real estate agent

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Creating Yourself as a Brand as a Realtor

Published March 27, 2017 by Real Estate Leads

Here at Real Estate Leads, we won’t even began to suggest we’re experts on the subject but we do know of a number of tips for getting ahead as a realtor. These days – in the age of digital media – one of them most prominent of them is being able to create yourself and your services as a brand all within itself. Some of you may not know exactly what that entails, so let us explain.

What Exactly is Branding?

To give a definition, branding is “the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product or a service from other products or services. In a nutshell, a brand is what sets us apart from our competition.

That’s exactly it – we want to secure greater numbers of clients, and setting ourselves apart from our competitors in the industry is key to doing that. Clients have choices – plenty of them. Being really good at what you do just isn’t enough. You need to start making yourself recognizable as a distinct choice for them. Different from others. A unique name or catchy slogan won’t come even close to doing that on their own.

Every part of your marketing collaterals need to be geared towards creating a greater ‘whole’ – if you will – that’s regarded by prospective clients as a brand.

What Makes Up a Brand?

There is the “look of a brand” or the visual components. This can include logos and colours that you use on your website, specific repeated images, communication language choices, etc.

To use a very well known example, think about Apple. The distinctive logo, the “i” precursor in the titling of its products, etc. You associate a quality personal computing product when you see them, right?

When done properly, your brand will tell your customers exactly who you are and what they can expect when they use your company.

Creating your brand involves online and offline strategies, and that probably comes as no surprise. Your brand might begin with your website. Give some thought to the following; when someone goes to your website from one of your promotions, what do they see? Do they see the same logo? Do they feel like your website is an extension of your personal brand that you have built? If you can’t say ‘yes’ to that definitively, you either may not have much of a brand for yourself, or your brand is a work in progress.

That’s perfectly fine, and it’s not like this has been a staple process for realtors for decades. We’re still adjusting to the information age.

Getting Started

You want to create a ‘total’ brand. That’s the sum of two parts; the first being your companies brand (likely already well established if you’re part of a major brokerage) and the second being your personal brand (which again, is perfectly natural to be lacking at this point) The first step here – again considering we’re in the 21st century – should be a no-brainer. Secure a domain name that is immediately associated with ‘you’ as a realtor. And yes, that’s your name!

If you don’t already own your “name domain” you should get that as soon as possible. So if your name is Ron Donaldson you will ideally acquire the domain rondonaldson.com. Don’t delay in making the inquiry with a reputable web hosting provider asking if that domain name is available

Next up is a sharp, distinctive logo that speaks to who you are – both as an individual and a professional. Don’t hesitate to hire a creative designer who can coax ideas out of you if you’re at a loss for them yourself. You can get a simple logo on Fiverr.com for just $5 bucks or if you want to spend a little more you can check out companies like 99designs.com.

On to your tagline, or slogan as it’s also called. It should tell everyone what you do, but not be so plain and obvious as ‘I sell homes.’ Try to be creative, and again it’s vastly preferable to hire a communications pro rather than settle on something you came up with yourself if you’re really not sure about it.

Just do a little brainstorming to come up with your own tagline. This is just one more way your customers can remember you.

Consistency is Key

Before you begin this whole process of building your brand, you want to spend some time thinking about the big picture. Everything that is used in your business should contain the same branding. The same logo, colours, and tagline should be incorporated uniformly with all of your printed materials – letterhead, newsletters and business cards, all pieces of marketing collateral. The look and message of your website should be consistent with this too. If you buy company apparel you will want those to be the same too.

Your brand should embody your values, your ethics and your way of doing business, along with a healthy bit of who you are ALL the time, not just when you’re working as a real estate professional. The brand that you create is how you want people to think about you. Just remember that if you aren’t able to deliver what your brand promises or what it stands for, then a nice logo and some cool colours won’t make up for that.

We’ve just scratched the surface of what brand building for realtors entails here, but there’s a wealth of information out there for you and we’re happy to introduce you to the idea if it’s something that’s unfamiliar for you. Advancing your real estate career is going to be a priority for all of you, and it’s a great idea to sign up with Real Estate Leads here for qualified buyer and seller real estate leads delivered to you each month for your (and yours alone) territory in Canada.

To Be A FSBO… Or Not

Published February 4, 2017 by Real Estate Leads

We’ll start this week’s post by explaining that we’re well aware that this is a real estate topics blog and that the majority of our readership will be real estate professionals who’ll be well aware of what exactly ‘FSBO’ means. We’re going to take a quick moment though, to explain this wacky acronym to anyone who’s not so familiar with it.

FSBO (fizz-bo) stands for For Sale By Owner, and it’s a term used to describe a homeowner who’s made the decision to list and sell their home on their own, without the assistance of a realtor. Now we’re similarly aware that the same majority of you will obviously recommend against such a practice with vehemence, but let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons to being a FSBO. After all, being a well-informed realtor who can offer perspectives without bias or prejudice reflects very well upon you and it’s good to be able to appraise prospective clients of both sides of the coin, no matter how it may end up.

Advantages

Avoiding Commission

This one’s simple to understand from the seller’s perspective, as much as it’s in contradiction to your interests as a listing agent. On average, they’ll pay about 6% to sell their home—split evenly between you and the buyer’s agent. They should factor in the realtor’s commission when determining the asking price for their property. Their decided-upon sale price should be enough to pay off the remaining mortgage balance on the property, plus pay the commission. If that calculation leaves a little bit to be desired, this is one reason they might consider becoming a FSBO.

There are Plenty of Selling Resources These Days

The days of creating your own yard sign and then putting an ad in the local newspaper’s classified section are long gone. Now there are an array of resources available to help you sell a home. These included locale-specific real estate purchase agreements that can be found online, and local title companies or a real estate attorney can help with the legalities and answer questions – often online as well if you can’t contact them in person or by another means. This is huge for folks in more rural areas. Perhaps more important though are the excellent resources available on the web for advertising your property. You can include photos of your house, as well as detailed information about the property, including the number of bedrooms, upgrades, square footage and other features. The Internet is pretty much the greatest thing to ever happen to FSBOs!

Sense of Accomplishment

This one doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation. If you’re the type who likes doing all manner of things yourself, and saving money accordingly – you’d probably make a great and determined FSBO.

Disadvantages

Lack of Access to MLS (Multiple Listings Service)

This is definitely drawback numero uno when it comes to choosing to go FSBO as compared to working with a real estate agent. Working within a city or town’s MLS is restricted to participating (and paying) realtors exclusively, and having a home for sale featured in the MLS is of paramount effectiveness in putting the home in front of the largest number of buyers and the realtors they’re working with. It’s pretty much the bible in this regard, and selling your home without having it featured there puts you at an immediate disadvantage when it comes to exposure and finding the ‘right’ types of prospective buyers – no doubt about it.

Lack of an Industry-Professionals Advice Regarding Pricing, Etc.

A qualified and experienced realtor is often invaluable with the way he or she understands the value of a home in the bigger context of the ever-changing housing market in any specific locale. You may think your home is worth X-amount – and you may have some very solid reference points in coming up with that number – but it may simply not be a realistic asking price given the conditions of the market and any of the other factors that can come into play. The majority of which are beyond the scope of understanding for anyone other than a professional realtor.

Pricing yourself realistically but fairly goes a long way in having you sell the home within the timeline you envision, and FSBOs often struggle right out of the gate this way.

Being Overwhelmed / Intimidated with Requisite Paperwork

There’s a LOT of paperwork involved in selling or buying a home, and often more than the average person could ever imagine possible. Without having a realtor who’s gone through these documents many times previously on your side, you may well find yourself moving along at a snail’s pace, and becoming immensely frustrated accordingly.

You Alone are the Open House Coordinator

This one’s also fairly self-explanatory. Prospective buyers will always want to tour homes they’re considering buying, and if you choose not to work with a realtor you’re very much on your own when it comes to scheduling, staging, promoting and so on and so forth. An agent can filter calls and inquiries from other real estate agents and coordinate open houses and showings for your property, so you can go about your everyday life and not have to concern yourself with it – and it always involves a LOT of concerns. And last but not least, a realtor can speak of your home and it’s attractive features and amenities in a smooth, convincing manner in a way you simply can’t. It’s a developed skill.

Here at Real Estate Leads, we provide realtors with qualified leads generated online and exclusive to them and their region in Canada. We also like to talk about trends in real estate, and if you’ve got anything to add to this post or any other we’d like to hear what you’ve got to say!

For new real estate agents: The basic foundation of your future success

Published May 15, 2015 by Real Estate Leads

Getting started in real estate is one of the easiest things to do, which can amplify the shock when it is often only later realized how daunting it is to build a sustainable business.

So yes, it will be rather daunting to get started in real estate. It will take a lot of hard work and cunning to gain that initial traction to take your career to new heights. Real estate agents are entrepreneurs and it can be overwhelming at first — researching, prospecting, advertising, lead generation, marketing, web design and content creation, bookeeping, and dozens of other matters. Our hat is off to you.

Our mission is to help you succeed fast as quickly as possible. There are only a few rare shortcuts to success (such as our real-time real-estate lead delivery service). Below are the critical basic aspects to building your initial success.

It is certainly important when you are going to become a real estate agent to have some money put away. Inversely, it is hard to be really successful in this business, though, without spending money. A balanced portion of every check received should be put back into your business to support your real estate marketing and sales efforts.

For an agent starting out, logically, personal promotion is absolutely critical. Beyond business cards, the least expensive way to promote yourself is by putting up a website; perhaps just yourname.com (or a patriotic .ca domain). If you are fortunate to be under the roof of a brokerage as you start out, you can buy a domain name to point to (or redirect to) your profile page on your employer’s website.

Beyond developing a budget, developing your professional image is equally important as it is vital to your success as a real estate agent.

Your professional image is projected usually in this order:

Web Presence :: Your website doesn’t necessarily have to be extensive, but it should be carefully laid out. A simple website can be more impressive, focus on quality over quantity; weed out grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. You can always add more pages to your site in time. It’s more important to get them quickly just to call you. Also having a contact form on your website is essential. If you don’t know where to start in that regard, we recommend the courteous and helpful professionals at 4GoodHosting.com, although there are certainly hundreds of other hosting companies to choose from.
Social Media Presence :: If you have Facebook, Twitter, Google+, account, and we encourage you to do so – just keeping it professional is essential. Embarrassing personal information should be moderated/deleted.
Phone Skills :: always focus on being courteous, articulate, and engaging. A sense of humor will often lead to clients calling you back for more of your liveliness.
Appearance :: Your appearance should be appropriate for your local market and for your office. Being well groomed will not only help you feel more confident, but it will also impress your clients; and will certainly only be to your advantage.
Face-to-face Meetings :: Strive to be attentive, with good eye contact – being distracted while listening can be an instant showstopper. Maintain positive body language, smile, laugh when you can. Strive to be attentive, engaging and courteous. If you can find a way to compliment your client, take advantage of any nice things you can say. Such things are appreciated and long remembered when expressed with sincerity.
Your Marketing Materials :: Best to use high resolution quality photos alongside compelling, yet accurate, text. It is good to have another set of eyes to check for grammar and spelling mistakes.
Written Communications :: Produce well-written letters and emails. You can use form letters to help you produce your responses quicker; but do personalize them enough.

Concerning the internet, do strive to separate your business or personal life, because what is published on the internet lasts forever and can easily find its way to your potential clients; it is wise to work on and maintain a professional image both inside and also outside of your real estate career.