5 Listing Tools You Can Use
While it’s important to have good practice and good people skills, there are some other listing tools you can use to help give yourself an extra advantage in this highly-competitive market. I think there’s something to be said for consistently doing the right things.
Sometimes, the hard things are just doing the right thing over and over again.
Now, you might get to the point in your career where you need an assistant to help with some of these tasks, but I think it’s a good idea to start with the basics and don’t disregard the basics; they can bring a lot of value and visibility to your business.
#1: Good Signage
You want to get a sign in the yard, but not just any sign. A good sign. You want that sign to look brand-new. Ideally, exactly like it would look the day it arrived from the sign company. Take some time, wash your signs, shine them up, and be proud of them.
I encourage people to keep some tools in their cars so they can get them into the ground, too, like rebar or a sledgehammer. Whatever you need.
A sign is a mark of your business, and it’s a chance to put yourself on display. Make the placement look nice, keep it level and even, make sure it’s visible, and make sure it’s impressive.
#2: Instant Open House Website
At ROOST, we offer our agents what I call an “Instant Open House.” What we do for people – and you could do this for yourself, if you wanted – is buy a $10 GoDaddy website for every listing our agents get.
For example, we’d buy a domain for www.onetwentythreemainstreete.com and build a website showcasing that listing, talking about you, and giving people everything they need to know about the property. From there, we have somebody on staff who promotes that instant open house website on our social media pages. It’s not only professional, but it also looks great.
Why is this a better strategy than posting a listing on MLS or Zillow?
Think about it this way: Why would you want to put a Zillow link on your listing and invite transaction-oriented real estate agents to start showing houses for people they may not even know?
- The beauty of an instant open house website is that it allows everything to be rerouted back to you via social media and a CRM so you can personally talk to potentially interested buyers.
For example, you could let someone know that you noticed that they downloaded the brochure from your website, introduce yourself, and ask whether they have any questions. It costs us about $50 as a brokerage to do this – we do it for every single listing – and it’s money well spent.
The instant open house brochure is about the house first, since that’s what prospective buyers care about first and foremost, and then it’s about the agent. Finally, in the small print, it’s about ROOST.
#3: Just Listed & Sold Cards
Just Listed and Sold cards are another low-tech strategy that can help you become a market maker and market your business. One of the main perks is that it helps people in the neighborhood know what’s going on regarding the real estate market. It also reinforces your worth to the seller.
Here’s one strategy that we – and a lot of other agents – use.
- Create small postcards with a picture of the house, the price, a QR code that sends people to the open house website, and information about the agent.
We send those postcards out to the neighborhood. However, this isn’t something that goes to your database. The people in your database will likely see the listing when you post about it on Facebook and through your other channels where they’ve already made a connection with you. This method helps drum up business from people you may have not met yet, or maybe people who are looking in a specific neighborhood – but don’t live there yet.
When people wake up in the morning and drive through a neighborhood, they’ll probably notice if a new “For Sale” sign is posted. The first thing these people usually want to know is how much it’s selling for, and then they’ll start to be curious about why someone is selling. But first, their interest is going to be about the price – and that’s where these postcards come in handy.
It allows you to meet people, too. If not for this house, then perhaps for another one down the road. For you, it has a multiplier opportunity – but this strategy is about marketing to the neighborhood and capitalizing on traffic from the interest of passers-by who take your cards, scan them, and hopefully want to talk to you about the property.
After you’ve communicated the price of a house with Just Listed cards, the Sold cards follow a similar structure, but are intended to help people see how much your properties have sold for – and this is especially valuable if you’ve managed to sell it for over the original listing price. If you’ve sold a house that people felt would be selling for $250,000 for $300,000, who’s the hero? You are.
#4: Info Boxes
These can be a pain to maintain and keep full, but having an info box with physical flyers that talk about all the property details is another great strategy you can utilize to get more business for your listings. These are a single page and they work in conjunction with the website and the brochures that people can download online.
The flyer in your info boxes should also have a QR code to the website to, again, lead people back to you and your email inbox so you can hopefully start up a conversation and make a connection even if you don’t end up selling that particular property to the person who originally contacts you.
#5: Traditional Open Houses
Another great tool that sells listings is a good, old-fashioned, traditional open house. We want you to get out there and meet your public.
A big part of this job is being able to sell yourself, what you can do for buyers and sellers, and market yourself as well as the property. So, if you’ve got all these other listing tools – the website, the flyers, the postcards, etc – you’ve already likely gotten some interest. You can put information about open houses – or the next open house you’re hosting – on the Just Sold and Just Listed cards.
Open houses give you a great opportunity to meet neighbors. It all comes back to adding names to your database, which is another huge advantage of these types of gatherings. You get the opportunity to show people who you are, let them realize the potential you might have as their realtor, and maybe find other listings.
Final Thoughts
Every professional needs their own toolkit. For real estate agents, the best tools help you become more visible to prospective clients. The more people who know about you and the services you have to offer – you’re a real estate agent in their neighborhood – the more likely you are to make some truly priceless, hopefully long-lasting connections.
For some, the aforementioned tools I outlined might seem old-fashioned – but they work. Even something as simple as a good sign helps people who might never have been aware of your presence before know you exist. Someone might be out for a morning walk with their dog and, after they walk by a property and see that shiny new sign with your name on it, you’ll be top of mind. They might think about giving you a call – or talking to someone who wants to buy in their neighborhood about you.
You want to market yourself to the whole community, not just the connections you’ve already made. Remember: It’s important to have lasting relationships with your old clients, but you won’t survive in the industry if you’re not always trying to add new names to your database.
Don’t shy away from the old tactics. However, feel free to find your own strategies and develop a practice that works for you. After all, you’re the expert in your area, right? Or, if you’re not (yet) then it’s time to start thinking about how to become the go-to agent that everyone wants to sell their house.
