I was talking with a broker this morning about an idea that he had. He was talking about marketing to FSBO's -- shocker, right? Actually his idea had some merit. He was talking about marketing to FSBO's not to get the listing but instead give them the ability to list their home on his website. His initial thought was to look for another service provider that would give him the ability to do this but after thinking about it I came up with a different way to use his current XSite. Because a Broker XSite gives you the ability to add profiles for every agent, that doesn't mean that they have to specifically be agents. Let me explain further.
Because you have unlimited profiles that you can create under a Broker XSite, why not add the FSBO's information as they write in telling you that they want to list their home on your site? Now, let me say that you should definitely check with your local board as to whether you can add FSBO listings to your website -- I know in Oklahoma, our board eliminated the "$500 gets your home on the MLS" marketing, because there were agents getting the $500, posting the listing on the MLS and then not doing any service behind it when a contract came in. Sellers were under the assumption that for $500 they were getting the whole service (list, negotiate, sell, etc.) So they put a nix on this a couple years ago which is why I say to check locally.
But if a FSBO called or e-mailed me wanting to add their home, I would fire up my XSite, log in and then add their contact information as a new profile. And because my Broker XSite lets me set the permissions that they have I would simply limit them to only having permissions to upload their listing. There is a menu selection that includes FSBO as one of the entries. At this point I would create a custom listing page that filters out all listings but the 'FSBO' status. Bingo, all FSBO properties on my website! If someone writes in to ask about the listing I can either have the e-mail go to the homeowner or I might go above my normal service level and work with the FSBO. Who knows, I might even work out a fee for the service at the end. I might even be able to turn a few of these "customers" into full fee clients.
What a great marketing piece to the FSBO community! With the decline in FSBO website traffic, this might be a way to build an inventory of FSBO listings that hang off of your marketing and search engine results. This would definitely drive me to change up my postcard message and talk about a great website to see all of the FSBO properties in your area!
In a world overflowing with agents rushing to get into the foreclosure market, this is a way to identify a niche that makes you the expert in a sea of faceless foreclosure agents.
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