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6 Ways to Sell a Home to a Generation That Doesn’t Believe in Home Ownership

July 24, 2011 by · 5 Comments

I’m a part of Gen-Y, one of the most researched generations of people in history. We are known for fighting for individuality, not trusting corporate entities with our futures and are more mobile than any previous generation by way of advancements in communication technology that lets us work anywhere in the world.

So, then, how do you sell home ownership, ownership of an immobile piece of the planet, to a 76 million strong group of people who don’t follow convention? Stop following conventional wisdom when trying to sell it to them. Conventional wisdom no longer works. We are still people though and we do still have needs.

Here are six ways to attract Gen-Y buyers to your listings and make them lifelong customers:

Appeal to Their Sense of Community

Facebook, Twitter, Google+… The list goes on. Gen-Y is completely hooked on being connected to each other and sharing their life experiences along the way.

What makes the neighborhood around your home different? What can the buyer of this home do to contribute or be a part of their community? Are there start-up workshops where they can collaborate with other small business owners to ideate and work on projects?

Stop The Kitsch, Talk About Real Lifestyle Value

With new homes especially, we write listing descriptions that are usually a laundry list of features attached to a dramatic model nameplate like “Kentshire” below. Here’s an example I received via email from a home builder who is offering an unbelievable deal on their last remaining homes:

Rather than trying to impart value through fancy sounding model names, start by talking about what actually matters. Instead of listing off features, talk about how guests never need to go upstairs because there is a powder room centrally located between entertainment areas.

Is there high-speed internet available for people who work from home? If so, what different plans are offered in this neighborhood?

Can I walk to get takeout on a summer night or is driving always required?

Make The Investment Value of Your Listing More Obvious

“What can this home do for me?” That’s the question your Gen-Y buyers are going to be asking themselves before they buy. It’s no longer enough to be a place to rest our heads. Now that we see home ownership as a long-term engagement, how can this home evolve with me over my lifetime?

The best way to expound on this idea is to include projected home value over the next 5, 10 and 15 years. Altos Research, Zillow and Real Yields all help make this possible.

I really like Real Yields, co-founded by real estate investment extraordinaire Ryan Hinricher, because it makes it effortless to put your buyer in the real estate investment driver’s seat without a huge learning curve.

If your buyers can find a reason to own a home that isn’t just tied to the facade of the American dream, they’ll be much more likely to invest in one.

Become The Lifelong Advisor

The days of the one-time customer are over. Sites like Zillow and Trulia encourage agent reviews so today and tomorrow’s home buyers can make informed decisions about who they use to buy a home.

To earn the business of the next generation, the generation that determines your business trustworthiness based on the opinions of others, you need to elevate your game.

Work with other industry professionals (mortgage, law etc.) to build live, in-person and web-based seminars to help your clients grow their real estate knowledge and make better decisions about their financial investments. Imagine the business growth you’ll experience once you have a network of 15 – 20 homeowners turned savvy investors in your area.

Sell To Your Own Needs

Given the rough real estate market these days, it’s a challenge to sell a home in most markets. It’s significantly harder to sell a lifestyle and home if you don’t believe in it or live it yourself.

If you’re out in suburbia but would rather sell condos in the city, save up and make the move. You’ll have infinitely more success uncovering neighborhoods and selling homes you are passionate about than lugging yourself through rows of suburban center hall colonials that don’t interest you. When you love what you do your passion will shine through and your clients will want to work with you even more because of it.

Take Great Pictures

I left this one for last because it resonates with me most. Gen-Y grew up around and continues to use photo sharing services like Flickr, Instagram, Dribbble and Facebook. We love pictures. We also love to research which means we’re starting our searches online before we reach out to an agent. How do you engage a prospect who is researching and loves great pictures? Great pictures, of course.

The path to quality listing photos is clear: Hire a reputable home stager and a professional home photographer, combined with compelling copy (see point #2) and you’ll have a surefire way of connecting with the next generation of home buyers.

Photos also have the added bonus of being very shareable on social networks. Steph Davis, Corcoran Group NYC, shared a photo of one of her listings as she waited for a client to arrive to show the property (shown below.)

Although I don’t have the means or reason to live in the city, if I did you can bet I would have reached out to Steph to learn more about this property.

What are some ways you have successfully connected with home buyers?

 

Image Credits: Photo #1 – Robert Scoble | Photo #4 – VancouverFilmSchool

Filed Under: Lead Generation, Marketing, Online Branding, Photography, Real Estate, Technology ·

February Experiment: Altos Research

February 24, 2010 by · Leave a Comment

Fresh off our experiment with Heap CRM comes a new experiment for February: Altos Research. Twitter addicts, conference attendees and Lucky Strike Social Media Club members may already be familiar with Altos Research’s co-founder, Mike Simonsen. Besides being an all around nice guy he is also a known peddler of real estate data reports.

Before getting into Altos Research here is a refresher on what our monthly experiments are all about:

What Our Monthly Experiments Are Designed To Do

Each month we choose an online service or product that we’re going to try out over the next 28-30 days. These products/services are chosen at random though we are open to suggestions (let us know what you want to see put to the test in the comments below.)

After the experiment has been chosen we keep you up-to-date on how useful the product/service is for our businesses and whether it’s worth trying and/or paying for.

What is Altos Research?

Altos Research is a third party provider of real estate data reports. These reports include market statistics like pricing trends, whether it’s a buyer or seller’s market, recent activity by zip code (i.e. homes absorbed, number of new listings) and automatically updated website inserts that contain valuable market data for homebuyers.

Here’s an example of the automatically updated inserts on my website HouseMeetsOwner.com:

Why It Was Chosen

When RPR was introduced it rocked the real estate data world. There was even (what I consider to be) an exaggerated death knell for data providers like Altos Research because of the premise that RPR would be the all encompassing source for data real estate pros need.

Upon further digging into RPR I discovered this tidbit (emphasis added):

Members who register with a valid NRDS ID can access non-proprietary, non-MLS/CIE sourced data; however, only MLS/CIE Subscribers/Participants will be able to view MLS/CIE sourced information. There will be no public access to the RPR™, and the database and its data cannot be shared through consumer websites.

This reaffirms my belief that data providers still serve a purpose in our industry so I wanted to give exposure to that cause all the while putting one such provider to the test. Be sure to subscribe to OnlineRealEstate101.com by RSS or email to read about our experience with Altos Research over the next month!

Filed Under: Experiments, Lead Generation, Technology · Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Site Building 101: Selecting a Real Estate Search Vendor

February 3, 2010 by · 3 Comments

This article is part four of a five part series on building a real estate website with WordPress. You can view the rest of the series by visiting our guide at the bottom of this post.

You have one goal when building your real estate site: to generate leads. Converting web visitors into leads is the single most important function of your website because that’s the only way you can make sales so, when compared to everything else, visitor to lead conversion is paramount.

I can’t stress the importance of this enough because your website’s biggest lead generator, by far, will be your real estate search powered by the vendor of your choice. What can you do to maximize the lead generation potential of your search? Read on…

The Five Questions That Will Save You Hundreds Of Dollars

There are a ton of real estate search vendors out there. Before making a choice ask yourself these five questions about each vendor:

  1. Does their search product load fast? – Visitors don’t wait to view results. If it doesn’t load quickly your prospects will happily click away to a competitor who sprung for the fast loading search.
  2. Is the search interface easy to use? - If you can’t tell ask someone who is completely unfamiliar with computers to use each search to locate a home for sale in a specific area.
  3. Are there any fail-safes built into the system? - What happens if your particular search page stops loading or, even worse, fails to update the list of homes for sale on your site each day. Will your vendor know that their search has failed or will you have to discover it first?
  4. How easy is it to integrate their search into my website? - Does the search vendor offer multiple preset page widths that you can easily integrate into your website? Are there any search plug-ins available for popular website management platforms like WordPress to make integrating their search into your site easier? Finding a search is half the battle. Making it look classy and designed to fit your website’s style is the other half.
  5. Is there any way to edit my listings on a map or change incorrect address information? – As a new construction specialist this irks me to no end. When properties are new they don’t appear on Google Maps or other mapping services for a few years. In the mean time, you need to make sure you are accurately showcasing your listings including attributes like location on a map and correct city name. Sometimes mapping services will just find the closest address to the street name of your new homes even if it’s in an entirely different city.

My Search Vendor Recommendations and Experience Points

I have personally used two real estate search vendors: iHouseWeb (2007-2008) and Diverse Solutions (December 2008 – present) on HouseMeetsOwner.com. In my experience iHouseWeb was okay (just okay) but their real estate search was pretty slow. On the plus side, their customer service was decent and they upgraded their service to 3.0 shortly before I cancelled my subscription and moved over to Diverse Solutions.

Although I still use Diverse Solutions now it was a rocky road throughout my first year with them because point #3 above, built-in fail-safes, is a lesson I learned while using their search product. I ended up discovering my search hadn’t been updated since late June 2009 at the end of August 2009. It then took another week and a half just to get it fixed.

In 2003-2006 it might not have been that big of a deal that their search product hadn’t updated my database of homes for sale in months because prices were on the rise and buyers were plentiful. In 2009, however, when we were seeing double-digit price drops year-over-year practically every month, it was a crippling blow to my business.

That said, I do still recommend Diverse Solutions for two reasons: as of this writing there isn’t a better real estate search solution out there and DS’ product has been working quite well for me since they fixed it in September ’09. It seems they have also worked on improving customer support (one of their major drawbacks in my experience) in the Fall of 2009.

Update 2/28/2010: Diverse Solutions’ IDX failed to update listings on my website, HouseMeetsOwner.com, for the past 18 days which has gone unnoticed by myself and the DS staff. Because this type of failure can have a major impact on your business I have removed DS from my recommended list below.

So, Who Do You Recommend?

Play with every search product out there and choose the one you are happiest with. Here are a few good places to start:

If you enjoyed this post be sure to check out the rest of our Site Building 101 series below:

Site Building 101 Series:

1. Introduction to Building Your Real Estate Website With WordPress (Includes Cost Summary!)

2. Choosing a Domain Name and Web Hosting

3. Designing Your Website

4. You’re here!

5. How to Build an Email Drip Campaign

Filed Under: Building a Website, How-To Guides, IDX, Lead Generation, Marketing, Technology, Website Tips · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday Q&A: Should I Have A Live Chat Box On My Real Estate Website?

January 4, 2010 by · 9 Comments

Our second installment of Monday Q&A brings us to a website feature that’s been picking up in popularity lately: a live chat box. Live chat boxes are available through Google via GoogleTalk, Diverse Solutions (DsAgentChat) and third party chat providers.

The idea behind a live chat box is that your website visitor can get in touch with you immediately when browsing your site thus increasing the opportunity to convert them into a client. That leads us into our question below:

Question:

“Should I have a chat box on my real estate website?”

Answer:

A live chat box, like any other lead capture feature, is a great thing to have on your website provided you account for a few potential caveats that come with it. On one hand your website visitors can engage you immediately about any questions they have or to request specific property details. That’s a very good thing. Unfortunately, I think the downsides outweigh the potential good a chat box can do.

After using a live chat box on my website (via DsAgentChat) for the past year I noticed a few trends that resulted in me eventually leaving the chat app on my desktop turned off most of the time.

  1. Live chat users interrupt your workflow. – Most of the visitors who used the live chat to contact me only sought answers to a couple questions and then ended the chat session. This is counterproductive because a live chat window opening on my desktop would interrupt whatever I was doing at the computer. I liken it to someone walking up to you while you’re on the phone and just talking at you until you pay attention to them.
  2. The chat lead conversion ratio is pretty low. – After responding to questions from visitors who had no intention to continue speaking with me beyond the chat window I started to see the chat as a time and resource drain. It’s very similar to when you get an email and name inquiry with no phone number included except you have a live conversation in between; it might lead to something but the odds aren’t in your favor.
  3. If you don’t respond right away you may lose out on a prospective client. - With the immediacy of live chat your website visitor expects a fast reply to all of their questions. Now, say you leave your computer to grab a water bottle or you’re on a phone call with a client. That time away from the chat box could cost you a lead who might have otherwise inquired on your site using contact forms or your IDX (both of which have more in-depth information requirements from your leads.)

There are some ways that you can help alleviate some of these concerns like using a virtual assistant to respond to chat leads or asking for their contact number before getting into answering questions. The question then is whether it’s worth going through all that trouble to respond to chat leads. For me, it’s not worth it.

As always, if you have any questions you would like to see answered here you can ask us on Twitter or by leaving a comment in the box below!

What has your experience been with live chat boxes on your website? Worth it or not?

Photo Credit: Cyron
Filed Under: How-To Guides, Lead Generation, Marketing, Monday Q&A, Technology · Tagged With: , , , , , ,

4 Essential Building-Blocks for Agents New to Online

January 3, 2010 by · 3 Comments

Establishing yourself as a successful real estate professional in 2010 can easily be a daunting task.  The real estate market is unrecognizable when compared to just a few short years ago. In 1994 the first online real estate listing was published in an email by Eric Hilding of Coldwell Banker in Morgan Hill, CA which changed real estate forever.  Within 1 year ERA launched the first listing portal with over 50,000 listings.  Today we have Zillow, Trulia, Twitter, Facebook, iPhones, and thousands of other tools and technologies which power the new real estate economy.

Because of this, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and impossible to stay ahead of the technology curve.  I thought I’d put together a shortlist of critical components to your online real estate foundation.  These are the building-blocks of any real estate business and most aren’t sustainable without them.

The 4 Building-Blocks:

1. You must find a Specific Niche. The new real estate economy is simply to vast to compete if you don’t have a niche.  Your niche will be your area of expertise which you can leverage online and offline for your future marketing, blogging, and web optimization efforts.  Ask yourself this question;  Can I really compete for terms on Google, Twitter, and more such as, “LA realtor, Chicago real estate, etc”?  I hope you get the picture.  You don’t need to find your niche overnight but it is a requisite to competing in an online world successfully.

How do you find your niche?  Look for something you feel highly confident about, which you also love.  Maybe it’s Miami Beach condos or something similar.   By looking around and searching in your area, you’ll find that the smaller the niche the more the person behind the niche seem like a true expert.  I’d be hesitant to spend much money on your marketing until you’ve truly defined your niche.

2. A Defined Sales Process is essential for building your business the right way from the ground up.  This sales process is going to make or break you in the long run once you start generating leads.  Most real estate professionals never plan this out correctly leading to low conversion rates, frustration, and ultimately lost dollars.

When defining your sales process keep in mind 3 things; Recency (how quickly you follow up), and Frequency (how often you follow up), and Consistency (following up at regular intervals). Considerations for defining this strategy include, online replies, Facebook strategy, Linkedin, emails, phone calls, thank you notes, etc.

A good book worth reading to give you some ideas on these is “Selling the Invisible“.

I didn’t take having a defined sales process seriously until I lost a client to someone who said the only reason he chose my competitor, was they called him back first!

3. A Customer Relationship Management or CRM tool is a must. This is not optional.  The Dunbar Number is a theoretical number that says the average human can only manage 150 relationships mentally at a time.  The average Facebook user has slightly more than this number of friends so how will you suddenly manager hundreds of customers?   CRM tools help you manage your customers by setting reminders, sending out auto-replies, and creating follow up communication for you with regards to your clients.

There are many to choose from in the marketplace, both free and paid.  I’ve used, in the past 37 Signals Highrise(recommend), Leads on Rails (wouldn’t recommend), Sugar CRM, and most recently SalesForce (highly recommend, but a bit more costly).

Also Josh is running a CRM for Real Estate experiment with Heap on this site.  I look forward to seeing his feedback.

4.  In-House Lead Gen and your Online Presence go hand-in-hand. These are where you’ll put most of your intellectual capital, personal expression, writing, and branding.  In fact, the online space has been so cluttered that by you having your properties on all the classifieds like Craigslist, Backpage, Oodle, etc. is going to give you little if any competitive advantage at all.  Why?  Because their is no longer a barrier of entry into these spaces and everyone, including your competitors, are already using them.  That’s not to say you avoid these, but these need to become automated functions of your business.

Your website can provide you residual efforts from much front-loaded efforts.  Your web presence should be unique and offer strong call-to-actions which are visually appealing and clear in message. Use WordPress to get started if you don’t have a big budget for a custom site. Offer something of value.  The 2 year old report that all of your competitors are giving away too is not something of value.  Create original content, build a guide to people relocating, a dining guide, or comprehensive data on a specific neighborhood.  By creating something original you can offer a unique value proposition which will likely usurp what your competitors are offering.

Last thoughts:

Don’t be overwhelmed in your mission to be successful as an online agent.  Focus on the essentials which will give you a long term benefit.  These building-blocks will give you a basis for which you can add new tools you test out to your business.  Otherwise you’ll be chasing a never-ending rush to find the newest, quickest, sexiest real estate tool or trend.

Filed Under: Lead Generation, Marketing · Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Launching December 28th!

December 7, 2009 by · 6 Comments

Get ready, we’re launching on December 28th! :)

Filed Under: Android Apps, Experiments, Facebook, How-To Guides, iPhone Apps, Lead Generation, Marketing, Media, Mobile Apps, Monday Q&A, Online Branding, Plug-Ins, Premium Themes, Screencasts, SEO, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, Website Tips, WordPress ·