Real Estate Leads 101: Real Estate Leaders are Followers
Steve Young, co-founder of GetMyHomesValue.com discusses how award winning real estate agents reach the top:
You don't have to be the best salesperson out there to succeed as a real estate professional. You've heard it a thousand times before, but it's the truth: It's all about forging relationships, and that comes from one simple-but-under-utilized practice...following up with real estate leads.
The follow up system that you create for your real estate leads is crucial to your success. It is important to develop a system that is both effective and efficient. Time is the most prized possession we have and should be spent even more carefully than you spend money.
Your follow up system should utilize many different means. Some people respond to means of communication that other people do not, so your follow up plan must feature a contact plan that includes phone calls, emails, in person visits, letters, etc. Be creative, consistent and persistent. There is no fool proof system. The key to success with real estate leads is persistence.
There are many extremely successful real estate professionals who are not the greatest salespeople out there. What makes them great is they have the drive, dedication, and perseverance to work the lead until they “buy” or “die”.
They do not give up after two emails with no response. They do not give up after leaving 3 voice mail message and not getting a return call. They do not give up without knocking on that person's door. They are not afraid to call a potential client everyday, stop by their house, and do some of the unconventional tactics to close the deal. They do not ask their sales manager for real estate leads, but rather make things happen themselves, treating every lead like it is gold. They believe that every lead is a great lead. They do not take "no" for an answer. They have the perspective that the sale “begins at no”.
Following up with your existing clients that have their home under agreement with you is important as well. It is important to communicate with your sellers and buyers on a regular basis. Approximately once or twice a week is sufficient unless you are working through a tough situation, then communicating everyday or several times a day would be necessary. It is not good to obsess about your deals in progress because it hinders your ability to get new clients. Once the deal is under agreement let the other parties involved do their job to help get the transaction to closing. A strong working relationship with a mortgage broker will ease a lot of potential stress during the process.
There are as many maps for success as there are agents, so it is important to educate yourself on different ways to follow up on real estate leads and develop a system that works for you. There are literally hundreds of books written by top players in the real estate industry with good insights on follow up. Many of these people relate their experiences dealing with leads and turning them into closed sales.
It's simple, really. You just have to take time to plan. A plan for the next twelve months is appropriate and would serve you best. Develop a schedule as part of your plan. Know exactly what type of follow up you will be doing each day and stick to your plan when it comes to working your real estate leads.
It is very easy to get distracted, but it's also easy to set yourself up for success. Put your follow up plan in your schedule and do not schedule another appointment in its place because you will get out of the habit of following up on a regular basis. Treat your follow-ups as you would an appointment, because with real estate leads, your follow-ups today become your appointments tomorrow.
Resources:
Get more information on real estate leads by visiting GetMyHomesValue.com.
Steve Young is a co-founder of GetMyHomesValue.com, a Lancaster, PA - based provider of cost-effective solutions for real estate professionals. He previously owned his own successful mortgage brokerage.
Real Estate Leads 101: Lead Generation Sources
Real estate leads are as good as gold to a real estate professional – literally. The real estate leads you follow up with today are your clients tomorrow and your paycheck a month from now. Much of your time as a real estate professional is spent generating real estate leads and converting those leads to clients. The advent of the Internet and its emergence into main stream culture brought a new tool to real estate agents in the late 90s: online lead generation services.
Nowadays, the majority of people looking to buy or sell a home or do anything real estate wise are going to the internet first. Years ago, people would get ready to buy or sell, and then walk into a local Realty office and get themselves a real estate agents. Now, they can start researching real estate anywhere from 3 months to 5 years before they actually make a move! That means real estate professionals need to come up with new ways to catch these real estate leads early, so they have time to work them and turn them into clients. There are two major ways to do that now: purchasing a lead generation service and paying for real estate leads and creating your own website with contact pages to generate your own real estate leads.
Which way is better? Truthfully, if you're not doing both, you're not being as successful as you could be. Any real estate professional who wants to be a top producer NEEDS their own personal website with homeowner information, contact forms, a blog, etc. That way real estate leads can FIND you on the web.
On the other end, the majority of top producers out there not only have their own website, but they also subscribe to one or more lead generation service, such as HouseValues or GetMyHomesValue. Companies such as these sell real estate leads to agents either at a monthly subscription price, or having the agent pay per lead. These services set up websites offering homeowners free home value information in exchange for their contact information. Basically, a homeowner goes and fills out a simple form about themselves, their contact information and their home and submits it to the company's website. The company in turn, gives this “lead” to whatever real estate professional they have subscribed in that lead's area and it is up to the real estate agent themselves to work up the value and follow-up with these real estate leads.
Each lead generation company does things a bit differently: for instance, GetMyHomesValue offers exclusive leads – where the lead is given to one and only one agent in the area, whereas other companies out there will sell the same real estate leads to several different agents. HouseValues has extensive e-mail drip campaigns and scripts to make follow-up a bit easier for agents, while GetMyHomesValue has their staff attempt to contact the leads several times for the agent and then leaves the rest of the follow-up to the individual agent.
The criticism most of these lead generation companies receive has to do with what actually constitutes real estate leads. Because these “leads” are filling out information online, they can often give fake information to avoid being contacted. This then makes it harder for the agents to follow up with the leads.
The successful agent, however, does not give up with confronted with real estate leads that give a property address and e-mail address, but a bad name and number. A great agent will exhaust all options of follow up before scrapping ANY lead, such as using public directories like the White Pages online, tax records of the property, reverse look-ups, etc. They will e-mail the lead on a weekly basis and even stop by the property listed in order to determine who actually submitted the lead.
What happens when the owners of the property claim they did not request their home value information, nor are they looking to sell? The no-so-hot agent will be angry at the waste of their time and blame the lead generation company for selling bogus real estate leads. The HOT agent will introduce themselves anyway, offer their services in any way they can and hand out a business card, then lead the home content in the knowledge that although they may not have gotten to the bottom of the lead, they did just add another prospect to their pipeline of real estate leads.
Online lead generation tools are a HUGE asset to real estate professionals – when used correctly. To be successful with real estate leads gathered online, you've got to be ready to work hard and long. You may not convert the lead for 6 months, a year, even two years, but as long as you're working your real estate leads, keeping your name in their head, you've got a leg up on the competition.
Resources:
Get more information on real estate leads by visiting GetMyHomesValue.com.
Ashley Lichty is a webmaster and the resident SEO of Web Xtreme, Inc. She has a background in real estate and marketing with emphasis in writing.
Boost Your Home Value with These 7 Cheap Tips
Whether you want to boost your home value because you're selling or just for the heck of it, one thing usually comes to mind: cost. How much will it cost to get my home value up and will the improvements be enough to boost my selling price? If you've got lots of money, great, you can renovate the whole thing to increase your home value, add another bedroom and bathroom, get all new appliances, replace the siding etc. Those are the major (and costly) things you can do to increase your home value.
Most of us however, are on a budget, especially when it comes time to move to a new home. There are a few cheap tricks you can use to help increase your home value without putting a huge dent in your savings.
1. USE your real estate agent! Technically, they don't get paid till you actually sell your home, but they will wind up making quite a bit of money off you, so put them to work! Have them do a walk through of the home and point out things that may affect your home value. They are the experts after all and can tell you what kind of things will boost your value the most. Some improvements can actually detract from the value of your home, but a real estate professional can give you hints on what to work on and what to leave along.
2. Focus on your kitchen – it still tends to be the heart of the home and potential buyers usually check it out first when viewing a home for sale. For a couple hundred dollars, you can certainly spruce of the kitchen to increase your home value: spring for new sink faucets, repair any squeaky or off-track drawers and cabinets, replace old and worn cabinet handles, etc. If you're really handy, you can even refinish the cabinets yourself.
3. Check out your floors and walls – if your hard wood floors are scuffed, buff 'em. If your carpets are stained, get them professionally cleaned. If your walls are scuffed or paint is chipped, re-paint them if necessary, or just wash them! A Mr. Clean Magic Eraser can go a long way to cleaning up walls. It's not always good to outright replace flooring or carpeting or paint your walls, as some potential buyers want to be able to do their own renovations to a home they purchase.
4. Be sure to replace anything that is broken, or just looks old and decrepit. Not only does this help maintain your home value, but it shows buyers that the home is maintained and well cared for. This includes doorknobs, light fixtures, light switches handles, etc.
5. Bathrooms are another important feature buyers tend to look at, and which can definitely affect your home value. You can spruce it up relatively cheaply by replacing the old floor with new easy-to -apply vinyl flooring – you don't even have to take up the old floor, just install the new floor right on top of the old one. You can replace worn or cracked toilet seats, re-grout the tile and even replace an old sink with a pedestal sink for a relatively low price. Fixing up the bathrooms of your home is a great way to up its value.
6. Possibly the most important and overlooked aspect of raising your home value and getting a buyer will to pay market price is CLEANLINESS! Before even thinking about showing your home, you should do a THOUROUGH scrub down, from top to bottom. Trash extra clutter, sweep and vacuum floors, dust EVERYTHING, clean ceiling fans, window sills, wash the drapes, dust the furniture, get into every crevice of your house. While just cleaning may not do a whole lot to raise the home value, it does go a long way to getting the home SOLD. Buyers want a home that is relatively clean to move into – no one wants to spend their first day in a new home thoroughly disinfecting everything.
7. Last, but DEFINITELY not least is focusing on curb appeal. Once you've done everything you can to the inside of the home, it's time to step out front. A poorly maintained and junky lawn can not only decrease your home value, it will also discourage potential buyers from even taking a look inside the home. Landscaping is an important consideration when you are deciding to purchase a new home. Get your hands dirty by cleaning up any junk and trash you have littering the outside of your house. Prune the hedges and trees, mow the lawn and clean away any dead plant life. If your lawn has bald spots or dead grass, consider either planting shrubbery there or laying grass seed. When it comes to the outside of your home, a little effort can go a long way!
Those are just a few relatively cheap and easy ways to increase your home value. Of course, it all goes back to number one – using your real estate agent to determine what improvements will be the most beneficial to boosting your home value and getting your home sold faster. Of course, if you're just looking to improve your home and not necessarily sell anytime soon, you may not have a real estate agent, but that doesn't mean you can't use one! Real estate agents are ALWAYS looking for potential business and therefore usually willing to help out what could be potential clients. Even if you won't be selling for another 3 years, start shopping around for an agent to do a walk through of your home and give you some advice. That doesn't mean you have to list with them! (But they don't need to know that.)
You can also take advantage of websites that will give you a free home value report, and many of those sites will actually connect you with a local real estate professional. Take advantage of that by having the agent come out, look at your home and give you some more advice on increasing your home value!
Resources:
Find out your own home value at GetMyHomesValue.com
Ashley Lichty is a webmaster and the resident SEO of Web Xtreme, Inc. She has a background in real estate and marketing with emphasis in writing.