Summer vacation is the perfect time for foreign buyers to scope out the area where they have found a potential property to buy. It is common practice to visit the selected property as the final step before buyer’s seal the deal. Add this to an appetite for summer vacation plans and it is a well-balanced serving of business and pleasure.
In a typical year, the real estate would begin its Spring boom right about now; however, 2020 will be no typical year. The Coronavirus pandemic has undeniably impacted the spring schedule, making it likely that real estate market activity is going to be pushed further into the spring and possibly into the summer months. With many people postponing (or cancelling) summer holidays and hundreds of millions being placed on lock down, buyers and sellers have been looking at properties online, even more so than they usually do. When society resumes its normal rhythm, and it will, pent-up demand will likely yield a surge of activity in the market. As a real estate professional, you’ll want to capitalize on this interest and hit the ground running. Make sure you are positioned properly through ListGlobally’s global listing coverage and integrated platforms to help you secure new business.
The coronavirus crisis has now reached Europe, causing a considerable slowdown in everyone's daily routine. But what are the consequences of the ‘stuck-at-home’ scenario for potential buyers and users of the ListGlobally real estate portals?
Your listings are published on ListGlobally’s Network? Congratulations, you are now reaching a large audience of international property buyers!
Real estate is one of the most challenging industries in recent times. But thanks to various innovative strategies and solutions, the industry continues to improve with each passing day. This is why marketing and advertising strategies for the sector continue to evolve as agents strive to be noticed.
Consumer traffic data recorded from listing performance across the ListGlobally network has shown that in 2018, Foreign consumers that displayed the greatest level of interest in U.S. properties were Chinese consumers at seven percent (7%). French consumers accounted for five percent (5%) of total consumer interest, and UK citizens made up one percent (1%) of total consumer interest.
If succeeding in the national market already requires a lot of work, working in the international market is even harder. The competition is fierce and it requires you to be different and to expand your area of expertise.
You would expect that 100% of foreign buyers get an answer from the real estate agents they contact. After all, real estate agencies pay to list on property portals, to attract domestic buyers as well as foreign buyers.
You haven’t missed the “global marketing party,” but you sure are arriving fashionably late. Global buyers have been fixated on securing overseas property investments for years, leading some markets to implement bans and increase taxes to curb interest.
Responding to international leads can be a tough job, especially because there are cultural differences and constraints that can slow the process, becoming an obstacle for real estate professionals. We all know that today's real estate business is not only local - but global. Buyers are coming from every corner of the globe. Travel is common (and convenient) and lifestyle also contributes to the real estate trends we are experiencing. Real estate agents are delighted and interested in getting foreign leads.
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At ListGlobally we always want to learn more about our real estate agents and markets. We want to be closer, and also provide them valuable data that they can use on their daily work. Considering that, we've decided to sit down and have a Skype interview with Frank Morrice Arias. He is the General Manager of ServMor Realty.
The market growth we have seen during 2018 has recommenced.
Agents will have a big smile about this, but we should not ignore the challenges brought by the geopolitical framework (with concerns moving from local to global), and that sellers will face a competitive market due to high demand vs the number of properties on the market.
For real estate professionals it’s essential to have visibility and one way to do it is to know exactly what to write on a listing description.
We all love to be seduced and why would that be different when we talk about our customers or about the selling activity?
And how can you do it?
There is no need to write an academic essay, nor a poem to seduce your customers to let them know how awesome you are. Actually it’s quite simple.
I bet you’ve already searched thousands of property listings and that you have an idea about what a property listing should look like. I even suspect that you already thought, “Well, if this works for them, it should work for me and I am on track!” WRONG. Here is your first lesson … don’t imitate, innovate!
If you are not different, you will get lost in the crowd and it’s so boring to look like the rest! Obviously not everyone is a Shakespeare or a Mozart but I will give you a structure that will help you start moving like Jagger:
Your title and your statement should be catchy and different. If you are selling a property to younger people why not try humor? Try finding a positive thing in every feature of the property.
Here are some examples of property titles:
Priced To Sell. This One Won’t Last! 2 bedroom apartment in the center of Boston.
Stop your kids from fighting. Give each of them a room. 4 bedroom villa with pool available to sell in Malaga!
Start planning your barbecue, move in today to this beautiful Villa in Albufeira! Available for sell.
Amazing apartment with 2 bedrooms and outstanding sea view that will make all your friends jealous. Available for sale only in Malibu!
Describe what are the customer is looking at, directly and simply. Give them a reason to click.
At this stage, you should try to answer the customer desires and the basic initial information you should include are the property type and its location.
Everyone wants to know what they are buying so it is mandatory to include the property description:
· How many rooms/bathrooms ?
· Property size and divisions size
· Location: neighborhood, schools, shopping, transportation
· Extras: garage, pool, garden, others
· Any recent updates or renovations
· Unique characteristics
Note that while you are describing those features, you can tell a story to your customer. Try to put your potential customer inside the property by showing them a lifestyle. Make them dream about it.
For example:
Welcome home! Upstairs you will find 2 rooms for your kids, and suite for you and your partner. The 3 existing bathrooms will be located next to the kids rooms, one will be inside your suite and the other will be downstairs next to the 20m2 kitchen. This way your friends won’t have the need to go upstairs and get the whole floor wet when they get out of the 15m2 pool you have outside. Your pool parties and barbecues will be renowned in this astonishing lake-view villa.
If you need to sell that property quickly, you can even go for the extra mile and offer, a discount or incentive: special financing conditions; administrative fees; etc.
You should finish your description with a call to action which is extremely important to complete the sale.
If you think that a simple sentence like “buy now” will do the work - it won’t. People are driven by emotions so talk to people and get them get passionate about your listings.
Why not create a call to action like, “contact me now so we can schedule your barbecue”?
Different people have different needs, so they will feel more connected to a description that goes straight to their personal desires and expectations.
If you are selling a family house please put the family inside the property (like the example we’ve seen before), but if you are selling a studio for a student, you can speak about it’s proximity to theatres or the university, and describe how that property will fit their lifestyle.
Don’t try to rip off your clients. Be fair and smart to sell it quickly:
What is this? Well most of your clients come from the online environment. So, you need to get noticed on this platform. If your property description is the first snippet of text Google will see on your page, make sure you consider including SEO-friendly phrases like:
“Save fuel. 2 bedroom apartment, close to transport and in city center, available for sale in Lausanne”. Your potential buyer will include these phrases in their online searches so Google needs to find them in order to present your listing to your customers.
Now that you know that selling, real estate can be pretty fun. Start practicing!
ListGlobally has you covered, providing access to a truly global audience and offering promotion across the largest network of real property portals available.
For more information on products and services, reach out! We want to talk to you!
If you are one those real estate agents that has nightmares each time you think about chinese buyers enquiring on your property, just stop here for a minute.
The real estate business changes every day. We all know that we need to constantly adapt but… easier said than done.
