professional
• Find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject experts who come recommended
• Create and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files and solve problems
• Be found for business opportunities and find potential partners
• Gain new insights from discussions with likeminded professionals in private group settings
• Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
• Post and distribute job listings to find the best talent for your company

Here is a video about how I've used LinkedIn, since 2003, to build my customer base:

Social Media Marketing For REALTORs (Part 6): Facebook

Facebook is, in my opinion, one of the best social networks to be present.  Some statistics about Facebook:

• More than 200 million active users
• More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day
• More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
• The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older
• Average user has 120 friends on the site
• More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
• More than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day

Here is an instructional video about how I use Facebook for business:

Social Media Marketing For REALTORs (Part 5): Active Rain

ActiveRain.com is one of the coolest destination sites for REALTORs.  To date, over 150,000 real estate professionals have registered on the site; a good bumber of them use the free blogging platform it provides.  Active Rain has a nominal monthly fee for a consumer-facing weblog.

Active Rain's Brad Andersohn shows you how to set up an Active Rain profile:

Social Media Marketing For REALTORs (Part 4): Trulia

Trulia.com is another strong, national website which attracts both buyers and sellers.  In my opinion, Trulia is setting itself up as a national, online MLS search site.

Rudy Bachraty shows us how to set up a Trulia profile: