As a real estate professional, you live and breathe change – you know very well how volatile and ever-changing this field is; and in order to keep up with the market trends, you must equip yourself with information and strategy.

Social media platforms, applications, technology are constantly upgraded and updated, and it is crucial to get up to speed with them as your business depends on the leads and sales they can help generate.

 

Knowledge is power, as they always say; and in real estate, knowledge is money.Click To Tweet

 

Current Trends in the Real Estate Market

 

It is imperative that you consistently read up on new trends in real estate, and here are just some of them:

Blockchain

We have been hearing this word in the past few years and rightfully so, as it has been changing the way sellers and buyers transact and interact with each other. Blockchain has the potential to change the real estate playing field. We see a future in which buying and selling a house can be as easy as adding an item to cart, sending money via cryptocurrency, and a machine spitting out a title or a deed.

Technology

Whether it’s an application, a device, or a gadget, tools for real estate marketing have gone a long way in the past decades. Drones, for example, have been utilized by sellers to market their listings. Virtual open houses have become a thing, as well.

Buyer’s Demographics

 The most notable change in the buyer’s demographics now is the rise of millennial real estate buyers. Home ownership for this generation is rising despite claims that millennials refuse to buy homes or cannot afford to do so. In fact, they now make 66 percent of first-time homebuyers.

Social Media

It goes without saying that your online presence is of paramount importance when it comes to real estate marketing. Almost all of homebuyers now turn to the Internet for listings. Youtube is also being used by house hunters to inspect homes and neighborhoods.

Real Estate Marketing Tips

 

With the knowledge of the current trends in real estate marketing, you can devise a strategy that will garner more leads and convert them to sales. Here are a few tips that might be helpful for you in terms of maximizing platforms, applications, and other new technologies.

 

1. Beef up your online presence and go mobile.

Everybody’s online now, we can already say that at this point.

Homebuyers go to Google, Facebook, and Youtube, among other platforms, to hunt for houses and inspect communities. Moreover, most use their smartphones in doing so.

With this in mind, make sure that your lead campaigns, articles, advertisements, virtual tours, videos, and pictures would look good on a mobile phone screen. This means more concise and direct-to-the-point summaries of articles, conspicuous “Call Now!” buttons, and short and catchy headlines, to name a few.

2. Utilize Facebook.

The average person spends 35 minutes on Facebook per day, so you have to make sure that you take advantage of the attention.

Take due diligence in targeting your audience – make sure to target by location via zip code, age range, home ownership, income, and probability of moving. Narrowing your target audience down this way will help garner more quality and convertible leads.

Take advantage of Facebook’s features such as the 360 video, which allows buyers to navigate the property using their devices. Whatever feature you use, ensure transparency and accuracy in your posts.

Do not mislead clients by posting unrealistic imagery of properties.

3. Invest in new tools and platforms.

While Facebook can be very effective when utilized properly, you must also invest in other tools such as 3D Tours and virtual tours.

There are companies that do 3D tours and it is important look for ones that make high-quality images with smooth navigation. A well-crafted 3D tour will impress prospects.

4. Optimize lead generation.

Be creative in generating and converting leads.

Whether it’s posting two blog entries on your website per week, or uploading a video on Youtube, prime your material for the search engines; Google AdWords is one tool to use for this.

You can also showcase your ‘Already Solds’ as a way to promote awareness and garner leads. Do this by simply running the ad for the sold property and target a specific audience based on zip code.

You can also create free resources that target clients might be interested in downloading in exchange of their email addresses. Also, take your clients to virtual tools or host open houses via Facebook Live.

5. Follow up and respond immediately.

Do not let your leads sit for a long time — talk to them immediately.

You may consider using an automation platform or tool that will sort out leads for you, and send emails to those you can’t call right away. Responding to and following up on your prospects as soon as possible establishes credibility and reputation.

6. Get into the VR/AR trend.

This year has been big on virtual reality as well as augmented reality.

VR and AR as real estate marketing strategies will give clients an interactive, even emotional, experience as they engage themselves in a simulated space and move fixtures and finishes in the property. This will create a huge difference for the clients

7. Take care of your existing clients.

You may have already closed deals with them, but make sure that your relationship does not end there.

Establish a good relationship with your existing clients by inviting them to your social media pages. These clients can become advocates and may greatly contribute to the activities in your social media sites. Moreover, existing clients can be repeat buyers and good sources of successful referrals.

8. Read up.

The competition in real estate is like no other, so you have to find your edge and set yourself apart from the rest.

One way to do this is to read up on trends and forecasts. I say forecasts because in order to get ahead, you need to think ahead. For example, if forecasts claim that the blockchain and cryptocurrency is the future of real estate transactions, start reading up on the topic and start planning on how to navigate around them.

Knowledge is power, as they always say; and in real estate, knowledge is money.

 

This article is written by Arleen of OpenListings for JasonFox.