Cracking The Relocation Business: Do You Have The Right Stuff?

Relocation is a big business. Large companies relocate tens of thousands of employees each year, resulting in a similar number of real estate transactions in getting them from one place to another. These companies are generally operating on a timetable, so these transactions start and close quickly and they don’t necessarily fall within the traditional seasonal trends of the industry. Brokerages with a heavy corporate, government or military presence in their service area know that relocation is a huge revenue source year after year. Often you help the referred employee or executive purchase a home and a few years later list it when the employee or executive is transferred again. It’s a great supplemental lead source for a brokerage. Who wouldn’t want a piece of that business?

Know the Requirements

Not just anyone can get into the relocation business.  Corporate or government entities have high expectations of the brokerages they work with and it can be a challenge to even get in the door. You have to have the right training and the right contacts to make the cut. It takes perseverance and attention as sales tend to be more time intensive and move quickly. Flexibility and responsiveness is a must. In addition, you need to understand and meet the requirements of each company or government agency and understand any compliance issues to avoid costly mistakes.  Certifications like “Certified Relocation Professional”, or “Military Relocation Professional” may be required by the companies you wish to approach, for example. But whatever those requirements are, the payoff of having the continuous lead flow from the relocation business can be tremendous.

Get A Regional Start

One way to start with relocation is to associate with statewide companies or government agencies who are more inclined to work with independent brokerages with a proven knowledge of their local area and a good track record. But just doing statewide corporate referrals limits your relocation lead generation.

Build A National Presence

National corporation/government/military companies however, typically want to work with brokerages who have a coast-to-coast business pipeline. Depending on your market, this can put independent or regional agencies right out of the running for lucrative corporate relo contracts. So how do you get in the door? One way is by affiliating with a company that already has inroads to this business. Take the story of Broker Steve Wilke of Weichert, Realtors – Triumph Group in Ohio, who ran a successful relo business as an independent, but saw more and more of his clients require brokerages with a national presence. After losing several lucrative relocation contracts, Steve was attracted to affiliation with Weichert particularly because of its established relocation division, Weichert Workforce Mobility. After his brokerage became a nationally branded Weichert Affiliate, not only did he get back almost every corporate relo client he lost, but he then gained dozens more with Qualified referrals from Weichert. Some very high profile companies placed executives in the Columbus Ohio area using Steve’s team. While relo work is certainly a possibility for the smart independent broker, this is one area where being part of a national brand entrenched in the business really helps. In addition, if you are new to the relocation business, being part of an organization that is familiar with the requirements can help show you the ropes and become a qualified brokerage for receiving these leads.

Final Thoughts On Adding Relocation to your Brokerage

The relocation business has a unique set of requirements and breaking into it can be tough going as an independent broker, especially when you are competing with national brands who already know the business. A brand like Weichert, with an established relocation division, already has a huge infrastructure of lead referrals and corporate contracts and you have the opportunity to access them as an affiliate. Weichert Workforce Mobility earned the highest net satisfaction score from relocated employees, according to the Twenty-Third Annual Nationwide Relocating Employee Survey conducted by Trippel Research & Survey. It is also the only company to win the “Relocation Management Company of the Year” honors at the Forum For Expatriate Management’s EMMA Awards for three consecutive years.

If relocation is something you’re interested in for your brokerage, Weichert is a great resource to partner with and it’s just one of the many things you can plug into as an affiliate. Call a Weichert team member today at 877-746-2067 or go online to weichertfranchise.com to find out more.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/real-estate-lead-generation/cracking-the-relocation-business-do-you-have-the-right-stuff/

5 Ways To Use Craigslist To Market Homes

It’s a given that you place your brokerage listings on your website and enter them into your local multiple-listing service to gain visibility and get buyers. Maybe your agents also use other online platforms to showcase listings. But one place many brokers and agents undervalue is the use of Craigslist as yet another place to visibly saturate the internet with your listings.

Craigslist has been around for over 20 years. It’s reliable and widely used with over 60 billion monthly users and 50 billion page views a month. For a free way to get in front of a potentially different segment of buyers, posting on Craigslist is a solid tactic to add to your marketing arsenal.
As with everything related to online marketing, there is a right way and a wrong way to use Craigslist. To help your listings stand out in the sea of 80 million Craigslist classified ads, here are a few of best practices:

1. Add An Odd Number In Your Heading

Headings matter. In fact, recent studies of social media show that most online users share a post because of a compelling heading. Sharing a post is one thing, but actually reading it is another. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CRM), “Odd numbers in list posts have a click-through rate 20% higher than even-number lists.” Be creative around your odd-number usage to gain the most clicks and don’t just write “3-bedroom house for sale” as the heading. That’s what everyone else is writing, and you need to stand out among the slew of other home sales ads. Try “3 reasons you should come to this open house on July 7”.

2. Catch Viewers’ Attention With a Visual

Chute and Digiday’s visual marketing report found that an eye-catching visual is at least 20% more effective than text, with a chart or infographic preferable. Naturally, your visuals will be quality photos of the rooms and outside of the property, not focused on any one thing. But it may be interesting to do an infographic of what this listing has over others in the area.

Remove and date and time stamp and keep the home photos no more than 600 pixels wide for easy loading or potential buyers will get impatient and move on. Craigslist enlarges the first photo you upload and shows it with the heading. That first photo should be chosen for its high impact on buyers. The remaining photos will be displayed only when a viewer clicks on the heading to open the home posting.

3.  Showcase Features as a List

Viewers want an easy, bite-size way to learn about a home’s features. Put features or other special attractions in a bulleted list for easy viewing breaking it up with subheadings, such as interior/exterior or kids/adults. Too much text is a distraction and will scare away viewers.

4. Post Sunday and Monday

Between the real estate organization Rent Juice and the authors of “Cracking the Craigslist Code”, it appears that Sunday and Monday mornings are the optimal days for posting ads based on collective studies of over 800,000 Craigslist real estate postings.  Best hours are between 10:00 a.m. and noon or 5:00 p.m.

5.  Keep Your Ad On Top

As anyone who has used Craigslist knows, your ad eventually gets buried in the feed by newer ads that come in later. The further down this long list it gets, the less attention it gets. It’s important that you have a regular schedule of reposting your listings so they stay current and on top. Craigslist has limits on how many times you can repost and so a best practice is to repost your listing every 48 hours. If you do it that way it’s just a button push inside your Craigslist account. Doing it this way requires a minimal investment in time and keeps your property front and center every day.

Using Craigslist to Market Homes

Getting your listings out there is not always easy and can be costly. Craigslist provides a simple, effective and affordable way to market a home, especially when using the correct real estate marketing strategiesfor the platform.

This is just one of many marketing channels you can leverage in real estate. With so many options, it can be confusing to know where to start or what’s most effective.  If you think your business could benefit from information-sharing and coaching on real estate marketing strategies, consider teaming up with Weichert. Your affiliation plugs you in to a host of programs, services and peer networking to power your business and allows you to provide more to your agents.  For more information on proven marketing tools and strategies to help grow your brokerage, consider becoming a Weichert Affiliate. Go to weichertfranchise.com or call 877-746-2067.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/5-ways-to-use-craigslist-to-market-homes/

Franchise Success Spotlight Profile: Weichert Affiliate Beth Dickens—Weichert, Realtors® – Team Realty

Not more than 25 miles northwest of Fort Worth sits the charming rural community of Springtown, Texas, where long time affiliate Beth Dickens runs Weichert Realtors – Team Realty.

Beth Dickens Owner Weichert Team Realty

With a population of close to 4,000 and within commuting distance to downtown Fort Worth, Springtown has seen its fortunes rise slowly over its rich, 160 year history. Housing in Springtown and throughout Parker County represents a rural, farm and ranch lifestyle that Beth Dickens has called home since she was a child. “As a girl I had a doll house.” she remembers, “I would pretend to try and sell it to people. I guess I was born to be a real estate agent.”

After years as an agent Beth and her business partner Lorene, finally opened Team Realty as independent brokers in 1998. The pair did moderately well, but Beth recalls the constant challenge of recruiting and keeping new agents. “We went from 5, to 10, then back to 5 again, we just couldn’t get to that next level and sustain it. It’s hard for an independent in a rural market with so many other well-known brands around.”

Over the years Beth and Lorene had flirted with the idea of affiliation with a national real estate brand and had entertained pitches from RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Keller Williams and others, but hadn’t really felt compelled to make a move. But in 2007, someone from Weichert® came knocking on their door. The Weichert story felt like something different.

“The sophisticated Weichert internet presence and reach was quite amazing to us. There’s no way an independent can compete with that kind of investment and those kind of systems,” notes Beth. What appealed to her was the Weichert internet marketing approach that brings over 40 million visitors a year to their website from around the country. Leads are routed to their call center and calls are carefully screened by trained operators and sent to live agents typically in under 2 minutes.

There was, however, another thing they both noticed in their dealings with Weichert that was equally appealing–their ethics. This was the first franchise team that really made Beth and Lorene feel like they cared about their success as a brokerage and as individuals. At the time of these discussions, they were actually on the verge of opening another office, but Weichert asked them not to. “This was Weichert walking away from money because they felt we needed to be more successful out of the one office we had before we started another one. That really impressed me”.

Beth & Lorene had about 8 agents when they joined Weichert and Beth admits that some of them were worried about the affiliation. “A few people got hung up on the fees”, says Beth “but the great majority of them saw that it was better for them long term”.

Getting Up To Speed With Weichert

And so Beth and Lorene signed on with Weichert in 2007 and became Weichert, Realtors® – Team Realty. Joining the partnership was both a relief, and the beginning of exciting changes in their professional life. It was a relief in that the Weichert coaching team, and its proven systems had the answers to so many of the growth and business development challenges they had struggled with as an independent agency for years.  It was also exciting as Beth and her husband bought Lorene out in 2008 and dove headlong into the Weichert training and systems. Almost immediately, they noticed an odd thing when they put the Weichert sign on the building.  “Suddenly recruiting got a whole lot easier,” Beth recalls.  Starting with about 6 agents, in 2007, Beth and her husband slowly built up their team, following the Weichert Methodology.

Change is Good….Really.

Beth and her team loved the training and coaching opportunities afforded by the new relationship and embraced things like Weichert University, Weichert Management Academy, and new Weichert systems and technology.

Beth describes Weichert’s listing presentation system, “DOORS”, as a game changer. Not only is it automated online and easy to create, but it is homeowner centric not brokerage focused. Beth notes that the “price trend analysis” provided by Weichert is also so much better than the simple comparative market analysis they did previously. The combined effect of better training, better materials, better data, and a solid brand affiliation created a noticeable improvement in their closing rate.

Another way in which Weichert was different is in their processes around running open houses. In an internet age where so many agents will tell you “open houses don’t work” or “they’re just for the seller”, the comprehensive Weichert process around running open houses really works. Everything from signage, to balloons, door knocking, and all the online and printed material that goes with it are covered by the proven Weichert open house management system. But the proof is in the results: Beth’s team sells at least one house per month from leads that come from her agents’ open houses.

Results

Weichert, Realtors® – Team Realty has just moved into their second decade as a Weichert Affiliate. Starting from their modest single office with 6 agents, Beth has indeed opened that second office, and boasts a staff of 28 agents serving the rural farm, ranch, and residential markets surrounding Fort Worth Texas.

But most impressive is her top line growth. Beth has overseen the growth of Weichert, Realtors® – Team Realty to more than 20 times the revenue they had before they joined Weichert.  To hear Beth tell it, “These folks have done for me everything they said they would do. If they told me I had to stand on my head to sell more houses, well I’d start yoga lessons tomorrow…”

The Weichert Way

Being a Weichert affiliate is a partnership, a collaboration, done with great respect for what you’ve already achieved and learned.

After all, you’ve already built a successful business.

We can help you do more

For more information on becoming a Weichert Affiliate, call 1-(877) 746-2067  or visit www.weichertfranchise.com. 

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/franchise-success-spotlight-profile-weichert-affiliate-beth-dickens-weichert-realtors-team-realty/

The Open House in 2018 – Promotion

Hungry for a sale, an agent blankets the neighborhood with Open House signs and then waits eagerly for a bite. Their efforts may drive traffic to their Open House and perhaps even bring the gold prize—a qualified buyer. But the question remains: Did this Open House, while effective, reach its full potential?

Even in this digital age when buyers rely so heavily on the Internet, the open house remains a cornerstone of real-estate sales and prospect marketing. At Weichert, Open Houses are deep rooted in our “people first” philosophy. Statistics published by NAR in 2017 show that 73% of homebuyers visit at least one Open House prior to purchasing.* Weichert open houses, specifically, attracted nearly one million potential buyers last year.** If you have the means to assemble a pool of buyers and sellers in one place where you can directly interact with them and sell them your value vs. your competitors, why wouldn’t you want to make the most of that opportunity?

But as every broker knows, a great open house event requires excellent conversational skills and a positive attitude. But more importantly, for it to be successful, it requires careful preparation, execution and follow-up. The question is whether the full potential of this type of event is being realized by your agents and for you the broker.  After all, this isn’t just finding a buyer for the property being held open, but this could help you connect with your next client(s).

If you haven’t recently examined how you and your agents are promoting, conducting and following up on data from open houses, you might want to consider it. As a start, take a few tips from the team at Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. who coach and train brokers across the country every day on best practices for open house management.  Let’s focus on how promotion plays a large role in Open House success:

Promoting Your Open House

In the performing arts it is often said that “less is more”, but when promoting your open houses, actually more is more!  More signs, more brightly colored balloons, more promotion starting at least a week ahead, and in more places. Traditional methods like postcard mailings and supermarket community board tear off’s should all be already part of your arsenal. Knocking on neighbor’s doors and door hangers are also part of this. The real estate coaches at Weichert teach a philosophy of keeping it personal, so there’s nothing like a phone call or personal note to get a response from the hotter prospects in an agent’s sphere of influence.

But what about the digital world?  Promotional strategies that do not fully include digital are leaving behind an increasingly large segment of buyers, especially millennials.  Here’s a quick checklist of activities you should consider for promoting your open houses online:

1. Feature Open House listings as visual content on the homepage of your brokerage website, which link to the listing on your website.
2. Have the agent write a blog for your brokerage website about the home and the open house.
3. Promote the blog and the open house on Facebook. Spend a few dollars on Facebook advertising to reach the friends of your followers in the local area, starting about a week before the open house.
4. Use the open house listing features available online. Weichert.com, for example, has a robust open house mapping feature that all agents are free to use.
5. Put a home listing and open house ad on Craigslist.
6. Post the Open house on LinkedIn from the brokerage page. If you are connected to corporate relo folks, make sure you message them directly about it.
7. Email Blast! Use your email list or CRM to feature the listing to the many clients and prospects you’ve collected over the years. Send this email about 48 hours prior to the weekend of the event.
8. Use text messaging to hit buyers as well for whom you have a mobile number. This is especially effective with millennial aged homebuyers. Hit them at least twice, both before the event, and the morning of.

Use the Open House Management Features of your CRM

Most brokerages employ a real estate CRM of some type, but many just use it to send out invites or enter contact data for only the hottest prospects. If your agents are guilty of this, or your CRM lacks robust features around open house management, you may be leaving money on the table. Weichert, for example, has a proprietary CRM which provides an open house management environment that is simple to use before and after the Open House for both promotion and follow up. Weichert also has an Open House sign in tool that feeds the CRM for follow up by agents.

Contacts can be tagged for immediate or subsequent follow up and all contacts are instantly available to the agent for future marketing initiatives.   Reminders and easily customizable email templates and graphics round out the capabilities that diligent associates will use to improve the reach of this open house, and all future open houses.

Good Open House Promotion Pays Off

Open Houses require a lot of planning, but if you do it right, the upside is tremendous. We can tell you from experience, a comprehensive, energetic and positive attitude toward open houses and having a structured system of executing them makes all the difference. The opportunity is there, you just need to know how to harness it. For more information on how Weichert gives brokerages a winning edge in all aspects of real estate, call our team at 877-567-3350 or visit our website at www.weichertfranchise.com

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*2017 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Buyers and Sellers. 

**Based on a private study by Weichert, Realtors.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/the-open-house-in-2018-promotion/

The Top 3 Challenges to Brokerage Growth and Success

Independent Brokers have generally learned things the hard way: through trial and error and experience and there are a lot of land mines out there. You may have loved the idea of being a broker and have achieved certain milestones, but the road to success can often seem like a never ending trek uphill. Is this the right direction? Am I choosing the right tools and software? Is my marketing message right? Is there more I should be doing? The challenges of lead generation, recruiting, and brand perceptions are significant and always there, especially in tight markets.

It turns out that you are not alone. At Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. we talk to independent brokers across the country every day. They are universally a motivated and experienced bunch and have a great deal of local market knowledge. These brokers often wonder what it is that they have left to learn from a national franchise brand like Weichert that they haven’t already learned at the school of hard knocks. Often you don’t know what you don’t know.

While every broker is unique and has unique challenges, there are a number of common problems that create hurdles to growth in brokerages. Has your own business or business practices been “stuck” on any of these areas?

No System for Recruiting and Retention

Recruiting and retaining agent talent is really the foundation of a successful brokerage. Independents face multiple challenges here, often because agents have similar perceptions to home buyers. They are often attracted to well-known brands due to their lead generation potential and resources. As if this perception wasn’t tough enough, many brokers don’t have a structured recruiting system and portfolio of materials to attract and create a pipeline of new agents to draw from.  Then once you recruit them, you need a way to get them up to speed – fast – so they can start contributing to your brokerage production and earn an income.

There is no single magic bullet to solving the recruiting problem, but a proven process that incorporates multiple things is required. Do you have a business plan with growth goals? Have you translated those goals to specific business and recruiting activities you must engage in to be successful? Do you as a broker “know your numbers”?

At Weichert, part of our job in coaching new affiliates is to teach them a system. Our system is comprehensive and includes marketing materials and training to attract and get new agents up and running once you get them.  Once you have them, it’s incredibly important to provide value to keep them from walking next door. Creating a supportive culture, offering them an expansive suite of tools and marketing materials to help them market themselves and their business and providing opportunities to constantly learn and improve their skills are all ways to do this.

Owner/Broker That Are Still Listing and Selling Houses

Chances are if you’ve become a broker, you are highly experienced in real estate and were a darn good sales associate. It can be hard to stop doing that, even though it is actually a distraction that takes you away from the other activities you need to focus on to build and manage your business. The idea of “letting go of the bench” is a concept every broker struggles with at some point in their career.
Are you that broker who feels like he needs that extra income that comes from listing and selling his own properties? Weichert business coaches will tell you quite simply, that it’s time to stop. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it has to happen in order for you to focus your attention on business-building, rather than selling. Once that happens, you’ll start to see your business grow, rather than continuing to run in place. Figuring all that out yourself is hard, which is why partners like Weichert exist to bring you proven systems that take the guesswork out of managing your brokerage.

Difficulty Competing Against Recognized Brands

A recognized brand can be a powerful magnet for drawing buyers and sellers into your agency, as well as recruits. If you are an independent broker, you understand this having spent years building a local reputation to compete with more recognizable brands in your local market.

But for sellers who don’t know you or don’t get explicitly referred to you, not having the backing of a national brand can make you work harder for listings and recruits. We hear it all the time, a variation of “…my recruiting problems basically ended the day I put the Weichert Sign on the building…”

Consider Whether A Partner Is Right For You.

While independent brokers may face stiff challenges, they are not insurmountable. Sometimes a leg up from the right partner can be just what you need to get over the top of that seemingly endless hill. A recognized brand can help you stand out for sure, but the real power of plugging into a known brand are the assets, marketing and support and proven systems they bring to you in your local market. Couple that with other benefits such as investments in lead generation and technology, investments that few independent brokerages could develop or sustain on their own, you have a powerful formula for success. Your identity doesn’t go away, it gets amplified ten-fold. That’s why the Weichert system is so much more powerful than just our name and could be the right partner for you.

Please consider contacting the team at Weichert to discuss your unique situation, we can help: 877-746-2067 or weichertfranchise.com

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/the-top-3-challenges-to-brokerage-growth-and-success/