Category: Marketing

Building and Managing Your Online Presence

Nick Taylor from Zillow spoke to the Help-U-Sell team at our Success Summit last November.  He brought a wealth of good information, not only about Zillow but also about online marketing in general.  In the four months since I’ve heard from several brokers who have increased their lead generation success using what they learned.  Nick just revised that presentation and posted it online.  It’s still a presentation – and would be best with a presenter (Nick), but the slides are full of good information if you simply read them.  Here it is:

Nick Taylor’s Online Marketing Presentation

Please Do The Analysis!

On today’s Power Hour Web Conference, I asked all Help-U-Sell brokers to do a little analysis.  I asked them to see just how accurate the big real estate aggregation sites (Trulia, Zillow, et al) are in their local marketplaces.  I asked that they search for homes for sale in a reasonable, manageable price range in their own Zip Code on, say, Zillow  and then to compare those results with the same search done on the MLS.  This is the same experiment the broker mentioned in my last post did – the one where she found 159 bad or questionable listings out of the 220 her search turned up on the aggregator site.  But I’m asking Help-U-Sell people to go one step further:  identify which listings on the aggregator site are not in MLS and then find out why.  Are they duplicates?  Old sold listings that have not been purged?  Are they FSBOs or broker listings not on MLS?  It’s probably an hour’s worth of effort but I think it will pay big dividends.

See, the aggregators are getting slammed right now for having bad or stale data.  It is my belief that the housing information available on your own Help-U-Sell website with an IDX feed from the local MLS is far more up to date and accurate than anything a national site could offer.  What I want to do is document that – locally, office by office.  We can then start talking with consumers about this and (hopefully) switch them off the national sites (where they are vulnerable to any agent)  and on to our own.

Please, Help-U-Sell Brokers: Get Busy!  Do this book work and share your results with me.  And if you’d like a little inspiration, check out this article from today’s Inman News

 

The Flaw In Zillow’s Strength: Your Competitive Advantage

Yesterday, Kendra Gemma sent me a link to an article in the San Diego Union Tribune about the real estate syndication flap.  That, in itself, is pretty amazing:  Kendra, who is in Sarasota, is sending me a link to an article in my hometown newspaper!  (Here is a link to the article)

The piece was a rehashing of the syndication battle but focused on one of the underlying truths about the big aggregator sites (Trulia, Zillow, Et. Al.):  their data is littered with errors and inaccuracies.  It’s easy to see why:  Zillow, for example, receives real estate listing data feeds from dozens of sources.  Your Help-U-Sell listing may get to Zillow via your MLS, your ListHub account, Help-U-Sell, personal input, and on and on.  Zillow has an algorhythm that kicks in when it spots duplicate listings and grants priority to feeds they deem most reliable, but it has to recognize the listings in question as duplicates first.  So there are duplicates on Zillow.  And status changes are often mishandled by agents and/or syndicators, so there is the potential for many homes listed as ‘For Sale’ on Zillow actually being sold and closed.

One San Diego broker did a test last month.  She went ‘one of the popular real estate search sites’ (unnamed) and did a search for houses in her Scripps Ranch Zip Code:  92131. She then did the same search in her MLS and compared the results.

There were 220+ results on the search site.

• 54 were not for sale on the MLS

• 46 were condos, although she limited her search to houses.

• 24 had sold. One dated back more than a year.

• 17 were contingent.

• 10 were in escrow.

• 8 were expired, canceled or withdrawn.

If you do the arithmetic, there were problems with 159 of the 220 results!  The article mentioned that this particular broker has a problem with syndication in general, and I have no idea whether or not that played into the results, BUT I think you’d be wise to do your own search and comparison for your area.  And, please, when you do:  share the results with me!

(Before we go any further let me remind you that I LIKE Zillow.  They took an opportunity on which the REALTOR community turned its back and quickly became the home search tool of choice for consumers.  Bravo.  Now they kick off leads like crazy to brokers who are sharp enough to pay their price.  Instead of moaning about how wrong that whole scenario is, I think it’s wiser to recognize that at this moment in time, Zillow is a lead generating titan, and to find ways to tap into that flow of potential buyers and sellers. )

Here is a lesson in packaging.  I found it  not in the article, but in the comments to it:

Mark and Karla Stuart, Prudential California Realty:  We were so frustrated with the innacuracies created by all of the different IDX sites, including Trulia and Zillow, we created our own….exclusively for San Diego County. It is 100% accurate, and doesn’t waste our client’s time with “Pending” and “Sold” listings, and is updated overnight, every night. Our goal was to be 100% accurate with regards to what is coming from the realtor’s database, the MLS. Though expensive, it has served our customers quite well. http://www.freesandiegosearch.com

Wow!  Their website sounds like a dream come true!  No inaccuracies!  Just as up-to-date as the local MLS!  You can’t beat that! And you know what?  It’s the same IDX feed you have you your website. The feed you have on your Help-U-Sell site comes straight from the MLS, every night, and is as accurate as the MLS is at that moment in time.

It’s time to start working on how we communicate this to potential buyers.  It has to be done quickly and elegantly during the first meeting.  Something like:

Agent:  How long have you been looking?

Buyer:  Oh, a few weeks, I guess.

Agent:  You found me on Zillow, is that how you’ve doing your searches?

Buyer:  Yes.

Agent:  It is very easy to use, I know. . . but have you noticed how many homes on there are not really for sale?

Buyer:  Well, now that you mention it . . .

Agent:  They have a real challenge there; it’s because they’re trying to do a local job on a world-wide platform.  They get housing information from so many sources it even confuses them!  Listen, how about letting me give you access to the local MLS – without all the data from Boston and St. Louis and Puerto Rico gumming up the works!  You’ll have the most accurate and best information on houses for sale today in this market?

Buyer:  You can do that?

Agent:  Sure.  I just need an email address and phone number and I can set you up with a buyer’s account  on my website.  You can search to your heart’s content, save listings, even set up email alerts when new properties that meet your needs come on the market.  Plus, any time you have a question or want to see something, I’m just a click away.

Buyer:  Sounds pretty good.

It’s the same basic pitch the Listingbook folks use.  Of course, their feed is real-time, not once a day, and they have ways of tracking buyer behavior on their site that are very powerful.  But the same concept applies:  The most popular home search tool buyers have is loaded with bad data.  You can give potential buyers a better search tool without the inaccuracies.  I’m suggesting you set a registration threshhold on your website – use either option:  3 searches and then register or register to get detailed information.  When you use your dialogue and sign up a new buyer, you go into OMS, create a buyer account for them, and communicate it back to them via email.  By doing it this way (as opposed to having them do it themselves), you’re giving them something of value.  And since the perception of Value is a key consideration when choosing a real estate professional,  it could be the start of a wonderful working relationship!

(If you haven’t read our discussion about syndication, you can access it by following these links: Syndication Storm, Syndication Update, The Final Word on Syndication and Another Word on Syndication.

 

How Do You Talk About Marketing?

Marketing has undergone a huge change over the last decade.  Unfortunately, your clients’ ideas about marketing haven’t.  Most still believe that an ad in the newspaper or in a Homes magazine will sell their house . . . so your challenge in the Listing Consultation is to do a credible job educating the Seller about how marketing really works in your office.  Failure to do this will result in countless ‘what are you doing?’ calls . . . and will likely lead you to do what ordinary REALTORS do . . . which is to put an ad in the newspaper to pacify the seller, knowing full well it probably will accomplish nothing.

Start by painting a different picture of your Help-U-Sell office and what you do to get property sold.  You have a marketing system that includes lots of internet marketing, some direct mail, a little print media (and more), all designed to generate buyer inquiries into your office.  When the inquiry comes in, your staff expertly handles it, captures contact information and earns the right to help the caller find their dream home.  Sometimes it is the property that motivated the inquiry in the first place but usually it’s not; it’s another home in inventory.  The office acts as a kind of clearinghouse – or matchmaker – connecting buyers and their specific housing needs to inventory.  All of the marketing you do (even pieces that don’t feature your Sellers’ listing) is working to produce the one thing needed to get the Seller’s listing sold:  Potential Buyers.

Listen:  there are a finite number of people interested in buying real estate in your market place at any given time.  Maybe it’s 50 people today or 200 people tomorrow.  The best thing you can do for your Seller is to cause as many of those people to contact your office as possible, and you do that with Marketing – not advertising, Marketing.  But how do you communicate this to a seller who expects to see his or her home in the newspaper or in the homes magazine at the grocery store?  Try this:

You know, Sue and Al, marketing is very different today than it was just a few years ago.  The National Association of REALTORS reports that nearly 90% of home buyers start their search online.  That’s why Internet Marketing is the real heart of my Marketing System.  I put your home on dozens of property websites – everything from Trulia and Zillow to REALTOR.com and the local MLS.  I also get you up on my own websites that have all been optimized to be attractive to search engines so that homebuyers can find you.

In addition, I use a lot of direct mail – things like these just listed cards and this big marketing piece that get delivered to thousands of households in the area, signage and even some print advertising in local newspapers and homes magazines.

All of my marketing is designed to do one thing – and I know you think I’m about to say ‘sell your house,’ but I’m not:  it’s designed to generate inquiries from potential buyers into my office.  You see, the best thing I can do to find the very best buyer for your home – the one who is not just qualified but also willing to pay the most for it – is to be in touch with as many buyers interested in the area as possible.  And I use my Marketing System to find them.  It’s funny though:  most times, the caller quickly eliminates the property that motivated their call; they find it’s too small or in the wrong location or doesn’t have the amenities they want.  But my staff is expert at quickly building rapport and credibility with those buyers and then matching them to houses we have in inventory that DO meet their needs.

So we use the houses we have in inventory to fuel our Marketing program . . . which produces dozens of homebuyer inquiries into the office (last month we had more than 200 inquiries).  We then match those buyers to houses we have in inventory that meet their needs.  The office, my staff and I, act as a kind of clearinghouse or an old fashioned match-maker, putting buyers together with houses that meet their needs.

The real key, though, is Marketing to Generate Buyer Leads.  We don’t just advertise your property – though you’ll see your property in our advertising – we are a marketing company and we market your home by producing leads from potential buyers.  You list with us – of course because you want to save money – but also because we have an ongoing flow of buyers coming through our office, any one of whom might be perfect for you home.   Make sense?

It’s important to have examples of your marketing with you when you meet the sellers for a listing consultation.  It is important to put your brag cards and ETMs out on the table, to show your Internet syndication diagram, and your Homes Magazine ad.  But don’t fall into the trap of describing every individual piece of advertising you do!  That only reinforces the sellers’ misconception that advertising their house will get it sold.  If that’s all it took, they could do it themselves!  Instead, simply put them out, let the seller pick them up and look them over as you continue to talk about how your office acts as a property clearinghouse.

Old style Listing Presentations would spend a lot of time doing ‘show-and-tell’ about advertising.  The idea was to overwhelm the seller with all of the different places the agent was going to advertise their home.  And by the way – that’s pretty much what your competitors are going to attempt today. Taking this tack sets up at least two false expectations for your seller:  first, that advertising is what will sell their home and,  that they should find their home in every bit of real estate advertising they see!

Be different! You should be able to convincingly present your marketing system in 5 – 10 minutes at the most if you focus on concepts – not on the individual marketing pieces you do.  You’ll find that the seller will be much more understanding and supportive of your efforts if you do.

 

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