Although the real estate market will never be a bubble about to burst, it definitely is slowing down now that interest rates are going up. This means that the realtor's marketing efforts have to become intensified and more direct in their efforts to make housing sales.
Now is the time for real estate agents to posture themselves to be competitive in a market that has lower housing prices, fewer buyers and longer sales cycles.
The hot real estate market of a few years ago attracted thousands of new agents. And real estate has been good as long as the interest rates remained low. Times are changing though, and many new realtors will be washed out of the business as the market slows down.
Those agents that intend to survive must leverage online marketing techniques for maximum competitiveness concerning their listings, and sales. To the realtor, this means learning how to drive prospective buyers and sellers to your realtor web site and then capturing them as clients. Here are some suggestions that will help real estate agents succeed in a savagely competitive housing market:
You have to be credible in today's real estate world. To do this you must have your own web site to promote yourself and your listings. Here's the trick - make sure you have your own domain name (i.e., web site address or URL). If your "web site" is just another page on your broker's site, then any money you spend promoting yourself online is really promoting that site, not yours.
There are low-cost solutions and web hosts that allow you to have your own realtor web site for just pennies a day, so take advantage of these as soon as possible. Don't waste your time and advertising dollars by filtering them through your broker's web site.
Recognize that just having your own realtor web site is not enough. You must promote your real estate web site to be successful! Fortunately, there are several ways to promote your site without having to spend a lot of money:
You can acquire "local" Google and Yahoo listings that come up when someone does a search for real estate agents in your locality.
Use "local" pay-per-click advertising that only displays when someone in your targeted, local marketplace performs an online search. With "pay-per-click", you are only charged when someone actually clicks on your ad to go to your realtor web site!
Get a listing in one of the online Yellow Pages which can be found by doing a search on Google or Yahoo.
Gain new clients by offering services like a MLS feed or property valuation calculator on your realtor web site. Make sure that you allow visitors to use these tools only AFTER they first register on your site, giving you their contact information for further follow-up.
Offer promotions on your realtor web site, such as free reports on how to prepare a house for sale, or a free neighborhood pricing analysis for prospective sellers.
Refresh your web site content regularly with new information of interest to buyers and sellers to keep visitors and prospects coming back. You can use RSS feeds for up-to-date, real estate news and information to be displayed on your real estate web site.
Do an online press release and submit it to press release services like PRweb.
Start a blog on your realtor web site. They really work and are an efficient means to keep up in the search engine rankings if you keep them up to date with relevant real estate information that visitors want.
Increase your search engine ranking by optimizing your web site for a few, applicable keywords relating to your local real estate market. With just a few changes, your real estate web site can become visible to buyers in other cities that are planning to move to your area.
Build a mailing list by having visitors to your realtor website subscribe to your newsletter. Then send out a monthly email newsletter to nurture your clients, keep in contact with them, and gain to new prospects, which is what happens when interesting newsletters get "forwarded" to friends and relatives because of the real estate news and tips contain.
Promote your real estate web site offline too. Be sure your web site address is on everything you distribute – business cards, flyers….everything! Consider running a small ad in local newspapers too, pointing readers to your real estate web site address. Just as with online promotion methods, you can write a short press release and send it to your local papers.
One last tip on making and promoting your real estate web site. It takes a lot of time and work to make a good web site, keep it up to date, and promote it to get visitors. You can always outsource these tasks if you don't want to do it all yourself. I've found that if you go to www.rentacoder.com or www.elance.com you can find people that will make your real estate web site for you and write good content for it at a reasonably inexpensive cost.
The real estate landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years and your realtor marketing techniques have to keep up. Success today depends heavily on gaining an online presence as well as an offline one. Those real estate agents that survive and flourish in this more competitive market will be the ones who proactively embrace this virtual, online environment and learn how to use it to their full advantage.
