When it comes to buying or selling a property, homeowners are not looking for a real estate agent, they are searching for a local real estate expert. They need someone who has an in-depth understanding of the local market and guides them in the best way.
In the real estate business, chances are that all agents will claim to be experts when having conversations with their potential clients. So, how can you stand out from the crowd and truly build your reputation as the local real estate market expert?
We went and asked our team of real estate experts to share their tips and best practices on how to develop this expertise and effectively build it into long-term success.
Tips For A Real Estate Agent To Become A Local Real Estate Expert
1. Real Estate Agents Should Engage In The Community
It is necessary for you to showcase your range of interests on your real estate website. Homeowners are looking for an agent that they can connect with, and shared interests are a great way to build and foster that connection. Try to participate and contribute to local community events and talk about these in the blog section on your website.
For instance, if you coach the junior softball team or help out the local animal society in any capacity, then it is something you should feature in your blog. It highlights your involvement in the community, gains trust, and sparks interesting conversations with your potential clients.
2. Agents Should Connect With Local Businesses
As an agent, your clients are looking for more than just assistance with buying or selling a property. They will approach you for suggestions regarding handy repair professionals, painters, gardeners, and even home staging experts. They trust that you can guide them toward the best as you understand their property’s shortcomings well.
You need to build relationships with the owners of these local businesses so that you can offer the best service to your clients. Visit such local business establishments, introduce yourself, ask about the services that they offer, and examine the quality of their work. This will ensure that you have the necessary resources to assist your buyers and sellers.
3. Explore The Local Real Estate Market
Now, we always suggest that you should have a thorough knowledge of the local real estate market conditions. But in order to be considered a local real estate expert, you need to have more than knowledge about average property prices and real estate market conditions.
It is important to study and understand your neighborhoods really well. Get to know all of the street names, most popular cafes and restaurants, locations of essentials such as banks, schools, hospitals, and more. This will ensure that when you are with clients you will never be at a loss for words and will have all the key information at your fingertips.
4. Start Local Social Media Groups
A good resource to generate leads is through social media platforms. Now each social media site requires its own strategies for getting new leads, however, here you are focusing on building your reputation as the local real estate expert. Therefore, it is necessary not to view these activities as means to new leads.
A. Facebook Group
Create a Facebook group for the neighborhood. Let it be an online group where all can discuss issues affecting your neighborhood or post about local news and important community events. Try to connect with the members in a genuine way, support them, and offer advice on all matters. Do not restrict yourself to real estate.
B. Instagram Group
Similar to Facebook, you can use Instagram to build an online community of people living in your neighborhood. Offer free advice or talk about the latest real estate market trends. Share insights about home maintenance and tips for beautification.
C. Essential To Link Your Professional Profiles
Make sure all of your professional profiles are presenting the same brand. When potential clients look up your name, they should see the local real estate market expert on all mediums. For example, if you are a registered agent on Dorrmat, a leading seller leads generating platform, then post a link to that profile on your LinkedIn platform. This will help build more trust and credibility, which will help you convert the site visitors into leads.
5. Create Neighborhood Exploration Video Tour
In order to cement your position as the local real estate expert, you must attract home buyers and sellers by highlighting the value you could offer them. It is good to create a video tour that shows you exploring the neighborhood. At each location, describe the neighborhood, a new home being built, and even talk about the statistics and data of housing in that location.
You can even break them up into smaller tours where each video shows you talking about one specific property. You can share a link to these videos on the business page of your local papers and all of the online resources that you have created. It will act as a splendid marketing tool as people will be able to see for themselves your expertise and knowledge about the local neighborhoods.
Summary
Real estate agents do not thrive in a vacuum. Therefore, it is integral to gain knowledge and follow all of the discussed tips to boost your prospects of business success. It is essential that once you have found your local real estate market niche, you work hard to build it into a steady business. If there are buyers and sellers in your local market, then you should be the first real estate agent that they think to consider. This kind of reach will garner you a tremendous volume of local business, solidify your position as a valuable member of the community, and help you grow in the real estate business.
The key is to build and nurture true connections by being an able and contributing member of your community. By following the tips discussed above, you will be able to create value for your community and be known as the local real estate expert.
