The Best Free Lead Gen Idea for Database Marketing in Real Estate
Annual Real Estate Evaluations: New Real Estate Agent Lead Generation
As a new real estate agent, you will be searching for many ways generate leads for your real estate business. There are countless ways that you can focus on to attract buyers and sellers as a REALTOR, however, chances are your first few deals, and most of your deals over the course of your career, will come from your database. If you build your database and continue to take care of those in your database, you will have a steady stream of income for your entire career. One of the best lead gen ideas for database marketing in real estate is the annual real estate evaluation for everyone you know.
This is one of the most power ways to stay in touch with your database and deliver value to them that they can receive anywhere else.
The annual real estate evaluation is a simple CMA completed once a year. You can do this for everyone you know. It doesn’t (and shouldn’t) only need to be people you have represented in a purchase. It can be anyone you know; they can even be renters. The point of the annual real estate evaluation as a lead gen tool is to establish yourself as the go-to real estate professional.
These are quick and easy market evaluations and it will solidify you as their agent for years to come. But, the key word in the annual real estate evaluation is “annual.” One of the worst things is to offer an annual real estate evaluation and only do it every 5 years!
How to Ask If you Can Do One
· New Agent: “Hi ______, as you may (or may not) know, I am now in real estate and I’m absolutely loving it. As quick service to everyone I know, I providing annual real estate evaluations, I would love the opportunity to put one together for you. Would this be of interest?” -- If you are brand new you can even ask people if you can do one on their house for “practice”
· Experienced: “Hi_________, I just wanted to let you know, I have an exciting new offering for everyone I know. This is an annual real estate evaluation so you know what your property is worth! You’re up this week” - Not even asking
How to Prepare
Your board’s MLS tool probably has a CMA feature built right in and you can do it right on this. There is no need to pay for additional software, but you can use programs like Cloud CMA, HouseCanary, or ToolkitCMA.
Make it simple and short. No need to take a deep dive into adjustments or select numerous properties. You want to be able to maintain this on an annual basis as your career goes on, so don’t go overboard and stop preparing these when life gets busy. It is all about consistency.
Use no more than 5 comparables and make your annual real estate evaluation approximately 10 pages.
How to Present
Here you have 3 options:
1) Mail
2) In-Person
3) Email
Choose to mail the reports or go over in-person. Email should only be a last resort if they homeowner really does not want to receive paper. (I’ve had environmentally conscious home owners in the past)
Personally, I like to mail them because it takes less time out of my day and I found most homeowners are too busy these days. However, when I mail it to them, I use this as an opportunity to write a quick personalized note and follow up in a few days to see if they had any questions. This follow up could also be for a lunch or coffee.
Conclusion
The annual real estate evaluation should be one of the primary methods of lead generation and client retention tools that you use in real estate. It is a simple annual CMA that you do for everyone in your database. It doesn’t need to be only people you have sold homes to as everyone wants to know what the value of their home is. Even if they are renters or purchased their home through another REALTOR. Chances are their agent is not annual real estate evaluations.
If you are a new real estate agent, start doing annual real estate evaluations right away and leads will start coming your way before you know it.
Podcast Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Rev Real Estate School. The podcast with quick tips and actionable advice to help you sell more real estate in today's world. And now your host Michael Montgomery.
[00:00:11] Hello and welcome back to another episode of Rev Real Estate School. I'm your host Michael Montgomery so if you were on our e-mail list if you've signed up for getting the three tips of the week that come to every Friday you've probably received a short email from me just asking what's one thing that you're struggling with right now. And there's a number of different answers that I've received. But overwhelmingly we're getting one thing that comes back and it comes back to lead generation. So just struggling with trying to get leads and trying to generate more leads as a new real estate agent. This is huge. But we can not neglect this as we start to become more experienced too.
[00:00:50] If you're a newer real estate agent and you're out there lead generating prospecting every single day and then you start to get a little bit busier sometimes we can end up somewhat falling off the wagon and we're not prospecting as much so as an experienced agent it's just as important to be focused on lead generation as a new agent.
[00:01:09] Today we're going to discuss one technique that you can start using right away in order to generate more leads. The beautiful thing about this tactic is it is free and it can almost transform your business over night. It's one of these concepts that you put into play and your business will start to transform.
[00:01:28] So the concept is basically just a simple real estate evaluation. If you've gone through some sales training out there if you've gone through ninja selling they called a real estate review other programs will call an investment review whatever it might be. It's an annual real estate evaluation on people's homes. Now these people can be people that you have sold homes to definitely you should be doing an annual real estate evaluation for them. But if you're newer or if you're just looking to generate leads it can be anybody that you know it can be anybody in your database or even people that aren't necessarily in your database. A lot of people would love to know what their home is worth. This can be their biggest investment. They'd love to know what it's worth. It's just about how you go about doing this in a way that doesn't become so sales in just a way that you can start a great conversation with somebody and provide them with some information that they would really really like. So start with people in your database that you have sold homes to. These are an obvious one. And then from there start moving out to people that you know and then even start moving out to those that you don't know but you're starting from the people that you have actually sold homes to if you haven't sold any homes. No worries we have a perfect script for you. I'll put this in the show notes as well but it goes like this. Hi. So and so whatever the name might be as you may or may not know I am now in real estate and I'm absolutely loving it as a quick service to everyone I know I'm providing an annual real estate evaluation I would love the opportunity to put one together for you. Would this be of interest. It's very very simple. And most people aren't going to say no to that. If you are brand new you can even say look I'm trying to practice right. I'm trying to get some practice here. And very few people will say no to that is just if you've been in the industry for a little bit longer you don't necessarily want to use the word practice but if you're brand new and you people in your database know that you're brand new they understand this concept. If you're experienced and you want to start putting this into play you can just use something like Hi there I hope you're doing great. I just want to let you know I have an exciting new offering for everybody that I know. This is an annual real estate evaluation so you know what your property's worth in this market. Europe this week. So how about I send it off to you by mail. So it's not an in-depth CMA or evaluation minor a simple report you're usually pulling for maybe even three comparables and then you're giving them a price range I would recommend giving them a price range. Now it is tricky if you haven't seen the inside of their home of course but if you have a lot of times people really want to know that number. Right. So you do want to give them a range but you want to be cautious with that range. If you're using a range that's out to lunch just to make them happy and then they turn around and want to sell their home. Well you better be able to back up that number four of the reports you don't have to buy any fancy software. I use cloud CMA but you can even just use your MLS CMA software it doesn't have to be over the top. And I just pull a few comparables like I said I put it into the report I make sure that it's visually appealing and I get ready to send it to them. So I've had the conversation with them and they know that they're going to receive it. So how do I go about getting it to them. Well ideally you sit down with them you meet with them in person but we also have to take into consideration that people are busy and sometimes people don't necessarily want to meet with us and go through the evaluation in detail in an ideal world we would. But we also again have to meet people where they are at in the process and we have to be understanding of where they are at. So typically what I will do is I'll shoot them a quick e-mail or a text. I'll give them a call and let them know that it's coming. And then if they'd like to meet we definitely can. Otherwise I will put it in the mail most people just choose to have it put in the mail which is totally fine. I put it in the mail. I put a little note on there too just letting them know I hope they're doing well. And then you also have an opportunity to give them a call afterwards. Just follow up. You know a week later or so and ask if they had any questions. From there you can also set a quick coffee or lunch catch up as well. So you're not actually meeting them and going through the CMA but you're meeting them after they've gone through it to see if they have any questions. It's a great opportunity to have a conversation with somebody in your database or even somebody you don't necessarily know that well do a market evaluation plus then try to schedule a meeting or just a quick catch up quick. How are you. Basically after the fact to see if they have any questions. So that is the annual real estate evaluation. And again it's annual so when you start doing this make sure that you have a reminder to do it again the next year for these people. This can be an amazing source of leads. And honestly when you start doing this I can almost guarantee that you will start to have deals coming her way before you know it. This reminds people that you are in real estate it reminds people that you are the expert and you will very likely start to get referrals right away. So that's it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Remember you can always get a hundred percent free coaching you can ask a top producer anything. All you can do is head over to our Web site rate and review the podcast and we will give you a shout. And we can talk about absolutely anything business related. Thank you again for listening to this episode. And we will see you in the next lesson.
[00:06:44] This episode of Rev real estate school has come to a close. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you back here. Lesson.