For people who know Texas, and specifically the Dallas area, mentioning that I and work in Prosper, Texas is usually followed by their response of 'Oh, Prosper. I've heard that's a nice area'. However, when I blog and answer questions about our DFW Metroplex on www.trulia.com, buyers still predominantly ask about Plano, Frisco, and McKinney.
What I have found during the course of my career in real estate is that buyers tend to start their home search in areas that they've heard about. But, that isn't always where they end up buying. Part of the job of the area's real estate community is to educate new prospective residents about all of the suburbs surrounding Dallas and Fort Worth and being an ambassador for the areas they don't know. Here are the things that I do to attract buyers to the North Dallas Suburbs:
1. I moved my office back to Plano. Why? Because Plano is by far where most of my buyer clients initially search. Because of the nature of many buyers to want the newest and biggest homes they can buy, Plano is quickly followed by Frisco, Allen, McKinney, and Prosper. A buyer will typically do a preview tour of homes that will include all of these suburbs, unless their initial interview rules out areas (for example, an associate at JCPenney's home office in Plano wanting to live within 5-minutes commute time of their home from their job in the Legacy Business Corridor of Plano is not going to consider purchasing a home in McKinney. You can't get from the intersection of Legacy and Hwy 121 to McKinney in 5-minutes).
2. I joined a team. Why? The 13 members of our team list homes all over DFW. The cross-marketing of homes under our Broker/Owner helps gain more exposure for each home than the agents listing alone and brings up questions like, "how close is Prosper to Frisco?". (answer: Prosper borders Frisco on the North side of town, and yes - a JCPenney home office associate could actually consider purchasing a home in Prosper and expect a 10-minute commute to work if they take the North Dallas Tollway).
3. I am very strict about doing online and offline marketing efforts every day. Why? Tasks like blogging, writing tweets on twitter.com, answering questions on trulia.com, following up on showing feedback, and speaking with other top agents in my area brings attention to my community. No, these are not what a broker might call 'income generating activities' in a direct fashion. It can take writing quite a few blogs before the onine community considers you an expert in your area. But, over time, the efforts add up. I equate finding buyers online for my home listings to fishing. If you rely just on the MLS to sell the house, you have one line in the water. If you add realtor.com, trulia.com, activerain.com, homes.com, point2homes.com, twitter.com, postlets.com, zillow.com, craigslist.com, and others to the mix, and add traditional networking efforts as well, you have lots of lines in the water and a better chance of having direct interaction with a buyer who will become your client.
4. I interact with the builders in my community. By attending builder events like grand openings and touring models, we build knowledge of our area and familiarization with builder inventory that helps us match buyers to homes. But, we also have the opportunity to impress a local builder representative. The builder representative is going to have people who come into their offices to tour homes who either 1. Need to sell their home first in order to buy from the builder or 2. Aren't a match for the builder's neighborhood, and might need a local Realtor to help them identify a better match for their preferences or budget. In DFW, and especially in growth areas like Prosper, we have a large number of great home builders who should know our names.
5. I toot my own horn. Why? I hate to tell people how fabulous I am. But, when I first started blogging and answering questions online, I used to hear comments that I must be a rookie agent because I had 'so much time on my hands'. It takes a lot of effort to stay on top of these regular activities in the midst of a very irregular work day. Busy agents face huge challenges in daily time management. But, successful agents know that making time even on the busiest of days for the daily marketing activities is what keeps a steady flow of business. Selling homes is the goal, and we can do so much more online to reach out to buyers and sellers these days than outdated marketing efforts like open houses. Even if you have to squeeze in marketing into early mornings or an exceptionally late evening, just do it. Keep that flow of information going and benefit from the effort rather than missing the opportunity.
Have a blessed day!
Ronda
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