February 2017 - iDashboard Blog

How You Can Run A Successful Auction

Auction is becoming increasingly popular as a method of sale in Australian real estate. Although anyone can run one, getting it to the point where it’s successful and fetches good prices for the properties is another matter entirely.

In this article, we’re going to talk you through what it takes to become an auctioneer, as well as the path you need to follow to ensure your auctions are as successful as they can possibly be.

What does it take to be an auctioneer?

Many real estate professionals don’t actually set their course for auctioneering – instead, they fall into it after realising what a strong channel it is.

Auctioneers’ accreditations aren’t hard to achieve and anyone can enrol for the required qualifications. Although anyone can become an auctioneer, there are, however, some people who are better suited to it than others. If you struggle to get your mouth working at the same speed as your brain (or vice versa), you might have to put in a bit more work than your competition.

The key to a successful property auction

Many real estate professionals agree on three core principles that can make or break a property auction.

1) Clarity between agents and auctioneers

Ensuring that there’s a clear understanding between agents and auctioneers is an essential aspect of real estate auctions. If there’s a slip-up in communication, it can have seriously detrimental consequences.

For example, if the agent forgets to mention one of the key USPs of the property to the auctioneer, the accepted bid could be much lower than expected.

2) Being prepared

You should always prepare yourself, the buyers, and the vendor before auction day. By doing this, you’ll make everyone feel more comfortable and address any hesitations that there might have been.

3) Going with your gut

In auctions, everything happens within a very, very short period of time. Depending on your level of experience, trusting your instinct when making judgement calls is an essential tool to have in your arsenal.

Keeping an auction alive and open

Unfortunately, not all auctions can be treated with the same approach. The first thing you’ll want to judge is the overall momentum. If it’s dropping, try to find out why.

Is it because the highest price has been reached? Could there have been a really big sale recently, leading buyers to want to sit back and observe?

Despite what you might want, never try to go against the current of an auction. This might mean changing your dialogue and overall approach, but it’ll help you to connect with the buyers and ensure the best possible outcome.

7 Productivity Tips For A Successful 2017

Real estate is increasingly becoming a demanding and fast-paced profession, which can often leave professionals without enough time in the day for their requirements.

With some forward-planning, however, you can get everything you need to get done fitted nicely into your week. Take these productivity habits below and try to work them into your weekly routine.

Set yourself clear goals

Planning is the key to any successful real estate career. You might not think it, but by planning out your day, week and month, you’ll be able to simply and clearly break down what you need to get done.

By doing this, you’ll also ensure that none of your important tasks slip your mind or get left to the last minute.

Write up a business plan

The majority of real estate agents still don’t have a business plan, despite how essential following one is. By setting out a simple, one-page business plan with your goals and how you expect to meet them, you’ll be able to keep yourself on the right track.

If you can track your numbers against your goals too, you’re guaranteed to have a more productive year.

Create client profiles

Client profiling is, sadly, easier said than done, but if you can master the art form, you’ll see your productivity and sales go through the roof.

The key to profiling someone effectively is figuring out their needs, their ends goals and how they hope to get there.

Get started right now

This year, stop making excuses and procrastinating. To help yourself on the way with this commitment, why not consider getting to the office half an hour earlier each day?

Not only will you have some guilt-free time to grab your morning coffee, you’ll also earn yourself a head-start on replying to client emails before the tasks of the day kick in.

Cross-sell your colleagues

Although you might be in competition with your fellow agents, cross-selling each other’s services means that everyone gets a good slice of the pie. If you give more to your team, you’ll get more back.

If you’re holding back your client metadata from your colleagues, you’re actually being counterproductive.

Stay active

Although it might be tough to find the time in your schedule, it’s a great idea to make room for exercise.

Exercise is an excellent means of relieving stress, so it should be an important part of your day. If you don’t have time to duck out for a full workout during a busy day, take yourself for a quick walk around the office. Although it’s not going to offer the same intensity, it’ll still help to clear your head.

Book in some you-time

After a tough day in the office or on the road, everyone needs some time to unwind. If you don’t get this, you’re not going to be performing at your best, which is what productivity is all about.

If you can hit the pause button on a regular basis, you’ll be impressed by how much more productive you’ll get.

New Estephan Realty Website

Estephan Realty moved away from a large franchise group and required a website for their new company with a modern & responsive website design, incorporating the branding and colours of their company.

The new Estephan Realty website is completely responsive; working on Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones allowing their staff and visitors to access any, property any time.

The new interactive home page contains a great list of ‘must-have’ features, this includes:

Property Search Panel
Home Page Featured Property Scroller
Latest Listing on Home Page
Recent Testimonials
Market Appraisal Request Interactive Form
Latest Sold Properties
Latest News and Updates
Property Videos
Buyer and Renter Email Alerts Signup/Login

Along with this fantastic new home page, the website boasts a property grid list view, property information pages, interactive forms and many more professionally designed features.

We wish the team at Estephan Realty all the best with their new website and look forward to our ongoing relationship.

If you are looking for a new website, wether you are starting from scratch or want to upgrade to a modern responsive design, contact iProperty today.

What You Should Avoid With Your Listing Presentation

An attractive, informative, and honest real estate presentation is the primary key to winning the trust of new clients. There are, however, a couple of taboos that can completely put new real estate leads off of your services.

In this article we’re going to take you through 6 of them, so you can avoid the same pitfalls that other agents have made in the past.

Slamming the competition

Although you want to give yourself the edge over your competition, bad-mouthing them isn’t the way to go about it.

No matter how tempting it may be to share inner-circle industry gossip about other real estate agencies with your prospective clients, it’s actually more likely to backfire and make you look petty. Although you shouldn’t hesitate to stress the benefits of your service, you should be careful to maintain strict professionalism.

Don’t be arrogant

There’s selling the benefits of your service, then there’s overdoing it. Although it’s good to share the successes you’ve had in the past, don’t discuss it too much.

If a client is speaking with you, it’s likely that they’ve already read up on your sales stats. Instead, focus on how your experience will benefit them.

Remain objective about styling choices

If you’re working as a real estate agent, the likelihood is that you’ve got a good idea of how a property should be presented.

It’s great to be able to give your new clients advice – after all, that’s why they’re considering hiring you – but you should remain objective about styling choices. Although they’ll appreciate any tips and tricks, you should avoid making personal comments about any of the items in their home, as you run the risk of causing offence.

Don’t make it all about you

During a listing presentation, potential clients are going to be testing you out to see how well they get along with you.

It might be tempting – especially if you’re nervous – to fill the conversation with information about yourself, but try to shift the focus to the client.

Failing to prepare beforehand

One of the biggest faux-pas you can make with a listing presentation is failing to prepare adequately.

No matter how long you’ve been in the industry, there’s always more left to be learned. For that reason, you should spend as much time as is required to learn about the client, as adequate preparation is often the difference between success and failure.

Not adding value to your service

As digital marketing continues to press upon the industry, the days of harsh sales tactics are coming to an end. Using aggressive methods to pressure leads into positions they might not necessarily feel comfortable in isn’t going to drive the same amount of business that it used to.

Instead, agents should focus on answering any questions and addressing potential objections in a friendly, approachable manner. If you can display value, present yourself as approachable and answer any queries, you stand a great chance of winning the business.

4 Top Tips For Optimising Your Real Estate Facebook Page

So, you’ve created a Facebook page for your real estate agency. Congratulations – it’s a big steps towards digital marketing success and you’ve already put yourself on par with a large amount of the competition with this simple move.

There is, however, a lot of work still to be done. Although you’ve got a Facebook page set up, there’s a long way to go before it’s optimised to the point where it starts to bring in real benefit to your business.

In this article, we’re going to take you through some of the key points you need to cover when optimising your real estate Facebook page for digital marketing purposes.

Add a custom vanity url to your Facebook page

One of the key advantages you can give your Facebook page is making it easily discoverable. This can be achieved easily by adding in a vanity URL.

After you’ve garnered 25 like for your Facebook page, you’ll be able to set a custom URL (vanity URL) to your page, ideally one that reflects the business. With this, people who are searching on Google or Facebook for your business will be able to find your social profile more easily.

Add useful info into the ‘About’ section

Fed up of people getting in touch with you thinking you do one thing when you actually do the other? That can be solved with a properly filled-out About section.

Use this area of your Facebook page to introduce yourself to your customers and detail which areas of the industry you operate in to save your office team time explaining over the phone.

The About section is also a great area to add in your contact number, any relevant email addresses, and a backlink to your website so your customers can find out more about you prior to getting in touch.

Be sure to include powerful profile pictures and cover photos

The general rule of thumb is that your profile picture should show who you are and your cover photo should show what you do. For the profile picture, throw in a copy of your logo in 180×180 resolution. This will accompany your company’s name in search results and help to boost your brand recognition.

For your cover photo, why not try a high resolution image of one of your busy open house events? It’ll both showcase what you do and that you’re successful at doing it – it’s a win-win.

How to Select the Right Social Media Images for Your Content

Make the most of call-to-actions

Although unique, your Facebook page shouldn’t be any different from your website or a blog post when it comes to your lead generation goals. Once you’ve got some traffic hitting your Facebook page, you’ll want to direct them towards the next action you want them to take – enter Facebook’s handy call-to-action button option.

By adding this button into the top of your page, you’ll be able to give your visitors an easy way to take a number of different paths towards contacting you or learning more about your business, including sending you an email, dropping you a Facebook message, downloading an app or heading straight to your website.

Your Guide To Attention-Grabbing CTAs On Social Media

4 Ways To Nail Your New Subscriber Welcome Emails

The welcome emails your real estate agency is the online voice of your business, setting the tone for all present and future interactions – online and in person.

Email marketing should play a huge part in your overall marketing strategy, because when done correctly, it can be incredibly effective. Getting it right first-time, however, isn’t always easy. Read on to uncover our 4 steps to getting email marketing right.

1. Be timely

When you’re sending out a welcome email that opens up a path of communication with a potential customer, you want to be timely about it. In fact, research backs this statement up – the most effective welcome emails are those sent promptly after the person subscribed to the list.

The reasoning behind the success of welcome emails is simple. When they land in a new subscriber’s inbox, your company is already on their mind. If you were to leave it a few days before sending, however, it’s likely that they will have forgotten about you or lost a lot of interest.

2. An irresistible subject line

Think about it – with real estate, a property’s exterior is the first thing people see. You could have the most incredible interior, but if there’s paint peeling on the outside walls, you’re going to lose a lot of business.

This is also the case with emails. It doesn’t matter how great your email copy is if you’ve got a subject line that’s letting you down. It’s the first thing subscribers see and if it isn’t eye-catching and doesn’t cultivate curiosity, you’re going to see it in your stats.

Research has shown that adding the recipient’s first name into the subject line can boost open rates by up to 14.68%. Everyone’s favourite word is their own name, after all. Most email marketing platforms will have a personalisation option, where the first name will automatically be pulled from the database if you add in a specific phrase – they usually look something like {{first.name}}.

3. Be realistic

As with anything (except maybe PPC), results don’t happen overnight. Although you might start out with a high conversion rate, your results are still going to be affected by how many subscribers you have.

Set clear expectations for your email marketing, based on what open rate and click-through rates you hope to see and test, test, test. If you’ve got a subject line that’s negatively affecting your open rate, split-test it against a new one. You’ve got nothing to lose.

It’s also smart to be aware that some people just won’t like your emails. Let’s face it – people do just get fed up of endless business emails hitting their inbox, so you will get some unsubscribes. One good way of reducing this number is specifying in the welcome email how often you’re going to be getting in touch.

4. Add value

You can’t just send endless emails to your list asking them to use your services, because it won’t work. On the off-chance that this direct marketing target does work, the results you’ll see will be a fraction of what you could get if you added value.

Use your welcome email to go over some of the benefits subscribers will get for staying on your list. Think about it – what sort of list are you building?

If you’ve set up a subscription form on a specific page of your website, what’s the demographic likely to be? As an extension of your content marketing efforts, think about the hopes, dreams, problems and aspirations that your subscribers might have.

Next, think up some content ideas that they’ll find useful based on these. If you can answer their questions and keep them engaged, you’re on a path for email marketing success. Your welcome email is the perfect place to start this off.

What’s The Deal With Letterbox Drops?

What’s going on with letterbox drops? Are they still effective? Although they used to be an essential addition to any real estate agent’s arsenal, times are changing.

The rise in online marketing, coupled with public concern regarding the environmental effects that paper-based advertising can have, have all shifted the role letterbox drops play. Even if they’re not as popular as they were 10 years ago, do they still get the job done?

How effective are letterbox drops?

Although times may have moved on, letterbox drops will always have a place. If they’re done correctly and deployed at the right time, they can still bring in leads on par with other marketing mediums.

In Australia’s modern-day real estate climate, there doesn’t really appear to be a general consensus on whether or not letterbox drops are the right or wrong way to market your agency. Instead of deciding for or against it, the focus seems to be more on finding the right balance and mixing it in with other marketing channels, such as social media.

The secret to letterbox drop success

Professionals who have found success with letterbox drops often agree on a couple of key points – it’s all about adopting a tactical approach.

By creating content that’s eye-catching and vibrant, you’ll be able to grab the attention of the right kinds of people. Keep it clear and on-message and avoid cluttering your main points with too much information.

One key mistake that agents make with letterbox drops is changing their message far too often. This inconsistency makes it hard for potential customers to understand what you’re about and it’s going to reduce the chances of them remembering your name. Don’t overcomplicate the message – keep it simple and real estate leads will follow.

Keep your message succinct and, if possible, in addition to bright colours try to add in a bit of humour. One of the toughest challenges your letterbox drops have to face is standing out from the crowd – showing a bit of personality will help you to achieve just that.

Use letterbox drops to educate and inform

One of the best ways of gaining a person’s attention is by telling them something they don’t know. This tactic can be deployed with letterbox drops by giving them facts about their local neighbourhood, for example.

This is a classic content marketing technique. By informing readers about something they didn’t previously know, you’ll help to establish your real estate agency’s brand authority – meaning you’ll look like you know what you’re talking about.

Through this, these potential customers will start to trust you more and, coupled with some well-timed online marketing, they’ll be much more likely to choose your services over your competitors’ should they ever be in the market.

Take letterbox drops with a pinch of salt

Although we’ve discussed some of the key benefits correctly-deployed letterbox drops can earn you, they should also be taken with a pinch of salt.

If you’re revising your real estate agency marketing plan, letterbox drops can make a great addition, but they shouldn’t be solely depended on. Use them if you want, but be sure to compliment them with a portfolio of other marketing channels.

How To Make The Most Of 2017’s Digital Trends

The world of digital marketing is constantly shifting and changing, which can make it hard to keep up. Take a look at the 3 biggest trends that’ll be making prominent appearances in real estate throughout 2017.

Remarketing

Since big data has started to emerge, there’s been a lot of talk about how actual consumer data can be used to maximise the ROI of marketing campaigns. Data that pertains to the online habits of consumers is particularly valuable to businesses and corporations across the world are spending millions on it.

But, why is this the case? Remarketing. By capturing the data of your customers, their online habits and purchase history, brands are able to predict future decisions and shape their marketing around it.

It’s incredibly likely that you’ve experienced remarketing without even being aware of it. Ever looked at a shirt or pair of shoes online, then flicked to Facebook later that day and seen them there in an ad? That’s not just luck.

Remarketing campaigns take a bit of work, but most real estate agents will be able to do it themselves. Facebook will generate a segment of code, called a pixel. Add it to your website, set the ‘website visitors’ option as your audience within Ads Manager and you’re good to go.

Privatised social media

With data privacy making the headlines a couple of times throughout 2016, it’s safe to say that people are growing increasingly concerned about just how private their information is online.

With the industry adapting to cater for this new need, real estate agents can meet their consumers in the middle by doing the same thing. Consider setting up a private Facebook group which your audience can join to get the latest industry news. You could even do it for your most prestigious landlord clients, as a means of keeping in touch with them.

If you can present the group as an offering of exclusive and valuable content, customers will be more likely to join. Although your following will likely be less than you’d anticipate, the quality of the leads will be high.

Influencer marketing

Although the marketing world coined 2016 the year of the influencer, 2017 is set to use it with a special twist.

With the year of the influencer, however, came the year of the micro-influencer. Although these people typically have smaller followings, they’re also typically more loyal than those of larger influencers, who’ve got into the profession to make quick cash.

Many real estate brands are passing on opportunities with influencers to work with a small group of micro-influencers. By doing this, agencies are both saving money and boosting their conversion rates. It’s win-win.

You can take advantage of micro-influencers by spotting influential people within your local area and cultivating relationships with them. Additionally, a local business within your target neighbourhood might be willing to promote your services if you do the same for them in return.

Top Pledges That Every Property Manager Should Be Making

In order to maintain the motivation for providing a top-level customer experience, property management teams should have a set of pledges to keep them on track.

These pledges should reflect the level of service you’d expect as a customer yourself, but they’re not always easy to outline. In this article, we’re going to take you through some of the key points that your property management team should be focusing on.

Communication

This one makes the top of the list because, above all else, it should be your number 1 focus. Communication is the integral core to any high-functioning property management team and if you look into the causes behind customer complaints, nearly all of them are down to a lack of communication.

Around-the-clock online access

Any property information that your customers might need – including any statements – should be available online at their convenience. Even if it’s only so they can view their payments, customers should be able to check in on the status of their property whenever they want.

By offering your customers transparency at this level, you’ll increase the chances of maintaining a smooth, long-term business relationship.

Keep up with regular inspections

In your agreement, there will be a section that mentions that as property managers, you’ll keep up with a routine number of property inspections. If you don’t uphold your side of the tenancy agreement, you’re opening yourself up to a long list of liabilities.

In serious cases, compensation has had to be issued to customers whose properties have suffered unnoticed damage as a result of infrequent inspections.

Contract renewals

This is especially important for investor clients, but you shouldn’t turn a blind eye to it regardless. Many insurance policies are considered void if leases aren’t renewed on a regular basis.

To work around this, you should ensure that all renewals are sent to the customer in good time. If there are any risks regarding insurance invalidation, you should also make them aware.

7 promises that you should make as a property manager

Take pride in your professional practices
Make mutual respect a part of every action you take
Always have your customers’ best interests at heart
Stay positive about everything you do
Network relentlessly with everyone you meet
Share knowledge with your colleagues to help them learn
Never make trade-offs with your business ethics and morals

What happens if you stray from these pledges

Internally, your company will have a number of processes which can be undertaken to resolve potential issues.

It’s important that you offer your customers incentives for if/when you can’t stay true to your word. For example, if you don’t return a call within 24 hours, offer a customer 2 months of free property management. Off the back of this, you’ll be able to motivate your teams with commissions to ensure they keep up with the workload.

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