After several years of steady growth, the real estate market is showing signs of another downturn: an oversupply of available properties, stagnating prices, and increasing “days on market” are some of the signs that we are shifting to a buyer’s market.
Are you a real estate agent who has taken on several listings and has been working for weeks or months to get them sold? After a long period with no results, your sellers are likely to start calling you. Why hasn’t their property sold? What are you doing to market it? What else are you planning to do to make the sale?
I would like to share with you a few effective practices and ideas that have helped my own company get our listings sold, and hopefully these tips can help you, too—whether you need to revive a stale listing, or you need to convince a new seller why they need to list with you.
1. Start marketing the moment you sign the listing agreement
Once you’ve got a contract and secured your position, it’s time to get to work.
Harness the power of social media
Share a short preview of your new listing “coming soon to the market” across all your social media channels.
I applied this strategy in one of our most recent property flips, posting periodic updates on the renovation and its progress on Instagram (an ideal platform to share property photos), being sure to always tag the location, the neighborhood, and a combination of other pertinent keywords, as well as using the hashtag #miamirealestate.
On the day I announced we were ready to list, I got a call from a young woman who had been following my updates closely. She was looking to move into the area and wanted to know when we were hosting our first open house. Amazingly, this first caller and her husband ended up buying the home—all through the power of Instagram.
Let your fellow agents know
If your brokerage offers an intranet for agents to communicate, post a sneak peek of your property listing with the address and price for your fellow realtors to see. They might be already working with buyers who are looking to move into the neighborhood.
Don’t dismiss the good old real estate sign
Install your real estate sales sign as you walk away from the listing consultation. Add a “coming soon” sign to it, and make sure your contact information is prominently displayed. Anyone driving through the neighborhood will be alerted that the property is coming to the market soon, and they’ll have a chance to contact you for more information.
You can also be creative with your signs to make them stand out, like the one I saw recently that read “For Sale … Honey, back up the car!” It worked on me—I made my husband back up so I could read it.
2. Stage your listing to make it stand out
In those days when properties are flying off the shelves, sellers might be reluctant to consider the option of staging their home for sale, as it can be significant up-front investment. However, when competition is fierce, can you really afford to not stage and let the empty property sit on the market for months?
3. Make your Listings Interactive & Generate Leads
Apart from all the marketing efforts that you’ll make, it’s also important to make your listings look good. Nice photos and descriptions also work to a certain point, but what about collecting leads in an organized way? You can use real estate listing presentation tools to create interactive listings and share the link to your listing anywhere.
4. Add Bio, Pricing Table & Bidding Forms to your Listing Presentation
Marketing all aside, it is also important to briefly introduce yourself to your customers in your listing presentation. You never know where your link may end up and how you’ll generate leads, so make sure you give links to your social media accounts and list your contact information.
Remember that it is also important to prepare pricing lists and bidding forms. You can add interactive bidding forms that help you to collect leads in an organized way.
