Hey guys! Welcome back to another episode of Brilliant Talks, our free coaching service for real estate professionals. This time, let’s talk about real estate marketing.

The market has shifted, and we have seen home price corrections in several areas across the country. Are you properly preparing your clients for the home-selling process in the current market we are in?

Aside from coming in and telling your seller, “Your house is not selling, maybe we should drop the price,” how else are you getting creative in looking for solutions to provide the best deal for the seller, even when the market has slowed down?

That’s a challenge that listing agents all over the country have to take on if we want to thrive in any market.

The key lies in your marketing, specifically, your pre-marketing plan. I talked about this several months ago in one of our earlier sessions of Brilliant Talks.

Our jobs, as agents, are to make sure that our clients are well informed and ready for the price drops, the market, and the actual process of home selling because a lot of people don’t know the process. That’s why they hire an agent to represent them and their best interests.

You need to ramp up how you communicate, and you need to have a plan. We can’t emphasize how important your pre-marketing plan is in 2023, what with the possible recession and home price corrections. 

Here are some things to keep in mind:

Communicate

When we call Expireds, one of the things we ask them is, “What happened? Why did your house not sell?” And one of the most frequent reasons was that it was taking too long to sell their homes, so their agents stopped talking to them. 

When we fail to communicate with them and update our clients in the process, they have no way of knowing if we are doing our jobs to help them or if we are just in it for the money. That’s why it is important to have a plan, be creative, and constantly connect with our clients.

The more we update them about what we are doing to market their homes and give them proper feedback, the better they will understand the reason when you do come up and say, “Hey, we’ve done this and that, but the home is still not selling. I think it is time to drop the price to give your property a competitive edge.”

Because you’ve prepared them, kept in touch with them, and updated them through every part of the process, they know that your suggestion is not you being lazy with your work but the next best logical solution, especially in the current market we have.

Simplify things

When you outline your plan, especially if your client is a first-time seller, it is best to simplify things. The simpler we make it, the easier it is for them to grasp things and understand what it is you are actually trying to do.

Sometimes, when we throw in too many things at once, it becomes too complicated for a layperson to comprehend. Remember, real estate transactions can be stressful. We are helping them by making a stressful process easier to deal with by making it simple.

Get professionals

You will need a lot of materials to prepare for the marketing of the home: photos, aerial shots, walk-through videos, 3D tours, and inspections. When you want something done right, it is best to trust experts to do the job. That way, you know that the output you’ll get will be of great quality.

Build a network of professional photographers, videographers, and designers. Partner with inspectors and loan officers who can help provide your seller options for the same services but at a discounted price. 

Sell with a Story

The most important piece, and the part most of us don’t do enough of, is telling a story. As the title of Seth Godin’s book says, “All Marketers Tell Stories”. Anyone can tell you the specs of a house, or talk to you about taxes, but not everyone can tell a good story.

Stories have the power to move us. That’s why we still remember a lot of stories from our childhood. When they are able to make us feel something, it makes a lasting impression on us. It can inspire us to take action.

That’s why we emphasize getting the seller’s story.

What was it that made them fall in love with the house? What are they going to miss the most about the place? What did this home provide that has become a non-negotiable for the next home they are going to be looking for?

What is the neighborhood like? What kind of community is in this neighborhood? How accessible are the nearest schools, activities, and service centers? What local businesses are open in the neighborhood, and what is their history? What do people here do in their free time?

These are the questions that potential buyers might be interested in, and the story will help the right buyer connect with the home. And as Mark mentioned, it might even give the seller some comfort, knowing that the next person to move into the property will take care of it as much as they did, because they connected with their story.

This is the part where we have to get creative. Of course, do not forget to ensure that your story doesn’t have any fair housing violations. But the story is what gets the home to sell as much as the price.

Some additional tips

We often try to get a three-week headroom to give us ample time to prepare our premarketing list, but you can fit it in a week if you have to. We just recommend having enough time to make sure you get everything ready and have a bit of leeway to catch some stuff you might miss.

The one good thing about the slower market we are currently in is that we now have more breathing room to prepare for marketing. We also have more opportunities to build actual relationships that will be for the long run, not just one-time transactions in the heat of the market.

Businesses are still all about connecting with people and building trusting relationships. Now is the time to develop the skills we didn't have time to hone when houses were selling quickly.

And if you need help building your strategies, learning better scripts, or learning how to level up your social media marketing, we do one-on-one and group coaching at A Brilliant Tribe.

Feel free to contact me for inquiries and comments. 

I always love hearing from you. 

Have an awesome day!