It’s not news anymore that the booming real estate market in the U.S. hit a sudden cool down since April 2022 due to the sharp rise in interest rates. Whether you’re a realtor, marketer, or listing agent/coordinator, it’s likely you’re now struggling with low inventory and discouraged buyers.
According to Ryan Holiday, author of ‘The Obstacle is The Way,’ there is an opportunity to improve our condition within every obstacle. Perhaps a market slowdown is an opportunity to evaluate your real marketing strategy to better reach and serve your existing and future clients.
After all, a slowing market is only temporary—we’re in for the long game.
We’ve covered that an effective real estate marketing strategy consists of four cornerstones:
- Your ideal clients
- Your value proposition
- Your real estate listing strategy
- Your real estate listing imagery
In this article, we’ll discuss the elements of your real estate listing strategy.
Your real estate listings tell your potential buyers more about you than you think
Buying or selling a house is stressful. Most of your buyers will not have the same information or the local knowledge you possess. More than relying on you to provide them with information on the property, your buyers depend on you to drive the confidence in knowing they are purchasing the right future home.
According to Trey Miley from 1PercentLists, most realtors have the same information on a property. The key to setting yourself apart in the market lies in your understanding of the local market, your ability to do effective marketing, and your ability to serve your buyers.
How you do your listings tells your buyers more about you and your reliability in their home buying journey than you think.
When thinking about your listing strategy, your goal is to help your buyers answer the big question: Do I have enough information without searching elsewhere to make my next decision?
Are floor plans really the low-hanging fruit in boosting your listing strategy?
Floor plans were once considered a luxury item for higher-end listings due to the amount of work and costs involved in creating them—from crouching through a property to manually measuring a property and painstakingly sketching it based on the data.
With so many floor plan apps popping up in the market, those days are behind us. The question remains: Why aren’t floor plans ubiquitous yet in the U.S?
A good floor plan is like a tailor-made suit and has always had importance in the real estate business. Floor plans are the most desired feature on a home listing (NAR, 2021) and correlate highly with capturing potential leads.
Here are some questions to ponder when creating your listing strategy:
- Where will you be listing properties?
- Will it be easy for your potential buyers to access these listings?
- How will you describe listings to help potential buyers make their decision?
- What type of information and content will you share?
- What is the process from start to finish?
If homebuyers seek floor plans when searching for a home, make floor plans part of your marketing strategy.
“I’ve never really used floor plans before. But interesting enough, the listings that we added floor plans to end up going quicker. People can see the space and measurements, and sort of get a feel of the flow of the property.” — Trey Miley, 1PercentLists.
On driving real estate leads: less is more. Keep it simple.
Virtual tours and interactive floor plans are fantastic. But are they necessary?
It depends.
The home buying process is already stressful enough with a pre-existing overload of information and decisions that need to be made. Throwing in visuals and data that require more brain power to piece the puzzle together before it leads to a completed sales adds to the homebuying stress.
However, virtual tours can be a great way to get more flooring leads, as they increase the client’s ability to visualize a type of flooring in their home. Basically, the ability for virtual tours to improve your marketing potential depends on your industry and the clients you’re advertising to.
The good and bad of virtual tours and interactive floor plans
Virtual tours began gaining a foothold in the real estate industry since the introduction of Youtube and the ease of going live on social media platforms. Then came the invention of 3D cameras such as Matterport and 360° cameras that spawned a whole new realm of the virtual walkthrough.
Good: Virtual tours give buyers a feel of the space such as ceiling height, lighting, amenities available, etc. It’s been used for new construction buildings or cruise ships to display all the above.
Bad: They lack the simplicity of being able to see the flow of a property at a glance.
The good and bad of simple floor plans
Most buyers use virtual tours to get a feel of the space. However, most of them end up not completing the tour. This is where simple 2D floor plans come in handy.
Good: Real estate floor plans give home buyers the confidence to know what they’re walking into. The combination of professional real estate photography and a solid floor plan gives buyers an immediate idea of the property’s layout. They also cost less to generate and typically only require you to download an app on your smartphone.
Bad: They don’t give a view of the amenities available within the property.
In a nutshell:
When it comes to residential single-family homes, most buyers would prefer to visit the property to get a sense of it, the neighborhood, and everything else involved before making their final decision. Having all necessary data available to your buyers is a prerequisite to visiting a property.
The more information you have available to the public, the better. Floors plans that were once considered luxury items due to the amount of work it takes to create them are now easily available with the help of floor plan apps. Why not use technology to your advantage?
Are floor plans the low-hanging fruit in boosting your listing strategy? Most definitely!
Adding a floor plan to your listing provides your buyers with enough information without needing to search for it elsewhere before taking the next step with you.
Real estate marketing tips for real estate professionals
How to Get Clients in Real Estate: A Guide to Marketing
Why a simple floor plan remains necessary even in a virtual era?
Using different apps for floor plans
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