With competition heating up and sellers scrambling to get their properties sold you can win listings by implementing a solid marketing plan. What is the first thing every real estate agent advises the seller? Get the property ready for real estate photos, advanced measurements and 3D virtual tours. The next thing is to use great marketing tools like floor plans and teaser reels that you can share on social media. Then show the seller what a great job you are doing by sharing solid analytics. Think of it as a 3-step method to stage, share and show every residential listing.
Stage
The reason you stage a property is to enhance its attractiveness to potential buyers. Every house can benefit from the use of staging regardless of the age or esthetic of the structure. Vacant properties often seem void of that personal touch, but when tweaked up with a few online real estate listing photos with the help of tech tools like floorplanner, suddenly the property comes alive. Staging can often require a somewhat delicate conversation with the seller. Asking someone to remove their prized possessions and family portraits from the walls should always be part of the staging process. Real estate photography captures the essence of a home through photos, floor plans and 3D virtual tours so be sure to have clutter removed before the day of the shoot. The goal is to make sure each room in the home invites further intrigue thus driving engagement with homebuyers while showing the seller how well their property is being presented. The seller needs to know you are doing everything you can to get their house sold.
Share
TMI (too much information) is never a bad thing when it comes to marketing your online real estate listing. The more information you can provide to potential buyers, the better. The majority of homebuyers are using online resources to find their new home. According to NAR, 95% of buyers in 2022 use the internet in the search process. What does that mean to you as a real estate agent? Sharing a property’s particulars through every possible channel keeps your listings competitive. The details you share should be easily understood, captivating, and comprehensive. For instance, floor plans help viewers get comfortable with the fit and flow of the home while the use of tag tools provides a better understanding of each specific zone. Where you choose to share your online listing is up to you. Social media shares on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook keep you connected to your targeted audience. Sharing is also a great way to build your brand. Turn those shares into likes as you get recognized as the go-to real estate agent who offers the seller a reason to choose you over and over again.
Show
Once you have completed the first 2 steps in the marketing process you will want to show your seller some results. Companies like iGUIDE offer analytics so you can see your marketing efforts on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Analytics benefit you by providing a comprehensive tally of everyone who views your 3D virtual tours, photos, and listing details. The data available indicates when viewers have accessed your online real estate listing via your website, realtor.com, or other linked sources. You will be able to determine the number of new visitors versus the number of returning visitors to the site. What does this mean for your seller? Analytics show your marketing efforts in a clear format. You can discuss how you plan to keep the seller’s listing in front of the targeted market by using pre-populated and pre-designed posts right from the analytics page. When the property sells, you can remove the contents of the online listing from the web access. Show your seller what you are doing for them by sharing timely reports generated from the analytics. A happy seller receives up-to-date information regularly. No one likes to be sitting around waiting to know how the marketing of their property is progressing. Communicating with data-driven analytics keeps everyone in the loop.
The 3-step system to optimize your online real estate listing is easy with S, S, S. Stage to get the property ready to list, share information relevant to potential buyers and show results to happy sellers. Whether or not the economists declare the market bullish or bearish, iGUIDE has everything you need to keep your real estate marketing on track.
Step 1: The New Guide for Real Estate Marketing Materials
From 3D virtual tours and photos to detailed floor plans and accurate measurements, you can make your listings come to life. The aim is to encourage consumer interaction to help form an emotional attachment to the space. Advancements in technology allow you to present a property through virtual staging to optimize the listing’s effectiveness. Not only does staging provide a way to give a vacant property a visual rendering of a lived-in space, but it gives the consumer a way to picture their personal belongings in a residence. Staging, precisely measured floor plans and 3D virtual tours are the initial steps in the new guide for every real estate agent.
The first stage
Virtual staging for your online real estate listings is a quick and easy way to improve the marketability of a property. If you are new to the technology, your first staging experience will give you plenty of reasons to use these types of real estate marketing materials for every listing. According to a recent article by NAR, over 82% of buyer’s agents report that staging assisted in helping the buyer visualize a property as their future residence. 3D virtual tours paired with staging and floor plans also helped reduce the amount of time the listing spent on the market. As reported in a recent survey taken by the Real Estate Staging Association, 73% of staged homes sold for over the listed price. That’s great news for your seller. And every real estate agent knows that a happy seller means referrals for future business.
The play stage
Give the homebuyer a reason to stay and play with your online listings. Using digital tools like Floorplanner allows the consumer to play with every room they want to envision as their own. The top four areas that buyers say staging is most important are the living room, kitchen, master bedroom and dining room. Including floor plans with advanced measurements provides a realistic perspective of the amount of space each room has to offer. Placement of virtual furniture or planning for renovations is substantially easier when the home can be visualized through the staging process. Along with virtual staging, 3D tours continue to rank high with agents as one of the top real estate marketing materials.
The accessory stage
Think of your virtual staging as adding accessories to your listings. Like other real estate marketing tools, staging is a way to reach out to the consumer to grab their attention and give them valuable information about a property. Homebuyers and sellers alike benefit from staging. While the buyer enjoys gathering pertinent information like advanced measurements from carefully drafted floor plans, the seller recognizes that you are giving them an added service. Engagement begins when the consumer can navigate a 3D virtual tour, see the property’s potential as a home, and imagine their furniture within it. Staged homes on average increase the dollar value offered by between five and twenty percent according to the National Real Estate Association profile of home staging report. That’s good news for your seller. With NAR reporting the most recent median price of a home is sitting at just over $400,000 which means $20,000 to $80,000 more for the average staged home.
The elimination stage
The possibility of a home being eliminated from a buyer’s top choices can be avoided with the use of additional real estate marketing tools. A successful online residential listing is one that gets plenty of traffic from potential buyers and a great way to increase the volume of visits is by providing details in an easy-to-use format. Consumers want to see homes virtually before they commit to visiting them in person. What can you do to avoid your listing being eliminated? Think about adding virtual staging to accompanying floor plans so the buyer can gain a full understanding of where windows and doors are to accommodate the placement of their household items. Advanced measurements allow for planning and managing space for any changes or renovations that may be in the future.
Analyze the results of your staging to show the seller your real estate marketing materials and staging are working. Daily, weekly and monthly analytics keep you in the know and help determine where your leads are coming from. Details about the number of views for every listing can be shared with your seller to validate your marketing efforts. Important data like the duration of each visitor’s time spent looking at your online listing give valuable insight into the level of interest in the property.
Virtual staging is closely followed by sharing as the next step to successfully marketing a residential property. Check out why you need to be actively posting, messaging and staying social with every listing. Check out iGUIDE®.
Step 2: Sharing Your Listing to Get Attention
Accurate floor plans, advanced measurements and easily navigated 3D virtual tours capture attention and provide an engaging experience for both the consumer and real estate professionals. Once your listing is prepped up, tidied up and spruced up with virtual staging, you need to share the details to achieve the sale. Snippets of your virtual tours spark interest in potential buyers and lead them into exploring every aspect of a property. Whether you share in the form of a teaser reel on your preferred social media channel or share through your MLS platform, it is important to offer accurate and enticing particulars about the seller’s home. The question is, what do you share, how do you share and when do you share?
What to share
It’s no surprise that pretty much everyone is using the internet when searching for a new home. Recent statistics indicate that 97% of homebuyers are online and actively seeking information long before they contact their real estate agent. Listing a property and getting it viewed is simple with a few real estate marketing tips. Start by sharing reliable information. Technology leaders like iGUIDE provide everything you need to list a property. Professional photos with easy-to-navigate floor plans allow potential buyers to see the listing from a variety of different viewpoints. Reliable square footage calculations and laser-accurate room measurements help a homebuyer in the decision-making process. In a recent survey from NAR photos, details about a property, 3D tours and floor plans ranked high on the “very useful” list of features they wanted to see on the web. Get that sold sign ready by speeding up the appraisal process when you share ANSI-Z765-2021 compliant floor plan measurements for all your residential listings.
How to share
The MLS is a marketing real estate no-brainer. Once you upload your listing data into your local real estate board’s platform you are sharing information instantly. Consumers and agents around the globe can visit your 3D virtual tours where you can share images, guided video tours, and highlight pertinent property information and links to your website. Step-by-step guidelines are available to show you exactly how to create attention-grabbing social media posts for Facebook and Instagram. Even if you are not tech savvy you can share and create captivating posts yourself. Start by sharing on your personal social media accounts and once you are familiar with the system you can set up a business page to attract more clients. Build your brand around specific areas you farm by letting everyone know when you get a new listing. You can quickly become the go-to agent with a bit of creativity, a few hashtags and some teaser reels.
When to share
They say timing is everything. Knowing when to share your listing’s information can help get the word out to your target audience. Use social posts to your advantage at the onset of your new listings and follow through with regular posts to update about open houses, neighbourhood happenings and when the property gets sold. Real estate marketing tips from experts like Tom Ferry highlight the importance of hiring professional photographers and using technology like virtual staging and 3D virtual tours to allow potential buyers to visualize themselves in a home. With the help of analytics, you can share important information with your seller about the number of visits your listing is getting and the length of time visitors are browsing through the information. Share at regular intervals with your sellers to highlight your marketing efforts in getting their house sold. With 90% of home sellers working with a real estate agent the competition can get fierce. Give the seller a reason to choose you. Show them the great ways you market real estate on their behalf by providing access to all the information a homebuyer needs to make a decision.
When marketing real estate, think of making a connection with the consumer rather than selling them something. Not everyone will be ready to purchase a home right now, but when you share engaging content in an easy-to-understand format your name will be at the forefront of their minds. Building relationships takes time and the best way to grow the relationship is to nurture it by providing valuable information. Remember, you are not the only real estate agent out there but you can capture leads by capturing attention.
Step 3: Show Results to Your Clients
Not only can you identify the most popular dates and times the 3D virtual tours and floor plans have been seen, but you can analyze the duration of online visits to your listing information. The staging and sharing steps make your listing stand out to the consumer but it is also important to show the seller how they benefit from the process. Questions of why their home is not selling or not being shown enough often arise during the contract period. Sellers are anxious to know “how is everything going” and “when can we expect an offer”. When you give the seller the full scope of online activity you can help answer some of their questions. After all, your seller is most often providing compensation for your professional services and in return, you need to show them why they made the correct decision in choosing you as their real estate agent. Show value by showing your real estate analytics.
Real Estate analytics – numbers don’t lie
Numbers provide everyone with a way to identify specific trends. When the real estate market is hot it is reflected by the number of houses sold, the number of homes currently listed, and the all-important number, the selling price. Numbers can also give you a comprehensive understanding of space when paired with 3D virtual tours, floor plans and advanced measurements. According to the National Association of Realtors, homebuyers place a high value on the availability of these details when searching for websites for information. Similarly, home sellers are looking for numbers to confirm the popularity of their listing and the results of their real estate agent’s marketing efforts. This can easily be shown with the help of comprehensive data gathered and viewed through listing analytics.
Understanding the data
What can real estate analytics tell you? You can gain a better understanding of where your referrals are being generated. Realtor.com is a popular referring sight for many potential buyers. You can also see if your listing is generating interest from your website or through linked resources like google or popular social media links like Instagram and Facebook. Analyzing the information helps you modify your real estate marketing to place your online listing information in front of buyers. Good indicators of successful marketing are repeat visitors and the duration of time spent browsing your real estate photos and floor plans. All this data can be shared with your seller to demonstrate the value of virtual tours and how you are marketing their property.
Improving results
Analytics give you more than just data and numbers, it can help you adjust your marketing. Not getting traffic through your Facebook advertisements? Try switching social media channels until you see the numbers improve. Sharing the listing analytics with your seller is important but it is also important to make sure you are sharing your contact information too. Analytic reports can be edited to include a banner containing your brand, your name, your phone number and your brokerage logo.
Build your brand
Real estate-related Google searches continue in popularity so make sure you give your listings a reason for Google to identify them. Every real estate online listing with consistent information like floor plans, advanced measurements and 3D tours captures the attention of potential buyers. How do you know your listing is getting traffic and growing your brand awareness? Real estate analytics. It’s not always enough to have great negotiating skills and plenty of experience. With more than 1.5 million members of the National Real Estate Association competing for business, you need to show the value you bring to the table. Analytics help you build your brand one seller at a time by showing the results of your marketing efforts. You can count on a happy seller referring you to their friends and family.
Give more get more
Listing analytics reports can get you more leads from prospective sellers. When you share more information about your online listings like advanced measurements, floor plans and easily navigated virtual tours, your listings get more attention. Inman is not the only source of real estate information that states virtual tours are here to stay. Virtual 3D tours are now the norm in the industry and are expected by your seller as part of the listing package deal. Analytics provide call-to-action insights and show value to your seller. A more comprehensive understanding of your marketing efforts keeps you and your seller in the know.
Think of your real estate analytics as a listing report card where you can watch your progress, see improvement and track your results. Get straight A’s from your seller for every listing with iGUIDE.
