How to Create an Effective Fall Real Estate Marketing Plan
School is back in session and vacation season is over. It is still technically Summer, but the Fall real estate market is officially here. Many Realtors/Lenders are refreshed and ready to make the push for a successful rest of 2017. Having an effective fall real estate marketing plan is key to ensuring that your current and past clients are touched, and the pipeline for Spring 2018 is filling up. The hard part is getting back into that business mindset and make the wheels start moving again. We all know it has to happen, but we need a plan. Running your business by design is far better than just “winging” it, so let’s chat about how we can set up a Fall marketing plan and close out the year strong.
Recently in the last few months we have seen a ramp up of hacking attempts to steal money from homeowners trying to close on their real estate transaction. This hacker wire scam is fairly savvy and has worked on a few occasions. Most notably, last week in the Washington DC area, a family wired $1.5 Million to whom they thought was the Title Company closing their transaction. Turns out, it was hackers trying to steal their money, and they were successful. The Title Company and FBI are working together to get the people their money back. The case is ongoing.
When a Realtor tells me they have a ratified purchase contract, it always make me smile. That means a Realtor has entrusted Stewart Title to handle their transaction and get their clients to closing. There are many things that happen between the day of contract ratification to closing. The lender has their job, the home inspector, appraiser, and the many items asked of the “soon to be” home buyer. The one role where many people are unsure of what happens behind the scenes is the Title Company. Ask most homeowners where they signed their closing documents and many don’t remember, let alone understand what this 
I want to begin by saying Realtors are not “forced” to use the joint venture Title Company. With full access to the brokerage’s agents, office meetings, events, and a push from the Broker, the business capture rate on the real estate joint ventures is fairly high. Joint ventures between Title Companies and Realtor brokerages have existed for quite some time and are fairly prevalent today in the Washington DC/Northern Virginia area. Perhaps they exist in your market as well and maybe you currently participate in one. BUT…what if real estate joint ventures were told to disband and can no longer exist–effective tomorrow?
In the last few months, we have had some transactions in which the buyer has waved purchasing the Owners Title Insurance Policy. That is their right to do so as “technically” it is optional. What many buyers don’t take the time to learn are the many upsides and protections Title Insurance Policies provide. Not purchasing a policy on your largest asset can have lasting affects even after you sell the home.
Over the last few years, I have received many emails and calls from Title Companies and Title Insurance Sales reps. Washington State to Florida, most of their questions and work struggles have a similar tone. This shows that no matter how business is done in your area, the concepts of sales and marketing strategies to gain Realtor, Lender, or Attorney clients is the same. When I moved to the Washington DC area in 2012, I did “start over” in the Title Insurance sales business. I moved to a brand new area, 2000 miles away from my former market (Phoenix, AZ) and I had zero clients. The positive thing is that I had seven years of Title Sales experience and had a proven track record building a book of business. With that said, what if I had to start over in Title Sales…right now? Would I do things the exact same or differently? Hmm…if I started over today.
I met with two different Realtors last week who were new to the business. They both asked how they can create a value proposition and “get noticed” as a new real estate agent. This is what I call the “rub” as a new real estate agent. It’s fairly easy to obtain a real estate license, but things become far more challenging after your license comes in the mail. Every new real estate agent gets excited for their venture and has grand ideas about dominating the market and making a lot of money. Then comes the reality of learning the other side of the business. Marketing strategies, advertisement, building a business, SOI, and learning online and social media tactics to get noticed. Getting noticed in a field of many can be difficult without hard work and a strong value proposition. Let’s talk about first steps to success.
Helping Realtors get into using video for their business is fun. Seeing their face light up when they realize they are doing something that their competitors don’t implement. This starts by taking the first step and actually “shooting videos” and uploading them to YouTube for people to discover and watch. This is where the rubber meets the road because I quickly discover that their real estate YouTube channel isn’t set up correctly. Their channels are missing key items and features that add to the discover-ability of the channel and their videos. In this blog post, I would like to cover some of the basic features of a real estate YouTube channel that will ensure that it’s set up correctly. In the end, it is about having qualified eyes to you videos that lead to a subscriber, an email, or phone call…that leads to a client. Here are 5 things that are MUSTS when configuring a setting up your real estate YouTube channel.
Does this sound familiar? “I want to do a successful first time home buyer seminar!” Then no one shows up, or you get two people. What happened? Marketing happened…better yet, the lack of it. Your intentions were great, the presentation was full proof. You just need to get butts in seats. That is where you fell short. It’s not easy to set up and execute a successful first time home buyer seminar…but it can be done. When I talk to my clients about doing the important steps below they sometimes have push back or think they can get a good result doing just part of it. Yes, that can happen but I have seen too many upset agents and lenders when the event day came and very little showed up. Here are what I feel are the key steps to getting qualified sign ups and attendees.
