By now, we are all aware that many industries were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many were hit harder than others, but some were able to pivot and create new ways for people support their industry. One of these industries is real estate.
When lockdowns were imposed, many thought the real estate industry would see a drastic drop, but the exact opposite happened. If anything, the lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders highlighted the need most people have for a home of their own. Through technological advancements, it was business as usual for real estate agents and brokers.
House Tours Through Video Conferences
Real estate agents are used to relying on in-person open houses and private tours to close a sale. After all, there’s nothing quite like seeing a house for yourself and envisioning how your life will play out in your home. However, because of lockdowns, many homebuyers were forced to put a stop to their house hunting. Real estate agents turned to the next best thing: a video tour of the house.
FaceTime and Zoom conferences have become the preferred tools of the trade. Many realtors also report that they don’t just use it for video tours now, but transactions have also been completed by simply being in video conferences with their clients and home sellers.
Virtual Open House and Tours
Some realtors took the video conferencing apps one step further and introduced the idea of a virtual open house. Interested parties are encouraged to leave their email addresses with realtors and will receive an invitation to the virtual open house. While an open house could mean you’d have more than one interested buyer looking at your property at any time, a virtual one meant that they’d have to be scheduled and broken down into groups.
Why You Need to Beef up Your Digital Presence
Real estate experts and watchers believe that even though these technological tools are available to private sellers, agents and brokers today, there will still come a time that buyers would still want to see the houses in person. However, they do advise that now is the best time to improve your online marketing efforts.
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Keep Your Website Updated
Consider your website as your business card. It should, of course, list down your correct and current contact information. But you can also do more than that with an expertly designed website. Listing a house and land package, for example. Most listings would just introduce the specifications of the property for sale but if you understand your audience well, you’d add content that would be more enticing to them.
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Stay Connected on Social Media
Millennials currently make up the biggest group of consumers in the US and this generation is also the most active on social media. Though Facebook remains the most popular of all these platforms, don’t forget the power of new players too, such as TikTok. It may be a controversial platform, but with nearly 800 million subscribers, you’d be missing out on a lot of possible leads. Use the platform to create short stories about your buyers and sellers.
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Host a Webinar
If you’ve already been using Zoom and other video conferencing to host virtual open houses, why not take it up a notch and host a webinar? Show your current and potential clients that you are a subject matter expert and talk about current trends in the real estate industry. Invite them to ask questions about the ins and outs of home buying and selling. A webinar is the best way for you to highlight your expertise while winning your clients’ trust and loyalty.
