Real estate tips and trends for realtors

Are you running a real estate business? Do you have a website? If yes, then it's crucial to know about important features to make your site fully functional and stylish.

The spring season of 2020 was expected to see a surge in the Real Estate sector as before, but the COVID-19 pandemic created an unexpected national lockdown that brought the economy to a grinding halt. Real Estate sales dropped across all states, and potential buyers and sellers began to move away from the market, as fears of financial security and future market value of the property became the primary choke points. With travel restrictions and active social distancing guidelines, Real Estate agents no longer have the clientele as before, as transactions do require personal interaction.

The pandemic has left them with little options, but to tap the online market for leads; both from potential buyers and sellers, as Real Estate brokerage activities were not included in the list of essential services across the country. Property listing websites have become the preferred channel for Real Estate marketing, and Zoom and other video conferencing services are becoming the communication necessities in these times. With such a shift toward digital platforms in the real estate sector, we now present a few best practices that can help agents close a real estate deal during the current pandemic.

*Have an effective online presence *
In order to operate a real estate business online, agents would need much more than an online portfolio. A fully equipped Real Estate website, along with integrated listings and search facilities would certainly help get more customers. With the market slowly moving to an online platform, it’s also quite essential that agents also have a good digital marketing strategy so that they can be featured in local search listings and clients can easily locate them online.

Having a mobile-friendly, fast loading and easily searchable website will help in a long way to attract potential clients who can communicate online. Social Media is also going to be a tremendous influencer at this stage, so it’s imperative that realtors have an active social media profile-which should be integrated with their marketing efforts.

Investing in Virtual Technology
With the current restrictions on travel and the essential social distancing guidelines, digital tools are slowly replacing in-person interactions. Property visits can now be conducted through a video conferencing tool such as Zoom, or FaceTime. Buyers can look at a property through a video recording that would show them through its features. Open Houses are slowly moving digital; with online tours and 3-D Renditions replacing a need for scheduled open house-as buyers can anytime view a virtual tour of the property online.

The shift has made it necessary for realtors to invest in time, capital, and effort to understand and implement these technology shifts. It’s quite essential for realtors to get the digital advantage, as the current situation may see a gradual shift towards virtual client engagement. For all of those who are still at the lower end of the digital ladder, now is the time to invest in a good real estate website, and also an integrated CRM to better manage your Real Estate business. Not only does this make such realtors sustain during these times, but also prepares and equips them for a future-which might be largely digitally driven.

Remote Notarization and Online Documentation
The current COVID-19 has brought in restrictions on travel and compulsory social distancing, which often hinders normal business meetings, and especially impacts certain areas such as legal notarization-for which buyers and sellers would have to be physically present before a notary. Fortunately, remote notarization did start much before the pandemic began-as early as in 2011 when Virginia first enacted a law permitting remote notarization and has been steadily gaining prominence.

With the current pandemic, many states have made remote online notarization effective in their laws, which have greatly helped the real estate industry close on past and current deals. This makes it easy for buyers, sellers, financial institutions, and title companies to conduct business during the current times, as legal documents can be attested through the usage of video conferencing facilities that does away with in-person interactions.

Certain states also offer electronic closing of property deals wherever applicable-to the extent possible. Mortgage firms and Title companies would also be moving to a digital platform, and you can check with them on the options available for the current situation. The option of having an “Escrow Closing”, where the deal would be handled by a third-party till execution can also be looked into as a possible solution during the current times.

Realtors can use the above information and latest developments to educate their clients on the available online options to proceed with the deal. This does way with the deliberations that many buyers and sellers would have on proceeding with a real estate deal that requires extensive in-person interactions, as the process can now be moved to an online platform to the extent possible. This would not completely do away with situations that do require a physical interaction-but would reduce the need for them.

The above ways can surely help realtors in the current times, as they can move towards the latest technology solutions that help them get leads, and can also help impact lead engagement and drive optimal closures.

Source: IDXMatrix

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the way businesses are performing globally, with the harshest impact being felt due to restrictions and inhibitions on face-to-face communication. The real estate sector had been facing a major crisis, with a sharp decline in the number of buyers-as many people are not keen on investing in properties at this stage. Also, with travel restrictions and social distancing in place, property visits have drastically reduced, which has also impacted the sales. Realtors are now looking at online marketing to approach potential prospects and also to market their existing listings. We present a few proven ways in which you can increase your client base and also improve your conversions by simple real estate online marketing strategies.
In the present restrictions due to COVID-19, buyers are looking towards online property searches and checking our property specifications across the internet. In such a scenario, it would be apt for a real estate website to focus more on giving buyers the information they require, with elaborate property images, specifications, and videos helping to get the interest of prospective buyers. Having elaborate property images in your real estate website increases the chances of buyers getting to know more about the property and this could initially be a substitute for actual location visit. As a means of lead generation for your real estate website, you can invest in revamping your existing website to focus more on image galleries, or can also ask your sellers to provide a video of their property, so that you can showcase it to leads as a virtual tour.
Video Mails for effective Real Estate Digital Marketing
One major feature that you can implement in your real estate marketing plan is to have the facility of sending video mail. Unlike traditional emails, video mails are recorded videos that are custom made to communicate effectively. This facility allows you to record a custom video-that could either be a sales pitch, an introduction to a new property listing, or just a way of staying in touch with your regular leads. You can easily integrate the facility in your real estate software or can use a third-party tool to record and send video mails. You also have an option to upload the video in a video sharing portal such as YouTube, and can share the link with your leads.
One of the most widely used video mailing platforms is BombBomb®, which integrates with your existing email application and helps you easily records and mail videos. You can use this feature when you would want to record a personalized message to your leads, instead of having a plain text email do the talking. BombBomb® allows you to easily record and share your video just with a click of a button, and a video mail helps you get that “personal touch” in your communication with a lead. Thousands of realtors are using this technology to communicate with their clients, and you can also explore its advantages by subscribing to their service or have your software consultant integrate the feature in your existing website. You can also choose a real estate marketing CRM that offers this functionality.
Virtual Property Tours for clients
For those of you who are planning to include recorded videos in your listings to give leads a virtual tour of the property, here are a few tips that can help you better create such videos. You can also share the tips with your clients and help them create better property videos.
Essentials of a Virtual Tour Video
A virtual tour video should offer a prospective client a complete view of the entire property, similar to the way it would be looked at in a face-to-face meeting. To create an engaging virtual tour, do include the below aspects in your video. Do keep in mind that a virtual tour video is a substitute for an actual property view, so ensure that you do not miss any essential property elements that you would want your buyers to know or something that would add value to your property.
Start with a brief introduction of the property– giving an insight into the highlights of that listing.
You can follow with more detailed description of the specific property features, and can also use text to highlight individual elements.
The most essential part of the video would be a walkthrough of the property, where you would need to go through the entire property space so that clients viewing it can get to understand your property better.
You should also include floor plans, essential documents, photographs and also information about the neighborhood-such as nearby schools, public utilities, and transport facilities.
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Real Estate lead generation strategies are evolving constantly. Ideas that have worked in the past might not completely work today. Real estate agents are always looking for new ways of lead generation. These might include a blend of traditional and online real estate lead generation ideas. In other words, you can call them lead generation tools.
Given below are some of the 12 best real estate lead generation ideas.
Did you know?
Neighborhood quality is of primary importance for 78% of home buyers in the US. 57% of homeowners consider shorter commute than having a larger lawn.
Facebook messenger
We all know that there are a lot of problems involved in the traditional ways of lead generation as forms have too many steps. The catch here is to strike a conversation with a lead which can be done on a Facebook messenger. This way, you can get the contact info of new real estate leads at much lower cost which poses a much better response.
Automated Text Marketing
Sending individual texts to leads is a mountainous task which can consume a lot of your time. The same is the case with cold calling. There are a lot of advanced test messaging options where you can automate this task. Even though text messaging might not have a strong impact on effective lead generation, you can reach large number of people which would prove as one of the sources of generating new real estate leads.
Cold Calling
This might be one of the traditional ways of real estate lead generation strategy, but it has undeniable advantages of building rapport with them. Majority of people you call might hang up the phone but if you want the maximum result, you should be taking up this task as well. A never tiring zeal to sell, a proper script, good sense of humor and a growth mindset is all what you require.
Lead-optimized IDX Website
A well optimized IDX website is another innovative way of generating real estate leads.
Try News Outlets
Probably, one of the best real estate lead generation ideas is to pitch your listings to a news outlet. You will see your phone ringing with calls. The catch here is that you got to choose a reputed publication. This is also a wonderful way of getting referrals.
Real Estate Brand, Not Your Personal Brand
It is a false notion that you should develop your personal brand online if you are into real estate lead generation. You should realize one thing here is that people are looking for a list of properties and not you. So, you got to show them something they want like an IDX listing.
Share local videos
Online real estate lead generation is being considered these days over traditional lead generating ideas. Sharing local videos of the property listings is another effective way of generating online new real estate leads. Shoot videos and post them on social media channels consistently. You might not have instant results but gradually, when the local community will connect with you and recognize you as a local brand, you will see consistent results.
Work on Holidays
A message that you are available even during the holiday season goes very strong into the market. You can also apply the same strategy for weekends and Sundays. Have some holiday decorations to properties and share them on social media to attract leads.
Join Local community chambers
Joining local community chambers is yet another effective way of making valuable connections. You will have a chance to get acquainted with people who are well established in the area. You can also consider becoming a member of convention and visitor’s bureau to reach out to potential leads.
Build Quality backlinks and Rank Your Website on Google
Though this is not an online real estate lead generation strategy, when doing search engine optimization (SEO), focus on building links back to your site from When doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization), try building quality links back to your website from relevant sites which have good page ranks. This would certainly drive traffic to your site. Though SEO has meagre chances of producing leads, the organic traffic flow will increase and have a positive return on ROI.
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The biggest challenge for realtors in today’s competitive real estate business, is constantly generating new leads. In such a combative industry, creating new leads is a matter of not only good business, but ultimate survival. As the new year is about to dawn on us, we list down the best effective strategies in to generate exclusive real estate leads in 2020:
1) Real Estate Referrals:
One of the most effective ways of lead generation for real estate agents, is the oldest and the simplest: client referrals. When you maintain a good relationship with your previous clients, it ultimately helps you in getting genuine and organic references from them, and for free! If your past customers were happy with the experience of doing business with you, then they will become a rich source for potential buyers. You can also provide them with incentive, e.g., a percentage of your commission for their efforts. This will further motivate them to share contacts of leads with you.
2) Social Media Real Estate Marketing:
Social media marketing is one of the top real estate lead generation strategies for 2020. 93% of the world today is on some social platform or the other. Every realtor must have an account each on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, among others. By posting relevant posts about good offers, exciting prices, and exciting deals, you can use social media to engage and establish relationships with potential buyers.
3) Real Estate Videos on Agent Website:
Real estate is a visual market. Given a choice, leads would like to see the house rather than hear or read descriptions of it. Sending them pictures of the properties is nice, but when it comes to giving an accurate idea about the house, nothing works better than videos. Today, videos form an integral part of any real estate agent’s website. It has been observed that viewers spend more time on webpages that have real estate related videos, as these videos are attractive, informative, and easily shareable.
4) Real Estate Testimonials:
Testimonials are very important for real estate lead generation, as it shows to new leads that your past customers are extremely pleased with your services. A testimonial works as an endorsement of your services. Therefore, make sure you collect reviews from your clients and display them on your real estate agent website. Request your customers to share testimonials about you on other third-party websites and social media platforms as well.
5) Real Estate Agent Website:
Real estate business is highly competitive. To stay relevant and successful, you need to create a unique brand for yourself. A professional website helps you build a unique and personal image your business. You can go with special SEO-enabled agent websites that land more searches on your website. Having your own website, instead of the one given by your brokerage firm, will mean that your leads migrate with you wherever you go.
6) Use Lead Generation Websites:
Many property sellers visit popular third-party websites that receive a lot of traffic and leave ads of their properties for sales there. Real estate agents also should create agent profiles on such sites and contact these registered leads for free.
7) Use Real Estate Agent CRMs:
Keeping a track of hundreds of leads, their preferences, status updates and activities all at the same time, is an extremely chaotic process and many times, agents losing certain leads due to mismanagement. That’s where real estate agent CRMs come handy. They collect all diverse information about your leads and display them on a clean and light interface. Some of them, like the CRM, come with a large variety of features that you can use to contact your leads and check their mindset.
8) Email Newsletter:
Using a real estate agent CRM, you can generate real estate leads by scheduling drip marketing campaigns for them. You can schedule the kind of emails you want to send to your leads, and the frequency of such mails. Drip campaigns help keep the prospects informed and aware of your offers. You can also send useful videos and links to your blog posts.
9) Find “For Sale by Owner” Listings:
Many property owners list their properties for sales, but fail to follow up on contacts, or schedule their meetings with interested leads. Such owners will certainly appreciate some help from a real estate agent like you who can help them with these formalities. You can search for such owners in the FSBO listings (For Sale by Owner), offer them your help, and convert these leads to clients.
10) Local Sponsorship:
You can sponsor local events like school sport events, local charities, etc. and get the chance to communicate with potential buyers. It has two benefits for you: you can create a positive image for yourself and your brand, and at the same time, you can increase your network, build trust and generate more leads.
Conclusion:
Real estate is an ever-expanding business because it represents shelter, which is one of the three necessities for humans. The demand for real estate is highly lucrative and competitive at the same time. Real estate agents looking to tap into that evergreen market should start by using the highly effective real estate lead generation strategies mentioned in this article and boost your sales and conversions by a large margin.

The real estate business is a highly customer-centered industry, which is why it is essential that you stay on top of your clients’ information and contact details. It is crucial that you are aware of their financial resources and their long-term requirements if you are to provide them with the top class service.
Having a CRM software that is specifically designed for real estate will not only make your job easier but will also help you make strategic business decisions and quick information-powered changes to close more deals. It is important that you pick a CRM solution for real estate that meets your needs.
How can a CRM software for real estate business benefit you? Here are seven ways a real estate CRM software can boost your business:
Centralize your information
Generate and manage leads effortlessly
Meet unique needs
Target the millennials
Remain totally compliant
Painless management of third-party documents and information
Satisfy your clients’ needs
1. Centralize Your Information
It can’t be stressed enough how important information is. With a real estate CRM software, you can put all your information in a single, unified location. You can place your real estate catalogs, contact details of property owners and potential buyers, addresses, emails, dates, and more in a centralized hub. When you use your CRM for real estate, you can effortlessly organize and categorize your information for easy management. On top of that, you can access the information you need from anywhere, using any device, at any time of the day.
2. Generate and Manage Leads Effortlessly
One major advantage of a CRM system is that it helps real estate agents consolidate leads they generate from multiple streams. Getting leads using traditional practices is cumbersome and horribly inefficient. Instead of managing various databases for all lead generation sources, such as social media platforms, SOIs (Spheres of Influence), online advertising sites, and direct mail campaigns, a CRM software for real estate business gathers all contacts for simple yet efficient categorization and management.
3. Meet Unique Needs
Depending on the type of clients and real estate properties, it is important that you have a CRM software built particularly for the kind of real estate business you operate. Are you dealing in residential, agricultural, or commercial properties? Do you focus on people looking for homes or building owners that want to lease their properties? Do you sell condos or concentrate on development instead?
Not all real estate CRM solutions are built the same. But having one that has features and capabilities that are aligned to your operations and goals will do wonders for you and your business. With the right CRM solution, users can drive sales, productivity, conversion rates, and accuracy as per this analysis of CRM statistics. Hence, it is important that you know how to select the perfect real estate CRM for you.
4. Target The Millennials
Majority of upcoming home buyers will be millennials. Real estate and finance professors Susan Wachter and Benjamin Keys at the University of Pennsylvania noted that the homeownership trends among millennials have dramatically increased in the past two years.
Millennials are more tech-savvy and well-versed in the new technologies than people from previous generations. It is imperative that today’s real estate agents utilize a dedicated real estate CRM software so they can capitalize on social media, advanced digital marketing strategies, and other more modern ways of reaching, engaging, and ultimately selling to millennials.
5. Remain Totally Compliant
A real estate firm or agent is required to adhere to a number of regulatory and legal requirements that are enforced at many levels (municipal, state, and federal). These requirements include zoning laws, housing laws, taxation, credit requirements, reporting, and lease agreements, to name a few.
CRM systems that are designed for real estate not only streamline business functions but also ensures that users in compliance with the law and industry regulations. Majority of CRM software for real estate business can be customized and integrated so that your business can attain total compliance.
6. Painless Management of Third-Party Documents and Information
A huge bulk of real estate operations involves the attachment of documents and records of third parties (luxury apartment renters and commercial building operators, for instance) to their customers’ accounts. Some of these documents include income verification or certifications, tax forms, bank statements, and referral letters.
A real estate CRM allows you to work with documents from external entities, support multiple document formats, and perform various operations on those documents such as securing, editing, and sharing them.
7. Satisfy Your Clients’ Needs
Utilizing a CRM for real estate business allows you to track your clients closely and know what they want. According to the 2018 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 87% of recent home buyers purchased their properties via a real estate agent. The same report pointed out that 52% of buyers acquired homes that they wanted the most when they opted to get the services of a real estate agent.
With a dedicated CRM for real estate agents, yo’u are able to understand your clients’ needs and wants. Thus, it allows you to determine properties that meet their criteria and you are able to close more deals.
Conclusion
Not all CRMs are built the same, which is why you need a dedicated CRM software for real estate agents. Your line of work has a unique set of needs and processes that require specific tools. It is essential that you pick a CRM solution that carries features and functionalities that streamline your tasks and simplify your work.

One of the harshest impacts of COVID-19 on the Real Estate sector has been on personal lead interactions due to the prevalent restrictions on travel and transport. This has made Real Estate agents look into online ways to acquire and cultivate leads, as both buyers and sellers are focusing on communicating through digital channels. This makes it essential for them to design marketing campaigns that give optimal customer engagement through social media, emails, phone, and video calls.
Drip Marketing Campaigns, in association with lead segmentation, can be a vital tool in creating a communication workflow that would keep your leads engaged in all stages of the sales funnel. Let’s take a look at ways to segment leads by creating lead groups and assign them a custom Drip Marketing campaign that would automatically keep the communication going.
1) Tips for Real Estate Lead grouping or segmentation:
If you are a Real Estate professional maintaining a standalone database of your leads or have a Real Estate CRM to help you better manage the tasks of lead acquisition, nurturing and engagement, you can certainly group leads sharing a common characteristic. By creating a lead group, you essentially have a set of leads that you can communicate and engage similarly and can also analyze the impact of the lead engagement exercise in driving them to do business with you. We present a few ways in which you can group leads, which would form the starting stage of your automated Drip Marketing Campaign.
2) Lead Segmentation by Activity:
This method of segmentation takes into account the lead activity; be it the initial registration on your website, or through an analysis of search behavior or website visits, recent property visits, open-houses, and many more. As an example, you can group all leads that have registered on your website during the past week, and send them a welcome email offering your services and asking more information on their property requirements. Else, you can group all buyer leads that have attended an open-house and seek their feedback and interest in the property.
3) Lead Segmentation by Interest and Intent:
Do you have a set of leads that have an interest in short sales or foreclosures? You could also have a set of leads that have no immediate interest in purchasing or selling but are just looking at available options to plan for the future. You can surely group such leads by analyzing their property interests and their intent in closing the deals. An example of such a campaign would be sending a communication to all interested leads on an upcoming Real Estate property auction.
4) Lead Segmentation by Geography:
This form of grouping is based on the geographic location that your leads are from, or are showing a preference for. By creating location–based groups, you can easily share listings and updates to the group, and also easily keep a track of their property preferences.
5) Lead Segmentation by Property Type:
Grouping leads that have a similar property preference would make it easy for you to share listings and updates, as you can easily segregate your listings to match their requirements. An example would be creating a group that has leads having an interest in condos, or maybe in vacation homes.
6) Lead Segmentation by Budget:
This form of lead grouping is one of the most commonly used, where you can identify leads who are interested in properties that are within a certain budget and can use it to send appropriate listings through bulk emails or texts.
The above are a few examples of how best you can segment Real Estate leads for better lead engagement. Also, you can also segment based on demographics, key personal events, and neighborhood preferences. Creating a lead group would be your first step in creating a Real Estate Drip Marketing plan that can effectively execute an automated communication workflow that would keep your leads consistently engaged.
Creating an Efficient Real Estate Drip Marketing Campaign
A Real Estate Drip Marketing Campaign is usually created and assigned to leads through an CRM software that can help you define the steps to assign leads and create automatic communication workflows through emails, calls, and text reminders. You can research for software firms that specialize in such campaigns for Real Estate marketing and can subscribe for their CRM packages that help you easily create and execute Drip Marketing campaigns.
Though Real Estate CRM’s help you create automated communication workflow that can set periodic reminders for calling or texting a lead at a certain point of time, or set frequency, the most common method would be using emails as the mode of communication.
Here are a few essentials that you must keep in mind while creating effective email–based Real Estate Drip Marketing Campaigns.
1. Focus on clarity and consistency; it’s the quality of the email that matters rather than its frequency.
2. Make sure that your email has compelling content, right from a perfect subject line that catches the user’s attention to the body of the email, and lastly to the call-of-action that you would like your lead to take after seeing your email.
Your first focus would be on writing a perfect subject line that would be engaging and prompts the lead to view your email. Having a personalized subject line is a feature that many Real Estate CRM’s offer and your subject line should crisp, clear, compelling, and concise. Do keep in mind that 90% of users judge an email by its subject, so you would want to write the perfect subject line that ensures that your email doesn’t go unread.
Also, users have limited attention span while coming to viewing the email contents. Do include images and short pieces of content to effectively drive your point across, and refrain from using long content passages that act as an immediate deterrent to reading.
4. Focus on the right set of fonts, colors, and images to include in your email. Videos are a great idea too! Your email should perfectly reflect your brand and should not be too subtle, and neither too loud.
5. Creating an effective call-to-action in the email helps you guide the lead to take the desired step, which could be replying or confirming an appointment, or visiting your website or a social media link to follow on a property. You can easily prompt users to take the desired action by creating a call-to-action that gives them a definite advantage and direction.
6. Lastly, do analyze the success of your campaign by factors such as the number of emails opened for viewing and response rates-which are metrics your Real Estate CRM can easily fetch for you. You can use the data to refine your campaign strategy and fine-tune it to make it more effective.
We hope that you have found our tips on creating effective Real Estate Drip Marketing Campaigns with lead segmentation useful enough to give them an actionable thought. Such campaigns are quite useful in the current times where you have limited personal interactions and require consistent efforts to say in touch with your leads. If your existing Real Estate Marketing strategy does not quite include them, maybe now it’s time you can explore these options to stay ahead in the race.