Online Marketing for Local Real Estate Agents?

14 years ago

It's good plan and I have found realtors are always looking for ways to implement the newer online marketing methods.

You might want to experiment with the pricing on the doneforyou services part. I've found many are tight-fisted and will want to spend less. But I know doing workshops can work.

Thanks
2 replies

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Kent Tee

14 years ago

Originally Posted by barache

It's good plan and I have found realtors are always looking for ways to implement the newer online marketing methods.

You might want to experiment with the pricing on the doneforyou services part. I've found many are tight-fisted and will want to spend less. But I know doing workshops can work.

Hi Barache,

Thanks for your feedback. Still need some final modify.

Thanks

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uncle randy 71

14 years ago

Originally Posted by barache

It's good plan and I have found realtors are always looking for ways to implement the newer online marketing methods.

You might want to experiment with the pricing on the doneforyou services part. I've found many are tight-fisted and will want to spend less. But I know doing workshops can work.

A lot of realtors are indeed up to date on the latest technological improvements. However, keep in mind that the 80/20 rule is highly evidenced in the real estate market. In other words 20% of the realtors are making 80% (or more) of the sales. Don't get too discouraged if you talk to 30 or 40 realtors and they all complain about the pricing. You only need about 10 to 15 realtors each paying you $500 to $750 per month in order to make a nice income off of this.

You also have to look at the bigger picture. If the typical realtor in your area makes $2,000 on a sale (after splitting commissions with other realtors and their own broker) then how many sales will you need to generate monthly for this service to be worth their time and money? One sale? Two sales at the most? Position yourself as the expert and you should be able to land a few good clients.

Thanks
1 reply

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Kent Tee

14 years ago

Originally Posted by uncle randy 71

A lot of realtors are indeed up to date on the latest technological improvements. However, keep in mind that the 80/20 rule is highly evidenced in the real estate market. In other words 20% of the realtors are making 80% (or more) of the sales. Don't get too discouraged if you talk to 30 or 40 realtors and they all complain about the pricing. You only need about 10 to 15 realtors each paying you $500 to $750 per month in order to make a nice income off of this.

You also have to look at the bigger picture. If the typical realtor in your area makes $2,000 on a sale (after splitting commissions with other realtors and their own broker) then how many sales will you need to generate monthly for this service to be worth their time and money? One sale? Two sales at the most? Position yourself as the expert and you should be able to land a few good clients.

Hi Uncle Randy,

Thanks for your input. I was thinking not to lower the price too much so that I can have more spaces for negotiation.

Just like you said that Expert Positioning also one of my consideration.

Thanks

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fitz10

14 years ago

I think the fact that you're positioning yourself as an expert will easily allow you to convince at least a few agents to buy into the $497 service. I'm in contact with several real estate agents and they're always looking for information on how to use online marketing so it's a very ripe market.

How are you planning on prospecting for agents?

Thanks
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warrior realm

14 years ago

Having been a real estate agent myself many moons ago I can tell you that most agents are notoriously cheap and very demanding.

As stated by Uncle Randy earlier, the 80-20 rule most definitely applies in the real estate business. Seek out the 20%'ers! The 80% crowd will have you gnashing teeth and wishing for quick death since they will be on you constantly for even the most minor of issues. Be very specific in your target market with agents.

You might consider targeting ONLY the TOP "brokers" in your area, the leaders in sales. Be firm on price but allow for a little negotiation so the "broker" feels they have "won" in their negotiation with you ... after all, that's what a real estate agent is suppose to do, be a professional negotiator.

Ask for more than you want, under sell and over deliver and don't waste time with "new agents". An experienced and successful real estate agent will understand the need for your services but you must (as fitz10 said) "position yourself as the expert.

Weed out the wannabe's and time wasters with a two step marketing approach. Target those with a "perfect customer" profile and make yourself known to them as best you know how.

Select maybe 25 TOP Brokers that you would want to do business with. Make yourself known with a regular mailing of postcards (maybe every 3-4 days) to your targets with specific benefits they will enjoy as a result of hiring YOU!

You want to get your name in front of them but before they notice your name, they've got to be drawn into your message with a BENEFIT they'll reap as a result of hiring you. Remember, if they don;t know you, all they care about is what you can do for them ... that's why "what you can do for them" is more important than who you are (at least in the beginning)

A real estate agent will always want to know ... "What can you do for me and why would I use you versus anyone else who can do the same thing".

What makes YOU special is what YOU can do for THEM.

Mike

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Kent Tee

14 years ago

Originally Posted by warrior realm

Having been a real estate agent myself many moons ago I can tell you that most agents are notoriously cheap and very demanding.

As stated by Uncle Randy earlier, the 80-20 rule most definitely applies in the real estate business. Seek out the 20%'ers! The 80% crowd will have you gnashing teeth and wishing for quick death since they will be on you constantly for even the most minor of issues. Be very specific in your target market with agents.

You might consider targeting ONLY the TOP "brokers" in your area, the leaders in sales. Be firm on price but allow for a little negotiation so the "broker" feels they have "won" in their negotiation with you ... after all, that's what a real estate agent is suppose to do, be a professional negotiator.

Ask for more than you want, under sell and over deliver and don't waste time with "new agents". An experienced and successful real estate agent will understand the need for your services but you must (as fitz10 said) "position yourself as the expert.

Weed out the wannabe's and time wasters with a two step marketing approach. Target those with a "perfect customer" profile and make yourself known to them as best you know how.

Select maybe 25 TOP Brokers that you would want to do business with. Make yourself known with a regular mailing of postcards (maybe every 3-4 days) to your targets with specific benefits they will enjoy as a result of hiring YOU!

You want to get your name in front of them but before they notice your name, they've got to be drawn into your message with a BENEFIT they'll reap as a result of hiring you. Remember, if they don;t know you, all they care about is what you can do for them ... that's why "what you can do for them" is more important than who you are (at least in the beginning)

A real estate agent will always want to know ... "What can you do for me and why would I use you versus anyone else who can do the same thing".

What makes YOU special is what YOU can do for THEM.

Mike

Thanks Mike for your good tips. What you said is true, actually real estate agents are quite familiar and updated with latest marketing tools. Whether they want to invest money on you is another matter.

That's why I have to make sure my offers and marketing model is practical for them even before I step into their door. I try to over deliver at the same time.

Here in warrior forum is my best place to brainstorm and organize my idea before I get into the "real world"..

Thanks
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jondabach 14 years ago

I was creative director for a large franchise for a while and it was in an expensive area and let me tell you that with today's market realtors are some of the CHEAPEST prospects out there. To top that off the competition is STIFF. They get custom photography done for next to nothing, websites set up for them by auto-pilot companies. You really have to prove yourself if you're going to charge them. I was in the office when realtor.com and listingbook.com came in and people were whining about the $20/month they would have to pay for an AMAZING service. Just thought I'd warn you. What you might want to do is offer a lead-based system. Get some EMD sites up and capture leads and then sell them - those could go for a lot of money.
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Kent Tee

14 years ago

Originally Posted by fitz10

I think the fact that you're positioning yourself as an expert will easily allow you to convince at least a few agents to buy into the $497 service. I'm in contact with several real estate agents and they're always looking for information on how to use online marketing so it's a very ripe market.

How are you planning on prospecting for agents?

Hi Fitz10,

Thanks for comment. I already have the contact with those real estate principals.

Thanks

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davidbatchelor 14 years ago

Originally Posted by fitz10

How are you planning on prospecting for agents?

That is a great question. I notice he hasn't answered it yet.
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David Batchelor
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keyconcepts

14 years ago

I think it sounds like a nice idea. I, too, am looking to work with some real estate agents. I am having a problem figuring out who those 20%ers are. Any tips on how to pick them out of the crowd?

Thanks

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Fernando Veloso

14 years ago

I Kent.

Hopefully it works best for you, but personally I had nothing but weird experiences with them. What I did was rank a bunch of sites for good buying keywords as "buy house city x" or "city x condos" etc etc.

Funny enough, not many interest. But at least I am the proudly owner of a very interesting network of sites in that market.

/Confused/

Hope your approach goes better then mine.

Thanks
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Kent Tee

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

I Kent.

Hopefully it works best for you, but personally I had nothing but weird experiences with them. What I did was rank a bunch of sites for good buying keywords as "buy house city x" or "city x condos" etc etc.

Funny enough, not many interest. But at least I am the proudly owner of a very interesting network of sites in that market.

/Confused/

Hope your approach goes better then mine.

Hi Fernando,

Do you get any lead from the keywords ranked? Maybe you can do some JV deals with your local real estate agents?

Thanks.

Thanks
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scarab 14 years ago

I have worked with Real Estate Agents several times. What I found was that those that are in the middle of the pack are the ones who o will spend money for services. The top could give a crap less, everything falls into place for them for some reason, the lower tiered group complain about everything, are lazy and always try to do it themselves then tell you it doesn't work.

I have a full array of services for the Real Estate group, some are so lazy that with a really easy to use SMS system they can't follow simple instructions on how to get people to join their lists. They won't even e-mail people to ask them to sign up. One lady has had the system for 8 weeks and doesn't even have a single subscriber, another tried her own FB campaign and nothing came of it(has just a personal FB page...=dead end) and the other don't even try the system.

I do have one that is using it quite well and building a subscribers gradually and she get's it.

Most Real Estate agents I know work about 3 days a week. The best to them but I don't see it happening.
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Fernando Veloso 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Kent Tee

Hi Fernando,

Do you get any lead from the keywords ranked? Maybe you can do some JV deals with your local real estate agents?

Thanks.

Hi Ken

Not that easy. Most local guys don't want to invest any money - even showing them sites ranking #1 for their targeted keywords.

The market is dead right now and they simply don't understand the value of a #1 rank for "buy house in city X" or "buy a villa in city Y".

It's a mix of ignorance and lack of budget.
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JustMint

14 years ago

I'm a bit confused how to approach them when they are mostly all part of a national network operating under the same banner (eg Smith & Jones Real Estate - Century 21 Yourtownsville).
Their sites are all part of the franchise site, and so is their marketing. Also online listings competition is fierce with ALL listings going to major national sites and newspaper owned sites, which is where all buyers look.
How can we offer something of value that competes with all this?

Thanks
1 reply

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fitz10

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JustMint

I'm a bit confused how to approach them when they are mostly all part of a national network operating under the same banner (eg Smith & Jones Real Estate - Century 21 Yourtownsville).
Their sites are all part of the franchise site, and so is their marketing. Also online listings competition is fierce with ALL listings going to major national sites and newspaper owned sites, which is where all buyers look.
How can we offer something of value that competes with all this?

One thing you can do is get them on the real estate social media sites (ie- Zillow, Trulia, etc) as well as Twitter. I met my real estate agent and my mortgage broker on Zillow and as I already said above I know several real estate agents who are crushing it on Twitter. Best thing they can do is poise themselves as experts in a particular niche (first time home buyers, short sales, etc) or area. Of course this also assumes their doing business in a rather large market. I'm in the northeast US in a metro area of 7 million people, if you're talking about real estate brokers in Wyoming or something the story may be entirely different.

Thanks

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sdentrepreneur

14 years ago

I am with Mike on this one, Realtors are cheap. I have been marketing for individuals realtors and complete offices for 60+ agents. I would say of the 60 Agents, only about 10 understood the power of the Internet/Social Media. They are also getting bombarded with the likes of Adzzoo, Reach Local and other Internet Marketers.
If you are looking for Offline clients, I find about 75% of my clients from LeTip, BNI, Business Mixers and Chamber of Commerce events. Its all about building a relationship with a business owner and there is no better way that I know than showing up at these events. I wear a white name badge with Google or Facebook Marketing on it. I attract like minded individuals, have a real conversation about what they are looking for and then will set a meeting with NO Sales Pitch at the event.

Thanks

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Macksheppard

14 years ago

Hey Kent, lots of interesting comments.

I'm a full time Realtor in Canada. Many rules and regulations are different from country to country as are the service offerings. I dont' know anything about Malaysia however I know Realtors.

The reason they are so hard to sell to is because the people selling to them don't understand their business. Realtors are constantly being cold called and sold to by people offering to bring in clients with turn key solutions with the "special fantastic system" creator taking little or no risk.

My experience is these solutions usually don't work sand the only one making money is the company providing the "latest HUGE opportunity".

I read on post with someone complaining about how stupid one lady Realtor was because she couldn't work the system. I would like to see that person drop their day job and go out on a straight commission basis with all the overhead and sell real estate and then see how much time they would invest in learning a system that didn't produce results right away. To be successful you have to serve from your client's perspective.

Also if you sell a house and see the commission you may think a Realtor makes huge money, yet no one sees the cost of being a Realtor. It's very expensive and your success is all based on your ability to market effectively.

If you want to get more business than you can handle be different from everyone else flogging turn-key solutions and empty promises and no actual track record. If your service works and you can bring the Realtor leads in a quantifiable and measurable way and you are totally confident of it...then JV with the Realtors.

Become a partner in their business and you don't get paid until your system produces a quantifiable lead. If you keep ownership of the "lead producing system" for a particular area you could make the Realtor interchangeable by selling a license which give the Realtor the ability to purchase leads.

If the system works and the JV is successful you can expand giving real quantifiable data to prove it and not be one of the many who are peddling bogus marketing tactics with no track record expecting Realtors to shower them with money for yet another great idea that is poorly implemented and not supported.

Thanks
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Fernando Veloso

14 years ago

Hi Mark

Sorry about the short version of your post, but this is where I want to focus:

Originally Posted by Macksheppard

Become a partner in their business and you don't get paid until your system produces a quantifiable lead. If you keep ownership of the "lead producing system" for a particular area you could make the Realtor interchangeable by selling a license which give the Realtor the ability to purchase leads.

Been there, done that. What I discovered? There was NO WAY for me to prove the Lead was good or bad.

But there is one thing I can prove: my website's rankings. And to denial advertising exclusively in a site with top rankings for realtor major keywords is just bad marketing, you have to agree with me.

Some of these realtor show up at page 6 for their keywords - yet they don't want to invest money in advertising/site rental "unless they confirm the traffic is good". But after a couple months all the traffic was bad.

Really? 200 unique visitors per day? Searching for "buy house in villa Z"? Bad traffic? I wonder why Portuguese realtors are broke...

Thats why I simply dropped them all and I keep feeding my network. Most probably one day they'll understand. If they don't, well, thats a big shame for everyone.

Just had to vent this out cause this is one of those markets where WE can make all the difference and yet, no results.

Perhaps you can give them some tips?

Fernando

Thanks
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Macksheppard

14 years ago

Hey Fernando, I know it's tough to convince your prospects if they don't understand or simply don't believe the results. It sounds like the Realtors you spoke to are not good at converting the online leads. Most of the online leads will need to be nurtured and many Realtors don't understand that. Maybe you need to move to another market that wants your service...just a thought.

Thanks
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Fernando Veloso

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Macksheppard

Hey Fernando, I know it's tough to convince your prospects if they don't understand or simply don't believe the results. It sounds like the Realtors you spoke to are not good at converting the online leads. Most of the online leads will need to be nurtured and many Realtors don't understand that. Maybe you need to move to another market that wants your service...just a thought.

As I said above, I reckon it's a mix of "ignorance" (probably more a lack of information) and bad economy - lack of budget.

But this network is a keeper. Definitely. We own several TLD's with major keywords and at 8$ a pop it's a small investment for my kids.

Thanks
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MaverickUK 14 years ago

Ever thought of selling RENTING leads to estate agents as opposed to those who want to purchase? I've found that selling leads to estate agents that rent properties out is a lot easier than those who sell houses outright.
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Mary Green

14 years ago

I was wondering how this is working for you? How are you contacting the realtors? I have tried email and cold calling and they are pretty difficult to get to respond. Could be my area, but I'm getting about 1 in 100 to give me the time of day and I've tried every wso on contacting people. Just wondering how you are doing..

Thanks

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Digital Traffic

14 years ago

Here is a copy of a post I did a while back about how to reach Realtors.

The best way to contact local realtors is to call each office.

Most all offices will have weekly meetings, usually on Tuesday mornings, to go over the new listings and sales for the week.

Call the office and ask to speak to the office manager, explain to them what you do, and that you would like to do a quick 10 minute presentation for the office about local SEO.

Tell the office manager that of course, you will bring plenty of donuts for the meeting, or order some pizza if it is an afternoon meeting.

You will find most real estate office meetings are from 8:00am to 9:00am.

Usually half of the office will show for these meetings, the ones who are there are actively listing and selling.

Thanks

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Can Tonic

14 years ago

I am doing local marketing campaigns for real estate agents. I have made a short demonstration video, but in german:

YouTube - ‪Mobile Marketing...

Hope you can get some inspiration from it

Guys, don't forget to vote

Thank you

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1 reply

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Fernando Veloso

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Can Tonic

I am doing local marketing campaigns for real estate agents. I have made a short demonstration video, but in german:

Hope you can get some inspiration from it

Guys, don't forget to vote

Thank you

Pretty neat!! Who did it? Can I have the contact of the creator?

Thanks
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Can Tonic 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

Pretty neat!! Who did it? Can I have the contact of the creator?

You already have the contact. I am the creator
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- Fernando Veloso 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Can Tonic
  
  You already have the contact. I am the creator
  
  Oh, so I'll be sending you a PM then Guys, sorry about the offtopic but the video is really awesome. Guess more people will be interested in your services.
  
  Thanks
  
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MichaelHiles

14 years ago

I know several real estate agents who are literally crushing it on Facebook. One girl does an average of 8-10 closings a week BY HERSELF by specializing in REOs and networking with high net worth folks and investors.

Your plan seems like a good one, but they really have to come up with a strategy for themselves. Facebook is just a tool.

Thanks
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Charles Harper

14 years ago

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

I know several real estate agents who are literally crushing it on Facebook. One girl does an average of 8-10 closings a week BY HERSELF by specializing in REOs and networking with high net worth folks and investors.

Your plan seems like a good one, but they really have to come up with a strategy for themselves. Facebook is just a tool.

Agreed...network...network...network.

Get them to do the same.

BUT don't do it the way that most sales professionals do..going to mixers, networking functions, and stuff.

Read this book and apply it to your practice:

Amazon

Amazon
Then get them to do the same thing.

This will work in any country, on the internet, off the internet, with tools, without tools.

Of course if you set strategies like this on to social media, you will be dangerous. But social media, nor frankly is the internet needed.

CT

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redcell1

14 years ago

See each real estate market is different.

Not all the keywords are the same

"buy homes in orange county" seems like a good keyword but when in reality you get just a bunch of people looking who don't call or fill out the lead form.

I have worked with several realtors and it really depends on what their niche is and looking at the sales numbers,trends etc for their area.

Thanks

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