If you’re an experienced real estate professional, I am sure you’re familiar with the Fall effect in our industry.
Typically, Fall is when the real estate market slows down in most areas. The summer and back-to-school rush are over. People start preparing for their holidays and the market doesn’t move quite as fast as peak summer months.
With that in mind, I’m going to share 5 tips that can absolutely help you dominate your local fall market and set yourself up for the future.
#1 Prepare A Marketing Budget & Stick To It
Whenever I say marketing, agents assume I mean buying leads and cold calling lists exclusively. Well, there’s a lot more to real estate marketing than that!
Successful real estate agents have a pre-defined marketing budget. Without spending money on marketing yourself as the “go-to” real estate professional in your area, you are never going to become one of those top agents everyone talks about.
In order to create the perfect marketing budget that yields a healthy ROI in the next 12 months, you need to figure out where your deals are coming from.
Here are 3 major ways real estate professionals get new clients:
- Existing referral network – If the majority of your business is coming from existing clients and referrals, then your Fall marketing budget should focus on doubling down to generate even more referrals.
- Investing In High-Quality Leads – Some agents are really good at calling and closing fresh leads. If you fall into that category then we recommend that you figure out your CAC. CAC stands for customer acquisition cost. In order to spend more money on leads, you need to figure out your ROI and the number of leads it takes to close 1 deal. If you can see a consistent customer acquisition cost, then it’s time to increase you ad-spend on leads to generate more clients.
- Cold Outreach To Land New Clients – Are you one of those real estate professionals looking to generate new clients doing cold calling, door knocking and other forms of offline outreach? If yes, then focus on this area to expand your business during the fall.
BONUS: Download our free marketing budget templates
#2 Run Just-Sold Facebook Ads Targeting Homeowners In Your Farm Area
The Fall is probably the best time of the year to build your database and expand your sphere of influence.
- Buyers planning to purchase in the Spring will be researching the market for their dream home at this time.
- FSBO’s who failed to sell their home in the summer will be getting desperate to sell before the onset of winter.
- Expired listings that failed to move in summer will also be ripe for a new agent.
One of the fastest ways of generating a ton of buzz in your local farm area is to run a Facebook Ad with all of your recent sold listings.
Here’s how in 4 easy steps:
- Make a list of all your inventory that you sold during the summer.
- Create a video presentation or a simple slideshow of images. Make the listing price stand out if you sold a client’s home over asking.
3. Link your Facebook Page to your Facebook Ads account and select the few zip codes that you farm as your target Location
4. Under the targeting section, select homeowners.
Pro-Tip: If you have a rough idea of the median age of homeowners in your farm area then go ahead and select the age bracket. In such cases, do not do additional targeting when running the ad on Facebook.
#3 Create Original Local Content That Catches The Attention of Potential Buyers & Sellers
When the market slows down, top performing real estate professionals get busier and set everything up for the next 2 quarters.
This means the fall market is the perfect time to invest in creating some local content that helps establish you as THE local agent homeowners can trust.
Now, you must be thinking what type of local content should I create for my local area?
Local Businesses & Events
Start by featuring local business owners in your real estate blog. You can also feature any community event or write about a list of upcoming fall events in your farm area. The more local content you share on your website, the better.
Your local articles will often be shared by residents, resulting in an organic amplification of your brand.
Lastly, you should have a prominent space on every blog page that states that you are a real estate professional and you are writing this content to help your neighborhood.
#4 Build Out Your Resources For Future Prospects In Your Local Area
When the market is slow, it’s the perfect time to create all sorts of marketing resources for your local farm area.
One immediate strategy is to get the local MLS data for the summer months and come up with a quick 3-4 page local market study report.
You can hire any freelancer online to brand and compile the content. Share this with your existing clients and prospects.
You can also boost it on Facebook to generate new leads and prospects in your farm area.
Homeowners are always looking for data that helps them decide whether to buy or sell in a community. When you share local market statistics under your name, you are branding yourself as the local expert that homeowners can trust.
#5 Manage Client Expectations With Supporting Data
Often, buyers and sellers in Fall are highly motivated but their expectations are unrealistic because they haven’t examined market trends closely enough.
They may be in a hurry to move and settle in before the Christmas season, which can result in poor decisions. They may overlook key factors about a potential home or neighborhood in their hurry to close the deal.
Educate your prospects about the seasonal trends affecting your local market so that buyers and sellers know what to expect. Be sure that their home purchase or sale supports their long-term goals and isn’t just a quick fix.
If you recommend an asking price below market value, show them why this is a good strategy and what they can expect based on historical data for the season.
Conclusion
After the frenzy of the summer months, Autumn typically brings a second wave of buyers to the market. They’re motivations vary but the urgency to buy or sell before the onset of winter gives you an added advantage.
Use the Fall months wisely to market and brand yourself as the go-to neighborhood expert in your farm. Review your past marketing results and plan your next 12 months of marketing strategy carefully.
Finally, be proactive and start reaching out to both cold and warm prospects in your database. Send friendly reminders to past clients and contacts, and work on creating neighborhood content that will generate organic traffic to your blog or website.