Selling homes in your hometown sounds like a gold mine, but for many realtors selling in your area can prove to be somewhat challenging. Besides the obvious competition between you and other realtors and real estate firms, convincing buyers to settle in your city may be a challenge all to itself.
No doubt, you’ll be seeking a way to differentiate yourself as a realtor from your competition all while boosting your community. Here are some ways to be a hometown real estate boss:
1. Make Community Your #1 Focus
Attracting potential homebuyers to your town can’t happen without making the community the focus of your marketing efforts. This is a multifaceted aspect of local real estate, though, and the sky is the limit for how you accomplish this task.
First and foremost, get involved in your community through the Chamber of Commerce, community events, and social media. If you’re active in the community, you’ll have the scoop on what’s trending in the town with jobs, education, city improvement, and the city’s overall culture. These are all things prospective buyers will want to know, and you’ll be at the ground level understanding what’s going on.
2. Start Blogging
As a real estate boss, you’ll be the focus and the information giant for your area. You likely already have a website with your current listings and other information about your company and yourself, but are you really the expert in your community?
Blogs work twofold. By blogging, you generate more pages about the content people desire when searching for a home in your area all while putting your expertise out there for all to see. Start by highlighting some of your top listings, then move on to writings on things such as your favorite dining establishments, nightlife, the school systems, history, and recreation.
A blog with your expertise about the community will showcase everything about your involvement in the town and become a resource for anyone seeking information about your area.
3. Get Social
Community involvement is one way to get social, but what we’re really focused on here is social media presence. Facebook is gradually becoming a marketplace for goods, services, and even homes. Savvy local realtors are really starting to leverage social media by displaying home walk-throughs, professional photos, and even drone coverage of available homes.
The content possibilities are endless, but it all starts with consistency. Start with one post per day with some valuable content. See where those posts take you, experiment with posting at different times throughout the week and find what days get the most engagement out of your activity. Gain a steady social media presence and begin to highly target your posts for prospective buyers.
As an added bonus, social media gives you one more avenue to display your expertise, share your blogs, and establish you as the go-to realtor in your area.
4. Give Back to the Community
Getting involved is the first step in getting to local real estate bossdom, but giving back is a different story all together. Leave your business aspirations aside and give back to the causes that are important to you. Volunteer at a local homeless shelter, help out the local schools, or get involved in other charitable works.
Giving back, much like putting the community first, will continue to grow your budding network in ways you never expected. Local news coverage of your charitable works, while not the focus of your charity, may very well be a nice windfall for taking some extra time out of your day or week.
Most importantly, though, giving back to the community will help you better know your neighbors and be able to convey that to buyers looking to move to your area.
5. Know Your Market and Dial It In
Understanding your community is key to being able to attract potential buyers to your area, but understanding your target market may make all the difference in the world. If you know your potential buyers before they even look you up, you can help answer their questions before they even ask.
Knowing your market can also help you understand their financial situations and financial goals for homeownership. If you are already privy to the type of buyer coming your way, you can help send them in the right direction for a mortgage. Start your research (and your client’s research) by contacting Tidewater Mortgage Services.
Tidewater can get your clients prequalified for a mortgage which can in turn close more sales and increase volume for your business. Call today, get the info you need, and get your clients prequalified.
