Over the past decade, the real estate industry has had its share of ups and downs.
Back in 2006, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) membership hit its all-time high with 1,357,000 realtors before dropping significantly due to the housing financial crisis. Since it hit rock bottom in 2012, with just 999,000 members, it has been rising steadily with close to 1,100,000 members in 2014 and competition among realtors has started to heat up.
The competition is fierce and today you need expert offline and online marketing skills to set yourself apart from the rest. Real estate agents are obviously still an important element in the process of buying a home, but buyers are increasingly doing much more research online on their own before they involve experts.
A study conducted by the NAR showed that 92 per cent of buyers use the Internet to kick off their house hunting endeavours, driving home the absolute need for real estate agents to have an active presence online. If you aren’t active, engaging, and networking online, then you are missing out.
Setting Yourself Up for Social
Ensure that you have social media accounts on all the big networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest). For all these platforms, ensure that you interact with your followers, share good press, and promote your properties.
Adding Social Sharing to Property Pages
People shopping for homes are most likely eager to share their top housing pictures with their family and friends, so make it easy for homebuyers to share and email various properties online by adding social sharing buttons.
Watch Out for the Competition
You also need to watch what other realtors in your area are doing. What do their websites look like? How active are they on various social media platforms? Take note of what the competition is doing and strive to replicate their success and avoid their mistakes.
Make It Easy for People to Contact You
Put your contact information on every page of your website. Ideally, you should make an impressive and attention-grabbing contact us page.
Create an Impressive Business Card
Create impressive looking business cards and hand them out like flyers to potential customers.
Use Local Images
In many ways, you aren’t just selling a house, you are selling an entire area or town. Showcase the best your area has to offer, using beautiful high-quality photos of local town landmarks as well as familiar sites.
Capture Leads by Creating Irresistible Content
Consider producing an ebook like “X most valuable features in a new home” or “X things that new homeowners need to consider before buying.” Offering a free eBook in exchange for an email address and perhaps even a ZIP code is an excellent lead capture strategy.
Hire a Professional Photographer
Successful real estate advertising heavily relies on great photography. Bad photos are only likely to diminish interest even in the best properties. It is absolutely critical that you have lovely photos of your properties. If you are looking for a property photographer then see FourWalls for their services..
Hire a professional photographer, preferably one with architecture/real estate photography. If you have the right equipment and are confident in your abilities, you can always have your own hand at it. Keep in mind, however, that this is one scenario where it pays to bring in a professional.
You can find numerous impressive resources online that provide in-depth details about real estate photography that will be incredibly helpful so long as you already have some basic photography experience.