5 Unconventional Ways to Find New Real Estate Clients
Most everyone knows a real estate agent, through family, friends, colleagues and other connections. If you were to ask that person why they decided to become a real estate agent, the answer would more likely than not be that they enjoy the flexibility of not having a 9 to 5 job, and they love their ability to earn income based on their effort. They are in one of the few professions where their earning power has no limits, because it’s based entirely on how much work they put into their job.
If that sounds like an ideal job to you, just know that it’s not so easy to become a real estate agent. You have to have a lot of commitment and dedication to learn the information needed to obtain a license, and it requires a lot of time to study to pass the real estate exam. After all, if it was easy, everyone would pursue a license.
The key to success as a real estate agent is clients. If you don’t have clients, you aren’t going to earn anything no matter how much time and effort you put in. Sure, there are many ways to get new clients, but you have to remember that all the other new agents are out there doing the same thing. The trick is to have some unconventional ways of getting new clients up your sleeve so that you’re not running into your competitors wherever you go. I’m happy to share these unconventional tactics with you so you can start searching for clients faster than if you had to rely solely on conventional methods.
Grow Your Base
Every new agent goes through lists of friends, family, schoolmates and business contacts when starting out. Unfortunately, you’ll find that you run through those lists rather quickly. The key is to ask for referrals to other people so that you can grow your base.
Many of your contacts have names of people living in your area to share with you, but don’t have specific contact information. That’s fine – just ask for a name and the city that the person is located in. Next, use Nuwber, an online tool that will provide you with an address, email address and at times will even provide a cell phone number, you can also use this technique at open houses – instead of asking people for contact information, just ask for their name and city, and let Nuwber do the rest.
Once you acquire the contact info, begin an ongoing contact campaign with these folks. Nothing too invasive, but occasional emails or phone calls highlighting new listings, price reductions and open house announcements. Always provide an opportunity for the recipient to unsubscribe from your email list.
Become the Community’s Real Estate Expert
Position yourself as the community’s expert when it comes to residential real estate. Top name recognition will help you in your real estate career and becoming the “go-to expert” is a great way to get that recognition. You need to start with blogs, podcasts, email campaigns and meetups, and push local radio stations to have you on their station to discuss relevant and timely real estate topics. The more that people hear your name, and associate it with “expertise,” the more potential clients you’ll be able to acquire.
Become Tech Savvy
In order to publicize your name and expertise, you’ll need to have a professional website. There are many templates you can purchase that can be customized, as well as hiring freelancers off Upwork and Guru.com at very reasonable rates to construct one for you. This is where you can park your podcasts and your blogs, as well as provide content that relates to new home offerings, prices, open houses and more.
Becoming tech savvy requires a time and monetary commitment, but the earlier you get into this arena the better off you’ll be. Learn how to use tools like ConstantContact and other newsletter templates so that you can construct and disseminate your own newsletters. As you acquire more and more names for your contact list it will be more manageable to use a CRM (Customer Relations Management) tool. It helps you track leads and convert them to clients as well as help qualify leads as well. Come of the top ones are RealScout, Zillow Premier Agent, Showing Suite and others.
Use Social Media
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are all viable tools to help you gain clients. Place Facebook ads using specific demographic and income criteria, tweet out new listings and post images of homes for sale on Instagram. Gain followers and encourage your list to “like” your posts and ads and maintaining a constant presence on social media are all ways to boost your client base.
Consider adding a YouTube channel with local listings and mortgage advice.
Pursue Zillow
With 195 million visitors each month, Zillow is where homebuyers go before they buy a home. That’s why you should become a Zillow Premier Agent so you can use Zillow’s ad platform to reach new clients. This is key, and for the cost it’s a smart way to go in your quest for new real estate clients.
The old days of newspaper ads and “free listings” in those pamphlets that are available at every pharmacy are over. It’s time to go unconventional and thrive!