Category: Marketing

Are Open Houses Dead?

I had breakfast with a broker last week.  He’s a great broker, has come through Real-Ageddon with a few scars on his face but never lost his smile.  His perseverance is paying off:  he’s having a very good year.

Now, understand this:  I am a Help-U-Sell purist.  With no hesitation and absolutely no doubt, I embrace what our visionary founder created.  In short:  If Don Taylor Said It, I Believe It, And That Settles It.  But I am becoming a vanishing breed.  Most Help-U-Sell brokers have adjusted the system here and there, mostly in response to the difficult market realities of the last five years.  I have no problem with that: job one is survival.  But when you talk to me about your sliding scale of fees (versus your SET FEE) or the elimination of Seller Participation from your operational system . . . well, I can get very loud and long winded.  As a result, many Help-U-Sell brokers won’t talk to me about what they’re really doing;  they just don’t want to get the lecture again.

My breakfast broker is different:  he’s made all kinds of adjustments and has no problem sharing them with me.  We debate them.  On tap at this meeting were Seller Participation and Open Houses.

‘I don’t do Open Houses, ‘ he said.

‘Ok,’ I answered, ‘But your sellers hold their own, don’t they?’

‘No.  I tell them it’s a waste of time,’ he paused, registering the shock on my face.  ‘If they insist, I’ll give them signs and they can hold their own . . . but I don’t do Open Houses.’

I was running a little short of breath.  ‘Can . .  you . . please share . . with me . . . why?’

‘They don’t work.  Open Houses are dead,’ he said, ‘Plus, that’s old-style marketing.  It’s what ‘real estate ladies‘ did in the seventies before the Internet made them irrelevant.’

‘But . . .’

‘Buyers don’t work that way anymore.’  He offered me a sip of water in hopes it would help me regain my composure. ‘Today, they’re on the Internet, looking at photos, going to virtual tours.  If they see something they like, they drive by . . . and if it looks good, that’s when they call to get inside.’

‘Really?’  I was picturing a pristine and deserted beach and silently chanting ‘oommm‘ to myself  in hopes of getting my pulse to slow.

‘Nobody has time to drive all over town, dropping in on random Open Houses.   That’s just not the way to get a property sold today.’

When I got back to my office, I did a little Googling.  I discovered that he is not alone in his thinking.  Many agree that the Open House is a vestige left over from a time that has long passed.  But not everyone believes this.  I tossed the question out to our Brokers on our regular Wednesday Power Hour Webinar.  Most were absolutely on-board with Open Houses and mostly with Seller Participation.  As I listened to them I began to realize where the discord was coming from.

It all has to do with being clear about what you want to accomplish.

If your goal is to sell the house that’s being held open . . . well, that’s a rare occurrence at best.  Maybe Open Houses as a strategy for accomplishing that . . . are dead.

But a couple of Help-U-Sell Brokers said the principal benefit of Open Houses (held by them) is the opportunity they provide to present their program to potential Sellers – the neighbors, the casual drop-bys.  People are surprised to find a Help-U-Sell Broker sitting on an Open House and say something like, ‘Gosh, I didn’t think you guys did Open Houses.’  And that opens a whole dialogue about who we are and what we do.

Others talked about the benefit of having dozens of additional directional and Open House signs up in the neighborhood.  The added visibility boosts inquiries from both buyers and sellers.

And finally, there were those who talked about how Seller-held Open Houses create additional opportunities for lead capture, opportunities that don’t involve the Broker’s time.  Going back to Don Taylor:  A well-coached Seller, holding his or her own Open House, always gets contact information on anyone coming through.  On Monday morning, that list is faxed to the office for followup.  Most times, the visitor has eliminated the subject property . . . but is open to hearing about others (bingo!);  and sometimes, with a little clarification, they are ready to make an offer on the subject property (bingo again!).  A Help-U-Sell broker who has done a good job of selling Seller Participation may walk into the office on Monday morning to find 3 or 4 or more sign-in sheets in the FAX machine, and suddenly there are half a dozen more buyer leads.

So, here is the message:

As with every piece of marketing you do, the first order of business is to define exactly what it is you want to accomplish.  Then track results in terms of what you said you were after and evaluate the program based on that criteria.  Simple.

What might you want to accomplish with an Open House?  Pick one or two, not all five:

  • Sell the subject property
  • Make contact with buyer prospects who probably won’t make an offer of the subject property but who may buy something else through you
  • Create an opportunity to spread your message to potential sellers in the area
  • Boost your visibility in the marketplace through increased signage (directional and Open House signs)
  • And in the case of Seller held Open Houses, multiply your efforts, getting more done than you can do yourself
My breakfast broker decided the only thing he might want to accomplish with an Open House was to sell the subject property.  That’s an iffy proposition at best, so no wonder he thinks Open Houses are dead.  As a marketing tool, however, Open Houses do hold all kinds of  other possibilites.
By the way:  there is acutally a sixth reason to hold an Open House and I left it off the list because Help-U-Sell Brokers generally don’t do it.  It is often the only reason an ordinary REALTOR holds an open house:
To create a false impression of activity thus pacifying an anxious seller for another month.

Pay-Per-Click, Step-By-Step

We all know that carefully planned pay-per-click advertising works.  It can effectively drive traffic to your website, where, if it is handled properly, it can turn into leads. We saw an example of that this morning on the Tech Time Tuesday Webinar, where Jack Bailey increased traffic to his office website by almost 1,000% over a four month period. ,due largely to his pay-per-click campaign on Google. Using Ad Words, he brought roughly 15,000 visitors to his website.  One of his ads – the one offering a free market analysis – had a 31% click-thru rate!  That’s crazy good!  And, assuming some of the traffic is converted to leads, some of which actually buy or sell real estate, the cost can be very low.  Really, Jack’s budget was $12 a day – a little less than $400 a month.

But, how do you do this?  How do you proceed step-by-step to take advantage of this Internet Marketing Bonanza?  Here’s how:

1.  Decide what kind of lead you are seeking.  Are you looking for Buyers or Sellers?  What kind of Buyers?  Buyers interested in Foreclosures?  Buyers looking in a specific neighborhood?  Buyers with little down payment money?  Sellers with equity?  Upside down sellers? Sellers in a specific geographic area?  Step one is all about getting very specific about your target.  The more specific you set your pay-per-click parameters, the more efficient your campaign will be.  In short:  you’ll attract fewer clicks from customers you don’t want (out of the area, just looking, unable to buy and so on).

2.  Build a landing page on your office website where people who click your ad will ‘land.’  A good landing page should address exactly what the ad mentioned.  If it was the offer of a free Market Analysis, that’s ALL that should be on the landing page:  just the contact information capture form and a tiny bit of verbiage explaining what will happen when they sign up.   Some experts say you should keep your branding, both personal and company, to a minimum on a good lead capture landing page.  The idea is that people may sign up online for something they perceive to be of value if they don’t associate it with an ordinary Realtor or real estate company.

3.  Decide where you are going to advertise.  Google is the 800 pound gorilla here.  If you choose this, your ads will appear when people who fit your demographic parameters search for the keywords and phrases around which you build your campaign.  Don’t overlook Facebook.  Their pay-per-click ads have been effective for many, and their targeting process is very specific.  And don’t forget:  not everybody searches with Google.  Some use Bing, some use Yahoo.  You may find more cost effective alternatives if you just look around.

4.  Design your ad.  Keep the verbiage to a minimum.  Stick to exactly what you’re offering. Use Google AdWords to determine which real estate search terms are most common in your area and build your campaign around them.   While Google pay-per-click is all words and links, Facebook allows you to include a photo or graphic in your ad.  If you’re using a photo, note that. sometimes it’s the quirky photo that catches the eye.  **TIP:  Include your phone number in your pay-per-click ad.  Some people will call rather than click, and you don’t pay if they don’t click!

5.  Set-up and budget your campaign.  You’ll set three ‘maximums’ when you initiate your campaign:  your total budget (the maximum you want to spend for the entire campaign), your daily maximum, and the maximum you’re willing to pay per click.  I mentioned Jack’s campaign:  his total budget was right at $1,500.  He was willing to spend up to $12 a day.  I don’t know what he agreed to pay-per-click, but what usually happens is the vendor (Google or Facebook or Yahoo)  will give you a range in which you should bid.  Let’s assume it’s $1.10 – $1.53 per click.  The higher you bid, the more frequently your ad will appear . . . until you hit one of your maximums.  When I’ve done pay-per-click, I’ve set my bid on the high side of the middle of the range.  By they way:  some clicks will come in at less than your bid; it all depends on how competitive the environment around your key words is at that moment.

6.  Track your results.  Conceptually, this step is number six.  But Chronologically?  You probably ought to move this to first.  BEFORE you do anything with any marketing, pay-per-click or otherwise, you must set up your system for tracking results.  How will you capture and track the leads that come in via your Internet contact form?  What about those leads that choose to pick up the phone and call?  And how will you get your staff to take all of this tracking as seriously as you do?  (I’ve always been a big fan of boiling in oil and/or burning at the stake for slackers, but the choice is yours).

7.  Manage your campaign.  Everyday, take a look at your results.  How many leads did you create?  What key words or phrases pulled the best?  Which keywords could you pause or drop from the campaign?  And so on.

Now it’s soapbox time.  This is the moment when all of us need inventory.  Listings are so low right now and the Listing Agent is in control.  This is happening because increased buyer activity as begun to push prices slightly higher – something we haven’t’ seen in years.  Homeowners are very curious right now about what their homes are worth.  They’ve seen the uptick in values and are wondering if they’re still upside down.  Now is the time to do a pay-per-click campaign aimed at these people.  How about a pay-per-click ad that simply says:  ‘Find Out What Your Home Is Worth Today’ . . . leading to the free market analysis page that’s already set up and is available on your office website.

So, let’s do it.  Do steps 6, 1, and 3 – get it all organized – and then call Tony in Sarasota.  He’ll be happy to help you finish the task.  And if you want to run any marketing ideas by me, I’m energized and available.

Eight Things You Can Do To Get A Listing Today

Can you get a listing today?  I’m waiting . . . can you?  Let me rephrase the question:  If you were to be hung by the neck until dead at sunset if you didn’t get a listing today, could you get one?  I thought so.  Getting a Listing is something you can DO in real estate.  You can’t force a sale, you can’t force a closing . . . but you can DO a listing.  You can get one.  It is always in your power.

And today, more than ever, a listing is precious.  Inventories are so low right now and prices are inching (and in some cases, racing) upwards.  Multiple offers abound and the person with listings is in the driver’s seat.  But listings are also hard to come by.  Many potential sellers are sitting back, noticing the upcreep in prices and thinking: ‘If I just wait a few months maybe I won’t be so upside down . . . ‘

So, what can you do TODAY to get a listing?  Here are 8 ideas:

1.  Call all of your past clients.  It’s a simple dialogue:  you need their help.  Inventory is drying up, buyers are frantic to find something.  Have they heard of anybody thinking of selling?  I would be surprised if you didn’t uncover at least 1 listing lead for every 20 calls.

2.  Call all of your fence sitting, luke warm potential sellers and heat them up!   They’re not doing themselves any favors by waiting.  The bargains are disappearing rapidly and while they’re waiting for a few percentage points gain in equity, they’re missing opportunities.  Here – use this set of graphics from Help-U-Sell University:

3.  Pull all the expired listings for the LAST 12 MONTHS – that’s right, a full year’s worth – and drop them a note about the improving market, the scarcity of listings and the fact that you can save them money!

4.  Choose one of your buyer clients who is hot to trot but having trouble finding a suitable home.  Working with them, isolate the one or two perfect neighborhoods for them.  Then make a flyer with their photo and some humanizing detail,  saying they’re looking for a home in that neighborhood.  If you’d like to sell, contact Help-U-Sell.  And put your ETM on the back.  Deliver it however you’d like:  snail mail, Excel’s mailbox stuffer program, slide it under the doormat . . . although if you’re trying to beat the hangman at sunset, you’d better stick to doormats.

5.  Follow Kurt Steffien’s lead:  start cultivating probate attorneys.  They are certainly interested in being heroes to their estate clients, and will see your money saving (estate preserving) offer as a way to accomplish that.  In other words:  they get it.  And if you get one and do a good job, it’s not just one listing, it could be many.  For months and years to come.  Really.

6.  Work with Tony to build a landing page on your website to capture contact info on people wanting to know what their house is worth.  Then create a QR Code for it.  Have flyers made with nothing more than the QR Code and the words:  ‘See How Much Your Home Is Worth Today.’  Put them all over the place.

7.  Call every FSBO in the area and ask:  ‘If I were to find a buyer who made an offer that was acceptable to you, would you pay me a commission?’  (I know, I know . . .you guys usually choke when you have to say that word, but in this case it will serve you better than ‘Low Set Fee.’).  The answer will almost always be yes, because they’ve usually made the same deal with every other Realtor in town.  Quickly calculate what, say, 3% is (let’s assume it’s $4,500), and respond: ‘So if I find a buyer who makes an acceptable offer you’ll pay me 3% which is around $4,500 dollars, right?  Let me show you what I can do for you for just $3,950*.  I mean – I’m Help-U-Sell – you get my complete full service program for less than you’d pay some agent just to find you a buyer.  For $3,950*, I’ll help you refine your pricing (if necessary), do all the marketing, get you on dozens of websites, qualify all interested buyers, help you weigh the pros and cons of every offer and calculate your net proceeds, process all the paperwork and handle the details all the way to closing.  How’s that sound?’

(*Or whatever your Set Fee is.  By the way:  Commissions, whether percentage based of set fee, are always negotiable.)

8.  Call Jack Bailey and ask him what you should do.

This is July 5.  The longest day of the year was, what?  A week and a half ago?  So you’ve got a few extra hours of daylight to get it done.  Go on now:  get out there and don’t come home until you have a signed listing agreement in your sweaty little hand.

 

 

Personal Marketing

I was there in the 80s when the concept of Personal Marketing was born.  Re/Max had swept into the industry and turned the spotlight squarely on the the agent . . . the agent who did exactly what every other agent did, who had the same tools, the same program.  That was the problem:  how do you market something when what you have to market is exactly what everyone else has to market?  The answer was:  you don’t.  You don’t market what you do.  You market yourself.  You become your own brand.  And over time you create a belief that, while what you do isn’t all that different, who you are is.

Here:  think about cars for a minute.  Think about Dodge cars.  in the 80’s there was nothing at all spectacular, different or unique about Dodge cars.  That was pretty much true about all American made cars in the 80’s.  Now try to think like a Dodge dealer:  you’ve got the same product every other Dodge dealer has.  You have essentially the same financial deal with the manufacturer that every other Dodge dealer has.  You have the same pool of salespeople and service people to pull from, the same financing avenues. There is absolutely nothing unique or different about what you have to offer. How do you sell more Dodge automobiles than the other dealer across town?

Cal Worthington was up to that challenge.  He pretty much quit marketing Dodge cars and started marketing Cal Worthington.  He did crazy stuff:  did a commercial while wing-walking on a bi-plane, dressed up in a gorilla suit, made a pitch while skydiving, ate a bug, ‘stood on his head ’til his ears turned red,’ and so on.  Usually in his commercials, he’d introduce his dog Spot, who was never a dog at all.  It was a tiger once, a lizard, a Killer Whale, even a Hippopatamus.  I can still hear his jingle:  ‘Go See Cal! Go See Cal! Go See Cal!’   And people did go see Cal.  I’m not sure how many people trusted Cal or thought he was up to anything more than negotiating the best possible deal for his dealership.  But people wanted to go see that crazy guy . . . personal marketing works.

In the late 70’s The Personal Marketing Company was born and brought this concept to the real estate business.  It was the right idea at the right time. Agents who, like Cal, who had the same Dodge as the guy  across town, had the same tools, same procedures, same methods for making sales, were hungry for a new twist on marketing.  As Personal Marketing gained traction, we watched the real estate company logo on the For Sale sign shrink and shrink until it became the fine print at the bottom.  We saw the agent’s name and photo become larger and larger.

The Personal Marketing Company was largely about product.  They had all kinds of newsletters and postcards to sell to agents that would accommodate their individual branding.  But in the 80’s Hobbs and Herder showed up to teach people how to market themselves, and that’s when everything really shifted.

Remember a month ago or so?  I did a post about an amazing open house I encountered.  There were dozens of directionals, all with pink flourescent flags on top, all featuring the agent’s branding leading to the house.  Along the route there were companion bus benches.  It was impressive.  But while I was writing the piece, I wondered what company this person worked for.  It wasn’t clear on any of the signage.  The signs were pretty unique:  all pink and green, but the only name on them was . . . the agent’s.  So I went to her webiste and there it was, burried in the fine print at the bottom of the page:  she worked for Keller-Williams.  The message to the consumer is clear:  my company has nothing special to offer.  We’re just like everyone else.  But me?  I’m special.  You should be doing business with meeeeee.

Today, my buddy, Ken Kopcho sent me a video from the Tom Ferry Organization.  He’s promoting his ‘Success Summit’ coming up later in the year (How the heck did he end up with the same name for his annual meeting as ours?).  Here: check it out:


The ideas are good.  But it’s all about personal marketing, marketing who you are, not what you do.  It works and I approve for Realtors everywhere.

But Help-U-Sell people are not generic Realtors.  We really do have a unique system that works.  The consumer experience is completely different with Help-U-Sell.  In short:  we have something real to market.  We don’t have to create a fictionalized persona to grab the interest of consumers.  All we have to do is distribute the message that:  We Are Here, People Use Us, It Works, and They Save Money.

Somewhere close to one of Cal’s dealerships was a Honda dealer.  Who knows who the owner of that dealership was:  that’s not what they were marketing.  They were marketing a product that was different.  Their ads said:  We Are Here, People Buy Our Cars, They Don’t Break Down, They Get Great Mileage, and Our Customers Are Happy.

The Wall Street Journal lists the top 20 vehicles in order by unit sales.  For 2012, year to date, they show Dodge with one vehicle in the top 20:  the Ram Pick-up.  114, 630 have been sold so far this year.  Honda has three cars in the top 20:  Civic, Accord and CRV.  Total sales for those vehicles is 384, 736 units so far.  Love you, Cal, but guess who won the war….

The point is this:  Help-U-Sell people, yes:  do market yourself.  Be personable.  Be likeable.  But remember why people do business with you.  It’s not because of the gorilla suit you wore last Halloween.  It’s because you are unique, you have a program that works, your brand means something and the Help-U-Sell consumer experience is superior.  THAT’s something to market.

 

Working with Friends vs Working with Strangers

With whom would you rather work?  I know, I know.  You probably just blurted out ‘Friends! Of course!’  That’s a natural response, one that is in line with conventional residential real estate thinking where your goal should be to build a 100% repeat and referral business within three years.  If you’ve ever been to a real estate sales training program or seminar (picture: Brian Buffini), what you probably learned were techniques for adding lots of people to your corral of friends and then extracting business from them.

But I just read an excellent (and short) blog post from our friend, Kirk Eisele (who I just invited to pop in here from time to time and contribute a post or two), that brings clarity to my own discomfort with that approach. (Stop now and read it HERE, then come back)

True Confession:  in my own real estate career I didn’t do a good job of converting my friends into customers.  I didn’t want my friendships to be about my business; or rather,  I was not good at keeping friendships about friendship while injecting my business into them.  The idea of constantly talking with everyone I know about real estate was not my style.  Allright:  I sucked at it.  And I always saw that as a failing.  Kirk’s post helped me see it not as failure but as honest recognition that I am a marketer at heart.  Of course, you already knew that.

I guess this explains in part why I fell in love with Help-U-Sell.  This is a marketing driven business system.  It is real and tangible and can be packaged and presented (marketed, sold) to consumers who quickly come to the logical conclusion that Help-U-Sell is a good idea.  It is NOT personality driven.  It’s not about who you know and whether they support your business (though we all need all the friends we can get), but relies on a solidly different and better apprpoach to the business for success.  Help-U-Sell is for Marketers . . . and for Connectors who can learn to market.

This is not to belittle the Connectors.  With quite a few notable exceptions, most of the successful real estate salespeople held up as models for us all are Connectors.  Some of our best Help-U-Sell brokers are Connectors.  But ALL of our Help-U-Sell Brokers are Marketers.  It goes with the territory.

The simple fact that you’re building a business based on sound business principals (as opposed to building one based on who you know) makes the business more valuable.  Richard Cricchio has built one heck of a Help-U-Sell business in Hawaii and though he is the voice of real estate in his weekly radio show, if he were to sell his company to a qualified candidate who follows the same plan, the company would probably not skip a beat.  If his business was built on family, friends, neighbors, past customers and clients, anyone buying the business would realize that once Richard went away, so would the business.

Back to that initial question I asked:  With whom would you rather work? Friends or Strangers?  Let me blur the lines a little:  how about Friends or Strangers and Former Clients?

I’ll take the latter every day.  Strangers and former clients make the decision to work with me based on the efficiency and effectiveness of my program.  Of course they have to be comfortable with me, but they don’t make the buying decision because of our long and rich history together.  On the other hand, my experience working with friends and family is, honestly:

they usually expect a deal,

one that usually impacts my income.

At the end of the transaction, though everyone is all smiles, somewhere in the back of the the Friend’s mind is the nagging question:  ‘Did he really give me a good deal?’  Meanwhile, that stranger I just converted into a client and a sale is delighted over the great service and low fee I charged.

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