The real estate business is booming, but the way agents and brokers find potential clients is rapidly changing.
Bus benches and newspaper ads were replaced by social media posts and targeted marketing. It doesn’t matter how many people you reach if you aren’t reaching the right ones. That’s why we made a list of online real estate business ideas to help you find potential clients and keep them engaged.
Real Estate Business Ideas for 2018
There are over 2 million active real estate licenses in the US and only 5.5 million homes for sale.
With so many brokers and agents competing for the same properties, all the fresh baked cookies and lemonade you can serve at open houses are no longer enough to give yourself a competitive edge. If you want to get ahead, you need some innovative real estate business ideas to wow potential buyers.
From unexpected marketing tactics to helping your clients improve their financial standing, here are five of the most effective real estate business ideas for 2018.
1. Publish fun neighborhood quizzes on social media
If you’ve ever clicked on a Buzzfeed quiz (and you know you have), then you understand the draw. Online quizzes are fun, informative, and don’t take up a lot of time. The best ones revolve around a theme that your target audience will already be interested in but may not know a lot about. In your case, the neighborhood is the theme.
For example, I recently learned that Santana went to the high school I can see from my bedroom window. I’ve lived in the same place for seven years and had no idea! Include questions in your quiz that are surprising and would be interesting for anyone to learn.
The most popular online quizzes contain between 8-15 questions and have a heavy focus on good visuals. If you are having trouble getting people to click, add an incentive; a small reward goes a long way when it comes to social media engagement, so it doesn’t have to be something big or expensive.
By publishing interesting facts about a neighborhood alongside enticing images, you might draw potential clients who weren’t considering that location at all.
2. Create virtual neighborhood tours
As any real estate expert will tell you, you are not selling a product; you are selling a lifestyle. This is not only true of the home itself but the surrounding neighborhood. Whether it is a bachelor interested in the bar scene or a new family looking for the best schools, it is more effective to show them what a neighborhood has to offer than it is to tell them.
Pick a theme and show potential buyers what the neighborhood looks like through their eyes. If you are focusing on schools, interview parents and teachers. Is the neighborhood safe for children to play on their own? Let them see it for themselves.
If you are targeting a younger buyer, go bar hopping and interview bartenders and patrons about the neighborhood they already know and love. Film it from your perspective and let them feel what it would be like to be there.
Then take it a step further. Ask your audience to suggest more specific themes for future videos. In the case of Buzzfeed, a great deal of their content is entirely community generated, resulting in over 100-million page views per month. Start with a theme like Food Week and ask them to recommend their favorite neighborhood restaurants, then make that the topic of your next video.
By involving your audience in the conversation, you encourage them to share your content with friends and family which leads to more potential clients.
3. Offer valuable tips on the home buying process
One of the most successful content marketing tactics is called astroturfing, a process by which employees of a company get on social media platforms like Reddit and pretend to be satisfied patrons.
However, many savvy social media users are beginning to see through it, due in large part to its widespread use in recent political campaigns. Fortunately, there is a better way that helps your potential clients while highlighting your business expertise. Let’s call it “sodding.”
Instead of pretending to be a former client who spends all of his time commenting on how great you are, offer your audience helpful information about the home buying process, the best neighborhoods, etc. without mentioning your own real estate business at all.
On sites like Reddit or Quora, you can become an “expert” on certain topics and garner your own following. Eventually, people will turn to you when they need advice. This is also a great opportunity to use those neighborhood videos. If somebody asks about neighborhoods with the best schools, post a link to your video. The most common questions will make great topics for future videos as well.
The future of content marketing is all about trust. When your target audience sees you as a trusted authority, they are much more likely to come to you when they are ready to purchase a home.
4. Offer credit repair services
As a real estate agent, you probably encounter your fair share of would-be clients who come to you unprepared, with poor credit and no idea how to fix it. In fact, recent studies show that on average, 1 in 5 Americans cannot buy a home due to having a low credit score.
That’s 20% of your potential reach!
Fortunately, there is something you can do about it. Although it may seem like an inevitable part of the real estate business, you can help your potential clients take control of their finances and raise their credit score by offering credit repair services.
The training and certification process is simple and inexpensive and can open up a world of opportunity for you and your real estate business.
By helping your clients improve their financial standing, you not only increase their credit score but you also increase their borrowing potential, which means a higher commission for you!
5. Start a real estate blog
There is no shortage of blogs floating around the internet, but it is still an effective marketing tactic, no matter what business you are in.
Creating a successful blog isn’t difficult, but it can take time. Fortunately, you already have a big advantage!
By incorporating the innovative real estate business ideas above into your marketing strategy, you already have plenty of material to include in a blog series. Write about the fun facts you learned from researching your neighborhood quizzes. Create blogs around the videos you made for social media. Make a list of potential blog topics based on the questions you get when providing tips on home buying or how to build a better credit score.
There is no rule against repurposing the content you create for your real estate business. In fact, there are many clever ways to turn old ideas into new blogs and increase your reach.
The more opportunities you create to share your own content, the more likely it will be for potential clients to find you.
It’s never too late to give yourself a competitive edge, and these online real estate business ideas are a great start! For more information on how to reach more potential clients and help them prepare to purchase a home, check out:
