First, I hope this finds everyone safe and healthy in these crazy times. And everyone is probably a little crazier, as shelter in place has been going on for four months in Marin.
I’m not sure when, but we are hoping we all return to normal in the real estate market soon. At our sales meeting last week, we actually discussed re-opening the office, maybe in a few weeks. With temperatures taken at the door, and masks being worn, and social distancing in practice, but opening!
Homes are being shown, and sold, as noted in the newsletter. Protocol has not changed in two months, and there are no signs it is changing soon either. No open houses, or brokers opens, and showings are by appointment only, with masks worn, and multiple forms signed. Anyone looking at a house right now really wants to see that house!
How do we market listings now? There are no brochures, or flyers. No open houses where the buyer for the home may just wander in. And we are not sending postcards right now for listings, as we don’t think people like touching mail if they don’t have to.
One thing we are doing is taking out more ads online, on Facebook and Instagram, for listings. We have been doing that for several years, but are now investing more in this as it is how people find out about homes. The ads have a “learn more” tab, which takes you to a website for the home, and we can measure actual click throughs. Ads are targeted geographically around the address, to people who have expressed interest in real estate. We do not target demographically , as that violates federal fair housing law. Our last campaign received over 200 click-throughs to the property website, which means interested viewers are taking a closer look!
We also continue to market via the Internet at large. Coldwell Banker pushes all of our listings out to over 700 websites, so we are on all the sites you have heard of (Zillow, Trulia) and lots you haven’t heard of! And we also market through our internal network at Coldwell Banker- we are the largest brokerage in Marin, and new listings are presented at our weekly sales meeting (ten were presented today) as well as monthly meeting of all offices. We sold to one of our buyers a month ago that way, and they were able to purchase the home before it went on MLS.
We continue to evolve, adapt, and innovate. And will continue to do so!
Recent Comments