Old School-New School
Last year was a crazy year in real estate and I'm pretty sure everyone that reads this might agree. While some months were normal to average business wise, there were several months that were not close to 2021. As the year went on, we determined that 2021 was an anomaly and we were more likely tracking with 2020. Our fees increased slightly, so while our number of inspections were down, we were still above in total revenue.
The biggest change happened in April when our longtime marketing partner sold their business to a new company for a huge chunk of money. Many questions were now front and center. How would this affect our relationships with our clients and our agents? How would this affect our marketing? How would it affect our cost per inspection? Many, many more promises followed and it became clear that the promises made that nothing would change and it would be business as usual were nothing but lies. Having been around the block and seeing this happen before, I knew from the start that they were lying. It was just a matter of how bad and how much the changes would affect us.
In October I finally decided that the situation wasn't getting better and made the decision to leave the group. How would my business be changed and what would my marketing look like going forward? First I started working with a new website designer that would make it into a better working site and easy for buyers and agents to use. Next I redesigned all my rack cards and business cards and as soon as they arrived I promptly went to all my offices and removed all the old brochures. I started working on a google ads program that will help offset the email marketing I was paying for.
Back in Time.
As for the old school ideas, I used to go to open houses on weekends but during covid, that stopped cold turkey. So now I'm watching for agents I haven't met or haven't used us in a while to go visit at the open houses. I usually bring them a granola bar, some water and a business card, just for a few minutes of talk time.
There were also buyer discount scratch off cards I always used back in 2011-2015. Not a crazy amount of a discount, usually $19 up to $47 but the buyers loved them and the agents thought it was a fun idea. I found my stick on scratch off labels and made a brand new batch of cards and have passed out a bunch to the offices.
I have also reached out to some local mortgage companies about doing some home buyer fairs/meet and greet. Those always deliver 2-3 inspections for every 10-15 people in attendance.
Bottom line is that we will be incorporating some old and new in 2023 and deliver the same inspection for our clients.
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