Real Estate Marketing

Real estate agents use a number of marketing techniques to buy and sell homes. Find out more about the latest real estate marketing trends of 2021.

Real estate agent is a popular profession because it is a high paying job with minimal education requirements. It is also a good job if you enjoy working for yourself and directly interacting with customers. Real estate agents must be self-motivated, have good people skills and a willingness to perform research. Another important skill for real estate agents is marketing. This includes following market trends as well as advertising homes for sale.

Compared to other industries, the real estate market is much more subject to change. Heading into 2021, more real estate agents were using the internet and digital tools to buy and sell homes. There is no shortage of websites dedicated to listing real estate offers. More real estate agents are also using virtually staged photos over traditional house staging. While it is important to learn these new marketing methods, real estate agents must also understand the older marketing trends.

Social Media Marketing

In 2021, the majority of businesses rely on social media as a marketing tool. Social media is a great way to reach a larger audience, with an estimated 80 percent of Americans having a social media account. There are several different ways to market on social media. The most direct use of social media is creating an account for your business. On your page, you can list images of the houses you are trying to sell.

Instagram is one of the top social media sites for real estate agents because it is heavily image based. You can organize all your listings into separate folders. Facebook is another popular social media choice for real estate agents, since you can create a group page. In addition to speaking with new clients on your group, previous clients can leave favorable reviews. Both of these platforms also have excellent options for creating advertisements and sponsored posts, to help broaden your audience.

Both LinkedIn and Twitter are also options for real estate marketing, but are typically less effective than Facebook or Instagram, since they are not as image focused.

Drone Videos

Another new trend in real estate marketing is using drones. Drones are an excellent tool because they allow you to record detailed video tours and get aerial footage of a house. In addition to advertising the home for sale, you can also use a drone to get footage of the neighborhood. This is especially helpful for out of state clients who are planning to move and buy a house, but are unable to constantly travel to view homes.

A high-quality drone is an investment, but the prices have significantly dropped compared to the earliest drones on the markets. It can take some time to get used to operating a drone, especially to the point where you can record high-quality videos, but it is a solid investment for many real estate agents.

Home Staging

There are two types of home staging. Traditional home staging is an older real estate marketing technique. With traditional home staging, you meet with a client who is trying to sell their home and make various changes to highlight the strengths of the house. This involves making minor repairs, taking pictures in select lighting, clearing out clutter or rearranging furniture. You can use this method of home staging to get high quality pictures for your listing.

The second method of staging is virtual staging. With virtual staging, you take pictures of a home and use photo editing software to show off the home. The most common use of virtual staging is furnishing a home to show off different styles. This shows off the potential of the home to potential buyers. Virtual staging has limitations. For example, you cannot change the physical properties of the home, like adding extra rooms or inserting walls to section off a room.

Local Connections

One of the tried-and-true methods of real estate marketing is partnering with local businesses. There are two primary ways to market with nearby businesses. The first is advertising directly with the business, such as posting ads or leaving your business cards. Another option is running open house events with local businesses. This is a great way to advertise homes and show your dedication to the community. You can even work with businesses to open pop-up shops during open house events. This gives clients more incentive to explore all the rooms in the house.

Real Estate Marketing Software

In addition to mastering marketing techniques, you must also know what software to use. There are many programs designed specifically for real estate agents.

  • If you want to list houses online, Zillow Premier Agent is a must have tool. Zillow Premier Agent allows you to submit detailed listings on Zillow. You can also claim any existing listings of your property Zillow pulled from other sources. Premier Agent also allows you to create custom advertised in a target area, based on what ZIP codes you commonly work in.

  • RealScout is a useful program to find listings for your client. The program has over 400 search filters. You can narrow down locations by the standard features, such as number of bedrooms and square footage, but you can also search for more specific criteria, like whether the house has high ceilings.

  • CINC is another program with information on housing listings. CINC is popular among real estate agents because the database constantly updates, adding new listings and removing sold properties. You can also integrate CINC with your website, allowing both you and clients to search through leads.

  • REIPro allows you to track real estate investments. This program focuses more on the financial side of real estate. By default, homes are listed by value. Each house has a profile on whether the price is expected to rise or fall. You can also research the cost of homes in the neighborhood to make sure your clients are getting a fair deal. REIPro also includes free access to REI marketing materials to help create advertisements.