One of the most powerful ways to nurture your database is to share local real estate market reports.
But it’s not enough to have a deep understanding of your local real estate market. As a real estate agent, you must know how to present this information in a way that is engaging and valuable to your audience. That’s how you establish yourself as a reliable and knowledgable agent. That’s how you earn trust. And that’s how you earn more clients.
Realvolve + Firepoint brought in two top producing agents to share their best practices for presenting statistics, numbers, and trends. While Stacie Staub (cofounder/CEO/broker at West + Main Homes) and Ara Mamourian (managing partner & broker at The Spring Team) each have two distinct styles, much of their advice overlapped. With their help, we have compiled 7 best practices for sharing real estate market trends with buyers and sellers in your existing database to drum up repeat business and new transactions.
1) Make sure you’re tracking the right things.
It may have been fascinating to track the real estate market throughout the pandemic. But when it comes to helping your clients, don’t waste your time analyzing year-over-year numbers. Even though it’s mind-blowing and interesting to you, those stats don’t matter to people who are actually looking to buy and sell now.
Instead, track active, pending, and sold listings from the last 7 days. Pull that data every week at the same time, advises Staub, and it will tell the story of what is happening week over week. A monthly market update is valuable, too.
Tip for Realvolve users: Create a task reminder for every Friday at 7 a.m. to pull market stats.
2) Keep it local.
Mamourian, who serves the urban communities of Toronto, never shares articles about “Canadian real estate.” You might as well do nothing, he says.
Instead of sharing useless, overly-generalized data, hyper-focus on your local market. Because what’s happening in one neighborhood might be wildly different from the real estate market just a few miles away. Be the super-informed local expert on what’s happening in YOUR neighborhood.
3) Provide commentary.
For every stat you share, tell your audience what it means for them. Don’t force them make their own assumptions (because those assumptions will probably be pessimistic and fraught with panic). Remain level-headed and factual to remove the emotional angst. And make sure the information you provide is valuable.
A great model to follow for explaining statistics is the What? So What? Now What? model:
- What? – Provide the statistic.
- So What? – Tell them how the statistic affects buyers/sellers.
- Now What? – Describe how you, the agent, will navigate this challenge for them.
4) Know your audience.
To present statistics in a way that will resonate with your audience, first you have to know how they prefer to absorb information: Beautiful infographics on Instagram? Key stats jotted down on a napkin? Casual video of you talking into the camera and explaining the weekly trends?
Next, you have to know what keeps them up at night. What worries them? What do they actually care about, and how can you explain it to them in a way that won’t negatively impact their mental health?
5) Make it engaging.
Once you know how your audience wants to receive the information, it’s time to craft the content. As you can see below, West + Main opts for beautiful infographics while Mamourian keeps things casual. Both are brilliant examples of engaging content.
6) Ensure that it is 100% correct.
It’s your duty as a team leader or broker to make sure the content you are providing is accurate. Always identify the source (and make sure it’s a credible source).
7) Be consistent.
Be consistent in the way you pull numbers: same data, same source, and same time each week.
If you’re a broker or team leader, be consistent in the way you provide the data to your agents: same time each week, same design or format.
And train your agents to be consistent in the way they present that data to their clients: again, the same time each week, and in a consistent design or format (napkin? video? beautiful infographic?) that is engaging to their specific audience.
When an agent is consistent, it gives the consumer confidence that this is a person they can count on.
Use Workflows To Build Your Process For Sharing Real Estate Market Data
Just as with any aspect of your real estate business, you should have a clearly defined process for how you will go about gathering, analyzing, and distributing market data to your buyers and sellers. If you use a workflow platform like Realvolve + Firepoint, you can create task reminders to ensure that you pull data consistently; you can set deadlines for your marketing specialist to ensure graphics are designed on time; you can track which agents on your team are diligently receiving and using the materials you provide them; and each agent can track which clients are opening their weekly email updates.
To learn more about our workflow platform for real estate teams and agents, schedule a time to chat with us.
This blog post was originally published on February 3, 2022. It has been updated for relevancy and comprehensiveness.
