Selling your home

Once you’ve chosen your M&J Real Estate agent, and together have prepped your house for sale and set a price, you’re ready for the public to see your home. 

 Congratulations! You received a message from your  M&J Real Estate agent that you have an offer on your home. Now you need to evaluate that offer and decide how to respond. 

Most buyers request a home inspection as a condition of their offer. While a home inspector will dig more deeply into your home than a buyer, the preparation you made before your first showing should help you get ready for the inspection. Your  M&J Real Estate agent can give you personalized advice, too. 

As you near the end of your home sale journey, you will need to pass one more test: an appraisal. Your  M&J Real Estate agent can help you gather materials and prepare for the appraiser’s visit. 

 While it’s tempting to focus on your next move, your  M&J Real Estate agent is likely to remind you that until the closing is over, you have some final responsibilities as a seller. 

We'll arrange to visit the homes you've selected, together and in person, to determine the best fit for you. 

Once you’ve narrowed down your list and have a clear favorite, collaborate with us to make an offer on a home. 

The crucial period between an offer and a final contract is an important time to stay in close contact with your  M&J Real Estate agent so you’re equipped with all the information you need to make smart decisions. 

As soon as your offer is accepted, you should schedule your home inspection. If you’re buying in a busy season, it may take time to find an available inspector, so rely on your  M&J Real Estate agent to recommend trusted home inspectors.

Some home sellers pay for a home warranty that covers them while their home is on the market and conveys to the buyers after the sale. You can ask your real estate agent for advice about negotiating for the sellers to pay for a warranty or buying one yourself. 

While you may feel jittery before your closing, your  M&J Real Estate agent and lender should have you fully prepared for the day. As the buyer, you choose the title company for your title search and the closing. Your agent and lender can recommend reliable title companies. 

Digital marketers have a saying: “Content is king.” Content marketing has been around—and will stick around—because people love a good story. As human beings, it’s in our nature to be storytellers, and real estate offers rich opportunities for engaging content.

First, there’s the visual appeal. From gorgeous properties to happy home buyers, there’s no end to the photo and video content an enterprising realtor can create.

Second, there’s the emotion. Buying or selling a home can be a stressful and challenging time for your clients, and they’ll be turning to your real estate agents for data, information, and guidance.

When you put effort into video and content marketing, it pays dividends down the road as people discover and share your real estate agency’s content, cementing your brand’s status as a thought leader among your competition.

The data revolution has finally come to real estate, and today, nearly everyone has access to the same information. So, how do you create an impact and stand out in a crowded marketplace? Turns out, your listing strategy can make or break your agency.

Are your agents following the best practices for creating their listing strategy? If you’re ready to win more listings, here’s a list of 7 listing techniques to share with them.

• HIRE A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER.
  Far too many real estate agents still rely on low-quality images taken on their (or their clients’) cell phones. It doesn’t impress online shoppers, and it makes your brand look unprofessional. Hiring a professional photographer is the easiest way to get gorgeous images for your listing.

• HARNESS THE POWER OF VIDEO.
  You don’t have to be a tech genius to get started with video. For example, agents can create slideshows of photographs that act as a virtual tour of the home. The next step would be filming inside the home. Some enterprising realtors even use drones to capture aerial footage of the property and surrounding areas. Video ads perform especially well on Facebook and YouTube.

• BE PRESENT AND ACTIVE ONLINE.
  It’s one thing to have a social media page; it’s another thing to actually update it frequently enough to be effective. The same goes for having a real estate blog. Online marketing can create a continuous income stream that works for your agency 24/7... but first, you have to put in the effort to build a content library.

• GO OFFLINE.
  When selling a home, market to the surrounding neighborhoods with flyers, block parties, and open houses. Not only will this generate more interest in the property, but local homeowners will remember your agency when it comes time for them to sell.

• KNOW YOUR AREA.
  It’s not enough to simply know about the property you want to sell. Make sure your agents do their homework on the surrounding area, its advantages and quirks, and how the housing market has performed there. The better informed they are, the easier it will be to answer clients’ questions and earn their trust.

• USE DIRECT MAIL MARKETING.
  Mailing lists are cheaper than ever, and direct mail response rates still exceed email by a long shot. Your agents can use online postcard templates to design custom postcards that include relevant information about your agency’s services and the local market.

• COMBINE DIGITAL & PRINT.
  Give your clients the best of both worlds. To show them your brand is tech-savvy, agents can share presentations and videos on an iPad. Then, to show them your brand is well-established, agents can show them a printed lookbook that covers commonly asked questions and other information.

 A large, local email marketing list is a powerful tool for any real estate marketing strategy. And while it may be tempting to purchase a list of leads online, you have no guarantee that any of those people want to hear from your real estate agency. Your list will be far more valuable if it’s built from scratch.

Help your real estate agents build their own email marketing lists with these lead generation ideas:

• Ask walk-ins for their email addresses

• Ask current and former real estate clients for referrals; these can become your most valuable connections and influencers

• Add a form to their real estate website so visitors can stay updated with the latest news & listings

• Promote their newsletter on social media sites like Facebook

• Include anyone who’s expressed interest in your real estate agency, like customers & prospects

Once they have a list, it’s time to start their email marketing campaign. There are proven practices here, too. Keep the content simple and straightforward, and attract more clicks with killer subject lines. Provide your real estate agents with branded newsletter templates and a well-stocked photo library, so they can come up with marketing ideas and create professional-looking emails on the fly. Finally, proofread and test your emails to make sure they look great on desktop & mobile devices. If your real estate agents follow this advice, they’ll save time and leave a better impression.

Real estate is an industry built on networking, so it’s no surprise that it’s a natural fit for social media. Social media marketing can elevate your brand, keep your name top-of-mind, and connect you with new clients. Here are a few tips and ideas you can share with real estate agents about how to build their presence on social media.

First things first—don’t allow real estate agents to use their personal Facebook profiles for their real estate marketing. A business profile looks more professional, and it gives the owner access to helpful features like contests and analytics.

Next, it’s a fact that visuals perform better than text on virtually every social media platform. For that reason, it’s critical to include images with your posts. You’ll get even better mileage by creating images that fit the unique size requirements of each site. If that sounds like a lot of work, don’t worry—use pre-made social media templates to ensure your content is pixel-perfect.

What should real estate agents be posting about? No one wants to scroll past a deluge of advertisements. Instead, talk about your clients and their successes. Talk about the local area you serve, including news and community events. Host live Q&A sessions with video tools like Facebook Live. Run contests and sweepstakes to boost engagement. If you follow the 80/20 rule, you can pepper in property listings without seeming spammy.

Finally, don’t forget to take advantage of paid social media marketing. You can set up geo-targeted ads to share real estate listings with people in a specific area. The same rules of engagement apply with ads—compelling content and gorgeous visuals.

 Mobile is becoming increasingly important to the homebuying process. A study from the National Association of Realtors found 80% of millennials and 78% of Generation X found their home on a mobile device. Be sure your website is mobile friendly and your real estate agents are equipped for mobile marketing strategies.

Tired of waiting for real estate prospects to check their mailbox or their inbox? Text message marketing can provide the quick response you’re looking for, but it takes some planning and thought to set it up correctly.

 The best real estate marketing campaigns feature a combination of digital & traditional outreach strategies. When you combine your print & digital real estate marketing efforts into cohesively branded campaigns, it boosts the effectiveness of both.

What you don’t want is for real estate agents to spend twice as much time creating two types of collateral: the stuff they make for digital marketing and the stuff they make for print marketing. The more you can consolidate and streamline the content creation process, the better.

Set up a template library for your real estate agents that includes both print and digital templates. These templates should balance the needs of both the agency’s brand and the individual agent:

• Templates are professionally designed and pleasing to the eye

• They cover a variety of commonly used collateral: business cards, flyers, brochures, postcards, newsletters, social media posts, etc.

• It’s easy to update the images and text without disrupting the design

• Branding elements (logos, colors, slogans, etc.) are up-to-date and protected from unauthorized changes

• Agents can represent their own personal brand with photos, contact details, etc.

• Once updated, templates can be approved quickly (within hours instead of weeks)

• Templates can be distributed across multiple channels—published online, shared on social media, embedded in an email, sent as direct mail, and downloaded for print

Not only will this save time and effort for your agents, but you’ll be confident that your agency’s brand is being represented consistently and professionally. Each piece of communication a client receives from one of your real estate agents will reinforce the integrity of your brand and reassure clients that their trust in you is well-placed.

 Because of its local nature, real estate is an excellent candidate for direct mail marketing. Postcards can help agents introduce themselves as a local business and start building relationships with the people who live there. They also have several distinct advantages when compared to email marketing:

• Printed postcards are tangible and more memorable than emails

• They don’t have to be opened, so recipients will see your message right away

• Mail delivered to your door feels far more personal than an email message

There are lots of ways to use postcards for real estate marketing:

• Advertise your real estate agent’s services

• Announce new property listings

• Invite people to a block party or open house

• Stay in touch with past & current clients (e.g. holiday greetings)

• Follow up with appointments

• Offer promotions & discounts

With all of these opportunities, you might be worried about the time investment needed to produce all these postcards. Don’t be. If you provide your agents with real estate postcard templates ahead of time, they can serve themselves within minutes. Check out some of our real estate postcard templates for inspiration and ideas—or to adapt them for your own.