5 Agents And 5 Marketing Questions For 2011-2012

I thought I’d switch things up and do a crowdsourced article for my next piece here. It’s a long weekend here in Canada so I’m spending some time with the sun and beer, less on writing. I have had the pleasure of making friends with a lot of agents, and these five guys are some of the best in the business. It was time I shared the marketing thought process from the view of an agent, and not that of a marketing nerd like myself. There are just things I don’t know when it comes to real estate, so hopefully these guys help you folks out in some way or another.

There are so many bloody things to tackle on and off page, as well as on and offline. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, real estate agents are machines when it comes to not only selling homes but personal branding and marketing. The insight provided by these agents should give you an idea of how others are working, and perhaps help define your marketing plan for the next couple of years.

All these agents are not competing with each other, and all are from Canada and The United States. Each area represents a whole different kind of market so this should be quite interesting! I’d like to once again thanks to everyone for taking some time to send me back these answers really quickly. Now on to the info!

Robert Moore from Vancouver BC:

Web: http://robertmoore.ca
Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertmoorebc
Blog: http://robertmoore.ca/blog

Question 1) Background/Introduction on yourself

I first learned about Vancouver Real Estate in the early 90′s as an investor in Vancouver downtown and Yaletown. In the early 2000′s, I provided marketing services to help real estate developers in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto sell more homes faster. I became licensed as a realtor and have since served on numerous home owners association boards (strata) which is a great compliment to my current market knowledge as an active Vancouver Realtor .In my adventurous 20′s, I worked as a commercial diver on the offshore oil rigs in the Canadian Arctic. After studying economics at Simon Fraser University for 2 years I entered the fast growing information technology industry in the mid 1980′s where I held sales positions and eventually managed and oversaw the growth a company from zero revenues to $30 million in 5 years.

As a Realtor, I’m always adapting, leading and innovating. If real estate is a sport – I help you win! I bring 30 years of sales and negotiating experience. I live in Kitsilano near the beach and I can be found in my Yaletown office, working downtown Vancouver or in Kitsilano and all around False Creek. When not working, I can be found at the gym, playing tennis, golfing, running at UBC on their new track or at my cottage in the gulf islands or in the Baja of Mexico!

Question 2) If you had to stick to one form of marketing, what would you choose?

The form of marketing really varies with the target market, i.e. houses in Vancouver are different than condos in downtown Vancouver. Although I try hard to avoid direct mail, the truth is, it is still the most effective form of marketing as it captures the current home owners who are already in the market who wish to trade laterally, up, down or to a different neighborhood.

Question 3) Do you think Google+ will be an asset to your marketing efforts, or just another time waster?

For now I’m going to be hesitant mainly because of the results of Google’s previous attempts at something like this. What I’m doing now is working great and I’ll keep focusing my strategies on things that are binging in an ROI now. I won’t turn down the Google+ requests I’m getting and I’ll just let my circles build up naturally for now.

Question 4) In 2011, are your going to be spending more on online marketing or is the offline marketing budget still bigger?

I will be spending more of my budget on off line marketing because that is the best method of capturing local people. It is also the best way of capturing sellers not just buyers. With the high Canadian dollar, Americans are not buying here right now. The most active non local buyers are the mainland Chinese buyers, but they will only buy from Chinese agents. However, I find that other Asian nationalities, be they from Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korean or Vietnamese, will buy and in some cases prefer buying from locally born Canadian agents. The bottom line is my website captures a lot of views from around the world but as Vancouver is now an expensive city to buy in, people need to be very motivated to put new money in our market, so doing business with people who are already in the market has become more important .

Question 5) If you could pick one form of offline marketing to stick to, what would it be?

I would choose direct mail and I would market to several neighbourhoods and I would stick to it forever. It would consist of concise market news, neighbourhood updates, recent sales statistics and my new listings and most recent sold property information.

Ben Fisher from Park City Utah:

Web: http://www.TheParkCitylifestyle.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/parkcityliving
Blog: http://www.theparkcitylifestyle.com/lifestyle-blog
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/benfisherPC

Question 1) Background/Introduction on yourself

I’m a young agent with Sotheby’s in Park City, UT who spends much of my time teaching myself anything and everything about online marketing, real estate marketing in particular. It has turned into quite a hobby of mine which I must confess, I may spend too much time on. I started out in real estate by building a website for my dad as he was very much still in the 2001, Craig Proctor style business and I thought he needed to expand. From there I started teaching myself WordPress, SEO, and other techniques to market for real estate.

You can typically find me on Facebook which I usually leave in an open tab throughout the day to chat with friends, or browsing all of the real estate technology blogs (Geekestate, AgentGenius, WannaNetwork, etc). Offline I spend a lot of time with my wife as I am newly married. I love the outdoors here in Park City so I’m snowboarding and skiing all winter and camping and golfing all summer. Hard life, I know…..

Question 2) If you had to stick to one form of marketing, what would you choose?

If I had only one option of marketing I would choose blogging. I have turned my real estate site into a local source for great deals on real estate, but also local information, events, and community news that not just real estate buyers would want to see, but locals as well. It is still new for me, but the traction and traffic have gained thus far is much better than I would have seen from any other sort of marketing. And it’s free, which is nice!

Question 3) Do you think Google+ will be an asset to your marketing efforts, or just another time waster?

Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of social media in real estate as a lead generation technique, so I don’t think Google+ will be doing much for me besides staying in contact with friends and online relationships. I do blast some stuff out on Twitter and Facebook, but mostly just so my connections can see some of my work and know to think of me next time they know someone who needs a Realtor.

Question 4) In 2011, are your going to be spending more on online marketing or is the offline marketing budget still bigger?

I spend the vast majority of my budget on online marketing as it is so I don’t think I will change that to offline anytime soon. I started out doing marketing for my dad who is in the business and he is a huge proponent of offline marketing, and it works for him. I’m not a huge fan of it myself so I think I’ll stick to blogging, SEO, and other forms of online marketing to get my name out there and build my business.

Question 5) If you could pick one form of offline marketing to stick to, what would it be?

If I could only do offline marketing I would most likely choose highly targeted direct mail campaigns. I confess, I should be doing more of these as it is but the online branding I’ve been doing takes up more of my time than I would like. Despite what some say, direct mail marketing still works! Whether it be for FSBO’s, expireds, or farming areas, it can still work very well and provide a great ROI.

Tony Kawaguchi From Oahu Hawaii:

Web: http://www.alohatony.com
Blog: http://www.alohatony.com/blog
Twitter: http://twitter.com/alohatony
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alohatony

Question 1) Background/Introduction on yourself

I’ve been in real estate since the late 90′s, starting out as a loan officer then moving over to selling homes. I live in Honolulu Hawaii with my wife and 3 kids, and I’m Vice President of Realty Executives Oahu. My office is in Waikiki, in the heart of the tourist district which is a place I love going to every day!

Question 2) If you had to stick to one form of marketing, what would you choose?

If it was only 1 form, I would stick with SEO for my website, because the return on investment is best online. You can mail a few thousand postcards for $1000 and get maybe a couple responses, but online that money will get you dozens of solid leads.

Question 3) Do you think Google+ will be an asset to your marketing efforts, or just another time waster?

It’s similar to Facebook in many ways, which has been ok but not great for marketing. You can stay in touch with people, but I’m not sure the time required will provide a solid enough return to focus on it. I think it, like Facebook, should be the 5th or 6th thing you can be doing for marketing.

Question 4) In 2011, are your going to be spending more on online marketing or is the offline marketing budget still bigger?

Unfortunately the offline marketing budget is slightly larger, but that’s because sellers will usually list their home with the name that has the most local recognition. The internet is still the best place to find buyers, but sellers want to see your face and brand all over the place. They like the ad at the grocery store, the fancy postcards and bus stop ads. I would estimate that 90% of people online are buyers, not sellers.

Question 5) If you could pick one form of offline marketing to stick to, what would it be?

The best one is direct mail, which means postcards. It also happens to be the most expensive form. It’s cheaper to buy a billboard or ad space at a local mall, but postcards keep you in front of people on a regular basis. I recently purchased ad space on every shopping card at my local grocery store, which was about 1/10 the cost of sending postcards for a year. People will see me more often at the grocery store, but they may not remember who I was when they get home. So I still think a postcard will work better because your name and number are in the seller’s home.

Patrick Hake From Placer County California:

Web: http://www.placercountyhomesandland.com
Blog: http://www.placercountyhomesandland.net
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PatrickHake
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Auburn-CA/Placer-County-Homes-and-Land/139236066089886

Question 1) Background/Introduction on yourself

I am a real estate broker with RE/MAX Gold in Auburn, CA. I lead a team of local agents who service clients who come from my regional real estate website www.PlacerCountyHomeandLand.com. We work all ends of the market. I currently have agents helping clients purchase and sell everything from high end estate homes to small income producing investment properties.

Question 2) If you had to stick to one form of marketing, what would you choose?

I’m not sure if I can call this one type of marketing, but I would say having a holistic online marketing approach is what works best. That includes having a solid listing website with static community pages and a strong listing search feature, a consistently updated blog, a presence in social media and lots of content published wherever possible on the web.

Question 3) Do you think Google+ will be an asset to your marketing efforts, or just another time waster?

I think it is just one more avenue to get my name out there and build a brand for my website. Now that Google appears to have gotten it right with Google+, I am sure they will begin to assert their leverage on business owners to use it frequently. They will do so primarily by dangling the carrot of improved rankings in their search engine. So, yes, when they offer business pages, I will join Google+ and publish their often.

Question 4) In 2011, are your going to be spending more on online marketing or is the offline marketing budget still bigger?

Outside of yard signs and flyers, we spend almost nothing on offline marketing. Right now I am conflicted in that I have the chance to get a link from a local community’s website. Unfortunately, I will only get the link if I advertise in their seasonal offline magazine. I consider print advertising to be so poor a ROI compared to online marketing that I am hesitant to spend the money, even if I do get a link. I think the money may be better spent on a PPC campaign targeting the same neighborhood.

Question 5) If you could pick one form of offline marketing to stick to, what would it be?

Picking up the phone and staying in contact with friends, family and past clients for repeat business and referrals is always a good form of marketing. That and targeted letters with a very specific message can be a good way to reach clients considering selling.

Dan & Christine Bacon From St Petersburg Florida:

Web: http://www.BaconRealtyGroup.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/stpetebroker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StPetersburgHomesandCondos
Phone: Dan Bacon 727-366-5771
Phone: Christine Bacon 727-480-9081

Question 1) Background/Introduction on yourself

Dan and Christine Bacon assist clients with buying and selling waterfront and luxury homes and condos in the St Petersburg FL / Clearwater FL area real estate market. They have been in the real estate for business for ten years and are both Licensed Real Estate Brokers. Dan has a B.S. in Commerce / Marketing from The University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.

Question 2) If you had to stick to one form of marketing, what would you choose?

It really depends on what type of client you are trying to attract. Right now if I had to choose one form it would be web marketing for organic results. It costs the least in dollars but the most in hours, unless of course you outsource everything, but has the best potential payoff in the future. However, I know of some agents who are are doing incredibly well with direct mail and a terrible website.

Question 3) Do you think Google+ will be an asset to your marketing efforts, or just another time waster?

I’m looking forward to Google+ and do think it will become an important part of our marketing efforts. I like the way they are approaching the privacy issues and groups, which has been my main complaint with Facebook. While I see the value in Facebook for marketing I also see what an enormous time waster it can be if you let yourself fall in to the traps.

Question 4) In 2011, are your going to be spending more on online marketing or is the offline marketing budget still bigger?

I expect to spend more on online marketing in 2012, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the online budget will be bigger than offline. Again it depends what kinds of client you are trying to attract. Online can be great for buyers but isn’t so great for listings. Of course you can spend huge amounts of money buying online “leads,” but in our experience you end up with a lot of very low quality leads that “lead” nowhere.

Question 5) If you could pick one form of offline marketing to stick to, what would it be?

The best free offline marketing is networking of course, but you can’t beat direct mail for listings. It hard to do well though. Most of it goes in the trash so the challenges are to create something that will grab the target’s attention quickly, and to have the budget to mail often. It helps greatly if you have marketing and design skills and can create your own materials to upload to high volume printers, who will print and mail to your supplied list.

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Thanks to all the real estate agents who took part in this post, I know you’re all busy people. I hope to do another post like this before the year’s end so I’d love to hear from interested agents. I could always use more people in different areas to broaden the answers and results we learn from everyone who’s doing something different. If your real estate business needs a pick me up, get in touch with me about our real estate SEO services.