Realtor© Low Or No Cost Marketing Strategies For 2023

Wade Webb on February 22, 2023

realtor marketing strategies low or no cost 2023Want to know the best Realtor© low or no cost marketing strategies for 2023?

Traditionally best source of free leads has been Cold calling and Door Knocking, but let’s be real. When I first started in the early 90’s you grabbed the phone book or the criss cross directory and my managing broker told me to start “dialing for dollars”. In this day and age, those aren’t the only methods to choose from. (And honestly, they may not even work as well as they once did.) I want to share with you 20+ tried and tested low or no cost marketing ideas for generating free leads that actually result in revenue and work for many of my coaching clients today! Let’s start with a complete checklist of free lead gen ideas broken down by must-haves and nice-to-haves. How many of these are you already using? Which ones would be the easiest to integrate with your current lead management system?

The Must-Haves:

  • Past clients
  • Sphere Of Influence
  • Referrals – Agent and Client
  • Reviews
  • For Sale By Owner
  • Expired ( If Permitted )
  • Partner with a lender and attorney
  • Open House
  • Use landing pages + Drip email sequence

The Nice-to-Haves:

  • Phone duty
  • Video content
  • Virtual tours and open houses
  • Volunteer, speak at, or attend free community events
  • Moving companies
  • Marriage announcements
  • Start a blog
  • Connect on social media
  • Answer questions on Quora
  • Door knocking
  • Cold calling
  • Housewarming party

So Where to Get Real Estate Leads In 2023?

 

#1. Office On Call Phone Duty – Great for Warm Buyer Leads. Sometimes old school is the best school. Most agents never considered it because it seemed old school. I know that agents hate traditional phone duty because they have to sit in the office and answer the phone. One reason agents become agents is so that they’re not chained to a desk But, the results are undeniable. Agents found that people that call in want to talk with an agent right now. They don’t want to talk to a receptionist, or a Client Concierge, they want to talk with a knowledgeable agent. Since you are immediately satisfying that need, your conversions go through the roof. We were converting around 1/3 receptionist call-ins in the past. We’re now converting almost 100% of the qualified inbound calls. It’s been a massive success. Set up a virtual phone duty with your broker. Follow simple rules like ‘don’t schedule an appointment’ and ‘pull over to talk if the call you take is a lead. Record all of the calls to identify opportunities for improvement.

#2. Video Content – Best Way to Consistently Generate Free Leads. Video is quickly becoming a winning formula for real estate marketing. Shoot a video titled Why You Should Move to (your town) that introduces you as your town’s ambassador and will bring you two to five property deals over time. So, what’s the secret formula for creating irresistible video content? Everyone should have a YouTube channel and create playlists that focus on the community, sellers and buyers and quick tips. create both professional and iPhone videos. I know that not everyone is comfortable with staring into the camera, but the way she sees it, we’ve already spent most of 2020 living through an uncomfortable reality. We have to get comfortable being uncomfortable, right?

#3. Housewarming Party – An Instant Source of Free Warm Leads. As a token of your appreciation, you are the event planner for your client’s housewarming event as their thank you gift from you. Ask them for their guest list and take care invites, food, beverage etc. All event long you are being introduced to their friends and family attending the party. It’s a great way for the agent to bring additional value to their client and meet the client’s potential referrals for additional business.

#4. Smile, Dial, Email – Timeless Lead Gen for Unprecedented Times. No secret sauce, just consistently smiling and dialing. Your goal comes to get 5 nurtures a day minimum and to keep building my weekly email. One coaching client closed 10 transactions 30% of my business from a weekly email this year. 10 transactions from an email newsletter? Send a survey asking if they have any real estate plans the coming year. Don’t ask you don’t get! There’s literally no reason not to do this.

#5. Client & Agent Referrals – Best Way to Get Quality Leads, Totally Free. According to the NAR, 64% of sellers found their agent through a referral from a friend, neighbor, or relative—or used an agent they had worked with before to buy or sell a home. Referrals cost you nothing—all you have to do is stay connected with the people you know and make sure that you’re top of mind when they or someone they know decide to transact. What could be easier (or cheaper!) than that, right? Repeat and no fee referrals are always the most profitable and reliable. All my coaching clients generate 50-85% of their business from this source.”

#6. The Property Neighbors’ Sphere of Influence – A Completely Original Source for Trusted Referrals. Everyone talks about taking advantage of your sphere of influence, but have you ever considered reverse engineering the sphere of influence of a neighborhood to get new listings? Here’s how you do it: When your buyer looks at a property in a neighborhood but doesn’t buy the property, statistically a new listing is going to come up in that neighborhood in the next 30 days and you’ve got what the potential seller wants…buyers. This is when you should send out a letter to the neighborhood and call the neighbors with the same message/dialogue.

“Hi (neighbor), My name is (Agent Name) and I work with (Brokerage Name) and I just wanted to let you know that I showed your neighbor’s property over at (Address) the other day. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a perfect match for them but as I’m sure you are not surprised, they absolutely loved the neighborhood!” “What they are looking for is (describe just about every house in the neighborhood).” “Can you do me a favor? If you or anyone you know is even considering selling, could you please let me know right away? I may be able to sell your house without it ever even hitting the market.”

Brilliant, right? Use the same template when they have a buyer looking for a house. The student records a video that lets their audience know what the buyer is looking for but with a specific ask – reach out if the audience or anyone they know is considering selling, because they may be able to sell their house without it ever hitting the market. Then the agent promotes that video to the target town/city so that everyone sees it and reaches out to them if they are thinking of selling or if they know anyone that is.

#7. Third Party Reviews – The New Word of Mouth for Real Estate Leads Targeting millennials or younger buyers? Reviews are the way to go. According to Consumerist, almost 70% of consumers check online reviews before making a purchase. But just like everything else, it’s all about your level of commitment. Millennials make up a third of the buying population. A millennial goes to 8 to 12 different sites before they pick up the phone and talk to an agent. What do they do when they get to 8 to 12 of those sites? They read the reviews. Watch people coming to your site in the analytics—they log in, and then they go to the review page and read every one of your reviews before they even pick up the phone and call. The conversation on getting reviews starts on day one when you meet the client.

#8. Blogging – Best Way to Attract Quality Leads. One of the best decisions I ever made in my real estate career was to start a real estate blog. Blogging is one of those free lead gen unicorns—when you’re blogging the leads seem to magically drop from the sky. But free doesn’t mean easy. It all comes down to intention and commitment. Provide a wealth of knowledge to buyers and sellers to help make sound business decisions. Buyers and sellers love working with knowledgeable real estate agents. By having a recognizable blog, you can readily show off your expertise to those who are buying or selling a home. Over the years my blog has brought a substantial amount of yearly business. In fact, it is one of my top lead generators.”

A blog as a top lead generator? Believe it. Real Estate blogging is certainly not for everyone. Like anything else, it takes time and dedication. It is not a magic bullet that will bring significant amounts of business unless you put in the effort. This means you need to have exceptionally good content combined with a strong grasp of both search engine optimization, as well as solid social media promotion. Without proper digital marketing your blog will be lost in the shuffle. Alternatively, you could try a tool like Keeping Current Matters or CityBlast that automatically publishes blog and email content, creates downloadable guides and posts personalized updates on your social media accounts for a set monthly fee. Another option is to hire a real estate VA with marketing or blogging experience or look for an affordable content writer and marketer on sites like Fiverr and Upwork. You’ll still need to set aside time to generate relevant content ideas, proofread and promote the work but a great freelancer can significantly cut down on the time you spend researching and writing, making it way easier to stick to a consistent publishing schedule. Finally, if you’re determined to make a go of blogging, make sure you set up a drip campaign to capture and nurture any leads that come in via the blog.

#9. Niche Marketing Websites – An Amazing Organic Source for Ready-to-Convert Real Estate Leads. Thanks to various changes in Google’s search algorithm, building a niche website is now another surefire approach to rank higher on search engines than non-targeted sites. Best of all, it’s completely organic through and through. Buy the domain moveto (your town) .org .com .ca then hire a full-time content writer to write or write yourself to gain enough traction and generate leads and a robust pipeline. Create a local guide on all things (your town) and start attracting some seriously motivated leads. Agents are getting about 10-15 leads monthly. That’s not much but they are much more likely to convert. Target organic leads by targeting topics like ‘rent vs. buy (your town)’, ‘Master Planned Communities’, and ‘Reasons to Move to (your town). Then retarget to landing pages that have property listings or other information about choosing a Realtor.

#10. Thank You Card & Handwritten Notes. Most Beautifully Simple Source of Free Leads. You know, as a new agent you’re blindsided by a million other things. You just need to talk to a lot of people and get over the fear of cold calling. After talking go drop off a simple thank you card and those changes everything. In the age of automated everything, Brandon’s all about keeping the personal touch. And at $1 per card, the ROI on this lead source can’t be beat. Just write a handwritten thank you card like, ‘Hey Jill, great talking to you. Thank you so much for your time. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you. And then I put your business card in there and seal it up. Easy!

#11. Craigslist, Kijiji, Classifieds – Great for Free Diamond-in-the-rough Leads. Never take a lead for granted and that includes leads from Craigslist. Some of my coaching clients most reliable source of free leads has been another source that most agents or people sometimes no longer feel is relevant or also frowned upon or thought of not to be the savviest… Craigslist.

#12. Open House – Golden Opportunity to Get Buyer & Seller Leads. Most agents have been programmed to think that it’s a waste of time. Like all marketing, if they do one and don’t get much out of it, they generally fall into that bucket. To me, it’s the easiest and least expensive way to get people in front of you. However, you need to have a system like everything else to make it profitable. Systems = profits. The best tip for bringing in free leads via open houses is don’t advertise open houses and use lots of signs. This way if someone walks into your open house and they would like to look at property, I just close the door. You need to make sure you have every possible cross street covered with an open house sign. The more signs the better. But what if you can’t meet for an in-person open house? Agents have sold houses with digital open houses and virtual tours and use Calendly to capture the lead info, then plug them into your CRM for focused follow up.

#13. Internet Community Pages – Perfect Source of Free Buyer and Relocating Leads. There’s a little-known content marketing tip that only the best of real estate marketers typically take advantage of: Community Pages. Often, any buyer looking to move into a new area is going to do some extensive research. By setting up community pages on your website YOU become the local go to expert. Here’s what makes a great community page:

Community pages are filled with information buyers would love to know about. Things like the quality of the schools, area attractions such as lakes and parks. Where people do their shopping, etc. They can be filled with an endless amount of information. The best community pages are crazy detailed! These kinds of pages should be optimized so they come up in search for things like “Realtors (your town)” and “Top Real Estate agents (your town)”. Consumers who are searching in Google with terms like these may be looking to hire an agent immediately!

#14. Quora – Most Untapped Source of Leads. A huge untapped online community like Quora is one of the top respondents for all things real estate, for getting you name, face and web link in front of thousands of online buyers every day. With over 200 million monthly unique visitors, Quora’s Q&A entries regularly show up on Google’s page 1, and some are re-published by major sites like Forbes and Inc. Plus, it’s completely free. All you need is an email address and you’re in. Start by looking for questions that have been asked repeatedly. If a question has been asked more than once, chances are the answers (both on Quora and Google) aren’t that great.‍

#15. Wear Your Company Name Badge – Easiest Way to Get Free Leads. Ever take every cushion off your couch hunting for your glasses, only to realize they’re right on top of your head? Sometimes the most obvious things are hidden in plain sight. The simple name badge is one of those things. Here’s a great tip… An often-overlooked way to generate leads is to wear your name badge or company wear such as a hat or polo shirt. When people ask, ‘Oh, you’re in real estate—how’s the market? Be prepared with a concise answer about how much inventory is on the market, how much prices are increasing or declining, and offer to send them a free report on their property. Agents can use a Realtors Property Resource (RPR) to gather this data quickly and of course, you need their contact information to send them the report. Name badges have long been used by maintenance service companies to establish a connection with the client and develop trust. So, why not real estate?

#16. For Sale By Owner (FSBOs) – Excellent Lead Source for Agents with the Right Approach. There are those who shake their fists at FSBOs and there are those who go out and convert them into free sources of multiple millions in revenue. FSBOs are one of the best and most reliable sources of free leads out there. “Literally millions in commissions!” can be made. The trick as usual is to start the conversation by listening and offering value. Remember, there is a good chance this seller has been burned by an agent before, and that’s why they’re attempting to go it alone. Start the conversation by asking why they’re selling. Take time to listen, get to know their motivations and build a personal connection. Offer advice or insight on the market wherever relevant. Once you feel like you’ve truly heard them and offered them some genuinely helpful info, ask if they want any help finding a buyer. They might turn you down flat the first time. That’s ok. Ask if you can check back in on them in a few weeks then add them to your CRM for simple, friendly follow up. Sometimes it can take a few quiet weeks (or months) in the market before they come around to the idea of working with you.

#17. Ask Engaging Power Questions – Most Powerful Way to Get Free Listings. Leveraging for rent by owners and FSBOs, calling expired listings and nurturing your SOI are all classic (and classically overlooked!) ways to bring in tons of free leads. But sometimes what matters most isn’t which lead source you choose, but how you choose to approach those leads. The best way to bring in more free leads is to simply ask questions: Ask questions – How can I help your business? What does your perfect client look like? Focus on providing service and coming from a spirit of contribution – the leads will come.

#18. Farmers Markets, Swap Meets and Flea Markets – Don’t be afraid to take free leads where he can find them. That includes local swap meets, flea markets and farmers markets. The craziest ideas for lead generation are sometimes the least wanted or the most frowned upon or things that people might think don’t work. If you do frequent swap meets, flea markets and farmers markets. It totally works even though many agents feel it’s an undesirable type of method. There’s something to be said for getting out there and networking with real people. Remember, when it comes to free lead gen, it doesn’t matter what’s popular. All that matters is that it works for your unique real estate business.

#19. Social Media (Evidence Of Success) – Great Way to Get Real Estate Leads Who Already Like You. You didn’t think we were going to leave social media off the list, did you? Depending on how you approach it, social media can either be a major time drain or a brilliant way of nurturing your connections. Here’s his awesome advice for using your social media to nurture your SOI without feeling salesy or sleazy: Your sphere of influence is still an extremely overlooked source of business. The key is to not bombard your network with boring, worthless “asks” for business. Instead, you should simply be reminding your network that you’re a real estate agent, and that you’re a local expert. Posting on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat is a great way to do that, as long as you’re providing something of value to your network (education, humor, etc), along with the occasional humblebrag if you receive an award, or some recognition for something. Even a sincere humbled, gratitude post for helping a buyer or seller buyer or sell versus bragging I just sold or I just listed. I’m talking maybe once a month, or less. But if done tactfully, those humblebrags help your network see that you’re good at what you do. You heard it from the pro. Relax and have fun on social media. It can lead to some great free leads. BONUS: Use inktr.ee tool to capture leads off social media content!!!

#20. Instagram – Easiest Source for Warm Organic Leads. It’s all organic, with posts that are more lifestyle posts and less about sales. We want people to follow us because they like our post then reach out to us for help because they like our brand and how we do things. It’s been working well and that’s exactly what happens. Leads come in from the posts and stories. From there, you follow up via DM to connect and convert. It’s easy, organic and extremely cost-effective.

#21. Shock & Awe Marketing – Funniest Way to Get Free Real Estate Leads. Every so often, it pays to go a little rogue with your marketing. The most innovative idea I ever heard of was an agent had a house that was zoned for commercial use that was located in an area where there were a lot of attorneys. She created a marketing piece that looked as if the attorney she was sending it to was being served in a lawsuit. The strategy generated leads and she sold the property. I love the expired listing paper towel tube in the mail that looks like a stick of red dynamite with the expired letter inside. Sometimes it pays to think outside the box (or, zone in this case) and do what you’ve got to do to grab the attention of your local market. Don’t be afraid to get creative.

#22. Knock on Doors – Most Classic Way to Get Real Estate Leads The level of “craziness” of this free lead gen idea is debatable. Some die-hards in Facebook groups will claim this is the best way to get free leads, but you have to wonder, do they actually get out there and do it? Tip! Knock on doors in a neighborhood where you have a qualified buyer that wants to buy and say ‘Quick question: do you want to sell your house? My buyer wants to buy here. Not sure? Talk to the Family and call me tomorrow.’ Yes. It worked. If nobody is home then leave a door hanger with the same written message and they will call as well off the door hanger! Sometimes you just never get, until you ask. While it may seem old school, knocking on doors is still a proven way to get free leads. If you’ve got the guts, go for it.

#23. Serving & Give Back – Most Fulfilling Way to Get Buyer and Seller Leads. If you focus on service like some agents do the business will come simply by connecting with the community. Serving the community and throwing great social events creates an amazing amount of people that want to reciprocate by working with you. Get involved in at least one non-profit and build your spheres through acts of charity and service. You’re meeting people in your community who want to do good. It’s not really service to transaction, it’s service to relationship. We want to build a network that people want to be a part of.

#24. Become a Community Catalyst – Crazy Simple Way to Get a Long-lasting Source of Leads. Your commitment to becoming THE go-to expert in your community. As real estate develops, knowledge is what makes agents more valuable to buyers. Buyers don’t want to spend time learning. As an agent, you’re the catalyst—the connector between the buyer and their new community. It’s your job to open that door and make it as easy as possible for them to walk through it.

So there you have it, a ton of great ideas for generating free real estate leads. Before you run off, we want to give you one last piece of advice. When done right, free lead gen can bring in a ton of revenue for your real estate business, but if you go into it with the wrong intention, it can backfire horribly. Don’t do this: Go to a friend’s wedding, and “sponsor” the gift bags for guests… and put your business cards, branded pens, and other absurd, unimpressive swag in the gift bags! Do not put out signs around the gift bag table promoting you and your business. Why not? Well, how would you like it if you went to a wedding and were bombarded with advertisements from some random business? You’re hijacking your friend’s wedding to get more business. But what you’re really doing is making people angry and ensuring that they’d never hire you in a million years. How tacky and inappropriate. Next time maybe you should sponsor the punch bowl at a funeral! Leads can get pricey and real estate is a high-pressure business, but the moral of this story is to ALWAYS check the situation and environment before attempting to grab leads. Leads might not cost money, but you’d better be giving something meaningful and valuable in return– and prospecting ethically! The most reliable source [of free leads] for our clients is giving great service and then implementing a great Database/CRM Value Add Plan with regular contact in a variety of ways. Feel free to share with me ways that you are generating legit leads without spending any money, would love to add them to 2023 list.

Strength and courage,
Wade

Agents Boost Most Read Posts For 2021

Wade Webb on January 5, 2022

2021 was another great year for Agents Boost thanks to you our readers. Again we had thousands of visitors from countries all over the world checking out our new and seasoned posts. Out of our years of contributions the 10 Ten read post by our agents for the year were as follows.

1. F.O.R.D. – Learn the Secret to Engage Your Clients

develop self confidence as a realtor with clients

2. Powerful Pre Listing Appointment Questionnaire

Pre listing Questionare

3. The Top 7 Prospecting Methods In Real Estate

real estate prospecting

4. The Secrets to Getting More Offers Accepted in Todays Market

present real estate offers

5. Shocking Real Estate Sales Stats That Will Change How You Do Business

real estate sales statistics

6. Do You Have Systems, Checklists and Processes?

real estate systems

7. The Top Agents Daily Checklist

millionaire realtor check list

8. Getting More Listings In 2021

get more real estate listings 2021

9. Must Read Books For Real Estate Agents In 2021

10. How Do I Schedule More Real Estate Appointments?

schedule real estate appointments

 

Strength and Courage,
Wade

Generate Unlimited No Cost Buyer and Seller Leads

Wade Webb on March 31, 2021

buyer seller realtor leadsWhat if I told you that there was an unlimited, free source of brand new Buyer and Seller leads out there that you could tap into at any time? And I’m not talking about a list you already have, or getting referrals from your existing sphere. I’m talking about using a platform with as many viewers as Zillow – or even Netflix – that you’ve probably heard of, but aren’t using to generate new deals on a consistent basis… sound too good to be true?

I’d like to introduce you to Craigslist – and before you write this off just let me show you why it’s one of the most under-utilized opportunities for real estate agents today. Yes….Craigslist. As I alluded to above, Craigslist is one of the top 15 most-viewed websites in the United States – going back and forth with Zillow currently sitting at #14, and far above Netflix positioned at #17. This is because communities throughout the United States and Canada still primarily rely on Craigslist to find professional services, jobs, goods for sale, community events and yes… even Real Estate. Also, did I mention it’s FREE? If you use Craigslist to your advantage, it can become a fantastic source of fresh leads to grow your Power List and generate deals. However, I’ll warn you – some of the methods we’re going to discuss in this article, and over the coming weeks, might seem unconventional… but they’re used with great success by agents across the country.

The Method is split into three parts:

1. Create “Listing+” Ads
2. Set Up a “2nd Opportunity” Email Auto Responder
3. Be Safe With Online Leads

Let’s break them down for you….

1. Create “Listing+” Ads. Craigslist is a great place to post active listings (for free!) and gain exposure for a property. However, you don’t need to have listings of your own to implement this strategy. As a side note, many agents who are already posting their listings to Craigslist aren’t structuring them correctly, so people don’t respond and they’re not getting the value they could. So, what do I mean by “Listing+”?

Posting a listing to get exposure for a property is great, but the real value of the posting is in the opportunity to generate new leads from it. That’s why if you don’t currently have any listings – or even if you do, but they’re not going to attract the type of buyers and sellers you’re looking to work with, it’s totally acceptable to promote another agent’s active listings. Sometimes you might even get better results than with your own.

You’ll need to talk to the listing agent before promoting their property, however it’s usually somewhat easy to find a colleague who would appreciate the extra exposure for their listing – think of it like sitting in on an open house for another agent. Once you have a property to promote, it’s all about giving people a “Dual Call To Action”. Normally, marketing experts recommend focusing on only one thing, but I told you we’d be covering some unconventional methods! To meet Craigslist’s Terms, and gain maximum exposure, your primary call to action needs to relate to the property. However, it seems you can add a secondary call to action with related information which often turns out to be more effective at generating leads than the property itself.

2. Set Up An Auto Responder. So far I’ve covered all of the value you can get directly from a Craigslist Cash™ Listing+ Ad, but that’s just one of many opportunities you’ll have to offer value and convert a client from a Craigslist posting. When viewers “Reply” to your post you’ll receive an email which you’ll want to respond to immediately. The best way to do this is to use an auto-responder which gives people information about the property, but don’t stop there! Present your lead with valuable information and a reason to contact you. The trick is picking the correct offer to go along with the listing you’re promoting and using the correct Direct Response Language to get people to work with you.

3. Be Safe With Online Leads. No strategy to meet new people is complete without considering your safety a #1 priority. I had to add this third part because I want to stress how important it is to be safe with any – and all – of your online prospecting activities. Here are a few guidelines to ensure that you and your clients stay safe out there: Verify any new lead is a real person by having a conversation over the phone before any in-person meetings are to take place. If you can arrange a video meeting, that’s even better!

Google the lead to verify that their social profiles, or professional profiles, match up with who they say they are. Always meet in public for the first time. Whether it’s at your office or a coffee shop, hosting a meeting in public will give you a good opportunity to assess the situation before moving ahead with a client. Another option is to find a “showing buddy” (another agent) who will show properties to online lead sources with you – obviously you returning the favor works wonders for the relationship.

Finally – Trust your gut 100% – if it doesn’t feel right for any reason or no reason at all, you don’t have to work with anyone. No deal is worth your safety.

Let me know if you are using this already and the success you’re having with it in the comments below.

Love to hear from you!

Strength and courage,
Wade

Must Read Books For Real Estate Agents In 2021

Wade Webb on February 24, 2021

A quick Amazon search for real estate books comes up with over 60,000 titles. There is no shortage of coverage on the subject. Whether you are a real estate agent looking to increase your business or an investor looking to grow your real estate portfolio, here is the list of top 10 best books for real estate agents in 2021. Every one of these books have been hand chosen because I believe they have had the most impact on my success as a real estate agent, broker and coach. I’ve made it my goal for many years now to read a book a month. This goal is in addition to the numerous blog posts, YouTube videos, and podcasts I follow and listen to. I feel that it’s crucial always to be learning new things. I’ve never picked up a book that I didn’t learn something new. I honestly attribute any success that I’ve had in business, personal, and life in general to a never-ending quest for knowledge and books is a significant part of that. This year I challenge you to set a goal for reading books, whether it be through Audible, Scribd, Google Play Books, Apple Books or Blinklist ( my personal favorite) in the car or setting time aside to read. Pick some number of books that you are going to read this year and stick to it. You’ll be amazed at what reading will do. Not just for your knowledge but your hunger for more information!

 

1. The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller. – It’s like the realtor’s bible. Read this and it’ll spell out all pieces of the business that any agent should plan to invest their time in. Covers lead generation, leverage, mechanics of the business, and finances. Start here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The Conversion Code by Chris Smith. – This book by Chris Smith, who I’ve watched and learned from afar, is one of THE best books for real estate agents on internet lead generation and conversion. I read this book in the summer of 2017. I had already been doing internet lead generation for years in a big way but got WAY more out of this book than I could have ever imagined. It has since quadrupled my lead generation and vastly improved my conversion process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. 6 Steps to 7 Figures by Pat Hiban. – I’ve listened to his podcast, Real Estate Rockstars for years. He’s interviewed some of the best minds in real estate. This book is his step-by-step guide to creating success in real estate. All steps are relevant and spot on to truly having success in this business. Pat’s all about actionable content so be prepared to have a lot to do after reading this book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Your First Year in Real Estate by Dirk Zeller. – It’s no mystery that your first year in real estate is likely going to be the most challenging year you face. Many agents give up before even hitting their one year mark. Much of this is due to expectations of agents that get into the business. With Dirk Zeller’s book, Your First Year in Real Estate, he shares the proper expectations and gives solid advice on how agents should spend each day throughout the year. He also shares some of the common pitfalls that new agents make, saving you some time and energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. The E-Myth Revisited By Michael Gerber. – For the first two years in my general real estate career, I was a real estate agent that WANTED to be a business owner but didn’t know how to create the success I was looking for. I was a great agent so I assumed it would be easy to run a great real estate business. If anything being a good agent has been the biggest hamstring on running a successful business and this book exemplifies exactly why that is and how to fix it. I still don’t have it all figured out but I’m getting closer each day and this book is a major reason why.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Exactly What To Say The Magic Words For Influence and Impact By Phil Jones – This book is so good for understanding the power of our words. It shares the top 23 most powerful phrases on the art of influence and impact. I was amazed to learn why we say things and why they have impact or not. Definitely a book you really need to sit down with and journal and study and watch the impact it will have in your personal and professional lives. Phil Jones is a master in communication and you will be glad you read this book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Never Split The Difference. Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It By Chris Voss. – There is very little training and support in this topic for real estate professionals and it amazes me that most of us like myself learn to negotiate by practicing and screwing it up on our clients. One of the best books I have read on the topic of negotiation and highly recommend this book if you really want to take your skills to the next level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. The Go-Giver By Bob Burg. – An easy but powerful read for all real estate agents as you learn The Five Laws OF Stratospheric Success from the master himself Bob Burg. This book is still one of my all time favorite reads and pick it up once a year just to give me perspective and insight. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. The Sales Bible By Jeffrey Gitomer. – “The Sales Bible” is a catalog of sales tips and rule of thumbs, which every salesperson should know. Jeffrey Gitomer gives useful advice to selling in an unfavorable economy, which is truly motivating and inspiring. I highly recommend this useful book, to all salespeople who need all the encouragement they can get.

 

 

 

 

 

10. The Energy Bus By John Gordon. – I believe that the key to success is energy management and not time management. This book is a fantastic fable that will help you create positive energy with ten simple rules and make it the center of your life, work, and relationships.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. Think And Grow Rich By Napolean Hill – Financial management is one of the greatest challenges for so many real estate professionals. Reading this book and learning the foundational principles changed my life and allowed me to avoid the common financial pitfalls I see in so many real estate professionals. A must read indeed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. UnSelling By Scott Stratten. – I could list so many books about customer service that you need to read and the art of delivering the unexpected and creating raving fans. This is one of my personal favorites “UnSelling” is about the big picture: creating repeat customers, not one-time buyers; creating loyal clients that refer others, not treating people like faceless numbers; becoming the go-to company for a product or service, before people even need it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real estate is not an easy business career and my goal is to help as many agents as I can to truly find the lifestyle they desire. You have one book a month to read in 2021 that I know had a profound affect on my own life and I know will have the same on yours. Please reach out to me and share some of your all time favorite books that made a huge impact on your life!

Strength and courage,
Wade

Getting More Listings In 2021

Wade Webb on February 10, 2021

get more real estate listings 2021We are experiencing unprecedented low inventory levels across North America and it seems that we are going to see this for a while in 2021. Sellers don’t know here they are going next and worried that they would list and sell and then be without a home. So ask yourself what’s your goal in 2021? More buyer leads, more listing appointments, better brand recognition and market share? No matter which of these you’ve set your sights on, there’s one sure-fire way to help with each of these: listings. In addition to generating new real estate buyer and seller leads, listings also offer the opportunity to showcase your brand and expertise with valuable, relevant content. So if you believe that More Listings = More Leads and you want more of both, you’re in the right place. Read on for 19 strategies to generate listings from your past clients, sphere of influence, cold leads, and more.

1. Call your past clients and sphere to share some good news. – Let’s start with a big one: this tip can help you with every single person in your database (and ones who aren’t even in there yet). Bring value to the table right away with an interesting stat about the housing market. Here’s a great one to start, with a great angle built into it: The value of the US Housing Market increased by $1.9 trillion in 2020. That’s a 6.2% increase! Want to know how much your house’s value went up as part of it?

You know your market better than we do, so if you’ve got a more interesting or relevant stat about your area, lead with that. Regardless, find an appropriate angle to pair with your stat and you’ll start having better conversations that lead to more listings.

2. Send this email. – Here’s another stat for you to share with your past clients, sphere, and seller leads, and it’s a doozy and has generated a ton of interested replies and appointments. For the subject line: Zillow was WAY off! Or The Assessment Authority was WAY off!!! Here’s the message we wrote: Did you know that the CEO of Zillow sold his home for 40% less than the “Zestimate”? They actually have a disclaimer on their website where you can see exactly how INACCURATE they are. They just make it hard to find. With that in mind, if you are considering the sale of your home, (or the address of a home you want to buy), reply to this email right now with your home’s address and I would be happy to send you a “Zactimate.”

3. Post an Instagram Story poll. – This might be the easiest tip to act on – you can open your phone and do it right now. Add to your Instagram Story with a poll asking:  “Are you planning on selling your home this year?” Obviously you’ll get more “No”s than “Yes”es but any Yes or more in-depth answer provides an easy opportunity to follow up via DM.

4. Go live on Facebook from a neighborhood entrance. – You’ve probably heard you should be investing in video. If you’re ready to take the plunge but haven’t figured out what to film, here’s a tried and true way to get yourself out there: Head to a local landmark or the entrance of a neighborhood in your area. Give the details about two properties that recently sold nearby. Add a CTA that lets your viewers know they can email or DM you to inquire about other sold homes or check their own home’s value. That’s it!

5. Start each day prospecting for sellers. – Generate more appointments and contracts with the 5-5-4 routine and it’s easy to duplicate. Every day, you should have:

  • 5 conversations with people you don’t know, new potential prospects
  • 5 conversations with your hottest prospects
  • 4 conversations with your sphere of influence

What do you say on the phone with your sphere? Try “Have you had any thoughts of selling?” and “Do you know anybody that’s had thoughts of selling?” Tim’s sphere is so used to answering that now they start thinking about who might be selling any time Tim pauses in the conversation.

6. Search Zillow’s “Make Me Move” listings (and FSBOs) Here’s a strategy to help prospect seller leads that you can be sure want to sell their home. In fact, they’re already on Zillow. Head to Zillow.com and search for homes for sale in your area. Clear the “Listing Type” menu and only keep “Make Me Move” selected – now you have a list of seriously interested sellers to start some conversations with. Once you have the filters selected, not only will you see the current Make Me Moves but you can ALSO subscribe via email to get alerts any time more are added!

7. Use Realtor.com (or your MLS) to find upcoming expired listings. Just like the tip about Zillow above, this technique is available to anyone thanks to technology and public records. Use Realtor.com’s home search and sort by “Newest Listings.” But you’re not here for the most recent listings on the market, so scroll down and click on the last page of search results. Take a screengrab of the listings with a low photo count and a high number of days on the market – you can show the seller the difference between how their home was marketed before it expired and how you can help show it off now. Now you’ve got a list of some upcoming expireds and can start your prep work on how you’ll approach them.

8. Take advantage of the “instant offer” trend. – Instant Offers have, understandably, made some real estate agents worried. Open Door and Zillow Offers make a compelling argument to consumers who are motivated by convenience. But that’s not their only motivation… Instant Offers are all but guaranteed to be low-ball offers. If you’re in a market where homes are moving fast, you can turn an “Instant Offer” into a seller looking for a home value report. How? We like what the Wertz Group does by asking “Does your home qualify for an ‘instant’ offer?” Be prepared to respond quickly: many sellers want the most money they can get, but these companies are proving there is still a huge market for people who value speed.

9. Refresh your listing presentation and process. Focus on current marketing strategies in today’s economy and offer the solutions to the challenges of the sellers. Add pre-emptive offers, multiple offers and coming soon strategies and information that we never had to have before.

10. Sell your services. – If you ask the average real estate agent what’s more important between buyers and sellers, they’ll typically say sellers. But when you look at their websites, the first thing highlighted is a home search. Stop sending the wrong signal, start selling your services. Every real estate website should have a page that sells its services to potential home sellers. Selling your home is a daunting process, so give your prospective clients the peace of mind that you have a tried and true plan to list, market, and sell their home.

11. Establish a Seller Success Series. – When you’ve used all the tips on this list, you’re going to have a lot of happy sellers. You can turn those into even more listings, by turning the corner on a common business practice and making something truly compelling. He’s leveled up his reviews by turning his wildly positive customer experiences into evergreen content that sells every new person who comes to his website. The stories are interesting, unique and are an authentic representation of his brand. The best part? People help support what they create. Feature your clients in a positive light and turn them into your brand ambassadors! We believe that if you tell more stories, you’ll sell more homes.

12. Find hidden sellers. – It’s no secret that generating buyer leads is much easier than attracting the ever elusive seller lead. The common mistake we see many savvy real estate agents miss is they forgot to ask their buyer leads one very simple question. “Do you need to sell your home before you buy a new one?” Buried in your database of thousands of buyer leads are hundreds of sellers. These homeowners need to sell their home before they buy a new one, they are just waiting for you ask the right question! Here’s the tip: Update your automated action plans that go out to include a question about their current living situation. “Do you own a home and do you need to sell it before you buy a new one?” You can tweak this script to your liking but whatever you do, don’t forget to ask!

13. Update your referral network. – This is actually a two-step tip: first up, it’s time to update your list of approved and recommended vendors. Finding reputable people that you trust is the hard part, so take this question to your email database and your followers on Facebook. “We’re updating our list of approved vendors. Who do you love and recommend?” Be sure to let them know you’ll be publishing your list publicly.

14. Re-earn their business. – One of the biggest mistakes we see people make is mistaking delivering a great experience for earning a customer’s business for life. For some, sure, a job well done means you’ll go back to the same agent the next time you have a real estate need. But some consumers treat transactions like exactly that: You do a service for them, they pay you for that service, end of transaction. That’s why it’s important to stay on your past clients’ minds, but not be intrusive or obnoxious about it. We’ve crafted an email for you to send that can help achieve both.

Subject Line:  What’s your plan?

Here’s the message we wrote: Hi [name], It’s sometimes hard to imagine a day when you’re going to want to sell your home, but that day eventually comes. 1 year, 3 years, 5 years? It’s hard to say because life has a way about being unpredictable.

I wanted to make sure you knew I was here for you when that moment came. My job is to help develop a plan: There are things we can be doing now and in the future to help maximize your profit when you sell. This includes your mortgage payment schedule, what home improvements to make or avoid, and, of course, timing. All of these factors (and many more) have a dramatic impact on what you should do between now and when the time comes to sell.

15. Incentivize loyalty. – You’re probably familiar with loyalty cards and VIP programs. You probably even do some form of one, with the occasional gift and past client appreciation events. VIP experience enhances the whole process. Make past clients and referrers feel special with one-time perks like free movie tickets and dinner at local restaurants, but she also formalizes it with quarterly gifts, recurring coffee and tea, and more.

16. Speak to their pain points. – People have a hard time believing you can solve their problems if you haven’t made it clear you understand what those problems are. Many avoid writing discussing the potential pitfalls, not wanting to appear to be a fearmonger. But there’s a lot of space between “everything is awesome” and being a Negative Nelly – space that real people occupy and need guidance through. So don’t be afraid to acknowledge those pain points in your ads and emails. Speak to issues like not knowing whether it’s the right time to list, whether they’ll be able to afford a new home, the complications of the home selling process, and more. Then point them to the Seller Services page we recommended you build back in Tip #10 and stake your claim as the expert who can help through all the challenges.

17. Level up your just sold posts and home value ads. – There was a time when simply publishing a good looking Just Sold post on Facebook was enough to be a differentiator. That time has passed. It’s time to get back ahead of the curve. Everyone’s doing them now. So how do you make yours stand out? This data can be presented as the dry, public record that it is, or you can make it connect with your audience by framing it in a specific, timely way. Which of these are you more likely to click?

Just Sold ABOVE Listing Price: 2 bed, 2 bath condo in the North End or Another North End Condo Sells ABOVE Asking Price: Find out how this impacts your home’s value

The best opportunity you have now is to turn these “Just Sold” moments from general awareness campaigns that showcase your overall prowess into direct opportunities to help individuals who will do business with you.

18. Give away your secret sauce. There is a general fear in real estate that if we give away our information, our competition will steal our ideas or our consumers will realize that they don’t need us. But the truth is this: Consumers have proven time and time again they are willing to pay for convenience. Instacart, Dollar Shave Club, Quip Toothbrush — all charge a premium to remove the hassle from the process of buying or using the product. By giving away your trade secrets, you elevate your brand and become the authority. It’s counterintuitive but it’s true. Creating a well-designed, comprehensive, useful piece like “40 Top Tips for Selling Your Home is a big step in earning the trust of the consumer.”

19. Use your current bona fide buyers. – Ask for help and humanize the message by sharing first names of buyers and what they want to buy and spread the word. Email your database or post on your social media channels who is looking and what they need. If safe you can door knock or leave a door hanger, mail a flyer or postcard or just post a video asking for help for you buyers and see if that triggers a listing appointment response.

20. Mail or drop off unsolicited CMA packages to all your past clients. Just put together all the listings and sales in the last 6 months that are relative them and their home. Don’t give them your opinion of value and call them a few days later asking them if they got it? Any questions? See if this will trigger a listing appointment response for you as well.

So there you have some more creative of ways to be proactively generating appointments for listing opportunities in a market that we all need to be proactive versus reactive to get that product and inventory back up again. Feel free to reach out and share any other great listing appointment generators you may be having success with today!

Strength and courage,
Wade

No or Low Cost Marketing Ideas For Realtors© 2021

Wade Webb on January 27, 2021

low or no cost marketing ideas for RealtorsTraditionally best source of free leads has been Cold calling and Door Knocking but let’s be real. In this day and age, those aren’t the only methods to choose from. (And honestly, they may not even work as well as they once did.) I want to share with you 20+ tried and tested low or no cost marketing ideas for generating free leads that actually result in revenue and work for many of my coaching clients today and even during a pandemic! Let’s start with a complete checklist of free lead gen ideas broken down by must-haves and nice-to-haves. How many of these are you already using? Which ones would be the easiest to integrate with your current lead management system?


The Must-Haves

Past clients
SOI
Referrals
Reviews
FSBOs
Partner with a lender and attorney
Open House
Use landing pages + Drip email sequence

The Nice-to-Haves

Phone duty
Video content
Virtual tours and open houses
Volunteer, speak at, or attend free community events
FRBOs
Moving companies
Marriage announcements
Start a blog
Contribute to articles, podcasts and publications
Connect on social media
Answer questions on Quora
Door knocking
Cold calling
Zoom housewarming party

So Where to Get Real Estate Leads Post-2020

 

#1. Office On Call Phone Duty – Great for Warm Buyer Leads. Sometimes old school is the best school. Most agents never considered it because it seemed old school. I know that agents hate traditional phone duty because they have to sit in the office and answer the phone. One reason agents become agents is so that they’re not chained to a desk But, the results are undeniable. Agents found that people that call in want to talk with an agent right now. They don’t want to talk to a receptionist, or a Client Concierge, they want to talk with a knowledgeable agent. Since you are immediately satisfying that need, your conversions go through the roof. We were converting around 1/3 receptionist call-ins in the past. We’re now converting almost 100% of the qualified inbound calls. It’s been a massive success. Set up a virtual phone duty with your broker. Follow simple rules like ‘don’t schedule an appointment’ and ‘pull over to talk if the call you take is a lead. Record all of the calls to identify opportunities for improvement.

#2. Video Content – Best Way to Consistently Generate Free Leads. Video is quickly becoming a winning formula for real estate marketing. Shoot a video titled Why You Should Move to (your town) that introduces you as your town’s ambassador and will bring you two to five property deals over time. So, what’s the secret formula for creating irresistible video content? Everyone should have a YouTube channel and create playlists that focus on the community, sellers and buyers and quick tips. create both professional and iPhone videos. I know that not everyone is comfortable with staring into the camera, but the way she sees it, we’ve already spent most of 2020 living through an uncomfortable reality.  We have to get comfortable being uncomfortable, right?


#3. Video Housewarming Party – An Instant Source of Free Warm Leads. For clients concerned about having anyone in their home and maintaining social distancing protocols, their agent can plan and host a video ‘housewarming party’ on Zoom. This obviously works well for those clients who are not as tech savvy or aren’t already regularly using video conferencing. A housewarming party you can attend in your pajamas? Who could say no to that? It’s a great way for the agent to bring additional value to their client and meet the client’s potential referrals for additional business.


Bonus Pandemic Tips. Branded face masks and hand sanitizer. Connector of community support resources: who has senior shopping hours, who has opened a pop up food bank, what restaurants are delivering meals to high risk people, etc. Volunteering!

Community good-will political debate station. Virtual video open houses (marketed on social media) Concierge video home tours (marketed on social media) Hosting a socially distanced, mask-on, Halloween party for kids in your sphere.

It’s amazing how creative you can get when faced with a new challenge. Of course, there are also those classic, reliable sources of real estate leads you should always be working into your strategy.

#4. Smile, Dial, Email – Timeless Lead Gen for Unprecedented Times. When Covid first hit even I started calling and spoke to more people than I ever could have imagined because most everyone was at home at lockdown.  No secret sauce, just consistently smiling and dialing. Your goal comes  to get 5 nurtures a day minimum and to keep building my weekly email. One coaching client closed 10 transactions 30% of my business from a weekly email this year. 10 transactions from an email newsletter? There’s literally no reason not to do this.

#5. Client & Agent Referrals – Best Way to Get Quality Leads, Totally Free. According to the NAR, 64% of sellers found their agent through a referral from a friend, neighbor, or relative—or used an agent they had worked with before to buy or sell a home. Referrals cost you nothing—all you have to do is stay connected with the people you know and make sure that you’re top of mind when they or someone they know decide to transact.  What could be easier (or cheaper!) than that, right? Repeat and no fee referrals are always the most profitable and reliable. All my coaching clients generate 50-85% of their business from this source.”

#6. The Property Neighbors’ Sphere of Influence – A Completely Original Source for Trusted Referrals. Everyone talks about taking advantage of your sphere of influence, but have you ever considered reverse engineering the sphere of influence of a neighborhood to get new listings? Here’s how you do it: When your buyer looks at a property in a neighborhood but doesn’t buy the property, statistically a new listing is going to come up in that neighborhood in the next 30 days and you’ve got what the potential seller wants…buyers. This is when you should send out a letter to the neighborhood and call the neighbors with the same message/dialogue.

Hi (neighbor),

My name is (Agent Name) and I work with (Brokerage Name) and I just wanted to let you know that I showed your neighbor’s property over at (Address) the other day.

Unfortunately it wasn’t a perfect match for them but as I’m sure you are not surprised, they absolutely loved the neighborhood!

What they are looking for is (describe just about every house in the neighborhood).

Can you do me a favor? If you or anyone you know is even considering selling, could you please let me know right away? I may be able to sell your house without it ever even hitting the market.”

Brilliant, right? Use the same template when they have a buyer looking for a house. The student records a video that lets their audience know what the buyer is looking for but with a specific ask – reach out if the audience or anyone they know is considering selling, because they may be able to sell their house without it ever hitting the market. Then the agent promotes that video to the target town/city so that everyone sees it and reaches out to them if they are thinking of selling or if they know anyone that is.

#7. Third Party Reviews – The New Word of Mouth for Real Estate Leads Targeting millennials or younger buyers? Reviews are the way to go. According to Consumerist, almost 70% of consumers check online reviews before making a purchase. But just like everything else, it’s all about your level of commitment. Millennials make up a third of the buying population. A millennial goes to 8 to 12 different sites before they pick up the phone and talk to an agent. What do they do when they get to 8 to 12 of those sites? They read the reviews. Watch people coming to your site in the analytics—they log in, and then they go to the review page and read every one of your reviews before they even pick up the phone and call. The conversation on getting reviews starts on day one when you meet the client.

#8. Blogging – Best Way to Attract Quality Leads. One of the best decisions I ever made in my real estate career was to start a real estate blog. Blogging is one of those free lead gen unicorns—when you’re blogging the leads seem to magically drop from the sky. But free doesn’t mean easy. It all comes down to intention and commitment. Provide a wealth of knowledge to buyers and sellers to help make sound business decisions. Buyers and sellers love working with knowledgeable real estate agents. By having a recognizable blog you are able to readily show off your expertise to those who are buying or selling a home. Over the years my blog has brought a substantial amount of yearly business. In fact it is one of my top lead generators.”

A blog as a top lead generator? Believe it. Real Estate blogging is certainly not for everyone. Like anything else, it takes time and dedication. It is not a magic bullet that will bring significant amounts of business unless you put in the effort. This means you need to have exceptionally good content combined with a strong grasp of both search engine optimization, as well as solid social media promotion. Without proper digital marketing your blog will be lost in the shuffle. Alternatively, you could try a tool like Keeping Current Matters or CityBlast that automatically publishes blog and email content, creates downloadable guides and posts personalized updates on your social media accounts for a set monthly fee. Another option is to hire a real estate VA with marketing or blogging experience or look for an affordable content writer and marketer on sites like Fiverr and Upwork. You’ll still need to set aside time to generate relevant content ideas, proofread and promote the work but a great freelancer can significantly cut down on the time you spend researching and writing, making it way easier to stick to a consistent publishing schedule. Last but definitely not least, if you’re determined to make a go of blogging, make sure you set up a drip campaign to capture and nurture any leads that come in via the blog.

#9. Niche Marketing Websites – An Amazing Organic Source for Ready-to-Convert Real Estate Leads. Thanks to various changes in Google’s search algorithm, building a niche website is now another surefire approach to rank higher on search engines than non-targeted sites. Best of all, it’s completely organic through and through. Buy the domain moveto (your town) .org .com .ca  then hire a full-time content writer to write or write yourself to gain enough traction and generate leads and a robust pipeline. Create  a local guide on all things (your town) and start attracting some seriously motivated leads. Agents are getting about 10-15 leads monthly. That’s not much but they are much more likely to convert. Target organic leads by targeting topics like ‘rent vs. buy (your town)’, ‘Master Planned Communities’, and ‘Reasons to Move to (your town). Then retarget to landing pages that have property listings or other information about choosing a Realtor.

#10. Thank You Card & Hand Written Notes. Most Beautifully Simple Source of Free Leads. You know, as a new agent you’re blindsided by a million other things. You just need to talk to a lot of people and get over the fear of cold calling. After talking go drop off a simple thank you card and that changes everything. In the age of automated everything, Brandon’s all about keeping the personal touch. And at $1 per card, the ROI on this lead source can’t be beat. Just write a handwritten thank you card like, ‘Hey Jill, great talking to you. Thank you so much for your time. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you. And then I put your business card in there and seal it up. Easy!

#11. Craigslist, Kijiji, Classifieds – Great for Free Diamond-in-the-rough Leads. Never take a lead for granted and that includes leads from Craigslist. Some of my coaching clients most reliable source of free leads has been another source that most agents or people sometimes no longer feel is relevant or also frowned upon or thought of not to be the savviest… Craigslist.

#12. Open House – Golden Opportunity to Get Buyer & Seller Leads. Most agents have been programmed to think that it’s a waste of time. Like all marketing, if they do one and don’t get much out of it, they generally fall into that bucket. To me, it’s the easiest and least expensive way to get people in front of you. However, you need to have a system like everything else to make it profitable. Systems = profits. The best tip for bringing in free leads via open houses is don’t advertise open houses and use lots of signs. This way if someone walks into your open house and they would like to look at property, I just close the door. You need to make sure you have every possible cross street covered with an open house sign. The more signs the better.  But what if you can’t meet for an in-person open house? Agents have sold houses with digital open houses and virtual tours and use Calendly to actually capture the lead info, then plug them into your CRM for focused follow up.

#13. Internet Community Pages – Perfect Source of Free Buyer and Relocating Leads. There’s a little known content marketing tip that only the best of real estate marketers typically take advantage of: Community Pages. More often than not, any buyer looking to move into a new area is going to do some fairly extensive research. By setting up community pages on your website YOU become the local go to expert. Here’s what makes a great community page:

Community pages are filled with information buyers would love to know about. Things like the quality of the schools, area attractions such as lakes and parks. Where  people do their shopping, etc. They can be filled with an endless amount of information. The best community pages are crazy detailed! These kinds of pages should be optimized so they come up in search for things like “Realtors (your town)” and “Top Real Estate agents (your town)”. Consumers who are searching in Google with terms like these may be looking to hire an agent immediately!

#14. Quora – Most Untapped Source of Leads. A huge untapped online community like Quora is one of the top respondents for all things real estate, for getting you name, face and web link in front of thousands of online buyers every day. With over 200 million monthly unique visitors, Quora’s Q&A entries regularly show up on Google’s page 1, and some are re-published by major sites like Forbes and Inc. Plus, it’s completely free. All you need is an email address and you’re in. Start by looking for questions that have been asked repeatedly. If a question has been asked more than once, chances are the answers (both on Quora and Google) aren’t that great.‍

#15. Wear Your Company Name Badge – Easiest Way to Get Free Leads. Ever take every cushion off your couch hunting for your glasses, only to realize they’re right on top of your head? Sometimes the most obvious things are hidden in plain sight. The simple name badge is one of those things. Here’s a great tip… An often overlooked way to generate leads is to wear your name badge or company wear such as a hat or polo shirt. When people ask, ‘Oh, you’re in real estate—how’s the market? Be prepared with a concise answer about how much inventory is on the market, how much prices are increasing or declining, and offer to send them a free report on their property. Agents can use a Realtors Property Resource (RPR) to gather this data quickly and of course, you need their contact information to send them the report. Name badges have long been used by maintenance service companies to establish a connection with the client and develop trust. So, why not real estate?

#16. For Sale By Owner (FSBOs) – Excellent Lead Source for Agents with the Right Approach. There are those who shake their fists at FSBOs and there are those who go out and convert them into free sources of multiple millions in revenue. FSBOs are one of the best and most reliable sources of free leads out there. “Literally millions in commissions!” can be made. The trick as usual is to start the conversation by listening and offering value. Remember, there is a good chance this seller has been burned by an agent before, and that’s why they’re attempting to go it alone. Start the conversation by asking why they’re selling. Take time to listen, get to know their motivations and build a personal connection. Offer advice or insight on the market wherever relevant. Once you feel like you’ve truly heard them and offered them some genuinely helpful info, ask if they want any help finding a buyer. They might turn you down flat the first time. That’s ok. Ask if you can check back in on them in a few weeks then add them to your CRM for simple, friendly follow up. Sometimes it can take a few quiet weeks (or months) in the market before they come around to the idea of working with you.

#17. Ask Engaging Power Questions – Most Powerful Way to Get Free Listings. Leveraging for rent by owners and FSBOs, calling expired listings and nurturing your SOI are all classic (and classically overlooked!) ways to bring in tons of free leads. But sometimes what matters most isn’t which lead source you choose, but how you choose to approach those leads. The best way to bring in more free leads is to simply ask questions: Ask questions – How can I help your business? What does your perfect client look like? Focus on providing service and coming from a spirit of contribution – the leads will come.

#18. Farmers Markets, Swap Meets and Flea Markets – Don’t be afraid to take free leads where he can find them. That includes local swap meets, flea markets and farmers markets. The craziest ideas for lead generation are sometimes the least wanted or the most frowned upon or things that people might think don’t work. If you do frequent swap meets, flea markets and farmers markets. It totally works even though many agents feel it’s an undesirable type of method. There’s something to be said for getting out there and networking with real people. Remember, when it comes to free lead gen, it doesn’t matter what’s popular. All that matters is that it works for your unique real estate business.

#19. Social Media (Evidence Of Success) – Great Way to Get Real Estate Leads Who Already Like You. You didn’t think we were going to leave social media off the list, did you? Depending on how you approach it, social media can either be a major time drain or a brilliant way of nurturing your connections. Here’s his awesome advice for using your social media to nurture your SOI without feeling salesy or sleazy: Your sphere of influence is still an extremely overlooked source of business. The key is to not bombard your network with boring, worthless “asks” for business. Instead, you should simply be reminding your network that you’re a real estate agent, and that you’re a local expert. Posting on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat is a great way to do that, as long as you’re providing something of value to your network (education, humor, etc), along with the occasional humblebrag if you receive an award, or some recognition for something. Even a sincere humbled, gratitude post for helping a buyer or seller buyer or sell versus bragging I just sold or I just listed. I’m talking maybe once a month, or less. But if done tactfully, those humblebrags help your network see that you’re good at what you do. You heard it from the pro. Relax and have fun on social media. It can lead to some great free leads.

#20. Instagram – Easiest Source for Warm Organic Leads. It’s all organic, with posts that are more lifestyle posts and less about sales. We want people to follow us because they like our post then reach out to us for help because they like our brand and how we do things. It’s been working well and that’s exactly what happens. Leads come in from the posts and stories. From there, you follow up via DM to connect and convert. It’s easy, organic and extremely cost-effective.

#21. Shock & Awe Marketing – Funniest Way to Get Free Real Estate Leads. Every so often, it pays to go a little rogue with your marketing. The most innovative idea I ever heard of was an agent had a house that was zoned for commercial use that  was located in an area where there were a lot of attorneys. She created a marketing piece that looked as if the attorney she was sending it to was being served in a lawsuit. The strategy generated leads and she sold the property. I love the expired listing paper towel tube in the mail that looks like a stick of red dynamite with the expired letter inside. Sometimes it pays to think outside the box (or, zone in this case) and do what you’ve got to do to grab the attention of your local market. Don’t be afraid to get creative.

#22. Knock on Doors – Most Classic Way to Get Real Estate Leads The level of “craziness” of this free lead gen idea is debatable. Some die-hards in Facebook groups will claim this is the best way to get free leads, but you have to wonder, do they actually get out there and do it? Tip! Knock on doors in a neighborhood where you have a qualified buyer that wants to buy and say ‘Quick question: do you want to sell your house? My buyer wants to buy here. Not sure? Talk to the Family and call me tomorrow.’ Yes. It worked. If nobody is home then leave a door hanger with the same written message and they will call as well off the door hanger! Sometimes you just never get, until you ask. While it may seem old school, knocking on doors is still a proven way to get free leads. If you’ve got the guts, go for it.

#23. Serving & Give Back – Most Fulfilling Way to Get Buyer and Seller Leads. If you focus on service like some agents do the business will come simply by connecting with the community. Serving the community and throwing great social events creates an amazing amount of people that want to reciprocate by working with you. Get involved in at least one non-profit and build your spheres through acts of charity and service. You’re meeting people in your community who want to do good. It’s not really service to transaction, it’s service to relationship. We want to build a network that people actually want to be a part of.

#24. Become a Community Catalyst – Crazy Simple Way to Get a Long-lasting Source of Leads. Your commitment to becoming THE go-to expert in your community. As real estate develops, knowledge is what makes agents more valuable to buyers. Buyers don’t want to spend time learning. As an agent, you’re the catalyst—the connector between the buyer and their new community. It’s your job to open that door and make it as easy as possible for them to walk through it.

So there you have it, a ton of great ideas for generating free real estate leads. Before you run off, we want to give you one last piece of advice. When done right, free lead gen can bring in a ton of revenue for your real estate business, but if you go into it with the wrong intention, it can backfire horribly. Don’t do this: Go to a friend’s wedding, and “sponsor” the gift bags for guests… and put your business cards, branded pens, and other absurd, unimpressive swag in the gift bags! Do not put out signs around the gift bag table promoting you and your business. Why not? Well, how would you like it if you went to a wedding and were bombarded with advertisements from some random business? You’re hijacking your friend’s wedding in an effort to get more business. But what you’re really doing is pissing people off and ensuring that they’d never hire you in a million years. How tacky and inappropriate. Next time maybe you should sponsor the punch bowl at a funeral! Leads can get pricey and real estate is a high pressure business, but the moral of this story is to ALWAYS check the situation and environment before attempting to grab leads. Leads might not cost money, but you’d better be giving something meaningful and valuable in return– and prospecting ethically! The most reliable source [of free leads] for our clients is giving great service and then implementing a great Database/CRM Value Add Plan with regular contact in a variety of ways. Feel free to share with me ways that you are generating legit leads without spending any money, would love to add them to 2022 list.

 

Strength and courage,
Wade

Realtors© Secrets To Making Your Calls

Wade Webb on November 25, 2020

When you think about it, there’s nothing difficult about picking up the phone and calling a few people. Right? It’s easy to do… and also easier not to do. And that’s the danger. So why do we have this reluctancy to picking up the phone and making a call? Why is it so easy for us to not make those calls? I talk with a lot of successful agents on a regular basis. And if I had to boil down what makes those people so successful, it’s not that they’re all insanely innovative and breaking new ground. It’s not that they figured out some marketing “hack” no one else knows. It’s not dumb luck. It’s one simple, common trait – they’re doing the work. They make the calls and contact the people and have the discipline to do it over and over and over even though it is not what they want to do nor is it glamorous but it is the key to their success. It goes back to one of my favorite quotes: “Do the thing, have the power.” –Emerson. Having the discipline to take consistent action is really what separates the winners from the also-rans in this business.

Today I’m sharing three ways to overcome that resistance to making your calls so you can start booking more appointments… consistently!

1. Get Prepared In Advance – I’m sure you’ve had this happen… You wake up with the best of intentions to make your calls. But before you actually begin, something comes up. Or you “remember” a more urgent task you should be doing (which, in reality, is just an excuse). Or you simply avoid it because you don’t feel like it. And over time, this failure to make your calls is absolutely killing your productivity. It undercuts your potential. It’s the biggest reason why agents ride that rich/poor rollercoaster and fail to create any predictability in their businesses. This often happens because you didn’t prepare ahead of time. A productive prospecting session begins the night before. You need to get everything prepared so there can be no distractions and no excuses to get started the next morning. The night before, be sure to gain clarity on things like: Who am I going to call? What’s the outcome I want to achieve? What scripts do I need to achieve those objectives? Answer these three questions at the end of each day, get everything ready, and you’re much more likely to follow through on your appointment setting calls the next day.

2. Get Yourself Charged Up – Half-hearted prospecting is not successful prospecting. Even if you’re not “feelin’ it” when the time comes to start making your calls, you need to know how to get yourself to a peak state. And it’s more than just mental. In fact, I think it starts with physicality. A great way to get that energy up is to move your body. Jump on a mini trampoline, do some jumping jacks or whatever it takes to get your blood flowing. Then comes the mental part of it… your affirmations and strategic questions to put yourself in a winning mindset. “I’m a lean, mean, appointment-setting machine!” “What do I love about my clients?” “What do I love about setting appointments?” Do this regularly and I guarantee you’ll have more productive call sessions and build some serious “appointment setting” momentum.

3. Share Your Results? – What’s your first response to the suggestion that you should actually publish the results of your prospecting sessions to the public? I suspect many agents will feel like, “I don’t want to do that. It makes me look desperate or like I’m a telemarketer.” Do you feel that way? Because if so, here’s my response: You’re looking at it all wrong, and your whole mindset around prospecting might be off base. Remember this: You’re not calling people to “sell” them something. You’re calling to check in, catch up, build rapport, answer questions, and inform people of market happenings. You’re calling because you care, and because that’s what trusted advisors do. Once you start thinking about it from that perspective, it becomes a no-brainer to follow up each session by sharing what you achieved on social media.

Imagine a post that says something along these lines in your Instagram Stories: “Just had 10 conversations with past clients and sphere… Keeping them informed on what’s going on in the market. Every day I do this to keep my clients informed. That’s what it’s all about!” Maybe you even sprinkle in some stats, like this: “70 calls made, 6 great conversations, 2 potential buyers and one homeowner considering putting their home on the market. Can’t wait to help them move on to the next exciting stage of their lives!” Not only does that show people that you care, but it informs people that you’re active and you have a system for finding buyers and getting first jump on listings… basically establishing that you’re the go-to “knowledge broker” for your market. A consumer who sees that every day in your Stories will definitely be impressed, and you’ll gain top-of-mind awareness in the process. So start doing it!

I am hoping these help build in some accountability for your prospecting sessions and make it easier for you to pick up that phone consistently and book more appointments! Let me know which one(s) you’ll start doing in the comments below!

 

Strength and courage,
Wade

REALTORS… Google Your Name. What Do You See?

Wade Webb on October 21, 2020

realtor google name searchImagine… A homeowner sees your signs in her neighborhood. Maybe she’s seen your ads in her mailbox on online. Then she decides to sell. If she doesn’t have an agent already in mind, what do you think is her next step? She’ll likely do her due diligence and conduct her own research about YOUR NAME she keeps seeing. And where does she go to do that? One place: Google. Now comes the scary part… What does she find when she Googles your name? Are you confident, or will she see a hodgepodge of half-baked marketing ideas you’ve used over the years that create no cohesive vision and make no strong impression?

 

Getting “Google Ready” Tip No. 1:

Control the First Impression – You need to buy Google keywords of your name so you can control the first impression and send these prospective clients exactly where you want to send them. Maybe it’s a landing page specifically built to introduce people to your unique way of doing business. Maybe it’s just the home page of your website, or your “About Me” page. Whatever the case, make sure you own those keywords so you can control the narrative… right from the start!

 

Getting “Google Ready” Tip No. 2:

Over-Index on “Google My Business” – You’ve probably searched for a business before, and alongside the results a box pops up with all sorts of pertinent information about their hours of operation, their phone number, website, reviews, etc. Right? That’s all controlled through “Google My Business,” and it’s something you should be paying attention to! This is a great opportunity to add all of your information AND ALSO add photos of yourself, your team, and recent “Just Sold” properties. PRO TIP: Create a standard for formatting your name, address, phone and domains so it’s easy for Google to recognize you’re the same person wherever they see that same information.

 

Getting “Google Ready” Tip No. 3:

Max Out Your Off-Page SEO – It’s likely you have profiles all over the Internet – from Facebook to Zillow to Realtor.com and beyond. Agree? Here’s the big question: Is there consistency among all of them? Would consumers instantly recognize you from one platform to the next? Or more importantly, does Google itself recognize you as the same person to make sure they know exactly who you are? Be sure to use the most accurate and appropriate keywords in all your profiles to make it happen.

 

Getting “Google Ready” Tip No. 4:

Get All Matchy-Matchy – Take that SEO concept we were just talking about, and now apply it to your brand. Does your profile look the same on all the different platforms? Would consumers instantly know that it’s you, or do you use different photos, typefaces and colors from one site to the next? Your job is to make it “dumb and easy” for someone to recognize you immediately. This is how you tap into the power of multi-channel marketing and gain top-of-mind awareness, where people start telling you, “I see your stuff everywhere!” PRO TIP: This includes usernames… always try to use the same usernames on all your social platforms.

 

Getting “Google Ready” Tip No. 5:

Tools, Apps & Gizmos – Here are three tools you should be aware of and use in your marketing: Whitespark.ca – This allows you to audit what shows up in your search results. Namechk.com – Type in your name, see all social profiles and domains that show up using your name. Google Search Console – This service from Google tells you what people searched that led them to your site. What did they click through to get there? Go find out!

 

Getting “Google Ready” Tip No. 6:

Be YouTube Ready – Google and YouTube are practically siblings, both owned by Alphabet. YouTube is the second-most utilized website and search engine on the planet, which means being “Google Ready” also means being YouTube ready. Step up your game with these tips: Thumbnails – Don’t underestimate the importance. This is what attracts people to click play on your video. Use Canva, or hire someone on Fiverr to create something eye-catching. Titles and keywords – When posting a video, you need to think in terms of SEO. What’s the keyword you want to rank against? Titles and keywords are not the place to be clever or cute. Keywords need to be based on how people search. Make it obvious what your video is about. Watch time – YouTube loves when people watch longer. Do whatever possible to keep people interested and engaged. Channel Subscribe-able? YouTube wants to keep people on the platform, so make sure you make your channel subscribe-able so they can recommend channels and videos to increase watch time.

Let us know in the comments where your business needs the most help becoming “Google Ready.”

 

Strength and courage,
Wade

Secrets To 11% Online Real Estate Lead Conversion

Wade Webb on January 9, 2019

increase real estate online lead conversion rateWe all know online leads are supposed to be the latest and greatest thing in real estate but they can be fairly expensive and the national average conversion rate is only about 1.5% but what if you could convert your online leads at a rate of 11%?

Would you do what it takes and start crushing it online as an agent? Sadly most agents would say “it is too much work, online leads suck and real estate sucks and I am sure there is something out there better than an 11% conversion rate for me thanks very much!”

This week I want to share some of the ways you can increase online lead conversion and reach a double digit conversion rate… so let’s do this!

We all know the most important rule to online lead conversion is speed to lead (under 5 minutes response time)! The first agent is usually the agent that wins the leads business when they are ready to raise their hand to do business. Just as important as the speed to lead rule is your ability to personalize and show your own personality in your online lead responses so they can begin to feel like you’re an agent they can trust, like and do business with and not just a salesperson!

So how do you show your personality and personal touch in lead response?

Video is now the online lead conversion secret weapon. 86% of communication is non-verbal ( tone, eye contact, body language, voice inflection ) video allows us to communicate all of that! Your initial contacts are now 30 second video texts, 30 second video emails and a personal phone call, all three in under five minutes.

  1. Make the message personal by holding a small white board with the clients name written on it in your hand in the video first.
  2. Then the next contact hold the small white board with the name of the area they are looking for property written on it.
  3. Then the next contact have your website domain name written on it and tell them what they will find on your website that is unique to other sites.
  4. Quick follow up message to make sure they are getting all your messages. Plans changed?
  5. Send a list of your top picks of homes based on their initial search enquiry.
  6. Send them recent new listings and sales in what they told you they are searching for.
  7. Let them know about your informed home buyer plan and how they can save time, money and stress.
  8. Let them know how you have access to homes for sale that are not on the MLS
  9. Let them know how you can beat other buyers to new listings
  10. Let them know you have solutions for their common buyer challenges
  11. Let them know what you have they cannot get online (service providers, schools, trades, local amenities etc.)
  12. Let them see other photos of the listing they enquire on that are not on the listing
  13. Let them know your value proposition like finding a home vs. waiting for it to come on market, new listing e-lerts, saved searches, transaction coordinator.
  14. Send them market Snap shot stats

One of my favorite tips is using the app Calendly. https://calendly.com/ Whenever you get an enquiry about a listing you can respond using Calendly which will pop up and allow the prospect to book a viewing appointment with you for the listing they enquired on. Calendly syncs with your own calendar and knows to only offer times for viewings to the online lead when your own calendar is open. So Cool!!

Another great tool is using bit.ly to convert an email into a bit.ly link https://bitly.com/ and then be able to embed that email using bit.ly into a text back to your online lead prospect. It wows the prospect, makes the text pop, allows you to track their activity and saves your texting thumbs from cramping up on you!

Follow the universal online lead conversion script LPMAMA. Take the time to keep the prospect on the line as long as possible to build rapport and trust with this script!

L – Location, all the areas they are considering and you might suggest

P – Price, being able to determine their floor, ceiling and comfort zone prices

M – Motivation, Why? Pain or pleasure? When?

A – Assume you don’t have an agent because you are out doing this on your own?

M – Mortgage, All cash or will you be requiring financing? With who?

A – Appointment, L.G.T. Let’s get together

I hope some of these tips and tricks will help with your ongoing battle with online lead generation and help you take your conversion to the double digit level and create a boost in your business this first quarter of 2019!

Strength and courage,
Wade

https://plus.google.com/u/1/113259707478722993209/posts/7JYAuf6Tqhu

The Sales Skills All Real Estate Agents Must Have

Wade Webb on August 8, 2018

skills real estate agents must haveIn selling it doesn’t matter the product or service, there are certain skills and processes you must have to be effective in selling anything. Don’t think for a minute the top real estate agents in this industry don’t master their sales skills and sales processes daily. They take the time to sharpen the sword and understand the impact this time spent has on their real estate business success. Let’s have a look at the most important sales skills an agent needs today!

Sales Skills All Real Estate Agents Must Have

1. Managing your own time – Most agent’s time is dictated and controlled by their buyers and sellers. Very few Realtors© exercise control of their own time. When the client says jump the agent normally responds with “how high”? Most agents put in a hard and long day and find at the end of the end they really didn’t get the results they were looking for. Working smarter and managing the highest and best use of your own time is a critical sales skill in real estate.

2. Engage in conversations with people – Every day you need to be able to engage in conversations with either people you know or don’t know about possibly buying or selling real estate. These conversations with people are the root of our database and key to our real estate success. Every day these conversations lead to you adding someone new to your database that don’t have an agent of choice. These people may buy or sell but just as important is them knowing someone else who might be and referring them to buy or sell with you. Get out there and have conversations every day in real estate.

3. Strong lead follow up – When someone gives you their name, phone number, email it is a customer trying to give you an opportunity to list something or help someone buy something. They are literally handing you the opportunity to earn their business and if served effectively you earn the commission. It amazes me the mindset of agents not wanting to “bug people” or the number of clients that said they never heard back from any agents. The discipline and skill of having strong lead follow up in real estate is another area where many agents can improve greatly.

4. Qualifying the buyer or seller – The ability to identify the “looker” from the buyer and the seller from the dreamer is another incredibly important sales skill for any real estate agent. My mentor taught me “Wade, learn how to lose them Tuesday before they use you and drop you on Saturday.” The power qualifying questions are as simple as “WHY?” “WHEN?” and “HOW? Cash or credit?” The answers to these simple but powerful questions are the secret to qualifying success.

5. Presentations – This is show business and your ability to wow and awe someone to buy or sell with you is key to your success. Having the ability to present to your audience and make them laugh, cry and feel is an incredibly powerful sales skill and something I just loved to master myself. Sales is storytelling and people love stories. Are you an engaging powerful storyteller or are you just someone that just talks, talks and tells? Master your presentation and storytelling skills and watch what happens for you and your business.

6. Handling objections, stalls and conditions – Knowing what to say and how to respond to basically twelve of the most common public responses is another powerful sales skill in real estate. Anticipating what they will say and respond to you and being able to respond with something that changes how they feel about how they think is such an important skill and process. Here are the terrible twelve most used objections agents will hear from clients. 1. We are going to wait 2. We aren’t sure 3. Will you cut your commission? 4. We don’t want a for sale sign 5. We are going to list with…. 6. We are going to try selling ourselves 7. We want, need or have to have $ _______ 8. We don’t want to put more money into 9. How much real estate do you sell? 10. How long have you been an agent? 11. Why didn’t you show our home when it was listed before? 12. You’re a new agent.

I encourage you to take the time to really work on these specific sales skills and processes. Putting in the time to polish these skills will help take your business to a whole other level, I promise. Where are your skills and processes lacking from the above list? Take action and finish 2018 strong and have skills and not rely on chance or luck and be market and economy proof as an agent!

Strength and courage,
Wade