Real estate agents are very limited when it comes to the marketing tools that they can use. In reality, the tools that they use are currently more or less the same used by their peers. This raises an important question to which the answer is obvious. How can one get an edge over his competitors if one uses the same marketing? I will let you guess the answers.
In the United States, anyone with a high school diploma or an equivalent can become a real estate agent. The barriers to entry to this profession are so low that it attracts many people hoping to make sizeable commissions. Without much experience, a novice real estate agent will rely on the 3Fs, better known as family, friends, and fools, in business. From there it an uphill battle because clients rely on seasoned agents to help them find their dream homes or sell their property to the highest bidder. This serious responsibility, if not carried with the utmost diligence, can land one in some hot waters. Not advising a client correctly, which is negligence, can have serious legal ramifications.
An agent, who is in charge of selling a client’s home, can start by cranking up the numbers and providing the client with the relevant data such as comparable and recent public records that show the recent transactions in the adjacent area to give the seller an idea where the property’s price stands. Luckily, the internet made it much simpler for real estate agents to come up with all kinds of figures. Sites such as Zillow provide such data free of charge.
This is the first step the real estate agent should undertake before even thinking about marketing material. A real estate agent role is to hold his client’s hand while they are going through the painful stressful process of buying or selling a home. The agent is better served if a real estate marketing agency is in charge of creating the marketing collateral. May agencies are using the latest technology. Many millennials are buying their first homes and they are much more demanding than the previous generation because they value their time and want to have as much information as possible before visiting the property. Some of the marketing assets that might entice younger buyers to visit are a 3D house plan or 3D home design as millennials used to making purchasing decisions based solely on things they have seen on the internet.