The slow season is right around the corner, and with it comes a chance to re-assess your real estate marketing plan. With that in mind, here are some things you should consider when looking over your marketing plan.
It is absolutely critical that you double down on your real estate marketing plan as we head into the slow season. This year it’s even more imperative and here’s why:
Unlike those of us in the industry, real estate consumers don’t follow housing news closely. They take bites of it – from headlines, lead paragraphs of articles and skimming for information. What are they learning?
Never in the history of our industry (I just made that up, but it could very well be true) have we been hit from all sides like this. Let’s take a closer look at each one of these myths and get some tips on how to deal with them in your fall and winter real estate marketing plan.
Just for ducks, pretend I’m a home seller. Nine times out of 10, when I’m seeking information, the first thing I want to know is what my house is worth. Like so many home sellers, I’ll head to Zillow.com and check out their Zestimate for my home.
In the nav bar I click on “Sell.” The page I land on tells me that I can “Sell with confidence.” And that “Home selling is complicated. Zillow is changing that.”
Hey, sounds good. So, I read on.
Zillow is offering a program called Zillow Offers, I learn. With it, they promise I’ll “Skip the hassle” by selling my home “directly to Zillow.”
Not only that, they promise “no prep work or showings required.”
Wow. Can’t beat that. After all, I just surfed a local agent’s website and learned from him that selling a home is stressful, complicated, challenging, expensive and a nightmare.
Believe it or not, if you type “Selling a home is” into Google, these are the suggested topics. It’s not the disrupters telling people this about home selling. It’s you. And you. And you. I’m guilty of doing it too (but not anymore).
Notice that Zillow hits three of the biggest home selling pain points: it’s a hassle, I have to prepare my home and strangers will be coming and going while it’s on the market.
When I clicked the button to learn more, I am taken to a page that simply offers answers to the same pain points with a few new ones tossed in:
Only the first is unique to the iBuyer program (by not having to prepare the home — but at a cost). I’ve yet to meet an agent who doesn’t ask when their clients want to move. Choosing a closing date is pretty standard, although negotiable so it’s not set in stone.
And support? Something standard with professional, experienced agents.
Notice the one thing they don’t promise: that the consumer will save money. They completely ignore one of the biggest pain points for sellers: the cost. The commission, or the “fee” in their case.
Now compare this to the average real estate marketing plan to homeowners. They, too, play up the pain points, but they don’t solve them. They bring them up to scare the consumer into working with an agent.
On too many of their websites we are met with lengthy lists of ways to improve the home before putting it on the market, tons of tips on home staging, admonishments on what to clean before showings, reminders to get out in the yard and do yet more work.
Sure, this is all important information, but can’t you save it until after the ink dries on the listing contract?
Compare the seller section on your site to this one, on Zillow. Read it from a home seller’s point of view and consider which you would choose.
Consider simplifying your seller section – lots more white space, fewer words, focus on solutions (not problems) and give them only enough compelling information so that they pick up the phone, or put fingers to an email.
Sure, accuse me of wearing a tin foil cap that’s a bit too tight; I’m fine with that.
The fact is, for the past few months I’ve found half-truths, no-truths and deliberate attempts to mislead the public into perceiving the housing market as being in the doldrums in far too much media coverage.
Expand those same treatments to the fear mongering over a looming recession and it makes for some very nervous homebuyers and sellers.
Few real estate consumers you’ll work with are economists. They don’t follow the financial pages closely, if at all.
As mentioned earlier, they seem to prefer their news in “sound bites, “headlines” and other quick bits of information. And, if they hear something often enough, they will believe it, without bothering to get the facts.
If you’ve ever read the comments on an online news story you understand that many don’t understand that recessions are a natural part of our economic cycle. Most don’t get that the economy should’ve contracted years ago and that we are now in the longest economic expansion in our history.
They don’t know that.
They need to know that if you hope to keep them optimistic about the real estate market. So incorporate some information-spreading into your real estate marketing plan.
It’s up to you to tell them the truth. Get talking, get blogging, get to socializing on social media – but get the word out that the housing market is humming along just fine right now.
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