In the Moonlight

Looking to make your open house stand out and tap a new open house market? Try hosting a Twilight Open House from around 5-8pm. Turn all of the porch lights on, use the outdoor firepit if there is one, have appetizers & background music. Everyone is so busy on weekends. Maybe a weekday would be easier for people to come to. Try a Thursday night. Not everyone has the weekend off. The thought of something new might entice them. Host it like an event, not just and open house. How to get them there?

1. Send out an eflyer to local agents or mail invitations.


2. Send out an invitation via mail to the neighborhood and nearby neighborhoods. If you're feeling up to it, walk the neighborhood and hand out the invitations.


3. Give some invitations to your sellers to invite their friends & family. Sellers can be your best resource for word-of-mouth advertising.


4. Post an ad on Craigslist and other classified sites.

P.S. Twilight can be a great time to get beautiful home shots that really say Welcome Home.

Harvest Time

It's harvest time - are you reaping a good crop? Yes, I'm talking about farming and want to focus on ways to farm in your own neighborhood. You are the agent that is most invested in the property values and quick sales of the homes in your neighborhood. Hopefully, no other agent knows your neighborhood better than you. Here are some ideas to get you started.

-Mail Holiday cards.

-Host a neighborhood garage sale.

-Hand out seasonal promotional items - walk your neighborhood to pass them out. (mini pumpkins, boxes of pencils, etc. - all with a card featuring a real estate theme)

-Take walks and talk to people.

-Need an ice breaker? Buy a box of popsicles and hand them out on a hot summer day to the kids playing (with their parents' permission first - this will get you talking to them).

Slow times are the best times to market and to get to know the people in your neighborhood. These times force us to focus on the much needed fertilizer that will grant us a good crop for years to come.

What is your favorite way to farm your own neighborhood? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Nit-Picking at Homes & Lifestyles

While visiting Salt Lake City this month I picked up a Homes Illustrated magazine, the equivalent of the Homes & Lifestyles magazine in the Michiana Area. I love looking at homes but I especially enjoy looking at other agents’ marketing tactics. Some ads are appealing and enticing. Others need some help. My intent is not to offend anyone and I hope that does not happen but I am using this post to help agents better market themselves and their listings and visuals help. I’ve removed references to names, websites and contact info in the ads to protect the innocent.

Ad #1 Names

This is a simple real estate team ad. You have your standard catchphrase, phone numbers, agent photos and email addresses as well as a web address. But there is something critical missing. NAMES!!! When I call a phone number I’d like a name to use. I can assume one of the agents is John Everitt based solely on his email address but the other address is even vaguer. ‘JWilkinson88’ could be anything and if this is a company email (@kw.com is Keller Williams) why is there an ‘88’ in the email address? That resembles more of an AOL account. It seems like it would be a no-brainer but apparently it’s not. ALWAYS USE YOUR NAME! You are paying to advertise yourself.

BOTTOM LINE: Use your name.


Ad #2 Photos



Many times agencies will line up their agents photos in their ads and place their contact information alongside. I’m not sure about other consumers but for me that is a really difficult way to pick out a real estate agent. So, what do consumers do? They judge by a picture to see who they want to investigate further. An agent can’t expect a consumer to go through all of the agents. Consumers do a quick analysis and if you just give them your photo and name, they will judge based on the information provided. It’s only natural. So, use your best photo! The middle and the end agents in this line up are blurred and pixilated. I would immediately rule out these agents simply based on the bad pictures. Horrible but true. If I can’t see your face in your photo I will quickly eliminate you and I’m afraid other consumers will pass you over just as quickly. Take the time to provide a high quality photo for your advertisements or you are wasting your money. The same can be said for listing photos. Take the time and care to make your listings look good. You owe it to your sellers. I’ve seen million dollar properties that have blurry photos. If I were the seller I would feel cheated, especially when I see other agents providing professional real estate photos taken by a photographer for their listings. I would consider relisting with another agent. And, the aforementioned home was a builder’s personal home- a client that could possibly lead to much more business.

BOTTOM LINE: Use high-quality photos.

Ad #3 Design Elements


I can’t spend the amount of time necessary to analyze this ad because it hurts my head to look at it! The background is nice but it’s too prominent. It makes it difficult to focus on what I, the consumer, should be paying attention to – the homes! The text is way too small and uses all caps in a font that is not easy to read. This font should only be used for headlines and it must be bigger. It is a bit stretched out as well, but not everywhere. One more thing to mention – it’s hard to figure out which descriptions match up with each photo. It took me a while to figure out why. I mean, they line up and that should be enough, right? Apparently not to the mind’s eye. The photos are not all of exterior shots. So, the interior shots make me feel like they are all part of the same house.

BOTTOM LINE(S): Use easy to read text (no stretching, use proper case, consistent sizing)
Don’t let your background overpower the content
Keep it consistent

It was really fun to look through the Homes Illustrated magazine and I will make it a point to do so more frequently at home. It was a wonderful learning experience. Do the same with your own magazine. It’s easier to critique others’ ads than your own. Analyze what works for you as a consumer and take it to your next campaign.

P.S. I find it is easier to do this with a magazine from an area that is not your own. You won’t go into the magazine with biases or assumptions. regarding the agents. Have fun!

Marketing at 70mph

Being on vacation and in a city that is not my own has taught me a lot about how real estate agents market their listings and what works for me as a buyer. Calm down, I'm not purchasing but I am the public since I am not an agent. How do you make sure buyers can find you and your listings? Yard signs? Homes & Lifestyles ads? Those are good but you need to start thinking like someone who has never been to our area. Think like a foreigner. Use your vacation this year to get that feeling and try to figure out what you would do as a consumer to search for real estate. I've driven along I-80 in Salt Lake City and see huge banners strung across homes saying 'For Sale'. There's a phone number below it. But see, the problem is that I AM DRIVING 70MPH and can't really write down a phone number!! I drive by a listing and see a brokerage sign. Again, a phone number. Too many numbers. I pass on. So, I go to my trusted friend, my computer, and do a Google search for 'Salt Lake City real estate'. I assume this is what a lot of buyers do, too. I picked the 2nd listing because it had the word 'Best' in the title. I did all of this without thinking about why I did it. I was not in analytical mode. I was in consumer mode. Here's what I want as a consumer. I want web addresses! I want an email address! No, I am not buying immediately but you need to capture the buyers when they are non-committal mode. Turn them into buyers. It may take months but get them to your website and keep them there with a home search. Grab them while they still don't have a REALTOR. While you are on vacation this year, use the opportunity to think like a foreigner. Think like someone who knows nothing about real estate. Most importantly, think like someone who is driving 70mph.

Do You Twitter?

I know. There are so many new programs/interfaces/networks popping up everyday and it's a daunting task to sort through them all. One of those new applications is Twitter. With Twitter, you can post what you are doing at any time throughout the day. My first thought was, "why would anyone care what I'm doing?" After giving it some thought I figured it could be a great way for me to subtly remind agents about what I could be doing for them as their VA. I am planning on posting the projects I am working on (without the customer's name of course). That way, an agent may think of hiring me for the same type of project or it may give them an idea. My second question was, "how could real estate agents use this app?" I can't think of any. Can you?

P.S. I've also added my Twitter to my website and blog.

Need Repeat Traffic?

One of the most important reasons to have a website is to create a reason for visitors to visit your site - over and over again. Lots of people, real estate agents included, don't offer a solid reason for consumers to revisit their sites. Add some value - add a widget. I've just added a document/url to pdf converter to my services page .

So, for everyone out there - if you ever need something converted to pdf form, please visit my site and you can do so there for FREE. All you do is upload your document or paste in your url and you will receive an email back with the pdf attached. I hope you enjoy pdf conversion as much as I do. Really, I do.

Where do you draw the line?

I respect my customers' personal marketing tricks/techniques and want to honor them. In order to do that I need to draw a line firmly in the sand as to what IS personal marketing and what is public marketing? I am often asked for advice about how to market a home. Obviously you have postcards, flyers, internet marketing, etc. That's common knowledge. That's not protected marketing in my opinion. What IS protected marketing would be custom verbiage, perspective, and branding. What are your thoughts? Where would you draw the line?

Farming Contest Idea

I was in the process last night of coming up with new Just Listed marketing ideas when I had an idea along a different line. I wanted to come up with something that was different from what most agents are currently doing and I wanted a way to utilize farming postcards more effectively. So, here's my idea:

Select a farming area
Send ALL Just Listed/Just Sold/Farming postcards to this area ONLY
Start a contest that goes like this - the first person to collect and keep 10 of the agent's postcards and calls the agent will receive a $50 or $100 restaurant gift certificate.

Here's what this would accomplish:

1.Several, if not many, people will start collecting the postcards and holding onto them, giving them more of a shelf life and more effective marketing
2.Residents will be excited to collect another postcard and will watch for them in anticipation
3. Many people will collect 10. They will ALL call into the office to speak to the agent. A relationship is born and the agent will stick out in their minds when they think of listing their homes.

Tangent Thought Here's something I don't understand and maybe someone can enlighten me. Wouldn't it be more effective to send Just Sold postcards to the same farming area every time instead of just doing the homes around the house an agent just sold? I mean, the neighborhood around the home MAY have someone looking to sell and they may not. This postcard could be the only postcard the homeowner ever receives from the agent and so the agent is pushed out of their minds just like the other agents who only send them one card. If the agent send the postcards to a selected farm area each and every time they will see how much work the agent is doing, how much they are selling, and agent recognition is much more promising.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

A 'Widget' WHAT??

We all know to get listings on the internet because that is where the buyers are looking. Period. My Assistant provides a service to our agents that syndicates their listings to 10-12 classified websites. We do this via a Postlet (www.postlets.com). It's a free site (we charge $7 for the input, maintenance, and upload to Craigslist). We also design a flyer for the agent to give to their sellers (printing costs extra). Postlets provides a property widget (3 size samples below). I'm trying to find ways to use these widgets and would love your input. Here are my ideas thus far - 1) websites to feature listings, 2) blogs 3) would love to be able to embed in an email - any ideas?

Small:

Medium:

Large:

New Slideshow

Have I said this before: I LOVE TECHNOLOGY! Seriously, I am in love with it. I get most excited over finding applications and ideas that are easy and truly useful. Where is this going?

I've recently (today) added a flyer/postcard/misc. slideshow to my blog page. It's awesome! I can't wait to add more to it as I do more work.

I know what you are thinking - "Why do I care?" Well here's my thought:

On your own webpage you could add a slideshow of your featured properties or maybe on your testimonials page add a slideshow of satisfied customers. Pictures are worth 1,000 words. Make those pictures work for you.

Need more info on setting up a slideshow for your webpage? Call or email me.