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Content Marketing

The Ghost of 2008. A Cautionary Tale For Newer Real Estate Agents

September 27, 2020 By Stephen Garner

real estate marketing strategyIt’s 2005. The Arizona School of Real Estate & Business has a waiting list. The real estate markets in much of the United States are going crazy. Phoenix is one of the top 2 hottest housing markets. Everywhere you look, everywhere you go, everyone it seems is talking about real estate.

The loan officers postcard, flyer or door hanger “Why rent when you can buy?“.  The co-worker bragging about the cash out refi to buy an investment property. The neighborhood for-sale signs that pop up and disappear in days. The mom and pop investors. The lotteries at new home communities.

I remember it, hell I lived it.

In 2005 I was a sales executive for one of the largest title insurance companies in the valley. I remember how crazy it was. I remember brand new real estate agents bringing me contracts 2-3 times a week, an unbelievable feat given the average agent sold less than 8 homes a year at that time.

I remember the wrapped Hummers some real estate agents had. The Cadillac Escalades (w/the Spinners), the CheeseCake Factory ads. The California and institutional investors and hedge funds that flooded the market with cash, buying homes sight unseen. The native Phoenicians on the news frustrated they couldn’t afford to buy a home in the neighborhoods they grew up in.

Everywhere you looked, everyone was talking about real estate – good and bad.

I heard a team leader at Keller Williams sum it up perfectly back then- “a blind poodle could sell real estate right now”.  And he was 100% right.

In 2005, there were too many buyers and sellers and believe it or not, not enough real estate agents. It was the wild west, loan officers were largely unregulated and unlicensed. A real estate agent could sell you a home with a loan they helped generate. Real estate agents accustomed to chasing leads were being chased themselves. Flagged down as they drove through neighborhoods with brokerage magnets on their cars. Writing contracts in 120 degree heat on the hoods of their cars was the norm.

Crazy was an understatement. “Drive until you quality” (for a home) was the old adage back then, which helped build the towns and cities of Maricopa, Queen Creek, San Tan Valley, Casa Grande and Buckeye.

I also remember 2008 when it all came crashing down. Many lost everything. “Jingle Mail” was a thing, a reference to homeowners mailing their keys to the bank and walking away. Short Sales and Foreclosures everywhere.

Homes being sold on the open market in days in 05 were now being sold at auction in minutes in 08. In May 2008 there were 45,243 active real estate licensees that made up the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service. According to The Cromford Report, real estate licenses in Maricopa County have risen to 88,616 in 2020. Up from 87,983 In fiscal year 2019.

In 2005, you only needed to fog a mirror to buy a home, the same test to become a real estate agent – a successful one at that. But when the market changed, the ones without systems, tools, without plans couldn’t and didn’t survive. The top agents survived, the others went back to their jobs at intel, Honeywell and believe it or not – CVS.

You may be asking, why am I writing about a time many of us want to forget in 2008? Because history repeats itself, we’re living it all again right now in 2020. Yes, its a different market, one being fed by low interest rates, COVID and the mass exodus from California. A healthier market no doubt. A sustainable market. But the lack of investment in systems and tools by many newer real estate agents is back and with a vengeance.

Many don’t have a database, a CRM, and many more don’t have a value proposition (or understand why they would even need one) other than to lower their commission rates.  I’ll tell you now, if you’re reading this in a real estate office and you look to your left and to your right, one, maybe two of you won’t be here in the event of significant market downturn, scratch that – when a market downturn happens (and it always does).

Learn from the past. Know that change does and will happen. Markets change, sometimes over night. It is possible for you to go from 10 buyers or sellers in your pipeline – to ZERO. Knowing this… what will you do today to guarantee you will be here tomorrow?

Meet with one of the valleys best title sales executives and/or loan officers – one well versed in today’s tech (Insta, FB, LinkedIn & YouTube). One that can help you create a CRM, communicate with it effectively and efficiently,  help with online ads, messaging and more. Invest in coaching, Tom Ferry, Mike Ferry, Buffini & Company, Craig Proctor, Metrix etc

Get a website, fill it with content that educates and informs to help your future customers find you online. Fill it with video testimonials that speak to how you are better and different than your competition. Create content on a regular basis (preferably video as it’s what that consumer prefers) about the communities and subdivisions you market to. Answer questions  in your blog and on YouTube a consumer would type into a search engine to help them find you. Send it to your database as additional touches through your CRM.

The content you create today is the digital bread crumbs to help the consumer find you tomorrow. As midivil farmers used to say “Make hay while the sun shines……”

 

Contact Us

Thank you for your interest in HMC. We provide the highest quality business, commercial, event video productions, classes and services. We look forward to meeting you. Please fill out the form below or call 480.223.8113

Filed Under: Content Marketing

Real Estate Content Ideas | Ditch The Boring Newsletter

May 8, 2020 By Stephen Garner

real estate content ideas

It seems like almost every day I receive a canned, stale, boring, irrelevant newsletter from a real estate agent. To make matters worse, because we work with hundreds of real estate agents in the valley, it’s not uncommon for us to receive the exact. same. newsletter from multiple agents, sometimes as many as 20 at a time. Real estate content ideas don’t need to be this boring.

I commend the real estate agents on sending out something, when you look at the numbers of real estate agents that actually keep in contact with past clients the numbers are dismal at best, (according to NAR 91% never contact the buyer or seller again after closing) but real estate content doesn’t need to be duplicate, irrelevant or canned either.

How to clean your windows, make homemade popsicles or increase curb appeal isn’t new and certainly not unique. Staying in contact with valuable, relevant content can change your real estate business and reap long term referrals and business as only 25% of consumers use the same agent again, probably because only 9% stay in contact after closing.

There is a better way to create real estate content ideas, and if you follow our suggestions you won’t need to pay for those canned newsletters any longer. Good, relevant real estate content is valuable, now more than ever because the consumer is looking to you, the real estate agent, their trusted advisor, for not only your expertise but also your observations as they both directly affect the consumer.

If you are keeping in contact with your clients right now (hopefully you are given the height of anxiety related to COVID-19) your clients are asking you questions, questions that you happily answer maybe on the phone or in person, via email, messenger or text, answers that are valuable not just for that particular client but for your database, social networks, and sphere of influence as well. This is great real estate content that is just as valuable to consumers that you don’t even know, potential future buyers ad sellers that are asking the same questions, looking for the same information, only they are asking search engines like Google and/or YouTube.

The next time someone asks you a question or makes a statement that you know could be of value for not just that client but others as well, turn that question into a story and make that your daily weekly or monthly newsletter. You can choose to write it in text like this, or even better you can turn it into a video and text or email it out to your existing clients via BombBomb, Constant Contact, MailChimp, as well as add it to your real estate website to be indexed by search engines like Google and YouTube (this is how you get targeted traffic to your website).

Unfortunately many consumers believe all real estate agents are the same, (and they validate that belief by receiving the same exact content or irrelevant content  from multiple real estate agents). Whether you realize it or not, you have immense value, it is your expertise and your observations communicated effectively and consistently that will not only set you apart from your competition but increase your value and help you get found online as well.

Now I know you’re probably wondering what kind of real estate content? Well let me ask you this, are homes still selling right now in the face of COVID-19? Why is that, and how is that? Has the housing inventory gone up or down because of the Coronavirus? And if that inventory did go up how does it affect buyers? If it went down how does it affect sellers?

Is this a normal market? While were at it, what is a normal market? What about loans, is it easier to qualify right now or harder? Why? What about down payments, are they higher? Lower? The same? Are there new loan programs that today’s buyer may be able to qualify for?

What about deferments? Will that affect a borrower’s ability to buy a home later or refinance? What about showing homes? What steps or technologies are you or your brokerage leveraging right now, today, to show homes and sell homes in this post COVID-19 housing market?

These real estate content ideas are based upon the last 60 days, there are literally thousands if not tens of thousands of real estate content topics that you could be talking about, emailing, texting, writing about that would not only keep you top of mind with those you know, but when uploaded to YouTube, shared on social networks and your website, would help you get found online by those you don’t.  Good real estate content increases your brand awareness and clearly establishes you as a thought leader and expert in your space, and that is exactly who the consumer wants to work with.

Contact Us

Thank you for your interest in HMC. We provide the highest quality business, commercial, event video productions, classes and services. We look forward to meeting you. Please fill out the form below or call 480.223.8113

Filed Under: Content Marketing Tagged With: content marketing

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