When trying to get real estate listings, you can take creative and original steps to build relationships with a potential property seller. You can invite the buyer to dinner or write a real estate Facebook post or any of the methods you like, described below.
To begin with, define your target market and narrow down the price range that matches your vision for the listing. Visit the relevant sites like Zillow and Trulia and find out your target area according to them to compare with the one you have chosen for yourself.
For those agents who work in a highly competitive market, in capitals, large cities, and far-famed locations, it makes sense to go through well-known Forbes or Bloomberg publications. I recommend studying the following real estate blogs:
You can meet your colleagues who belong to local real estate organizations at events they host. This may be the American Real Estate Society (ARES), the Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP), and other societies.
Another way to get to know colleagues could be to join neighborhood groups or real estate charities, for example, the Realty Gift Fund.
Do not neglect any opportunities to communicate and exchange experiences with colleagues, as this will help you learn something new about your market, about local specifics, some personal tricks and methods, etc.
Belonging to the community and actively participating in its life will greatly contribute to getting listings as a real estate agent. Put your logo on the T-shirts of baseball players in your area, put up billboards around town, promote yourself on church bulletins, and so on.
The more people remember you as a real estate agent, the more likely they are to contact you when they decide to sell or buy a house.
You obviously need to have your own business cards to carry with you at all times, especially at local social events. Work on the design of your business cards, make them original, eye-catching, and customized.
Ditch the boring rectangular shape in favor of a house or a key shape for your business card. Use business card templates for Photoshop to get inspired and make your new unique and memorable business cards.
REALTORS® conducted a study and found that 97% of those who bought a home searched for it on the Internet. If you have a Google Business Profile, a potential buyer will be able to view it on the right side of the screen when looking for a home.
Such an account will help the client to find out complete information about you and your business, contact details, and opening hours, as well as to study recent listings and reviews.
Google Business photo size recommendation:
Post the listings you already have and those you are interested in, write your notes about the real estate market, post tips to help potential buyers, conduct polls among subscribers, and find out what they are most interested in.
Try advertising on social media for real estate to target potential customers precisely. When it comes to Facebook posting, in addition to good copy, eye-catching photos, and videos, you should always be on the lookout for complex data management that helps you streamline your Facebook advertising campaigns.
Also, don’t neglect Google ads, which will be useful to potential property buyers who are looking for certain terms, such as location, related products, or demographics. To make managing your real estate ad campaigns seamless, I recommend using Sprout Social, Loomly, and Audiense.
When dealing with For Sale By Owners properties, you already know that this is a potential client looking to sell their property. 92% of them will eventually choose a realtor to sell their home, according to research by The National Association of Realtors. Make sure that such a client chooses you, work on your marketing strategy, or offer a higher asking price.
When you come across an expired listing, you realize that the owner failed to sell the house on his own. This is a good signal to contact him, establish the reasons for the failure and advise him to work on his ad or offer your pro-grade services.
Check out Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist – platforms where you can often meet real estate sellers. Write to some to see if they need professional help.
Visit Zillow or other similar real estate websites and try their fancy “Make Me Move” feature. It refers to that part of the owners who are not currently selling their property but would do so for an attractive price.
This works in situations where the buyer has seen his ideal home and is ready to pay for it as much as the owner requests. Also, this is another way how to get a real estate listing, if the realtor saw a house that he could represent and sell for at least the specified price.
Launching your own podcast as a local real estate agent can also help you get noticed and find new clients. Find your zest and peculiarity, for example, analyze the off-market property. For such an undertaking, you will need proven podcast recording software. I recommend opting for Adobe Audition, Wavosaur, or Ocenaudio.
Try yourself as a writer and release your own eBook on a related topic, such as buying off-market listings or tips for selling your home on your own. To create a book, use eBook software, for example, Adobe InDesign, Scrivener, and Kitaboo are decent options.
In addition to current home options, please readers with useful texts and tips related to selling a house on their own, analyzing the local market, etc.
Builders such as Stripo and Moosend are suitable for creating newsletters.
Send CMAs to your past clients or property owners you know. This is one of the most useful tools used by realtors to compare the prices at which houses are sold in a particular area and to assess the fair market price of real estate.
Go beyond a simple report, pull up the house in Google Earth, capture the screen using screen recording software, and showcase similar offerings to your target viewers. Next, just study who viewed your video and write to them, maybe these viewers need your help right now.
Explore available local and dedicated communities where you can offer services or find colleagues. Here are some groups on Facebook that can help in getting listings as a real estate agent:
Start your blog on WordPress, LinkedIn, or other popular blogging platforms to get more listings. Think carefully about your keywords so that search engines will give you up more often to searchers, on the topics you will cover, and be sure to update your blog regularly.
A few popular starter topics that will be useful to clients: a step-by-step guide on how to buy a house, tips on preparing a house before selling, and how to sell an old house to buy a new one more profitably.
According to YouTube research, 90% of people learn about new products and services on their platform. This is why it makes sense to consider creating an ad set to reach potential clients in the desired area. The average length of a YouTube ad is up to 30 seconds, but up to 2 minutes is allowed as well.
A well-written presentation is a great way to tell clients about yourself as a realtor and to showcase your professionalism, attentiveness, and competence. In it, you can highlight something that will surely interest your potential customers:
I recommend taking a closer look at such presentation software as Piktochart, Canva, or Google Slides.
It happens that even a super-skilled and experienced agent doesn’t look so due to such banal issues as a bad portrait and poorly lit and staged photos. Before shooting, look at photos of other agents and practice power poses.
Take the time to retouch images in Lightroom or another handy photo editing program for PC or Mac. If you are inexperienced or you are worried that your pictures will look unnatural and clumsy, seek professional retouchers for help.
NAR conducted a study and found that 41% of home sellers hired their realtors through the recommendation of friends or other services. After successful cases, ask clients to leave feedback about your cooperation, and do not hesitate to ask them to recommend you to their friends and colleagues.
As you know, realtors often work with divorce lawyers, loan officers, mortgage brokers, real estate attorneys, and other realtors. I recommend taking a closer look at real estate customer relationship management (CRM) software like Wise Agent or LionDesk to track your interactions and plan your next steps, as well as calendars like Google Calendar or ClickUp.
REO listings are the ones that are owned by the bank, and which the bank intends to sell. As a rule, the bank seeks to sell the property as soon as possible and most often without any negotiations, which makes it one of the most convenient and profitable sellers.
The bank can get a pretty good deal with the prospective homeowner, which means finding a buyer for the home will be a breeze. In terms of how to get a real estate listing, the situation is similar to real estate development companies in this case, since it is preferable that you already have similar work experience.
You can find such offers in the public, for example, in the Notice of Default (NOD) or Notice of Sale. Also, try searching on bank websites, such as the Bank of America website. Government organizations have similar real estate listings, Fannie Mae, the U.S. Dept. of Housing (HUD), and the Small Business Administration to name a few.
Visit TrustATrader, Houzz, or other similar sites to contact property builders and see if they are looking for someone to manage listings. Don’t forget to consider real estate postcards ideas to present yourself professionally.
However, cooperation with builders has disadvantages as well. Your actual profit may be different from expected as builders negotiate their own rates. With this, you will most likely have more projects.
Finding a suitable dedicated marketing company that deals with sending referrals to listing agents is not a problem today. Try Market Leader, Sold.com, or ZillowFlex.
Such companies provide exclusive options in a particular zip code. Just sign up and pay for the service – that’s the answer to how to get listings as a new real estate agent with such a platform.
A buyer who comes to such events may well become a seller once he has signed a contract on a property. Many visitors to the open house come for educational purposes and to learn something new about the real estate market.
However, there may come a time in their lives when they want to sell their house, and then they remember how well the event was staged and want to contact such a realtor.
Invite everyone in the area to your event. It is also a good occasion to get to know your neighbors better. Keep flyers handy to distribute to open-house attendees. Use real estate flyer templates to create eye-catching event advertising.
You can improve photos for listings in a few clicks using these free tools. They are great at correcting color and light problems, and more. A nice bonus is that they come with .lrtemplate and .xmp extensions and are supported by Lightroom Mobile, Lightroom 4, 5, 6, and CC.
