Today’s sellers (rightly) expect a high volume of interest and offers. How agents are falling short… and what they can do to make up for it.
In nearly every market across the U.S., inventory remains lower-than-low… and agents remain desperate for seller clients. And sellers? They know they’re the hottest commodity in town.
What might surprise you, then, is that the #1 requirement sellers have for their agent — higher even than finding a final buyer, or pricing the home correctly, or selling the home quickly — is for their agent to market the home to potential buyers.*
Sellers understand that in a high-demand market, everything flows from good marketing. The more often the house is seen (either in person or online), the more likely the home is to go into multiple offers. The higher the demand from interested buyers, the more likely the home will sell for a high price, or in just a few days.
Homeowners understand that savvy marketing is the way to accomplish all their selling goals. And now, it’s time for agents to prove to their sellers that they are up to the challenge.
If you’re an agent who is ready to up your marketing game and impress your sellers, read on.
3 smart ways to share data with your seller clients
Today’s consumers expect data, and they want their agents to help contextualize the stats behind their listing’s engagement. In our increasingly measured world, most agents have dozens of tools that can help them to share and explain direct stats with their sellers. The final goal is to help their clients understand the market, and their place within it.
Share open house stats
The NAR reports* that just 53% of agents hosted an open house for their listings in 2019. This could be a reflection of the fast-moving market, but it may also indicate that agents (and their clients) are accepting early offers, rather than giving the property an opportunity to draw in a high volume of buyers.
If you’re an agent who can safely host open houses, be sure to take note of the total attendance and interest for each event. Sellers often put in extra time in preparing their home for an open house, so they’ll be interested and excited to hear about the total attendance and anecdotes from potential buyers.
If you use an open house software, you may be able to provide a post-event report that includes data such as:
- The total number of attendees.
- Specific intel on the attendees, such as how many of them were pre-qualified for a loan (and therefore more likely to make an offer on a property soon).
- Their desired criteria, including beds, baths and more.
Remember, too, that anecdotes can help provide some color beyond the stats. Tell your sellers about the 3-yo who loved the staged play area, or the couple who went back twice to look at the newly-renovated master bath. Even if an open house doesn’t lead to an offer, it can still be the biggest opportunity an agent has to gather and share an abundance of real-time data and feedback on the property.
Share clicks and engagement from digital ads
The NAR also reports* that only 23% of listing agents use social media when marketing their for-sale properties, and it’s assumed that the number of agents who use paid ads is even lower. Agents who wish to live up to their sellers’ marketing expectations can take advantage of easy-to-set-up campaigns on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Whether you hit the Facebook “Boost” button or run a campaign using an ad tool, you’ll be able to target a local audience of potential buyers. After the ad has run long enough to generate interest, you can also share campaign stats.
Stats will vary depending on what tool you use to place the ad. Here are some common results that agents share in their Boost by HomeSpotter ad reports:
- # of ad view
- # of ad clicks
- Conversions for showings
- Conversions for open house attendees
“Our agents have reported a direct lift in foot traffic after running an open house ad. They’ve gone from expecting 5-10 attendees to maybe 20-25, so they swear by the ads and their ability to get in front of the right audience.” — Dan Rivenburgh, Iowa Realty
Share global property search stats
The stats from an open house or an ad campaign will demonstrate how your individual marketing activities are providing lift and interest in the property. But you can also provide a global view of how the listing is performing, by using a tool like Listhub. Listhub can aggregate the total number of times your listed property has been viewed, and the total number of websites where your listing has appeared.
It helps to remind sellers that buyers can come from anywhere, and that hundreds (if not thousands) of buyers have viewed the property as a potential home.
Share market activity with home sellers
As a real estate agent, you have one last exclusive tool in your pocket that you can use to impress your seller and keep them in the loop. Use your access to MLS data to keep them up to date on the latest developments on the comps in their area.
A smartphone app is an especially effective way to let anxious sellers keep their finger on the pulse, using data straight from the MLS. Set up a saved search to keep an eye on relevant properties nearby. In the HomeSpotter app, you can even see actions that other app users are taking on your listing.
By providing access to this information to your seller within a collaboration app, it’s easy to stay in touch via chat and you can remain the trusted resource for info and expertise.
Give home sellers what they want
Today’s sellers are savvy and they have high expectations for their property. While it’s critical for agents to smartly price a property, negotiate to find a final buyer, and to get the home sold quickly, they should remember that the #1 expectation of their client is to build interest in the home. Whether that’s through open houses, online ads or other partnerships, agents should double-down on marketing each listing, and sharing the results with their seller clients.
For more info on how to run smarter open houses or more effective online ad campaigns, get in touch today.
*Source: NAR 2019 Profile of Buyers and Sellers
