Most real estate agents were shocked enough when they heard that The National Association of Realtors and two brokerage firms were liable for $1.8 billion in damages, for allegedly conspiring to keep commissions artificially high. But when subsequent lawsuits started rolling in naming individual brokers, it got a lot more concerning.

It had agents asking themselves (and each other) a lot of questions, such as:

• How did NAR lose that argument, considering all the disclosures people have to sign, the listing contracts they willingly agree to, and the fact they can sell their own house and don’t have to hire an agent at all?
• How is it OK for the lawyers representing sellers to take a huge cut of the money, likely leaving the actual sellers with dimes on the dollar… yet the industry is accused of charging high commissions?
• And, most importantly, do I need to worry about getting sued personally by sellers I helped?

1 Out of Every 4 Agents Gets Sued in Their Career

While you have every right to be concerned, keep in mind that this isn’t the first, last, or by any means only time agents have gotten sued. In fact, according to this article, 25% of agents get sued in their career for a lot of other reasons, such as:

• Not disclosing a material fact.
• Failing to recommend getting appropriate inspections.
• Failing to identify potential issues that should have been obvious to an agent.
• Not properly reviewing or advising a client about the terms of a contract.
• Making exaggerated claims about the features of a property.
• Not putting enough emphasis on a disclosure, or not explaining it thoroughly enough.
• Not living up to promises they made to a client.
• Issues over missed contractual timeframes and deadlines.
• Working with clients in an area they are unfamiliar with, or not qualified to handle.

But that’s not really news to most agents, so much as it’s a reminder that it can happen. The fact that an agent can get sued is something they drive home in licensing school. But as you spend some time in the field with clients, it kind of fades into the background for the most part. At least until something like these lawsuits hit the news, you make a mistake, or simply have a client that’s difficult to deal with. Then the fear creeps back in.

7 Tips Lawyers Give to Prevent Getting Sued

The bottom line is you need to take some precautions to protect yourself and try to avoid lawsuits as much as possible. For instance, here are 7 tips the lawyers at Provident Law specifically recommend to help real prevent estate agents from getting sued, and protect themselves if they do:

1. Incorporate. Setting your business up as an LLC or corporation won’t stop you from getting sued, but it’ll at least protect your personal assets if you do.
2. Make sure you (and your clients!) disclose everything. Failing to disclose something topped the list above, and it’s also what these lawyers claim is the cause for most litigation. So make sure every appropriate disclosure form is filled out thoroughly and accurately, and that each party acknowledges that they have received and reviewed it.
3. Don’t represent both parties in a transaction. While dual agency is certainly legal in many areas if both parties understand what they’re getting into and consent, it’s still risky. While clients may say they understand what they’re agreeing to, and even sign something saying so, conflicts of interest can easily arise, and have you facing a lawsuit.
4. Don’t ignore complaints. Getting hit with a lawsuit usually doesn’t come out of the blue. If someone brings up an issue, concern, or complaint, listen carefully and make sure they know you are listening and will do what you can to rectify the problem immediately.
5. Make sure you document everything. If it’s not in writing, it’s pretty difficult to prove something. So make sure to memorialize anything you speak about with a prospect or client in writing, and then keep all of your emails, notes, and text messages for years to come.
6. Stick to giving advice you’re qualified to give. Don’t give legal or financial advice; leave that to lawyers and accountants. And while you may go to hundreds of home inspections, unless you’re a licensed inspector, don’t give advice on what is wrong or not wrong with a house.
7. Get insurance coverage. In the least, make sure you have errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, but also check with your insurance agent or company for other recommended insurance coverage you can purchase in case you are sued.

All solid advice you’ve probably heard before…

…But How About Adding This to the List?

It’s almost impossible to dictate exactly how a relationship with a prospect will unfold from day one all the way through closing day. Even the most methodical, process-oriented agent has to roll with the flow when it comes to the path a buyer or seller takes with them.

But there’s always a beginning — a first point of contact, or meeting. Nobody can turn into a client or follow any route to the closing table without at least meeting you for the first time in some way, shape, or form.

More often than not, you’re not going to seal the deal with a prospect on that first contact. Unless it’s a rare client who’s in an absolute rush — and/or you’re a harcore closer — you’re unlikely to get a potential buyer to sign an exclusive agency agreement, or a seller to sign a listing agreement the first time you communicate.

Because each journey is different, it’s easy for an agent to forget, or simply not have the opportunity to discuss, things that a client should know about the process of buying or selling a house. Things that could help avoid misunderstandings, or outright mistakes that lead to a lawsuit in the future.

Which is why you might want to consider creating buyer and seller guides that you can give prospects as early on in the process as possible. That way you can make sure everything you want a client to know about the process is in writing, and in their hands, so you don’t have to worry about some aspect or nuance falling through the cracks.

Here are a few tips for creating your own guides:

1. Plan on having at least two of them; one for sellers, and one for buyers.
2. Jot down everything you can think of that you want every buyer or seller to know about the process. Don’t just stop at the basics, dig deep and get into how they might think and feel during the process as well! Get into things that you know buyers and sellers struggle with, or question, even if they don’t say it out loud sometimes. Answer things they’ll never even think to ask.
3. Put the ideas and topics in some logical order and create a table of contents.
4. Write as concisely as possible about each topic, but write as much as you need to make sure you are clear and they’ll truly understand what you need them to know. People don’t want or need a long-winded book. They’ll be more likely to read it if you keep it short and to the point.
5. To encourage them to read it, make sure your writing is conversation, and perhaps even fun to read. Of course you need to keep it professional and authoritative, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sprinkle in some personality!
6. Format them so you can send them digitally as a PDF, and also as printed booklets.
7. Give or send every buyer or seller prospect a copy of your guide as early on in your relationship as possible, ideally the first time you speak.
8. Have them acknowledge receipt so you have some proof that you gave one to them. That way you can at least show that you try to make sure all of your clients know what to expect throughout the process, and have done your best to fully inform every person you work with.
9. While you can’t make them read your guide, you can certainly encourage them to by creating a series of follow-up emails to send them after you’ve given them a guide, with each email touching on a particular topic in the book. Not only will this encourage them to read what you sent, but it also creates an opportunity for back and forth conversation about the topics.

Even if they don’t read it, at least you can show that you give each client something that explains the process, and shows that you care about them being fully informed.

But, if done well, you’ll be amazed at how many clients actually refer back to things you cover in your guide during the time they work with you! They may even forward it, or lend their copy to someone they know who is thinking of buying or selling.

Once you have a universal guide for sellers, and one for buyers, you may even want to drill down into some niche types of guides, such as ones for:

• First-time buyers
• Buyers who are looking for new construction homes
• Sellers who are downsizing
• Buyers who are relocating from out of area
• Sellers who are relocating out of area
• People who are selling their home after having their listing expire with another agent
• Sellers who are going through a divorce
• Beginner investors looking to buy their first investment property

Don’t be overwhelmed by all of the potential options, though! Just having a solid buyer and seller guide to give out is better than most agents have.

But if you like the idea of having all of those at your disposal, and would like to skip past all of the work it’d take to create them, you should check out our Inner Circle membership.

As a member you’ll have access to not only an amazing seller guide and buyer guide, but all 20 of our Branded Booklets, including all of the ones listed above, and each one has a series of pre-written follow-up emails for you to send after giving one to a prospect.

All of those guides can be ready for you to offer buyers within a few minutes, by just entering your own contact information and branding so it looks like you actually wrote them. You can also edit every one of them to your liking, but they’re written in a fun, interesting, conversational tone that your prospects will enjoy reading, so the chances are you won’t even want to.

In addition to the Branded Booklet guides, you’ll also have access to tons of other marketing content you can add your own branding to, like:

• Our signature Lighter Side memes, and exclusive ones only available to our members
• Witty postcards
• Over 1,500 articles you can use to entertain or build credibility and authority, with new ones published each week
• Hundreds of other email and letter templates
• Access to our members-only Facebook group where some of the nicest, coolest agents in the business share marketing tips, including how they have used the Branded Booklets themselves

All of that content can be used for you to educate and entertain clients from before they’re even an official client, and to constantly stay in touch and top-of-mind years after their closing.

Obviously, if you do something absolutely wrong that hurts a client financially or otherwise, a lawsuit is always a possibility. But using helpful guides and a robust content marketing campaign can help to create a more educated client, and a more trusting relationship between you, which will hopefully help you avoid lawsuits by creating a better, deeper, more communicative relationship with your clients.

The post Creating Your Own How-to Guides Might Just Help You Avoid Lawsuits as a Real Estate Agent appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Being a buyers’ agent is a total crap shoot, yet the vast majority of agents find themselves constantly rolling the dice, hoping to get paid.

Right now you’re probably thinking this is going to be a bash piece trying to tell you it’s stupid to work with buyers, and how you should concentrate on finding listings instead. But it’s quite the opposite actually. This is an article hoping you will continue to work with buyers as we move into the possibly erupting, evolving future of buyer agency… and get paid handsomely to do it!

The reason so many people in the industry preach working with sellers is because you can work with a lot more of them at a time, they typically take less actual work and time, and you have much higher odds that your time and effort will end up in a closing.

On the other hand, you can only work with so many buyers at a time, they take tons of time and effort, and there’s usually no guarantee that you’ll get paid, or how much you’ll even make if you do.

And now, due to recent lawsuits, how you get paid as a buyers’ agent might be changing entirely! If it wasn’t easy being a buyers’ agent before, it’s starting to sound like it’s going to get even more difficult in the near future…

…or is it possibly the best thing that could’ve happened for you as a buyers’ agent?!

It’s Business as Usual for Most Agents

When the news about the verdict in the first commission lawsuit hit, it seemed like every agent was talking about it, and were concerned about how it would impact the future of buyers’ agents. It raised a lot of questions, such as:

• Will the industry be forced to change how they get paid for working with buyers, or will the industry change on its own?
• Will buyers just start going straight to listing agents if they have to pay their own buyer’s agent?
• Will commission amounts be lower if buyers have to pay agents directly?
• Will agents just be required to give more detailed explanations to sellers about how and why they should offer buyer commissions, and things will proceed as they have been but with more disclosures to sign?
• Given the choice, will some sellers offer commission to buyers’ agents, while others will not?

The problem is, there aren’t any answers to those questions yet, and probably won’t be for years to come, because the verdict will be appealed, and nobody knows how it’ll ultimately play out. In many ways, there’s nothing buyers’ agents really can do to change how they do business right now. Nor do they have to.

Which is probably why the concern and chatter amongst agents seems to be dying down, even as more and more copycat lawsuits are being filed across the US. It seems that, at least for now, any threat to the existence of buyers’ agents or how they get paid, is far enough away for agents to put it in the back of their mind and go about business as usual.

Buyers Might Not Realize How Crucial Agents Are

No matter how (or if) things change in terms of how buyers’ agents are compensated, there’s no arguing that they’re crucial, and should stand the test of time and any changes that occur.

Some people minimize their role to glorified door openers, and merely a means to get into the houses a buyer self-selects by doing their own property search online. But, as agents know, they provide many more services that often go underappreciated, such as:

• Upfront education and consultations to help prepare them for the process of buying a house.
• Making sure clients don’t overlook a house they may like, even if they are able to search property listings on their own.
• Showing them as many properties as they need to see, in order for them to make the best decision.
• Helping them hone in on their best options, and make the best decision by getting to know them and giving them insight and guidance based upon their experience working with other buyers.
• Acting as an objective third party in what can be an emotional and personal process.
• Analyzing the market and data to help them determine how much to offer for a property.
• Crafting and writing their offers.
• Reviewing documents and disclosures, and any relevant due diligence the buyer would likely never know to do on their own.
• Using their experience and negotiating skills to get them the best deal possible on the house they decide to buy.
• Coordinating with many other related professionals involved with the transaction, and making sure everyone is getting their job done in a timely and accurate manner.
• Helping them figure out what to ask for, and what not to ask for, based upon the home inspection report, and then negotiating to get as many things repaired, replaced, or credited as possible.
• Keeping the deal together when someone or something threatens to kill it.
• Making sure their clients are prepared to close on time, and if there are issues, helping to resolve them in a timely manner.
• Being a resource for their client even beyond the closing, and are living in their new home.

That’s a fairly exhaustive list, but any agent reading this could probably add several other things to it and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration. So it’s not that buyers’ agents don’t serve a purpose or deserve to get paid, but it might be something buyers need to be educated about and understand more thoroughly — especially if they’re potentially going to be asked to pay their agent more directly for their services in the future.

This Is an Opportunity for Some Buyers Agents

Before the 1980’s, the role of buyers’ agents wasn’t quite so dedicated or defined as it is today. While many buyers thought their buyers’ agent was representing their interests, oftentimes they were actually looking out for the best interests of the seller, even if they weren’t the listing agent. Fortunately, the role of buyers’ agent changed and evolved, and by the 1990’s buyers could rest assured that they had someone looking out for their interests if they chose to work with a buyers’ agent.

That doesn’t sound like too long ago when you think about how crazy it is that they didn’t have that kind of protection until then, but it’s still a few decades, and today’s buyers may not even know or appreciate how different things were back then. In other words, they might take buyers’ agents for granted, particularly if they’re choosing between paying for the services of one or not.

Heck, even the ones who have a full understanding and appreciation of what a buyers’ agent brings to the table may question whether it makes sense (or if they can even afford to) hire their own agent, if things drastically change in terms of how their agent gets paid.

If the way commissions are paid to buyers’ agents changes, and buyers are more focused on how you get paid, and that they may be responsible for you getting paid, here are a few things they might decide to do instead:

• Just go directly to the listing agent and forgo having their own independent representation.
• Attempt to negotiate ridiculously low commission rates with their agent.
• Choose to work with the buyers’ agent that agrees to charge them the lowest commission, as opposed to the agent who will do the best job.
• Have unrealistic expectations of their buyers’ agent because they want to feel they’re getting what they paid for.

But it might not come to that…

Perhaps nothing will change, or the changes won’t be that drastic. And if they do, it’s still some time before it happens, so why worry about it, right?

Well, that’s one way to approach it. And probably the approach most agents will take.

But that’s where the opportunity lies for some buyers’ agents…

The trick is to take the time you have now and not squander it waiting for things to unfold. Build your value with past clients, current clients, and prospects now, so that they not only insist upon hiring you for your services (and pay you for it), but also become advocates for you, and refer other clients to you as well.

The best way to do that is by educating buyers, and establishing the value you bring to the table. Make them appreciate what a buyers’ agent can do for them, and want you to be involved with their home buying process! Doing so will help you justify why you get paid, and how much you get paid, whether the way you get paid changes drastically or not!

And a great way to do that is by creating truly informative buyer guides that buyers will actually read, and even pass along to a friend or family member who’s thinking about buying a house.

Have a Library of Hyper-Specific How-to Guides to Offer Buyers

The problem with most buyer guides agents use is that they’re often surface level, and pretty boring and dry. They’re also often a one-size-fits-all guide for buyers in general, but not specific to the type of buyer they are.

While a general buyers’ guide is great, you also want to drill down to specific types of buyers in order to appeal to more people. The more something speaks to a specific situation someone is in, the more likely they are to want the information.

For example, here are some ideas for a library of guides you might want to create and have to offer different types of buyers:

• A broad buyers’ guide that applies to any buyer. But instead of making it boring and filled with general information, dive deep into things most agents would never think to share with them.
• One for people considering buying a FSBO. This might sound like a silly thing to help a buyer do, but the reality is that type of buyer will likely end up buying a house on the open market anyway, and even if they do, if you write the booklet well, they’ll realize they could certainly use your help even if they do buy a FSBO!
• An objective guide that helps them figure out if renting makes more sense than owning. Give them solid thoughts that help them make up their own mind about what makes sense for their life and personal circumstances. This is a great way to help renters get into the right mindset, and nurture them into home buyers, without them feeling like you’re trying to convince them to buy a house.
• A guide about the importance of hiring an agent when buying new construction. Many buyers think they have to work with the builder or their rep directly, and others just think it’ll get them a better deal. Use this guide to show them why having their own agent is important, and make sure they know to have you with them the first time they even visit a model home.
• One for relocation buyers. If buying a home locally is complex and stressful, think about how thankful someone considering making a move across the country would be for the help in understanding the process, which is much more involved and difficult. Help them weigh the pros and cons of a potential relo package offered by their employer, and that they have the right to choose their own agent.
• A guide for first-time investors. Investors have to start somewhere, and if you help them when they’re just getting started, you could have a client who buys multiple properties per year as they grow their portfolio of properties.
• One about the potential mistakes buyers make by going to open houses. It’s easy to lose a sale because a buyer doesn’t know better and just makes an offer through the listing agent, or whatever agent happened to be sitting at an open house. Give them information that’ll make them want to avoid going to open houses, or at least have you by their side when they do go.

Just looking at that list as an agent makes you realize how much depth of knowledge a buyers’ agent has to offer! Imagine how it’ll impact buyers.

It’ll certainly take some time to create all of those different types of guides, so pick one of the niches you’d prefer to work with, or that has the most potential in your area, and start with that one! Then add another. Over time you’ll have a library of guides to offer that will attract many types of buyers, and help to mold them into ideal clients who appreciate your expertise, want your assistance, and will be willing to pay you for it even if they have to pay you directly, while other buyers’ agents just hope the potential changes won’t affect them.

If you need some tips on how to create your own how-to guide, this Hubspot article is a pretty good soup-to-nuts explanation.

But if you’d rather just skip to dessert, we can save you a ton of time and effort for less than it’d cost you to buy enough coffee to fuel your writing campaign. Check out our Inner Circle membership, where we have 20 Branded Booklet how-to guides already written for you, including a version of every single one of those guides suggested above!

You can literally have all of these guides ready to offer buyers within a few minutes, by just entering your own personal information and branding so it looks like you actually wrote them. Or you can also edit every one of them to your liking, but they’re written in a fun, interesting, conversational tone that buyers will enjoy reading, so the chances are you won’t even want to.

The membership will also give you access to tons of other marketing content you can add your own branding to, like:

• Our signature Lighter Side memes, and exclusive ones only available to our members
• Witty postcards
• Over 1,500 articles you can use to entertain or build credibility and authority, with new ones published each week
• Hundreds of email and letter templates
• Access to our members-only Facebook group where some of the nicest, coolest agents in the business share marketing tips, including how they have used the Branded Booklets themselves

No matter which way you choose to go, just make sure you get started soon. Don’t waste the time you have between now and whenever the dust settles from the commission lawsuits. Take control of how buyers perceive you, and value your expertise and service. Do that and it won’t matter if things change drastically or not!

The post How to Get Buyers Who Want to Work with You (and Pay You!) Even If the Way Buyers’ Agents Get Paid Changes appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Real estate agents are very familiar with making offers on behalf of clients, since they’re often writing them for buyers. But very few agents are great about making offers in their marketing, in order to gain clients.

Many agents take a fairly passive approach to marketing. It often amounts to more of a branding effort, than an attempt to get someone to take action. For instance, there’s the classic “Contact me if you or anyone you know is thinking about buying or selling.” But that’s not an “offer” or very effective call-to-action; it’s a request. It relies on someone seeing that message often enough, and close enough to the time they do take action for it to really do an agent much good… if it even compels the person to contact them.

Not to psycho-analyze agents with a broad stroke, but many likely take this approach because they’re afraid to come across as pushy or desperate for business by being more direct. Or perhaps they’re just being polite in a way. It’s ironic because agents are often portrayed as being pushy and selling themselves, yet the vast majority are the opposite and stray away from even the slightest amount of directly asking for business.

Fortunately, using compelling offers in your marketing is an easy way to get people who are thinking about buying or selling in the near future to contact you, without you coming across as pushy or desperate.

Let’s Define “Offer”…

An “offer” can mean a lot of different things in marketing, but the type we’ll focus on here is offering people something for free that they’ll find useful or valuable enough to gladly give you their contact info.

Years ago, the go-to “offers” agents had at their disposal were to offer things like:

• “Interested in knowing how much your home is worth? Contact me for a FREE market analysis!”
• “Thinking about buying a home? Let me know the area and price range you’re interested in, and I’ll send you hot new listings as soon as they hit the market!”

Those seem so quaint and outdated now, considering anyone with a phone or computer can get all of that information easily and for free right on the internet, without your help. Granted, there’s still ways to massage those offers into something valuable, by positioning your valuation as more accurate, or suggesting you could send them listings they may be overlooking or missing somehow. But people just aren’t as hungry for those kinds of offers, since they have enough access to that information on their own.

You need to be offering them some next-level, insider information that’ll help make their purchase or sale go more smoothly, and help them get the best results possible.

How-to Guides Are the New Go-to Offer

Just because people have the basic information people want at their fingertips, that doesn’t mean they have everything they need to make the best decisions and go about buying or selling a house, given their particular situation.

For example, they may be able to find out how much their home is (allegedly) worth online, but do they know how to accomplish getting every penny of that amount? Or, even though they can see all of the houses available to buy online, that doesn’t mean they know the things they need to do to put themselves in position to buy it at the best price possible.

Heck, they probably don’t even realize how much more information they could use! But you do…

You have knowledge and insights that the average homeowner or buyer could benefit from. Of course they’ll get the benefit of your experience when (and if!) they end up working with you, but there’s often a gap in time between when they begin thinking about selling or buying a house and when they actually reach out to an agent, and they’re trying to figure out a whole bunch of things they’re not sure about during that time. Which makes having an array of how-to guides to offer people the perfect thing you can offer them for free to get them to give you their contact info, and start building a relationship with them before they start talking to other agents, and until they’re ready to buy or sell. (Plus, they’re a great way to establish credibility and authority with prospects as well!)

16 Ideas for Different Types of Guides You Can Offer

There are so many types of guides you can offer people interested in buying or selling a house. The more you have to offer, the more prospects you can appeal to.

But if you have to choose two to start with, you can’t go wrong with these:

• A home seller’s guide
• A home buyer’s guide

Those two alone are perfect all-around guides to start with since you can offer them to anyone buying or selling a house.

But when you’re using offers in marketing, the more specific you are to addressing the concerns and needs of the prospect, the more likely they are to take you up on the offer. Here are 14 more ideas to get your wheels turning:

• How to prepare your house for sale
• Things to consider if you’re thinking about downsizing
• A buyer’s guide specifically geared toward first-time buyers
• Tips on how to sell a house for sale by owner
• A guide for people who are thinking about buying a FSBO
• One that helps renters figure out if owning makes more sense than renting
• Insider tips for anyone who wants to buy new construction
• Things sellers need to know when they’re offered a corporate relocation package
• Things buyers should know when they’re offered a relo package
• Advice on what to do if your house didn’t sell and their listing “expired”
• How to handle selling the real estate of a loved one who passed away
• Dealing with having to sell a house when getting divorced
• A guide on becoming a real estate investor
• What to do if you’re facing foreclosure

See how that would be even more appealing to someone seeing your offer? They still are all essentially buyer and seller guides, but they truly speak to the needs and concerns of a specific type of buyer or seller.

It probably sounds daunting to write, edit, and format that many guides, but once they’re created they’ll work for you day in and day out for years to come, so they’re definitely worth the effort. Just pick one or two to start with that would appeal to an ideal prospect you’d like to work with in your market, or you think would appeal to the most potential clients. As you have time, create more you can offer.

7 ways to Offer Them the Offer

The guides are what you have to offer, but you still need to make people aware of the offer, and build in something they need to do for you in order to get their hands on it! They won’t do you any good if people don’t know about them, or don’t have to give you at least their contact information in order to get it.

There are endless ways to offer people your guides, but the key is to make sure you’re offering them to people on a daily basis! So let’s get you started with a week’s worth of ideas to make people aware of your guides:

• Post about them on social media: Make an announcement whenever you have a new one available, and occasionally remind people about a guide you have available.
• Run ads on social media: Posting on your profile is great for reaching people you’re connected to, but running ads will allow you to target and reach people beyond your sphere.
• Write blog posts or articles: Use a specific topic within one of your guides to write an article or blog post you can post on your website, and add an offer for a free downloadable guide throughout the blog post.
• Print out copies to put out at open houses: Have a sample that people can flip through, and offer a copy they can take home in exchange for their contact info.
• Send an email to your sphere-of-influence and past clients: Look through your database and choose specific people you think may benefit from a guide you have to offer.
• Respond to people in local online forums: When you see someone posting on a local forum asking for recommendations for a real estate agent, or the scoop on houses for sale, rather than just being yet another agent who comments that they’d be glad to help them with their real estate needs, offer them a link to download a free copy of one of your how-to guides.
• Send out a postcard: Got a neighborhood you’re farming? Send them a postcard with an offer to download a seller’s guide. Is there an apartment building filled with renters in your area? Mail them an offer to download a buyer’s guide.

Remember, much of your competition probably isn’t even out there making an offer, let alone making several offers on a regular basis. By constantly having as many guides on offer out in the world as possible, in as many different ways as possible, you’re increasing the odds that you’ll know about prospects before many other agents even know someone in the area is thinking about buying or selling, giving you time to develop relationships with them until they’re ready to buy or sell.

Here’s an Offer for You to Take Advantage Of…

If you want to fast-forward to the fun part, check out our Inner Circle membership and get your hands on all 20 of our “Branded Booklet” how-to guides! With just a few clicks of your mouse you can make every single one of them look like you authored them within minutes.

Each one of them has a landing page you can use to offer them to people, and a series of follow-up emails you can use to nurture the relationship with them after they receive it.

You’ll also be able to turn on a “lead gen” button that offers up one of the booklets when you share one of the over 1,500 articles we have for you to share.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! You’ll be able to brand even more types of content than the booklets for less than you spend on a daily cup of coffee per month!

Whether you take us up on our offer to make making offers easier on yourself, or you decide to go the DIY route and write your own guides and lead gen content, good luck and make making offers something you do on a daily basis!

The post How to Use the Art of the Offer to Find Real Estate Clients Without Coming Across as Pushy or Desperate appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Every agent needs a lead list. They are compilations of prospects you can reach out to when you are trying to drum up business. They may include network referrals, past clients, and even friends and family.

If you’re a new agent, your lead list may be a blank sheet. But everyone has to start from somewhere. This article will provide advice on how you can build a lead list from scratch and get your career rolling.

How to Build a Lead List

Before moving on to tips for generating prospects, let’s discuss how to physically build a lead list.

Your lead list should include the prospect’s:

• Name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Company name
• Job title

You may also include other relevant information such as the prospect’s income bracket, where they are in the sales funnel, their real estate goals, and more. You can also score them according to how likely they are to convert.

Lead lists can be stored in a variety of formats. Most agents prefer to put them in their CRM. But lead templates are also available. You can even type your leads into an Excel sheet.

Tips for Building Your Lead List

The post 20 Ways to Build a Lead List from Absolute Zero if You’re a New Agent appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

“Content marketing” has been around since 1895, when John Deere published “The Furrow,” a quarterly magazine they used to help educate customers and build a relationship with them. It was groundbreaking because it wasn’t blatant advertising, even though it was likely done in hopes of selling their products.

However, the actual term “content marketing” was only coined in 1996 by a journalist named John F. Oppedahl, as the internet was making this type of marketing more accessible and prevalent. But most real estate agents weren’t even using it back then, it still took a little while for agents to truly adopt it.

In the earliest stages of real estate content marketing, agents were encouraged to start a blog. It was a lot of work to come up with ideas for content, write the blog posts, and then manage to even get people to read it, let alone see any immediate results. So it often seemed pointless, and many agents gave up on it.

But social media has changed the game even more, making it easier to pump out content and get some immediate reactions to it, which has led to many agents using at least some form of content marketing to promote themselves.

The problem is, social media encourages people to constantly create new, trendy content that has the shelf life of a day or two… maybe a week if you’re lucky. That type of content marketing is certainly useful marketing and branding to help you stay top-of-mind with prospects, but it often leads to agents not creating any timeless “evergreen” marketing content.

What’s “evergreen” content? Well, to put it into context, if you wrote and published a solid piece of evergreen real estate content when the term “content marketing” was coined in 1996, it could still be relevant and getting read by your prospects to this day! (Well, perhaps with a few tweaks and edits to freshen it up.) Think about how great it’d be to have a selection of content you could literally rely on for that many years!

Evergreen content is the type of stuff you write once, and get mileage out of for years to come. And, not only is it helpful content prospects are looking for and want to read, but it helps create a more prepared client for you to work with!

“Evergreen” Content Isn’t Just Good for Years to Come… It’s Good Year-Round!

An evergreen tree may not be as flashy or impressive as a brightly blooming tree in spring or summer, and may not have the spectacular colorful foliage some trees do in fall, but its green needles never fade, fall, or take a day off. And, much like its namesake, evergreen content should not only stand the test of time and be useful year after year, it should also be useful to people every day throughout the year.

Unlike timely or trending content, which has a short lifespan and quickly becomes obsolete, evergreen content remains fresh and informative, providing value to your audience long after it’s been published.

A person who’s on the verge of buying or selling a house is likely looking for useful information about buying or selling a house. And there isn’t a single season when people buy and sell houses. There’s constantly new people just starting the process throughout the year.

So having some content that addresses timeless questions, concerns, and information about the process for buyers and sellers is a great way to find prospects, build a relationship with them, and eventually convert them into a client.

Start by Creating These 5 Key Pieces of Evergreen Real Estate Content

Evergreen content comes in all sorts of formats. Articles or blog posts are probably the most common form, but they’re not as substantial or memorable as a full blown how-to guide. In fact, having a solid selection of how-to guides makes any articles or blog posts you write in the future even more useful, since you can use them as a way to route people to your guides and offer them as a lead magnet to get their contact info.

Here are a few ideas for some timeless, universal guides you should create to start off your library of evergreen content:

• A seller’s guide that prepares and educates homeowners about everything they need to know all the way to the closing table.
• A guide on how to prepare their house for sale is an even more specific guide to offer potential sellers. Offer them tips and tricks on how to get their house show-ready in the quickest amount of time, and maximize their return-on-investment without spending a lot of money.
• A buyer’s guide that addresses the most common hiccups, hurdles, and objections buyers face throughout the process.
• A guide to help renters figure out if owning a home makes more sense than renting. Rather than just telling people it always makes more sense to buy, help them figure it out for themselves by writing a guide that gives them the pros and cons of both. A non-pushy approach may be just what they need to pull the trigger and become a homeowner.
• A first-time buyer guide to help buyers who need a little more info and insight into the homebuying process than other buyers.

While it wouldn’t be a bad idea to add more and more evergreen content over time, these five pieces alone could be the only workhorses you need for years to come.

A Couple of Tips for Writing Them

It might sound like a lot of writing when you look at that list of guides, but think about it, once you write them, they’re going to be working for you for years to come! So they’re definitely worth the time and effort you’ll need to put into them.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Make them fun and entertaining. The term “guide” or “how-to” may not sound like something fun to read (or write!), but if you can jazz yours up with some conversational wit and humor sprinkled throughout it, you’ll keep their attention and people will enjoy reading it more, and make it more enjoyable for you to write. The bonus to doing this is that people will connect with you more because it’ll sound and feel like a real person is speaking to them, rather than a dry booklet that could’ve been written by artificial intelligence.
• Keep them short and to the point. Don’t skimp on info, but people also don’t need (or want) a long book to read. Give them the scoop in bit-sized pieces that they can read in a sitting or two. Break down each topic you decide to cover into separate “chapters” and make them a page or two. So, for instance, if you can come up with 20 main points you want to share in your guide, make it 20 one-page chapters of concise insight. Doesn’t sound like quite as much writing now, does it?
• Format them so that they can be sent as a PDF download, or a print version. Downloadable PDFs are great for snagging someone’s email address online, but having a nice printed copy of your guide that they can request be sent to their house gives you a chance to either mail it, or use it as an opportunity to swing by with it in-person and try to meet them. (Not a bad idea to have some print versions with you at open houses either! Offer them for free in exchange for peoples’ contact info.)
• Have a friend, relative, or past client review it before you click the publish button. Getting an outsider’s perspective on your guide can help make sure you’ve included everything people would want to know about the process, and they can catch any glaring mistakes. But you may also want to hire a professional editor to give it a once over as well.

You can add your branding to them and make them look like you authored them with just a few clicks of your mouse, and start sharing them immediately. And you can even turn on a lead generation button that’ll automatically offer up your Branded Booklet as a PDF download in exchange for the readers’ contact info whenever you share one of the over 1,600 articles you’ll also have access to, ranging from humorous, to informative and resourceful!

And of course you’ll also have access to tons of timely, trendy Lighter Side content (like our memes!) to share daily and stay top-of-mind with your audience, in addition to the evergreen content you’ll use for years to come… without spending years creating it!

The post 5 Examples of Timeless, Evergreen Content Every Real Estate Agent Should Use in Their Marketing appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Agents learn early on in their career that listings are the name of the game. Unfortunately, no matter how much sense that makes, it’s still difficult for many agents to ever get enough of them (if any) to truly feel like they can refer to themselves as a “listing agent.”

If you think about it, there are exactly the same number of sellers as there are buyers every year — one of each per house sold. Yet many agents focus more on finding and working with buyers because it’s supposedly “easier” than finding sellers to work with.

It’s pretty easy to passively stumble into buyers to work with as an agent, since they often make themselves known because they want to see houses that are on the market. And they can work with agents without much commitment until they’re actually under contract to buy a house. But in order for you to even have a shot at working with a seller, you need to:

• Know they’re thinking about selling before they list their house with someone else.
• Be given the opportunity to do a listing presentation.
• Successfully convince them that you’re the best agent to get the job done, and get them to sign a listing agreement.

When you put it that way, it doesn’t actually sound so difficult, does it?! If only it were that easy.

Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy because unless you have a crystal ball, it’s almost impossible to predict who might sell their house in the near future. So in order to find prospective sellers you either have to…

• Have other listings that cause people to call you because they see you as a local go-to listing agent.
• Have a well-developed sphere-of-influence.
• Do a lot of consistent marketing to a large farm area, or entire city or town for a long period of time.
• Pay for seller leads from a lead gen company.

…or a combination of all of those things, which can take a lot of time, money, and patience.

And that’s in a normal market! But over the past few years, there’s been a crisis-level shortage of listings for the number of buyers chomping at the bit to buy a home. Landing a listing is even more of a slam dunk guarantee you’re making money, while working with buyers has become even more difficult due to the lack of listings and intense competition.

Fortunately, there’s a potential end to the listing drought in sight, and it’s the perfect opportunity for you to more easily pinpoint potential seller prospects and list more houses.

Boomers Have Been a Big Part of the Listing Shortage…

There are a lot of reasons why there aren’t enough listings on the market:

• Mortgage rates are higher than they’ve been in years.
• Anyone who owns a home has a low interest rate, and is hesitant to give it up.
• There’s not enough homes to buy even if they did sell, let alone one they really want.
• They’d have to compete with a lot of other aggressive buyers for the few homes on the market.
• Many houses are still selling for over asking price, despite interest rates being much higher than they’ve been.

But what hasn’t helped things at all, is that an entire generation of homeowners has basically thrown everything off by defying predictions for many years, and continues to do so.

Older Baby Boomers — and even some of the Silent Generation before them — have been described as an incoming “Silver Tsunami” for years. It’s a slowly approaching wave of homes that will hit the market all at the same time as people in those generations start selling.

In many ways, they’re causing much of the housing shortage by holding onto their homes for much longer than anticipated. And not only are they holding onto “forever” homes younger generations want to move up to, some of them have also scooped up second homes over the years.

So, why haven’t they been selling?

Well, the good news is, people are living longer, healthier, more active lives than ever before and are able to live in their homes longer. Many have remained in their homes to stay close to family. They likely own their houses outright and have plenty of equity. If they have a mortgage, it’s most likely at a very low rate. And many of them continue to work, or are collecting social security, and possibly even a pension.

…but Boomers Are About to Be Your Best Chance at Becoming a Listing Agent

Despite people enjoying longer, more productive lives, eventually age catches up with everyone. According to this National Mortgage News article, a recent report from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Research Institute for Housing America predicts that 4 million Baby Boomer homes should hit the market each year between now and 2032.

Let’s put that into context. Check out this chart from Statista:

Four million homes was pretty much the total amount of volume for an entire year — or at least a good chunk of it — for many years over the past two decades!

So if you’ve been waiting for an opportunity or way to become a listing agent, you might want to set your sights on Baby Boomer homeowners. While other agents continue to cast a wide net for anyone who might be thinking about buying or selling, you can capitalize on a niche market that’s about to explode by targeting Boomers, reaching them before they decide to sell, and positioning yourself as an expert!

Here Are 4 Articles to Help You Find Boomers Who Want to Move

You could certainly create an elaborate marketing plan to go after Boomer business, but you also don’t have to overcomplicate it. It’s not like you have to reach all 4 million of them who are likely to sell in the next year — you just need to get enough of them in your area and network to identify themselves to you. Some simple content marketing is a solid, cost-effective way to market to them…

Writing content might not be your cup of tea, so we hand-picked 4 of our articles to get you started. You can share these for free on social media, or with your email list, to show Baby Boomers you’re an expert on real estate topics that speak directly to them, and generate some interaction and engagement with ones who are thinking about selling.

1. Baby Boomers Can Capitalize on the Aging-In-Place Trend

   This one’s a great example of a “market news” piece to show you have a handle on the nuances of the real estate market, while giving them some insight and incentive to take advantage of current market conditions before they disappear.

Pro tip: Make sure to check our “Market News” section on Wednesday of every week for the newest article to see if it’s a good one for you to share with Baby Boomers.
2. 7 Signs It’s Time To Downsize

   Bite-sized “listicles” like this one are a fun and easy way to get someone’s attention, and get them thinking about whether it’s time for them to finally downsize…

3. 6 Questions to Consider When Downsizing

   …and then you can follow up with this one to give them some thoughtful things to consider when they decide to sell their home and move into something smaller.

4. Could These Backyard “Granny Pods” Be The Evolution Of Senior Living?

   And here’s an example of an article that might inspire them to hit up their kids to make room in the backyard for a little retirement home, so they can finally list their “forever” home with you and move onto the next stage of their life!

Those are just to get your juices flowing and give you a jumpstart. In order for content marketing to produce results, make sure you regularly share content that will appeal to the Baby Boomer market.

If you want access to even more of our articles as soon as they’re published — and be able to add your branding to them as if you authored them — check out our Inner Circle membership.

When you join, you’ll also get access to 20 different how-to guides we call Branded Booklets, which you can customize and add your branding to, and one of them is perfect for marketing to Baby Boomers!

Our “Things To Consider Before Downsizing Your Home” booklet is a great tool for you to use as a lead magnet for Baby Boomers who are thinking about selling in the near future. Offer it as a hard-copy print version they can request and you either mail or drop off to them in person, or as a digital download when they give you their name and email address.

The post Baby Boomers Are about to Be Your Best Chance at Becoming a Listing Agent appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

“Let me know if you or anyone you know is thinking about buying or selling a house in the near future!” Sound familiar?

Even if you haven’t said those exact words, you’ve probably witnessed other agents making the plea. Most agents cast a wide net and try to appeal to anyone who might be thinking about buying or selling. Yet even though they’re eager to work with anyone, many agents struggle to do much business.

The reason most agents don’t do a lot of business boils down to some basic math: there are too many agents competing to sell the number of homes that get bought and sold each year.

According to this Homelight article, there are currently over 3 million active real estate licensees. Are they all truly “active” agents working full-time? Probably not. But most of them would probably like to be! And every single one of them will gladly handle the buyer or seller side of any sale in a given year, which takes away from the number of sales other agents could have made.

Now, if you look at this chart below from Statista, you can see that the most number of homes sold in one year in almost two decades was just over 7 million. But every year since has been lower in sales volume. Over the course of those years, the average number of sales was right around 5 million sales. Even if every one of those houses sold had two separate agents representing the buyer and the seller, that would only be an average of 10 million “sides” to be divided up amongst 3 million agents.

Find more statistics at Statista

Taking all that into consideration, it might sound ridiculous to limit the number of real estate prospects you’re marketing to…

…but whether you’re doing tons of business or not, focusing on a smaller segment of the market than “anybody-who’s-thinking-about-buying-or-selling-a-home” might be your ticket to doing more (and better) business!

Standing out from all of the other agents is difficult with a one-size-fits-all marketing approach. There’s not much for “anybody” who’s thinking of buying or selling to distinguish you from any other agent, unless you have a huge marketing budget and can afford to blast them from every angle possible with your branding and advertising.

On the other hand, if you focus on a “niche market” — a very specific type of buyer or seller — it’s a lot easier for you to stand out from other agents! While you might be ignoring a lot of other potential buyers or sellers, you’re a lot more likely to get noticed by the smaller market segment.

What Is Niche Marketing?

We’ll dig deeper into the specific types of niches you can work with in real estate later on, but before we dive into how you can take advantage of niche marketing, let’s make sure you have a general understanding of what it is.

Niche marketing is when you focus on a specific segment of the market, rather than trying to appeal to the entire population. By concentrating your efforts on a defined group, you can tailor your message to cater to the unique needs and preferences of the target audience.

6 Benefits of Niche Marketing

Here are six benefits to niche marketing:

1. Easier to target clients. When everyone is a potential prospect, it’s difficult to figure out who might actually buy or sell a house in the near future. But when you focus on a specific type of buyer or seller, you can more easily pinpoint people who are likely to buy or sell a property in the near future.
2. Easier to reach them. If you know who you’re looking to attract, it’s easier to figure out where to find them and focus your marketing efforts using social media platforms, online advertising, or search engine optimization (SEO) to target your ideal clientele.
3. You can catch them earlier on in the buying or selling process. The sales cycle for people buying or selling a home begins well before most people pop into an open house, or ask agents over for a listing presentation. Many agents envision it as they start looking at listings online, which is likely a part of their process, but for people who are moving for specific reasons, or circumstances in life, they’re more likely to begin by looking for more specific help and advice most agents aren’t addressing.

   While most agents are simply trying to find people who are looking to buy or sell a house, you can use niche marketing tactics to find people who are way earlier in the process than actually looking for houses to buy, or for someone to list their house. In fact, depending upon which niche you focus on, many types of buyers and sellers don’t begin their journey even thinking of themselves as such. A lot of times they’re looking for information on life events, not real estate related advice or services.

4. Creates a sense of connection and understanding. Because many eventual buyers and sellers begin by looking for information related to a life event, you can help them figure out how to navigate what may be a confusing or trying time in their life, which can give them a sense that you understand what they’re going through beyond what other agents in the marketplace do, and help them feel connected to you.
5. Positions you as an expert. People often judge an agent based upon how much business they do; it can be more of a popularity contest at times than it is a true hiring process. But when you separate from the pack and focus on a niche, you can build a strong reputation and brand identity without even having the most sales or years of business under your belt. Rather than competing based upon name recognition or sheer number of sales, you can tip the scales in your favor against even the highest-producing agents by being seen as an expert in a particular market segment.

11 Specific Real Estate Niches You Can Focus On

While other agents are waiting to work with any old buyer or seller that may come along, here are 10 real estate niches for you to focus on and go after some business:

1. First-time buyers who need help figuring out where to even begin the process of buying a home.
2. Renters who aren’t even sure if buying or renting makes more sense. Help them figure out which makes more sense for them, and some guidance on how to go from being a renter to a homeowner.
3. People getting divorced who’ll need to figure out whether or not they can keep their home, or have to sell it, and then navigate the process with someone they probably aren’t getting along with.
4. Downsizing brings up a lot of questions, emotions, and family issues that need to be thought through and dealt with before they sell their house or buy another one.
5. New construction appeals to many buyers, but they are often unaware of the dangers they could face by going directly to a builder or their reps. Help them avoid the pitfalls while setting yourself up to be the advocate they bring with them on the first visit to a new construction site.
6. Some agents offer to “help” FSBO’s as a means of getting in their door to sell them on listing their house, but if you can be a genuine go-to resource for them and truly want to help them succeed, you’ll gain their trust (and future referrals) whether they sell their house on their own, or you end up listing it for them.
7. Or how about helping people who want to buy FSBO’s? People who think they’ll get a better deal by buying a FSBO are out there all the time and agents aren’t focusing on them nearly as much as the people trying to save a buck by selling their house FSBO.
8. Expired listings aren’t always plentiful if the market has been hot, but there’s always listings that expired quite some time ago that other agents have long forgotten and aren’t following up with.
9. People don’t go through foreclosure overnight, and are often waiting far too long to get help or to sell their house because they’re embarrassed and scared. If you can offer hope, understanding, and guidance, you may be one of the only people they’ll answer the phone or the door for during that difficult time.
10. Investors don’t start out owning a bunch of buildings; they all need to start somewhere. Be a patient and useful source of information and encouragement for the ones just starting out, and you’ll have a loyal client who buys and sells more houses in a few years, than the average client does in a lifetime.
11. Get in with relocation clients before they accept their relo package by offering insights they’re likely looking for about the process before they even decide to take the offer. This will help you get business typically being funneled to one of a few “relo” agents in your area by corporate, and you may be even able to do it for a lower (or no) referral fee than they have to pay, if you establish a relationship with the client before a relocation company gets their hands on the client.

Here’s a Step-By-Step Plan to Capitalize on Real Estate Niches

Unfortunately, just saying you specialize in helping a certain type of real estate client doesn’t just make them appear in front of you. You need to do something to attract them, help them, gain their confidence, and ultimately convert them into a client.

Fortunately, it isn’t quite as hard as that last paragraph made it sound!

While it will take some time and effort, here’s a simple step-by-step plan for you to go from being an agent who’s helping “anybody-who’s-thinking-about-buying-or-selling-a-home”, to an sought-after niche expert:

1. Pick a niche you want to focus on and dominate. You can always add more niches as you get one up and running, but start with one. (Pro tip: When you add another, try doing one that is complementary to the other, like focusing on investors and foreclosures.)
2. Create a how-to guide, or some other valuable type of thing — like a checklist — that would be helpful to people in the particular niche you chose.
3. Offer the guide as a giveaway that people can download so you get their email by posting offers on social media, running ads, putting the offers in articles, etc.
4. Create a follow-up series of tips you can send to them after they’ve downloaded your guide, so you have a helpful way to stay in touch.
5. Keep in touch and nurture the relationships until they’re ready to buy or sell a house.
6. Do an incredible job helping them buy or sell a house… obviously.
7. Rinse, lather, repeat. Keep doing this and building up clientele in the niche you started with, and add new ones as your process becomes smooth and manageable.

Here’s How to Make That Step-By-Step Plan Quicker and Easier…

If you want to save yourself some time, or just aren’t into writing your own guides and follow-up tips, check out our Inner Circle membership. In addition to gaining access to tons of other marketing content, we have a “Branded Booklet” guide for each of those 11 niche ideas mentioned above — plus another 9 guides in addition to those — already written, and just waiting for you to add your own branding and personalized edits!

But wait, there’s more…

…every one of our Branded Booklets comes with a series of follow-up emails ready for you to send to your prospects after they download your free guide. They’ll save you a ton of time and effort for less than the price of your daily cup of coffee!

The post 11 Specific Real Estate Niches with Prospects Just Waiting for You To Guide Them appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

When you see someone quoted or interviewed by a reporter about business or the economy, you probably figure they’re an expert who’s super smart and in demand, or just has some great connections. So picturing yourself as a go-to source for real estate scoop might sound incredible, but unlikely, because…

• Don’t you need to be a household name, like Barbara Corcoran, or Ryan Serhant?!
• How do you even get that kind of opportunity?
• Even if it fell in your lap, what would you talk about?
• Are you even worthy or expert enough for anyone to want your opinion?

It certainly helps to have name recognition and connections to become a media darling. And you definitely need something to talk about, and at least sound authoritative and credible. But these opportunities aren’t impossible to score at all!

Now, getting interviewed on CNBC at prime time, or quoted in the Wall Street Journal might be on the more difficult end of the spectrum… but it’s still not impossible! But getting yourself quoted and interviewed on more local news outlets as a real estate expert is actually pretty easy if you put a little time, thought, and effort into it.

Why?

1. Most agents don’t even think about going after this kind of free media exposure, because it seems so out of reach, so you won’t have a lot of competition.
2. And as difficult as it would be for you (or any other agent) to get on national news outlets, it’d be just as hard for local news reporters to get their hands on a major celeb or expert for their smaller outlet.
3. Local reporters are typically underpaid and overworked, and have deadlines and quotas to meet. They’re desperate for content!
4. There used to be fewer news outlets. TV, radio, and newspapers only had so many editions to print and put on air. But the Internet and 24-hour cable news cycles have created a need for constant news.

So whether you’ve got years of experience in real estate or not, you can position yourself as someone with authority and credibility, by providing them with things to write about, and a local expert to cite.

Make Sure You Think About What’s in It for Them…

First, a few words of caution: Reporters don’t want to be your shill or serve as free marketing. In other words, they’re not going to be interested in airing a story that sounds self-serving or salesy.

You need to approach it with what’s in it for them in mind. But if you can offer reporters some ideas and angles worth writing about, you’ll be well received. And, once they get to know you, they’ll most likely reach out to you when they need a real estate expert to chime in on one of their articles or segments.

…So You Can Benefit From What’s in It for You

Let’s be honest, though, there’s really a lot more in it for you than there is for the reporters! Here’s a list of things that make becoming an expert real estate source for news reporters such a slam dunk:

• It’s free marketing. As much as reporters don’t want your intentions to be obvious, they probably know deep down that this is basically free marketing and personal branding for you.
• It’s a lot of “reach” for free. Any news outlet you’re cited on probably has a decent sized audience, even on a local level, and reaches more people you wouldn’t have otherwise had access to.
• It enhances your credibility and authority. While you have to sound credible and authoritative to begin with, being quoted or interviewed by a news outlet will add to peoples’ perception of you.

Sign Up as a Source on HARO

If you’re willing to help a reporter out as a source of information, then helpareporter.com is a no-brainer place for you to enter your contact info. (We have no affiliation with this service, btw.)

You’ll get daily emails with a list of topics that reporters are looking for sources to add insight and credibility to. When you see something you feel qualified to chime in on, you can respond to the reporter’s request… but you won’t know who the actual reporter is until and unless they reach back out to you because they like what you had to say. And you can’t suggest any topics or ideas to them, according to HARO’s rules. This is an entirely reactive approach, not proactive.

It’s worth doing, but it’s no substitute for creating your own opportunities by coming up with angles for hungry local journalists.

Here’s Your Proactive 5 Step Plan of Attack

Rather than relying on a reporter who has a particular angle, and then competing against other agents and sources for attention, you should create your own opportunities (and ongoing relationships) with local reporters.

Here are 5 steps you can take to become the go-to real estate expert local news outlets are citing and interviewing:

1. Make a list of local news outlets. Include newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, news websites, and even local bloggers with some notoriety and a good following who might be seen as a source of news locally.
2. Find out who would be the most likely writer or reporters to cover real estate related topics for each outlet on your list. Take note of how they like to be approached with topics and stories, and follow their protocols.
3. Send them an introductory note. You don’t have to wait until you have a story or angle to propose to them. Reach out and introduce yourself as a local real estate expert and offer to be a source for them when they need one. Don’t overwhelm the reporter with a long pitch, just a short intro and your contact info will do. Also, don’t take offense if the reporter doesn’t respond. They’re busy, and if they have no need for you at the moment, they may just file your info away for a rainy day.
4. Pitch them stories and angles. Again, don’t overwhelm them, and be courteous of their requirements for submission. Some may be extremely rigid and arm’s length with you, while others might be super casual and easy to communicate with. Either way, if you’ve got a solid lead, story, or angle for them, that’s all that really matters.

You want to add a different perspective to the news, not just rehash news that’s already out there. For instance, look through trending national real estate news stories and come up with your own local angle. How does it affect your area specifically? Or use local sales data on your MLS to come up with some interesting perspectives on the current market. Perhaps offer some relevant seasonally based tips for buyers or sellers.

Want a constant source of original angles you can use to pitch reporters?

Check out our Inner Circle membership where you’ll get access to a weekly market news article that puts a unique spin on current real estate trends.

Use them as a source of snippets and ideas to pitch, and when you publish them with your name and branding on your blog, website, or social media, it looks like you’ve written them, giving you added authority and credibility.

5. Be patient and (politely) persistent. It might take some time to get your first nibble, but once you have the attention and respect of a reporter, you’re bound to be called on as a source more often, and they’ll be more likely to pay attention to the ideas and angles you propose to them.

Once (and every time!) you get quoted or interviewed for a news piece, make sure you share it with your friends, family, prospects, and past clients. Post links to the piece, screenshots of your name and quote, or video and sound clips of any TV or radio segments you’re on.

Even if people don’t listen to them or read an entire article, they’ll still add a level of credibility and authority with people who already know you. Anyone who’s considering hiring you as their agent will certainly be impressed to see they have a chance to work with someone sought out for their insight and expertise. And you might even start getting some calls from people you’ve never heard of before, after they see a piece you’re quoted in!

The post How to Leverage Local Media to Promote Your Real Estate Business… for Free appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

It’s almost impossible to avoid being exposed to news nowadays. Besides being on TV and radio 24/7, people get notifications on their cell phones, in their email, and see it on social media.

Unfortunately, it’s often filled with doom and gloom and can easily affect how people think and feel about people, life, the world… and real estate.

Real estate is almost always on the news to some degree, and they either seem to be stoking peoples’ fear of missing out because the market is so hot, or the fear that there’s a “bubble” about to pop and the market will crash.

Of course the news isn’t entirely responsible for creating market conditions, but how they frame the market affects how potential buyers and sellers think and feel, which can affect your business.

On the flip side, many agents try to frame the market as always being great. But that can come across as unbelievable and self-serving. Of course agents want people to think the market’s great!

But the truth is usually somewhere in between those two ends of the spectrum. The reality is, the real estate market is rarely good (or bad) for everyone, but it’s always good for someone.

The trick is to break through the noise and make sure the people it is good for aren’t swayed by the negative headlines, and are made aware of how the market benefits them so they feel confident enough to buy or sell a house… ideally with you!

People Prefer Bad News…

News is often sensational, controversial, and upsetting by design. The truth is, people have what’s called a “negativity bias” — a psychological tendency which makes people more attracted to negative or scary sounding news. So they’re just giving people what they’re more likely to subconsciously want, because it’s more likely to get someone to watch or listen longer, or click through to their website, which in turn makes them money from ad revenue.

It’s interesting and good to know, but that doesn’t really help you though, does it? That still leaves you with potential buyers and sellers who are willingly flocking toward fear, whether they know it or not. They’re allowing their brains to be filled with reasons to be afraid, and give them reasons to not buy or sell a house.

…but You Can Turn Bad News into Good News (For Some People)

As much as people have a negativity bias, they’re also susceptible to a “confirmation bias”, which causes people to look for information that confirms how they think and feel, and reinforces what they want to do.

While negative headlines may create an overall vibe about the real estate market at times, there are always people who want or need to buy or sell a house. They just need proof that it’s not only OK to buy or sell in the current market, but that they’re actually making a smart choice. The gravy on top is if they feel like they’re in on some inside scoop that their peers and potential competitors aren’t in on.

But it needs to be balanced against their negativity bias, especially if it’s coming from someone who has an interest in getting them to buy or sell a house… like an agent. Again, of course it would make sense that an agent wants people to believe it’s always a great time to buy or sell a house.

Unfortunately, that nuanced approach isn’t something most news outlets are going to craft. They don’t necessarily care if people buy or sell a house or not; they just want peoples’ attention for as long, and as much as possible.

But that’s great news for you, because it’s the perfect opportunity for you to piggyback off of their negative news, and twist their negative headlines into a positive spin… for some people. You can simultaneously give people the negative headlines they’re attracted to, while also signaling that it’s actually a hidden blessing to the people who actually want to buy or sell a house.

Here are some tips on how to do it:

1) Actively look for real estate news and headlines.

Make an effort to consistently search real estate news online, and look for news or headlines that you think might affect how potential buyers and sellers think, feel, and act. A good way to gauge it is if it’s something that gets under your skin, and makes you feel like it would make people feel like it isn’t a good time for them to buy or sell a house.

2) Formulate an opposing view.

Whatever the news is saying is negative for some people, there’s likely another type of person who it benefits. In simplest terms, if it isn’t a good time to sell, then it’s probably a good time to buy. It won’t usually be that plain and simple though. Sometimes you have to get super specific about what type or buyer or seller certain market conditions are better for. But that’s the beauty of it; the more specifically it “speaks” to someone’s situation, the more likely it’ll resonate with them and prompt them to read and take action.

3) Write your own article… or just share the original article.

If you want to get the most out of doing this, writing your own articles that cite and link back to the original article you’re writing about will give you more authority and credibility with your audience.

But if writing a full article isn’t something you have the time or ability to pull off, you can always just share the original article on social media or with your email list, and write a short blurb giving your own thoughts and perspective.

4) Illustrate the silver lining.

Begin your article by introducing the issue and perspective of the original article. Acknowledge what is true and real about what they’re saying. But then pivot from the original negative sentiment into your alternate point-of-view, and paint a picture of who can benefit from the way things are, how they can do it, and why they should.

5) Don’t be (obviously) self-serving.

As much as you ultimately want to encourage the reader to either buy or sell a house, make sure you don’t come across as trying to sell them on doing so. Give them room to feel like it’s their decision and choice to take advantage of the market conditions if it makes sense for them, or not.

It’ll take a little time — and some writing chops — to find topics and write these on a regular basis, but it’s worth the effort if you want to:

• Build credibility and authority. Your friends, family, followers and past clients will see that you have thoughtful, objective opinions about the market, even if they don’t read every word you wrote.
• Set yourself apart from other agents. How many agents do you know who are out there commenting on, or creating news pieces? Probably not many, because there aren’t a whole lot of other agents willing (or aware enough) to put in the effort to do so.
• Develop more leads and business. By re-framing the tone and narrative, you can prompt people who were just thinking about buying or selling, or outright hesitant to do so, to take action.

Here Are Some Good Examples… (And an Easier Way to Do It!)

Sometimes seeing a good example is the best way to learn. So here are a couple of examples of market news articles where we used this exact technique — one geared towards buyers, and the other to sellers:

Example #1

Why Millennials and Gen Z Feel They Need to Win the Lottery to Ever Own a Home

In this one we used a Yahoo Finance article, which painted a dismal picture for potential Gen Z buyers, and used it as an opportunity to show them that their situation isn’t anywhere near as bleak as they make it sound, and the empowerment to buy a home if they want to.

Example #2

Some Homeowners Will Benefit from Other Sellers Going on a So-Called “Strike” This Spring (Are You in a Position to Take Advantage?)

And to be consistent, here’s another one where we used a Yahoo Finance article to pivot off of, but this time they made it sound like it was an awful time to sell. Again, there’s no reason for a news site to dig into who could benefit from so many sellers refusing to list their house, but it was perfect for us to use to point out why it’s a perfect time to sell a house… for certain types of people.

Hopefully those helped you get a feel for how to turn negative real estate news into something positive. But if you want more examples than those two, feel free to browse the News & Trends section of our site. You can also subscribe to our “Snacks” newsletter which has a link to the latest Market News piece we published each week.

And if you like the idea of doing this, but aren’t keen on actually having to search for topics and write articles, check out our Inner Circle membership. For less than the price of your daily cup of coffee, you’ll be able to share all of our Market News articles with your name and branding on it in no time, with the click of a few buttons! In addition to the new weekly Market News article, you’ll also get access to:

• Over 1,500 existing articles, with more added weekly. We have ones for each season and many holidays you can use each year, but also ones that are entertaining, or resourceful you could share and re-share for years to come.
• Close to 2,000 memes. These range from funny and witty, to useful ones that give tips about buying and selling.
• 20 how-to booklets you can use to generate leads by offering the free booklets on the articles you share.

The post News about the Real Estate Market Is Hurting Your Business (But You Can Use It to Your Advantage) appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

The Internet has really leveled the playing field for real estate agents. Years ago you needed a hefty marketing budget to be able to get your name out there in front of people often enough for them to remember you the next time they buy or sell a house. But using social media for content marketing has made it not only possible for every agent to market the heck out of themselves regardless of their budget, but also necessary to do so if you want to compete!

The tricky part for many agents is being able to come up with enough new, original content to share on a regular basis…

Frequency is key in order for you to stay top-of-mind with your audience. You can’t just post a piece of content every once in a while and hope that it’ll do the trick. Ideally you should share content daily, if not multiple times per day.

Think about it, how many times are you exposed to any particular brand’s marketing and messages per day? Probably more times than you can count! That’s how brands stay top-of-mind; they’re constantly making sure you’re seeing and hearing from them… whether you like it or not. And whether you notice it or not!

Many agents worry so much about people smashing the “like” button, commenting, and sharing their posts, but you shouldn’t expect that from every piece of content you share. Just constantly sharing content is working some quiet magic for you. Frequency allows you to subtly infiltrate peoples’ minds.

But man it certainly feels good when people do react to something you share, or it directly gets you a lead or client to work with!

Yet regardless of whether a piece of content seemingly flew under the radar of everyone in your audience, or got a ton of attention, most agents avoid sharing a piece of content more than once. They worry that their audience will get bored, annoyed, or even angry if they share a piece of content more than once, so they’re constantly trying to come up with something new to share.

Well, you might want to rethink that, and start re-sharing some of your content!

Old Content Is Always New to Someone in Your Audience

According to this Marketing Brew article, while regularly sharing new content is important, you should also re-share content as well — especially if it performed well in the past.

As much as you might be concerned that people in your audience will notice you’ve shared something before, there’s a good chance many of them haven’t! Sure, some of them might have, but just because some people saw it the first time you posted it, doesn’t mean everyone in your audience did.

In fact, they claim that somewhere between 68% and 88% of your followers probably haven’t seen a particular piece of content you’ve posted in the past, no matter how well it did previously.

First of all, you’re at the mercy of algorithms deciding how many people (and which ones) they’ll even show your content to. Even if you pay money to make sure your content is more widely shared by a platform, you’re not guaranteed that your content will be served up to your entire audience.

But even if they did, social media is a crowded place, with an endless amount of content being shared. And it’s not like most people are looking at their feeds chronologically, making sure they don’t miss a single post every single minute of every single day. The reality is, most people are quickly (and mindlessly) scrolling, and doing so on various platforms. Most people aren’t going to be able to remember the majority of things they see in a day, let alone what you share.

Will some people recognize that you’ve shared something before? Perhaps. But even if they did, they might actually appreciate it more the second (or third… or fourth…) time around!

People Notice What Matters to Them… When It Matters to Them

People take notice of what resonates with them on any given day or time in their life.

Let’s face it, real estate is constantly on your mind, but it isn’t something most people have on their mind every day of their life. Unless someone’s thinking about buying or selling a house in the near future, there’s a good chance they’re not going to stop scrolling and read every word of what you post about real estate.

For instance…

That great article you posted last year about preparing your home for sale might not have been something “Fred” even noticed last year, but now he’s thinking about selling to move closer to his aging parents and there’s a much better chance he’ll stop and read it.

Or “Sue” could have noticed the piece you shared six months back filled with tips on buying a house, but wasn’t thinking about ever buying a house again. But then she finds out she’s inheriting some money and is thinking about buying her dream house.

That doesn’t mean either of them weren’t aware that you were sharing real estate content; they just weren’t paying particularly close attention to what you were sharing. Frequently sharing content was doing the surface-level job of making sure they knew in the back of their mind that you’re an agent, but their interest in a particular piece of content only mattered once it truly mattered to them.

What Content Should You Re-Share?

If you want to make the most out of re-sharing your content, you should spend some time taking stock of the content you’ve shared in the past, and also keep track of any new content you share moving forward that will be worthy of re-sharing sometime later on. A spreadsheet, or simple list will do, but popping them into a content planner or calendar will help you visualize what and when to re-share content a lot better.

Here’s what you want to look for when choosing content to re-share on social media:

• Content that got a lot of “likes” or other reactions. If people gave it the literal thumbs up, it’s a no-brainer that other people will probably like it if you share it again.
• Ones that got a lot of engagement with your audience. “Likes” are nice, but sometimes a piece doesn’t get many reactions, but gets a ton of comments. Anything that started a discussion and gave you the ability to interact with people should definitely be on your list.
• If a piece directly or indirectly got you a prospect, client, or sale. Even if a piece of content didn’t get many (or any!) reactions or engagement, but you know it got you business, make sure you plan on re-sharing it. For instance, you get a call from a prospect and they mention having read an article that stuck in their mind. Or a client tells you how they knew what to do or how to think about an issue because of a piece you shared about the buying or selling process.
• Re-use ones that are seasonal. Content related to buy or selling during the spring market, or over the holidays (as long as it isn’t specific to a certain year) is great to share year after year.
• Things you shared before you grew your audience. If you’ve made a concerted effort to grow your audience, re-share things you posted prior to the bump up in followers.

Need Content Worth Re-Sharing?

If this all sounds great, but you don’t really have much content at all, or you have a ton of content but not enough of it is worth re-sharing, you should check out our Inner Circle membership!

It’s about the easiest way for you to crank out content that looks like you created it yourself by just clicking a few buttons to add your own name and branding onto it. You’ll have access to:

• Over 1,500 existing articles, with more added weekly. We have ones for each season and many holidays you can use each year, but also ones that are entertaining, or resourceful you could share and re-share for years to come.
• Close to 2,000 memes. These range from funny and witty, to useful ones that give tips about buying and selling.
• 20 how-to booklets you can use to generate leads by offering the free booklets on the articles you share.

That’s just the stuff you’d use for sharing (and re-sharing!) for your social media content marketing. There’s also hundreds of email and letter templates, and a ton of super creative real estate postcards. And if that isn’t enough…

…you’ll be saving yourself a ton of time thinking up ideas and having to actually write content you hope will be worth resharing, for about the price of a cup of coffee per day!

The post Here’s Why You Should Re-Share Real Estate Content You’ve Shared Before… Again and Again appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.