Tag: assistant

Six ways an assistant should market listings

Marci Sepulveda Leave a comment

Attracting qualified buyers to purchase properties is one of the most important skills that sellers expect their agents to have. As an assistant, you can be very useful in helping your agent reach the right customers. In this post you’ll learn more about how to help marketing listings to sell a home.

#1. Multiple Listing Service (MLS)

The first place your agent will want to put a listing is in the MLS, or multiple listing service, a task that is often the responsibility of the assistant. This database of listings offers agents a centralized location to post details on the properties they have for sale and is an industry standard.

Accuracy in preparing a listing cannot be overstated. Not only is the MLS the central location for your listing, but websites that are accessible to any potential home buyer, such as Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com, use the data directly from the MLS. So remember to check and double-check that the specifications and descriptions for the property are exactly as you want them.

Besides the standard form data, which includes details on the home such as square footage and the number of rooms, you’ll have an opportunity to provide a description. This description will appear on the listing sheet and on any websites that pick up MLS data. It’s important that this copy be focused on selling the home, and as such, it should be treated like any other marketing material.

#2. Uploading and Optimizing Photography

Photography is one of the most important parts of your marketing plan and should be handled with care. You may consider outsourcing listing photos to a professional company. Along with ensuring that your photographs are of the best quality, there are a number of other concerns when preparing your photos to upload. 

Photos should be beautifully lit, color-corrected, cropped properly and able to show off your property’s best qualities. In addition, your MLS may have limits on the size and dimensions of the individual images you upload, so familiarize yourself with its requirements before you begin.

Most MLSs allow a maximum of 25 photos, but don’t confuse quantity with quality. A photo of the exterior of the home is standard, and it’s a good strategy to have at least one photo per each feature mentioned in your description. For example, a description that mentions an attached garage, a bay window and high ceilings should have photographs that show each of these features.

#3. Social Media

The most popular social media platforms used in real estate are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest. Your agent might use one, some or all of these. Each platform comes with its own set of analytics, so you can easily see if your posts are effective in driving engagement and, ultimately, sales.

Facebook and Twitter allow you to schedule posts, but if you’re using more than one platform, a dashboard like Hootsuite allows you to generate all your posts from a central location. Depending on your subscription level, you can easily replicate posts across platforms and receive great analytics to help you determine how well your posts are performing.

#4. Traditional Advertising

In many cases, traditional media is still very effective for the real estate business. Your agent may be getting great results from direct mail postcards and advertising in print and online.

Using postcards to let neighbors know what was just listed or just sold works because it offers market information, as well as exposure for listings and the agent. Make sure that the photos look great, the message and the call to action are clear, and the brand is properly reflected. Advertising in print is effective in certain markets, but not in others.

Online advertising allows potential clients to click through the ad to the agent’s website or send an email. And don’t forget to look into marketing opportunities on syndication sites like Zillow. These can help with lead generation. Ultimately, advertising works best when you know who your target market is and how best to reach them.

#5. Surveys, Testimonials and Reviews

There is much more marketing that you can help with as an assistant. A completed transaction is not the end of the relationship. There is still marketing work to do! It’s a good idea to send a survey to clients after a transaction is finished to let them share the pros and cons of their experience with the agent. This information is useful to agents so they can make improvements to their systems and services.

And getting testimonials and reviews on sites like Yelp can really help an agent get new clients and stand out from the competition.

There are third-party survey services that are simple and inexpensive to put into practice. This should be part of your operating procedure at the close of every sale. 

#6. Participate in the Neighborhood

Lastly, one of the best ways to market the business is by simply being top of mind when it comes to real estate in a given neighborhood. The simplest and most effective way to do this is by actually spending time participating in the community. Consider volunteering at the local school. Suggest that your agent sponsor neighborhood events, or simply make sure to get a table at them. Seek out opportunities to put your agent in front of the right target market.

No one likes someone who only talks business, but there’s nothing wrong with being helpful and relevant. If you keep your ears open and engage with people, you will find organic ways to help market the company and make it truly feel like part of the neighborhood.

It’s important to remember that selling homes is only one part of an agent’s business. It’s just as imperative to ensure that agents have a future flow of potential customers and that the brand and reputation are being managed in the best way. To learn more about an assistant’s role working with an agent, sign up for AgentEDU’s Assistant Certification Course, an eight-part course designed to teach assistants everything they’ll need to set their agent up for success.

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AgentEDU® is a platform where agents at every level can come to watch 10-minute video courses for the many situations that successful agents must master. From essential to advanced level and everything in between, AgentEDU® courses help agents become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth. For a seven-day free trial, sign up here.

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For nearly two decades, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning.

Is it time to hire an assistant for your real estate business?

Marci Sepulveda Leave a comment

The real estate business never stops, and now that listings can be seen online 24/7, many brokers like to say they are also available 24/7. As technology allows customers access to more information though syndication sites like Zillow and social media platforms, brokers find that their time working these channels cuts into time working with clients. Perhaps that’s why more than 80 percent of agents report using an assistant, many after only working 1-3 years in the real estate industry.  

Hiring an assistant can help to ease some of the day-to-day burdens you face, allowing you to work more efficiently and be more accessible to your clients. An assistant who is well trained can help you maintain your schedule, as well as assist with a number of other tasks:  

  • Marketing your services 
  • Marketing your listings 
  • Helping to build your brand  
  • Lead generation  
  • Managing your social media 
  • Utilizing technology to support your success 

In other words, they can quickly become an invaluable asset to your team, helping your business to grow and allowing you to reach your goals.  

Among those agents who don’t have an assistant, Chicago Agent Magazine reports that the top four reasons for not hiring an agent yet are:  

  1. I have no time to train or manage them 
  1. Too expensive (perception) 
  1. I don’t know where to find one 
  1. I’m not sure what I need them to do  

While the benefits of hiring an assistant are clear, it can still be difficult for many agents to make the jump from working alone to hiring an assistant to help lighten their load. And it’s even more difficult to find an assistant who already has training and experience in the real estate industry. Once you’ve hired an assistant, it’s crucial that you train him or her properly so that they can become an integral member of your team. Unfortunately, many agents report not having this necessary time to spend with their assistants — or they simply don’t know where to start in the training process.  

Which type of real estate assistant is right for you?  

There are typically three types of real estate assistants: licensed, unlicensed, and virtual. The type of assistant you will want to hire largely depends on your needs, what tasks you want completed, and what the license law requires in your particular state. Simply put, if you want your assistant to be able to do many of the listing and/or selling activities that you currently do, you will need to hire a licensed assistant.  

If you plan to have your assistant simply helping with administrative tasks and duties, such as maintaining your schedule, setting appointments, sending out prepared, placing ads, updating and maintaining your databases, and other general tasks, you probably don’t need a licensed assistant. Keep in mind that many states also allow unlicensed assistants to add or remove information from the MLS, access property lockboxes, place signs on properties, and deliver documents pertaining to listings.  

Virtual assistants are growing in popularity in many industries, including real estate. Virtual assistants are typically based out of their home or remote office and use technology to carry out many of the same tasks your in-person assistant would do. There are also benefits to hiring a virtual assistant, which includes more hiring options and reduced overhead costs.  If you’re wondering what kinds of things an assistant can take off your plate immediately, we can help with that.

Want to learn more?  

Once you’ve hired an assistant, the next step is proper onboarding and training. While an assistant’s tasks and daily workload are often determined by the needs of the employer and can vary widely, there are steps and systems that you can put into place to help your assistant succeed and thrive as part of your team.  

To learn more about developing your own onboarding and training program, sign up for the courses in our Assistants and Team Building tracks. If you’re looking for common leadership pitfalls to avoid, see our post on why real estate teams often fail.

AgentEDU® is a platform where agents at every level can come to watch 10-minute video courses for the many situations that successful agents must master. From essential to advanced level and everything in between, AgentEDU® courses help agents become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth. 

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For 18 years, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning. 

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For 18 years, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning.