The fact zillow exists is proof that our clients crave market data about what's happening to their largest investment, their home. For a long time, there was no way for consumers to know exactly what was selling around them and what those sales meant for the value of their own home. Then, along came Zillow with a promise that consumers could go online and see the value of their home.
Now, we all know that what they actually see there isn't what their home is actually worth, but the fact consumers rush there in droves to learn about the value of their home is proof that consumers WANT this information. And further, it's proof that if you, their trusted real estate adviser, doesn't provide them this information, they will still seek it out, even if it's incorrect information. In a void of information, the seekers of that information will fill that void with whatever is most easily and readily available to them.......with very little consideration of the accuracy of that information (Hasn't Facebook proved this?)
So then, how do you, their trusted adviser become the purveyor of that information, so that every time something sells in their neighborhood, it's you they get that data from?
Brivity Market Reports
The tool we've built at Brivity to make this happen is our market report tool. Here's how it works.
1. You set them up once to receive market data from you. You determine the criteria and area for which you want to show them data.
2. Since we are connected to your MLS, we use the feed from your MLS to send your client updates at the frequency you determine (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly).
3. When they receive those updates, we show them everything currently on the market in the area and criteria you selected (the 'actives'), everything currently pending (the 'pendings') and anything that has sold in the last 30 days (the 'solds'). For the sold listings, we show them what the home was originally listed at as well as what it actually sold for.
4. They can access this report at any time to see a CURRENT look at the data. They don't have to wait for the report to come to them (via email) each week or month. If today they look at their report and see a pending property, they don't have to wait two weeks for your next report to come out to them so they can see what it sold for. At any time, if that home moves to sold in the MLS, they can access the report and see that. So what we find is that the people receiving our market reports look at that OFTEN, especially if there is something pending around their own home, because they know when it sells, they'll be able to see for how much and that will impact the value of their own home.
What Do They Look Like and What Can They Do?
That's what they look like. But that's just a screen shot. If you were looking at a live report, you would be able to move the map around, drill in, click on any of the properties on the map, see the full MLS details of that property, including photos. That way, if the house down the street sells for $450,000, your clients can tell if that house was totally remodeled or if they had the same 1970's kitchen that your client has. Over time, what we have found is that clients who are constantly being fed information about what is happening around them are much more REALISTIC about what their own home is actually worth.
Who Gets Market Reports from Us?
1. Our Past Clients. If they still live in the area covered by our MLS, every single one of our past clients is receiving market reports from us. We set them up the day after they buy their house with us. We don't want to force them out to the wild world of the Internet to find out what their neighbors house sold for. We know if we do that, they could end up in some other agent's database. Or they could become a 'lead' if they go to Zillow or Trulia or Realtor.com to try to find this information. We want to built a moat around our clients so they get this information from us, automatically, every two weeks (you control the frequency, but we suggest every two weeks as that way even if we fall on our face and never call or text them again, they still got really valuable information from us 26 times this year.
2. Our Sphere. Those people that haven't done business with us yet, but if we provide value to them, they may in the future. Every person in our sphere, that lives inside our MLS coverage area, should be getting this information from you for the exact same reasons that your past clients would want this info.
3. Seller Prospects or Leads. Many of you have old seller leads in your database, or will generate a new seller lead in the days and weeks to come. The single best thing you can send these people is a report of what is happening around their house. In fact, the open rates for our market report emails consistently hover around 38%. If you are unfamiliar with email marketing, this is an astronomically high open rate. People love these things! Why? Because the information is specific to them! It's all about what's happening immediately around them.
4. Buyers who are thinking about getting into the Market but haven't yet made the plunge. The average time frame from a lead registering on your website (or any Internet lead, thing zillow, realtor.com etc) to go from the day they register until they are out looking at properties is 9 months. Of course, we use listing alerts (or property alerts or whatever you call them) to drive them back to our website with new listings that are hitting the market. But, we will also reinforce that drip marketing approach by sending them weekly market reports for the area in which they are hoping to buy. Listing alerts will show them what's new.......but the market reports will show them what is going pending and what is closing or going sold as they sit on the sidelines and wait. We want them to understand the entire market, not just show them what's newly on the market.
How can you Get This Tool for Your Business?
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