California Realtors Meet in Desert Casino: Is Real Estate Business a Gamble?

July 28, 2011 - PRLog -- The setting was perfect. Downstairs, hundreds of people were optimistically yet tragically dropping quarters into casino slot machines hoping for those elusive triple 7’s to usher in a streak of luck or change of fate. Upstairs, a room full of real estate agents and brokers were hoping for the same rush as they gathered to learn about their future financial fate, find out if they had any real control of their income, or if their business was just a crap shoot.

This week I attended a Real Estate seminar. The purpose of the meeting was part basic training for “surviving” the current real estate market and part effort to rouse the troops. Agents were told to keep their chins up, get out there, look for the opportunities on the horizon, pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and do what they do best – list and sell houses!

But how were they supposed to do that? What tools, what techniques, are working now?

Looking around the room there were lots of nervous but courageous grins and looks of hope seeking out the gold ring to grab onto so they could be pulled up out of the mess that has become the real estate market. You could almost smell the fear and feel the hope.

Times are tough; the market is fat with inventory yet lean with buyers. Agents have had to tighten their belts. However, at an average income of $30,000 per year for an agent in this particular company, I couldn’t help but think that these folks were already starving before the turn in the market and didn’t realize it.

As with all businesses, there are exceptions to that average income number. Those at the top of their sales expertise as well as those that have gone into niche markets within the real estate industry often enjoy a better reality. One businesswoman at this seminar is in such a niche and has maintained a six figure income throughout this market cycle, but that’s a story for another day.

The real estate agents at hand were given three basic pieces of advice for succeeding in this and every cycle of their industry. Good information. Even without the current negative forces of the banking community, real estate cycles change every 6-7 years. To be a good agent, and stay in the game, you have to adapt.

1.   Keep a dozen listings on your books at any given time;
2.   Have just the right amount of social media exposure. Not too much, not too little, but just right;
3.   Provide useful content for your target audience focused not only on the market in general but on their target neighborhoods specifically.

Good advice. However, the “how-to’s” were a little lacking and many real estate agents left with more questions than answers. They were told to “Google it” and then “figure it out.” After all…they have time!

True, you have to take ownership of your success and your education. But also true is that a successful person should stick with their core talents and spend most of their time on that talent. If selling real estate is more a “people” business than a “house” business, then the last place these agents want to be is stuck behind their computer screen chasing internet marketing rabbits down a hole.

What kind of advice was missing? Excluded not so much from a lack of compassion or willingness to share, but probably more from a lack of time.

Content marketing is a very full subject that can fill volumes and take months before getting a really good grip on everything that is available yet alone deciding what your business should do first.

Here is just one aspect of a content marketing strategy built by YourResearchDiva.com for a real estate agent. Understand, when you have a blog or website you become a publisher. The best practice is to set up and follow an editorial calendar for your information.

1.   Many real estate agents already have a very fancy, very expensive website put together and maintained by a third party. They may or may not be able to quickly make changes and the webmaster may or may not charge for the service. Go ahead and keep this site as your static “calling card” or “brochure”; however, set up a smaller and more nimble blog on a platform such as WordPress that you can maintain on your own. Be sure to use the .org version of WordPress and host it on a server such as BlueHost or HostGator or other lower-cost provider. This gives you complete control for updates.

2.   Set up an editorial calendar to create content to put on your blog. It doesn’t have to be too detailed. It can simply be: Tuesday – Information about the local market; Thursday – Information about the national real estate market; Saturday – Highlight 3 properties for sale and show why they are a good deal.

3.   Send an email to your client list once per week and highlight in short bullets all the happenings for the week. Point them back to your blog for more information and also point them to your website where you most likely have your MLS link.

4.   Put up at least 1 video per week on your own YouTube channel. This also doesn’t have to be a grand production, but make the picture and sound clear. It shouldn’t be long– less than 2 minutes works well. You can give them a single tip, highlight an aspect of the real estate market, or highlight a new listing using a free service like Animoto or a paid set up using PowerPoint and Camtasia or Keynote for Mac.

5.   Syndicate everything that you publish to the social networks.

This is a very small part of a fuller content marketing strategy. The real estate agent can automate the collection of information and sit down to write each week’s content on the same day. Posts can be prepared and scheduled in advance to be sent out on the designated day. Each part of this 5 process system can be done by someone other than the agent.

After all, at some point the real estate agents won’t have “time” to sit around and Google stuff as the market recovers. Setting up a system now could allow them to break that “average” income number of $30,000 per year and really enjoy the people business that they are in.

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Dawn Damico is a sought after ghostwriter and content marketer. Many businesses refer to her as their "secret weapon" when it comes to writing remarkable content for their businesses.

She coaches and trains serious entrepreneurs in Content Marketing Strategies. She is passionate about giving people the most effective content, tools, and information needed to run a successful business. Using only Top Shelf Content with the right tactics to fully leverage that content, business owners can better balance their life.

What is your “Why”? Her goal is to make the “How” as simple and efficient as possible so you can fully enjoy your “Why”.

Call or email to get some clarity to your marketing or discover those niche markets that can change the course of your real estate career!