Tag: Real estate marketing

Getting Online Reviews: 3 Tips for Real Estate Agents

Marci Sepulveda Leave a comment

As a real estate agent, your online presence and social media reputation play a vital role in your business — perhaps more than you may recognize. Nearly every homebuyer these days will begin their search online and look for online reviews to check out what people are saying about you.

Many business owners only think of Yelp, but reviews are everywhere online. Not surprisingly, 89% of clients search for information about a real estate agent online before making the decision to contact them at all. 

That said, glowing online reviews can not only help to enhance and build your online profile — they are likely the deciding factor in a potential buyer or seller’s decision to contact you or use your services. In fact, the NAR Profile of Buyers and Sellers indicates that home sellers value the reputation of an agent (31%) more than any other factor when selecting an agent to sell their home. 

So, whether you’re trying to gain more reviews on your Yelp page, on your Facebook business page, or for your realtor.com or Zillow profile, let’s look at some must-remember tips for success:

#1. Let Clients Know About Your Online Profiles 

There’s a fine line between making your clients uncomfortable by aggressively and openly asking for reviews versus simply letting them know about your online profiles and their ability to leave a review if they’re comfortable. 

To ensure your clients know about their ability to leave a review, consider adding your social profiles to your website and email signature. If you have a Yelp page, for example, you can add a Yelp button to your email signature, which can immediately take them to your profile. If you’re a broker, you may also consider adding social media icons to your brokerage’s storefront. 

#2. Make Engagement a Priority 

Most seasoned real estate agents run drip email campaigns that keep their sphere of influence up-to-date on market conditions, new listings, or even community events. 

As part of your ongoing engagement and lead nurturing, consider adding your new testimonials to the footer of your email. Or, perhaps you ask your client if you can feature their review in your latest e-blast or blog. Ideally, you would ask only after they’ve provided a review on their own terms — without you instigating it. 

This not only helps your testimonials and reviews be seen by a wider audience, but it can also be a nice way of showing your clients you appreciate the time it took for them to review you … which leads us to our next point … 

#3. Show Your Thanks 

Always send a quick note or Thank You card to your client for their review. And, if the review was less than stellar, you should still reach out. This is a great opportunity to acknowledge the feedback and put steps into place to learn and grow from the experience. 

If you find yourself getting too emotional about negative reviews, you might also consider asking a trusted confidant or admin at your brokerage to help formulate responses. 

Grow Your Online Reputation 

The importance of online reviews and your social reputation grows with every click of a potential client’s mouse. To learn more about increasing your online presence, sign up for our AgentEDU® course Yelp for Your Real Estate Business today. 

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 7-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.

4 Places to Find Local Market Data (Where Your Competitors Aren’t Looking)

Marci Sepulveda Leave a comment

As with any industry, a big part of a real estate agent’s success means keeping up with market trends and conditions and knowing the ins and outs of your community. But, outside of the data and statistics that you (and every other agent) can gain from your local MLS, where can you find valuable information to set you apart from the pack? 

Knowing that you’re only as good as the information you have and share, it’s important that you know where to look for trusted and reliable market data. Here are a few sources of market data that you may have not considered.

#1. The Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a great place to find out more about the median or average income in your local area, as well as how strong your local labor force is and more. This information can be very valuable when advising your seller clients whether it’s a good time to sell — or not. You may also learn of new companies that are coming into your market, which could be a good source for new buyer leads. 

Pro Tip: The BLS puts out local area unemployment statistics that you can sort on an interactive map linked here. You can use this map to drill down to your local market-level statistics. 

#2. Builder Associations

Local builder associations can provide pertinent information on how many new builds were started in your local market recently, or what the building growth is year-over-year. This can be helpful in determining the overall strength of your market. 

You can also use this resource to find out which finishes and features are popular with home buyers in your area. This can be great information to guide your seller clients in updating their house before listing.

Pro Tip: The National Association of Home Builders website is a great resource for monitoring national trends, as well as their Housing Market Index, which takes the pulse of the single-family housing market. 

#3. The Board of Education 

Information gathered from the local boards of education can help you become somewhat of an expert on local school zones, school ratings, and more. The Washington Post reports that good schools are one of the top deciding factors for home buyers with children, so being able to confidently give your clients through local school zoning information can give you a competitive advantage in the local market. 

It should be noted that the Fair Housing Act prevents agents from “influencing a buyer’s choice of communities based upon the buyer’s race, color, religion, gender, disability, familial status, or national origin.” It is best to point your clients to resources on schooling rather than giving your personal opinion, but having these tools ready for buyers can set you apart!

Pro Tip: Create a section of your website that’s dedicated to school resources and tools for your prospective buyer clients. GreatSchools.org and your local school board websites are a great place to start. 

#4. Utility Companies

Another question that is often asked by prospective home buyers is about typical utility bills. And, while individuals’ billing will vary greatly depending on personal levels of usage, local utility companies can be a great place to turn to get information on average bills or local connection information. 

Pro Tip: Some utility companies will provide you with an average bill estimate (based on past historic data) if you just call them and give them the address. UtilityScore.com is another great resource for estimating. 

Finding Resources that Make You Stand Out 

As you can see, local market data isn’t always just sales numbers. Rather, you can use these unexpected sources — and more — to help build and foster a better understanding of your community. To find out about more unexpected sources of local market data, sign up for our AgentEDU course Learning Your Real Estate Market today.

_________________________

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 7-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.