It seems like EVERYONE is in a hurry. Look, around, everyone is looking down at their phones. It’s like people don’t even talk to each other any more and everyone is in a rush to do something. Get here. Get there. 10 minutes ago. This rush is to do things is happening everywhere, even real estate – and it’s likely costing you business.
The Golden Rule
Ask anyone who has been in real estate for any period of time and they’ll tell you LISTINGS are the life blood of real estate. LIST TO LAST they say. And it’s true. It’s the Golden Rule – He who has the GOLD rules and the gold in real estate is listings. Yet so many agents that take a listing are in such a hurry to get it on the Multiple Listing Service. Why?
Two Perspectives
When I look at real estate marketing I see it from two different perspectives. The agents perspective and the consumers. Looking at things in two different ways has helped me understand the consumer and how they search as well as help our real estate partners. Looking at things from the consumer perspective, I can see why the agent wants the property in the MLS immediately – to get the buzz going. To get interest going. To show the seller they made the right choice in hiring you. To get the property SOLD. But in my opinion, this is probably the least effective action to take.
The Art Of Pre-Marketing A Home
If I was an agent that just took a new listing I would not put it on MLS. At least not yet. I would do some pre marketing to build up the demand as well as get leads – more listings. I would get a professional video created for the listing, and I’d put signs out, much like open house signs all over the neighborhood, only instead of “open house” they would say “HD Real Estate Video In Progress”. I know the neighbors coming and going would cruise by to see what was going on. They’d see me, out front with a videographer which would naturally lead to questions like – “is this property going up for sale? How much? What are you doing? To which I would answer – “Yes it is, We have not decided on a price yet and, we use video to market all of upon listings – if you’d like to give me your email address I would love to send it to you when it’s done”.
Let The Pre-Marketing Begin
Then, when the video was complete I would put a for sale sign with two sign riders. One custom and one not. The custom sign rider would say “see the video at (website) and the other would say “coming soon”. Then I would do my pre marketing before entering the property in the MLS. That pre marketing would include an optimized blog post, a direct mail blast to the neighbors letting them know the property is coming up for sale and this is their chance to see it – kind of like “choose your neighbor” AND where they could see the video of course. This would get the neighbors talking. There is always one person in each neighborhood that LOVES to gossip, knows everyone and everything. They’ll find your pre-marketing – I guarantee it.
All Roads Lead To Rome
All the traffic generated from the pre-marketing would be sent back to Rome. My website. Your website IS your storefront. Your website is where the consumer will learn more about you and how you can help. I would send the traffic to a specific page on my website that would not just house the video but ALSO talk about my awesome seller marketing. Why sellers choose me or my team. I’d have all kind of video statistics there like “listings with video receive 400% more activity”, “video is 53x’s more likely to appear on page 1 of Google”, “80% of consumers look for a video on YouTube, Facebook or Google” and so on.
They’ve Never Seen An Agent Like You Before
Then I would offer a free home valuation and a link where the consumer could watch my “about us” team video. Where they could watch my video testimonials of other satisfied sellers, where they could see my other property videos and community videos if I had one. ALL of this marketing help clearly establish myself as something they had never seen before. And it’s true. Most real estate agents are horrible at marketing.
Open House
Now that your pre-marketing is in full effect, it’s time to hold the house open. The normal stuff will do here – cookies cheese, whatever but this is where you add something new. The video. Get a portable HD TV from Costco or wherever and play the video on the TV DURING the open house. The neighbors walking in will think it’s HGTV, Property Brothers or Flip This House but it’s not. It’s you. They’ll look at the TV and then you, you and then the TV with a puzzled look on their faces – you’re on TV they’ll think, or the house is on TV – but it’s not. They have already started to mentally move in to the property and are blown away by the video quality and they want it on their properties. This is where you tell them “we hire a professional videographer to market all of our listings, it’s (insert high price) but we take care of the cost of you list with us”. BOOM.
Hold It Back…
Now that my pre-marketing is in progress, I would hold the property back from MLS for one week and build up interest and demand. Then, on day 7 – open that bad boy up. By day 7 there should be a list of people that want to see the property, these people likely have a home to sell. And now that they have experienced my pre-marketing, the buzz, the video, great photos – they want that too. Wouldn’t you?
Ready to practice the art of pre marketing? It all starts with a great cinematic HD video that will help the consumer mentally more into the property… film out the form below or call us today. Let’s talk.
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