17 minute read
Module 4: Real Estate Technology 37
Big Data
For many years businesses, internet service providers, website managers, search engines and software developers have been collecting vast amounts of data from users. This data has shown clear behavioral patterns in online consumers and over time has come to be labeled “Big Data”. Everything from buyer behaviors to the probability of selling a home has been collected by companies.
▪ Predictive Models
Utilizing tools offered to real estate agents with this big data information can equip an agent to target certain types of sellers, buyers, or other potential clients. Imagine being able to get a report on the most probable home sellers in a neighborhood and what best tactics would affect a business opportunity based on the homeowner’s online activity. Instead of blanket and blind farming efforts among 200 people in a neighborhood, a skilled agent can use information from predictive models and focus on the two most likely sellers in a neighborhood and a much more precise manner.
New marketing services are emerging within the industry that are monitoring all the homes in Canada and looking for patterns and “red flags” that will indicate when a home seller is preparing to sell, when buyers are ready to buy and what the best approaches are to convert those individuals intoclients.
Big Data
▪ Business is moving to a mobile and paperless environment. ▪ Apps are software elements that perform certain tasks. ▪ Most real estate software now has companion apps for mobile access. ▪ App libraries can keep agents and their team organized and working more efficiently.
Customer Relationship Manager
▪ Internet-based. ▪ Allows for the creation and management of marketing and information content for consumers online. ▪ Can be used as an adjunct tool for consumer and client management. ▪ Often as “calls-to-action”, forms, posts, and pages to assist the agent with soliciting new business and managing current client engagements.
Preparing for Client Interviews
Every battle is won before it is fought.
-Sun Tzu
Throughout this course we have equipped the Professional Assistant with tools and resources to assist their team with creating new client opportunities, but getting that opportunity is only part of the process. Now, we’ll review how to equip and support the Professional Assistant’s team with processes and resources to help the team win the opportunity and create clients who trust them and select them with their buying and selling journey.
Being Prepared
Every appointment that an agent goes on requires some degree of preparation. Busy agents and teams will depend on the Professional Assistant to prepare the various resources and tools they will need to have available. Many agents will also depend on the Professional Assistant to assist them in making appointments and managing their calendars.
In order for the team to function at its optimal performance and to have the highest chance of success in converting a consumer to a client, the team will need to be prepared.
In the case of listing appointments, a properly delivered digital or analog pre-listing packet as well as other online resources being in place may win the listing before the agent even enters the door.
Setting Up the Appointment & Managing the Calendar
Setting appointments and managing the team’s calendar is often a task left to the Professional Assistant. Ensuring that the team is where they are supposed to be on time and prepared will be an important function. The team should consider a shared calendar system that can often be found in client management software or in email systems.
Coordinating meetings, follow up campaigns and the various vendors will require a systematic approach on behalf of the team. Using meeting arrangement software apps can reduce a lot of backand-forth communications and also make the agent appear organized and professional.
Once appointments are made, following up with all parties to confirm dates, times and locations will help resolve conflicts and misunderstandings leading to a much smoother first engagement.
Pre-Meeting Research
An informed agent is an agent at the top of their game. Spending a little time before each appointment collecting data to equip the agent for their meeting will impress clients, prepare the agent for the best approach at their appointment and may reveal risks or conflicts with the upcoming meeting. For a listing appointment there are a few online tools that should be utilized in preparation for the meeting.
Doing a quick Google search of the property and the seller’s name can potentially uncover information about the house or owners that could reveal safety issues or material issues that a future buyer could find and that an agent should be prepared to address. These searches could reveal foreclosures, crimes or tragedies that have happened on the property, factors about the community or the home that a buyer may consider a reason to not purchase the property. Searching the seller’s name may reveal personal information such as arrest histories, conflicts, newspaper articles or other information that could be considered a risk for the agent.
▪ Real Estate Aggregator Sites
Buyers and sellers commonly search their address on the various websites that buyers use to look for their homes. Some of these popular websites also create estimated values of a property. Checking the seller’s address in these sites prior to the appointment may reveal to the agent the sellers own efforts to sell the home as an unrepresented seller, or the aggregator’s estimated home value that may be higher or lower than the agent’s market analysis of the property. If the site’s estimate shows the home valued higher than the market analysis the agent will need to be prepared to show why their analysis is more accurate. If the price is lower in the aggregator site, the agent will need to try and make adjustments on that site and defend the asking price to buyers who are depending on the site for a recommended contract price.
▪ Tax and Public Records
A review of the public records on a property before a listing appointment may reveal that the person scheduling the showing isn’t the actual owner or that the property is the name of a prior spouse, etc. Public records will also provide valuable information about square footage, lot size, foreclosure information, liens, or zoning issues. Sellers may not be aware of negative issues in the public records or they may have made improvements to the property without getting the proper permits. Reviewing the public records will prepare the agent for any obstacles that may exist in selling the property or getting inaccurate information adjusted prior to listing.
▪ Prior MLS History
Doing a property search in the MLS will allow the agent to know about prior listing efforts or sales information that could assist in adjusting their strategies with the sellers. If the sellers have tried to previously sell unsuccessfully, the prior marketing strategy may be a clue found in the MLS. Prior sales history and photos, videos or virtual tours can give the agent a strong sense of the different aspects of the subject property before they meet the sellers.
▪ GeoWarehouse
GeoWarehouse is a web-based, centralized property information source that provides state of the art mapping and research tools as well as professional reports. GeoWarehouse services real estate professionals across Ontario.
GeoWarehouse subscribers can create a comprehensive property report that provides an overview of the property, property details from Land Registry & MPAC, includes demographics data, and more. A comparable sales report that is sourced from Land Registry data is also available. This report includes all sales in the selected area including FSBO, Exclusive, and Builder deals.
The Online Persona
Many consumers do an internet search of the agent prior to their appointment. The consumer is interested in the agent’s prior business, online reviews, samples of their marketing, their bio and much more. What consumers may find about an agent online is referred to as the “online persona”. Agents will frequently be judged based on the totality of their online business profiles.
Consumers will make judgement calls about an agent and will review the quality of an agent’s own marketing efforts as an indicator of the agent’s professionalism and ability to market their home. If the consumer does their online search and finds incomplete bios and no professional headshots on commonly used aggregator sites or well-known real estate platforms it could cost the agent an opportunity to work with the client.
Professional Assistants should make a practice of doing internet searches on each agent of the team in order to address any negative results that appear or any incomplete profiles that need to be updated.
Interview Kits
During the course of their careers real estate agents will hold countless interviews and new client meetings. A way that agents can distinguish themselves from competitors and impress their clients is to have professional pre-meeting and meeting packets that host a variety of information. Very often a buyer or seller will meet with or speak to multiple agents during their buying or selling journey.
A valuable resource for the Professional Assistant to manage will be buyer and seller interview kits. These are usually a collection of documents, digital assets, and presentation materials that the agent utilizes to connect a consumer to the agent’s value.
Agents often find it challenging to find the time to create these meeting packets or to gather them before each meeting. A professional assistant can help an agent win new business by creating, maintaining, and preparing pre-meeting and meeting packets. An example of a digital pre-meeting packet can be an email with information for the client and links that lead them back to an agent’s website which could have videos, information, and downloadable materials for the consumer to review.
Listing kits are usually more resource intensive as there are a myriad of marketing assets that need to be demonstrated to the seller as the agent attempts to persuade them to hire their team to market and negotiate the sale of their property. Buyer kits still need to have the same professional appearance and resource to help the agent start off in a professional manner and earn the trust and business of the buyer.
▪ Digital Interview Kits
There is not always time to create the interview kits before a meeting. Some clients may have an urgent need to sell, or a buyer may call that morning wishing to look at a particular home that afternoon. Having a variety of pre-meeting kits already created with generic assets is better than having no resources available at the first meeting at all.
Professional Assistants should seek out dynamic and well created resources and store them on a cloud-based system (such as Dropbox) so that an agent can quickly access those tools on the go. If the agent is having a busy day, they may not have time to run by the office and pick up a printed interview kit but could use their tablet or laptop to utilize these resources in their client presentation. The assets can then be emailed to the client after the meeting for their future reference.
Pre-Meeting Checklist
An organized and structured approach to all things pertaining to the agent’s business will help the agent deliver a more professional presentation. To ensure that the Professional Assistant and the agent are on the same page, as well as ensure that the Professional Assistant is meeting the expectations of the agent, both should work together to create a checklist to be completed before each meeting.
A sample pre-meeting checklist looks like this:
▪ Confirm appointment time, date, and location with client ▪ Send pre-meeting email with video introduction ▪ Google the address ▪ Google the seller ▪ Prepare GeoWarehouse report on the property ▪ Add client to appropriate email campaign ▪ Setup listing presentation asset ▪ Print and prepare CRM • CRM report • Agent brochure • Agent resume • Tax record • Listing agreement • Marketing plan • Home warranty application • Client references • Samples of past work, such as homebooks and listing brochures
Pre-Meeting Emails
In order to bring all of the above assets together, a library of emails may be created to herald the team’s value before the first meeting. Various email clients host libraries of email templates in various ways and those template systems should be utilized to easily save and send pre-meeting emails to the client. The emails can be treated as a sort of digital pre-listing packet and draw the client back to the agent’s website and serve to set the expectation of the meeting. Asking the client to participate in the meeting by gathering a few things beforehand will also connect the consumer in the process by having them invest some time in their own preparation. A properly crafted pre-meeting email can really show how professional, organized and unique the team is as a partner to the buyer or seller.
Example of Listing Pre-Meeting Email
Thank you for agreeing to meet with me about partnering with you to sell your home!
I'd like to confirm that we're meeting on [date] at [time] at [location]
. If this meeting is going to be a virtual meeting, you’ll want to make sure that your computer has a microphone and camera. I will be using a platform called Zoom. You can setup a free account at Zoom.us and test your computer before our meeting.
I know that you've been putting a lot of time and effort into the decision to sell your home and preparing for that seemingly herculean task. I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself and also to make sure that I equip you with some things to help you in this process. A little further down, I'm going to also ask for a few things in return so that we ensure that we both get the most out of our first meeting together.
Choosing the right agent is not only essential to protecting your investment, but also to giving you the best chance for a smooth transition from your current home to your next adventure.
Next, please visit [agent website with video or written introduction] to get to know more about me, so that I can spend more time getting to know you when we meet.
I've also set up a resource page for you as a seller and you can find it here: [agent website with list of seller resources]
When we meet, I'd like as much as time to be dedicated to listening to your needs as possible. To facilitate that, I'm going to ask you to review a few things online to prepare for our meeting. Please plan for about 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours for us to discuss your needs and explore if we're a good team to reach those goals.
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Example of Listing Pre-Meeting Email – continued
This first meeting is to gather additional information about your needs, more information about your home and to then set up a second appointment in person, online or by phone to deliver a final market analysis for the appropriate marketable asking price, a unique marketing plan for you and a communications plan for partnering to sell your home.
Before we meet, I’d love for you to write a brief email or letter to potential buyers about why you bought your home and what you have enjoyed about living here.
I’m also attaching a list of properties that have recently sold or are for sale in your area. I’d like for you to review them and let me know if have any information about the homes that I’ve included. How do they compare to yours and is there any “inside” knowledge that you may have as a neighbor.
Additionally, it would be beneficial to have the following items ready when we meet if they are available:
▪ List of utilities, the utility company, and average monthly expense numbers ▪ Copy of Homeowner Association documents if available ▪ Copy of your floor plan and/or property survey ▪ A brief list of your favorite aspects and features of the house ▪ An inventory of the SmartHome devices and appliances that you intend to leave when you sell your home ▪ Your Story about your home, why you love it and what the buyers should know about the home.
We’d love to get a collection of photos of the home in various seasons of the year to help with our promotion.
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Example of Listing Pre-Meeting Email – continued
And lastly, if you have any SmartHome devices such as audio or recording devices, please watch my video on what homeowners should know when selling their home.
Here’s what some other Sellers have shared
“[Testimonial from one past seller]” – (client name)
“[Testimonial from second past seller]” –(client name)
[End of Email Example]
Agent’s Website as a Meeting Resource
The agent’s website can be a useful host of hub for all the agent’s resources and tools. Sending information ahead of the appointment from the team’s website will prompt the potential client to engage in other aspects of the website and become more familiar with the agent’s value proposition.
Some valuable information on the agent’s website can include:
Video Intro
Tools for Clients
Testimonials
A nice video of the agent or team discussing their value to a consumer and identifying who they are as a brand can impress clients and break the ice with them before the agent even arrives for their appointment.
During the course of the transaction there are a variety of online tools that agents can offer their clients to make the transaction go more smoothly for them. Things like home-search apps, paint colour apps, crime province websites, community and school information and augmented reality apps could help the clients along the way and introduce them to useful resources they didn’t know were available.
We’ve become a society that values the opinions of others who have used a service or bought an item that we are considering investing in. Our potential clients will find it useful to hear what other consumers like themselves find valuable about associating with your team in the future. Testimonials, especially video testimonials, have proven to be very important and valuable client conversion tools.
Market Information
Unique Value Proposition
Agent Biography
As consumers we can never seem to get enough data. Both buyers and sellers have a keen interest in knowing what is going on in the world around them. With projections and historical data, a good market conditions report can make a client feel more secure in the decisions they are making related to buying or selling a home. GeoWarehouse is a great tool for quickly generating detailed and meaningful reports.
Unique Value Proposition or UVP are those sets of characteristics that make your team different than other teams. Remember that consumers may often research the agent before the meeting. Establishing a value proposition on the website could uncover niches or traits of an agent that the client wasn’t anticipating but may find is precisely what they were looking for in an agent.
Agent agent’s biography, both written and video, is best crafted with the client as the protagonist and the agent as the guide or advisor that can assist the client and their family in buying or selling a home. Structuring the agent’s experiences and personality around why it’s valuable to the consumer will keep the consumer engaged and will avoid any inherent self-aggrandizing that may be off-putting to the consumer.
Other Items to Consider and Check Before the Meeting
▪ Create Content to Send Ahead
You can also create content to send to the client in advance of the meeting. This targeted content can also serve to differentiate the agent from competitors and demonstrate their professionalism and expertise. Some examples include:
▪ Home Surveillance Regulations ▪ Staging Ideas ▪ Importance of Target Marketing ▪ Showing Safety ▪ Tools to Help with Move ▪ Pets and Home Selling
▪ The Agent’s Bio: Written & Video
Make sure that the agent has an updated bio easily accessible on the website and in print format to put in the pre-meeting packet. A short video introduction done by the agent is also a nice touch that can help differentiate them and add a personal touch.
▪ Agent Online Profiles
Make sure that you review the agent’s online profiles on the primary real estate websites. Populate these profiles with as much information as possible, including a current agent photo. Consumers will be looking at this information.
▪ Agent Reviews
It is also recommended that you consistently check agent review sites to keep up to date of what consumers and clients are saying about the agent or team. Some of these include:
▪ RateMyAgent.com ▪ Zillow ▪ Realtor.ca ▪ Video Testimonials ▪ Google Business ▪ Yelp ▪ Others
What to Prepare for the Agent
As we discussed earlier, the meeting packet includes a variety of essential items. One of your responsibilities will be to make sure that current information is readily available and included in the kit. Some of these items include:
▪ Agent Resume ▪ Homebook Samples (from previous listings) ▪ GeoWarehouse Report ▪ List of Comparable Properties ▪ Estimated Closing Costs
