Where Are Your Clients?

Where are your real estate clients? Are they offline or online?offline and online real estate marketing

There are two very important things to think about before you start on a real estate marketing campaign.

  1. What is your brand/identity
  2. Where are your clients

Brand/Identity is a topic for another day. For now we need to figure out where your clients are in order to effectively market to them.  So, this is what you do:

The first step is to draw a line between the online and offline world. Unplug your clients from the internet and think about the offline behavior of your target audience.

Where do they go when they are out and about? Are there groups that they are part of? What associative activity brings the community together and makes them a captive audience?

Schools are the most obvious example of a community staple alongside church. What about clubhouses or community events? The top agents in my community are at every neighborhood event promoting their business. When there isn’t an event they are sponsoring garage sales or promoting their local open houses.

Let’s go back online. When your target demographic is toying with the idea of buying or selling a home, how do they do it? Do they go online? If so, how would they come across you online?

Agents who have determined that their clients are online are very clever. They have an abundance of yelp reviews that mention specific keywords that relate to their niche.

They have a website dedicated exclusively to the local HOA with their info everywhere. These agents know that online clients do research and know what they are looking for. Top agents know these clients are looking up keywords that relate to housing tracts, schools district, HOAs, and other local niche words and landmarks.

What percentage of your clients are better reached online versus offline? You must determine this and dedicate a percentage of your marketing efforts to online and offline efforts before you draw up a business plan.

 

 

 

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Not all 100% Commission Real Estate Brokerages Are Equal

The trend of 100% commission real estate brokerages is now well-established. Even big franchise names like REMAX and Coldwell Banker have been seen offering 100% commission. For agents comparing brokers to work with.

100 CommissionIt’s important to note that 100% commission real estate brokers can be very different.

The first important factor to understand is that 100% commission real estate brokerages almost always charge a transaction fee. In fact, 100% commission real estate is just rebranding flat fee per transaction brokers. This means you should ask what flat fees are charged by the broker.

The next important factor is that many of the 100% commission brokers charge a monthly, quarterly fee, or even an annual fee too.

Other fees that 100% commission real estate brokerages charge include a key fee, errors & omissions (also called risk management), document storage, and sign-up fees.

These are fees you should ask about when interviewing a 100% commission real estate broker.

Other questions you should ask include:

  • Are agents paid directly by escrow or does commission have to go to the broker first?
  • Is there a conference room or workplace at the office or is the company completely virtual?
  • What other benefits are agents entitled to?
  • Is there an in-house transaction coordinator?
  • What Realtor associations are they a member of?
  • What are the hours of broker support?

These are just to name a few.

Remember, there is an abundance of 100% commission real estate brokers so take your time to determine what a good fit is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Listing Agents Can Insure Their Sellers

Balboa Seller ProtectionFinally, listing agents can offer coverage to protect their client. If you think about it, the seller is the most vulnerable party to a transaction. The brokers and agents are covered by their errors and omissions policy. The buyer isn’t disclosing anything, and as long as they can perform the sale they are safe. Plus, the buyer gets a one year home warranty to protect against common defects. What about the seller?

The seller is the party that is assuming most of the risk. The majority of claims are against the seller for not disclosing something or for some type of defect with the property that the buyer didn’t realize until after closing. The good thing is that there is a new insurance endorsement that extends the listing broker’s errors and omissions insurance to cover the seller against claims up to $25,000 for six months after the close of escrow – at no additional cost. This means that agents can offer the seller this protection for free, which is a huge real estate marketing advantage. Also, if the seller is really concerned they can pay $200 and have the policy extended to 1 year.

Once escrow closes, the listing agents registers the seller with the insurance company and then the seller receives a certificate at their new address. Sellers seem to be exceptionally grateful which adds to referral business. We’ve found that the insurance certificate has a more profound effect than the “thank you” card because of its lasting value.

Obviously, Balboa Real Estate offers their clients this seller protection coverage. We assume that there are other companies that offer seller protection, however, we haven’t identified them yet. If you are interested in offering your clients this seller protection or learning about our true 100% commission plan then CLICK HERE

 

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