There are stages that buyers and sellers go through before they're ready to buy or list real estate. Knowing that these stages exist is part of the puzzle. However, knowing what to make available to them and when they're likely to want it could just help you to identify the very best leads for business in the near future.
While there are some of us who are just plain right-brained, you know those artistic creative types who could care less about numbers, the vast majority of us are at least interested in statistics that will have an effect on our next home sale or purchase. Oh, and if you're an accountant or engineer, you're about to be in hog heaven!
My rather simple buyer or seller stage of interest list in a real estate transaction is:
- Sometime in the distant future, may even check out signs I drive by or do a Web search now and then.
- Decision has been made, but still some months off (the majority of Web searchers). Doing Internet searches and gathering information, including trying to figure out what I can afford or how much my home is worth as a seller.
- I've worked the numbers and I can buy or sell, so now it's getting more serious, and I'm really into trying to figure out the market for a sale or how much I'll have to pay for the home I want.
- I'm a rabid numbers freak, as I'm closing in on listing or buying.
Now, I've found that my website is going to get traffic from people in all four stages. I don't try to herd them toward website content or offerings, instead waiting for them to decide what they want. By far, the vast majority are in stage 1 or 2. It's when they enter stage 3 that I actually get an idea of where they are in the process. In general, not a hard rule, stage 3 buyers and sellers want current MLS statistics to find out what the market is doing.
On my site are various report offerings about negotiating and the market, but there are also current and annual market statistics from the MLS. In my small MLS, we use Paragon from FNIS. You may as well, but your MLS is very likely to offer the same report types that mine does.
The image shows a portion of a report from my area MLS, called the Sold Market Report. It's created for any period I want in just five minutes. Then I just print it to a PDF. If you don't have PDF creation software, you can do a single file online at Adobe.com, or better yet do a Google search for "pdf creation software" and you'll find it from free to under $10.
Once I have my PDF, which is now a Special Market Statistics Report, I upload it to my site and place a post or article on my site offering the report free. However, it's done via a form that gets their name and email address, and the report is delivered automatically as a link in an email. I've written about forms and CRM lead development here.
RealtySoft Makes It Easy
In my RealtySoft Control Panel area with my other CRM tools, there is a Document function.
In this area I can upload documents easily to my site.
I created a folder for Special Reports and upload the file there. This takes just a couple of minutes, and places my PDF report online where I can either direct people to it with a link on the site, or email the link, which is how I do it for lead generation. You don't need the hassles of a file attachment that some people's email won't like. RealtySoft gadgets are a great way to place this report offered with a form anywhere I want it on the site.
Now my RealtySoft document folder offers me the link URL that I put in my delivery email to the prospect. Then they also are automatically placed into a follow-up drip email list for automated emails to keep in constant contact until they're ready.
What I've found is that the ones who will download these reports tend to be closer to a decision to act, and they want the recent numbers to help them make decisions. This alerts me to their probable stage 3 status.
Share the stats love and you'll get paid back handsomely.
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