One of our cats is an alarm system of sorts. If there's a bug in the house, he'll spot it. He locks in. If it's within reach, he'll do his best to catch it. And when he can't reach it, his stare tells us we need to look where he is looking and find the bug!
Our lives in real estate offer many distractions. Every week I probably get at least a dozen offers to put our website on page 1 for keywords we probably don't even want. Lead gen companies out the wazooooooo with all kind of special, limited time, silver bullet bright and shiny offers to open our wallet. People with their own agent calling to pick our brain about our niche.
But if you can cut out the clutter and focus like our cat, you'll see opportunities.
For instance, new construction can offer some prime real estate for getting found by potential clients.
In particular, small and medium size builders can offer a big return on a relatively small amount of work. While the big national builders have a full staff of people filling their websites with pages and pages of floor plans, subdivision offerings, etc., and consistently rank well for their own communities, smaller builders may treat a web presence as a much, much smaller priority.
If you've got boots on the ground, you may identify new construction communities that have little to no Internet publicity. Maybe the builder doesn't realize they need it, or figures word of mouth will take care of getting those lots sold, but that absence of information offers a gate for an agent that understands how to generate some Internet presence.
Last year we found a new construction patio home community in one of our most demanded cities. And the builder doesn't have one word about that community on their own site. They have a listing agent with a couple of listings in MLS, but nothing beyond the basics.
That's PRIME opportunity. Gather the pertinent information and create an IDX page for our Wordpress site. Your competition level is near zero, and your ranking on page 1 is almost guaranteed.
For this particular community we've had buyer meetings with the builder 3 times (no contracts, but the opportunity was there). I've taken calls from at least a half dozen other agents with their own clients and pointed them to the builder because our web page was found. This week another buyer reached out and will be setting a future appointment with the builder.
While none of this guarantees a seat at a closing table, it creates the possibility, and WITHOUT paying some lead gen company big or small for the right to talk to a buyer or seller.
So take a look around your local market. Where are the gaps in marketing that you can fill?
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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