5 Tips to Market your Property through Real Estate Postcards

Marketing your Real Estate has always been a cumbersome job. Many often Realty Agents/individuals keep looking for ways & channels to aid their marketing strategy. Today we bring to you another means to market your property – Real Estate Postcards.

Real Estate Postcards have proved to be an effective marketing tool. The great feature of postcards is that they are distributed easily & do not cost a lot. Another benefit is that they give your future clients a visual to view & hold onto until they need your business & you also do not have to hire a marketing professional.

Postcard marketing does not take a long time to start generating leads for you. Make sure your marketing is effective; your postcard is direct & gives information that will capture the attention of the viewer. It will work immediately & create a steady flow of business over time. 

An example of Real Estate Postcard

  

How exactly can you create effective marketing through postcards?

Follow these 5 tips for the best outcome:

1. Analyse the Results - Measure & analyse the immediate results that you receive after your postcards are distributed & make sure to keep track of the business it generates over time. Make sure to put your email, phone number, website, etc. on the postcard so people can get a hold of you easily with their real estate needs or what they are interested in. Postcards are an easy way to open the doors of communication between you & future clients. 

Keep track of you appointments & note down where the source was generated from & what outcome it brought you. Measure the return of the investment & if it was able to provide you a positive lead.

2. Design the Postcards Creatively to Fetch Results - Add these five elements in your postcard to make it effective: 

1. The picture of practitioner on both sides
2. Pictures of Homes for Sale
3. Beautiful logo & text with striking font, color, layout, & design
4. A message specifically to target market
5. Call to action

3. Follow Consistency in Branding & Frequency - An effective real estate postcard marketing demands the frequency between 9 & 12 postings annually for the highest value market & 4-12 postings annually for other markets. The idea is to make a name yourself. Meaning that when people think of real estate your name will come to mind in a positive way. 

4. Focus on High Value Markets – High-value markets get you the highest returns on your efforts & investment. So obviously you need to send your postcards for real estate to groups that will be potential leads, & that will generate leads.

           High-value markets:

• Your area of influence which includes clients in the past
• Your work & resident neighbourhood
• Other markets that you are recognized by face or name

5. Do not forget the WIIFT rule – Make sure you always consider the mind-set of your audience before you put your foot forward for real estate postcards marketing campaign. Your primary objective should be to answer “What’s in it for them (WIIFT)”? What is going in their minds? Are they eager to know what the scenario of current real estate market is? Do they trust that you can serve their needs in the best way?

Closing Remarks

Initially, Real Estate pros did not believe that they could really do well in creating an effective message in their real estate postcards; however the messages can turn out to be real effective if these simple yet wonderful tips are followed.

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International Residential Real Estate Trends

Many shifts in the Real Estate Market have been observed over the last few years. Inventory has gradually been coming back, and according to the Urban Land Institute, this should be the last year that low inventory aids property prices. There has been a migration back to the urban areas, or suburban developments focused around more urban-minded projects. And there has been a swing from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market, as sellers know they can leverage buyers hungry to buy before interest rates and home prices go even higher.

Each of these has had a substantial impact on the market, but one of the more interesting trends I’ve observed is with regard to the international buyers; according to Cory Older, Director of a leading property analysis company, one in every fourteen homes sold in the US is purchased by a foreign buyer. While there has always been an international market here in the States, that market has been growing exponentially in the past few years. For the period of April 2013 through March 2014, international sales were estimated at $92.2 billion, an increase from the previous period’s level of $68.2 billion. Although still considered a niche market, it’s a sizeable one. 20% of realtors report the amount of foreign buyers increasing over the last five years; however, only 28% of realtors reported having international clients, and only 4% reported having 11 or more.

Canada, China, Mexico, India, and the U.K. accounted for approximately 54% of all reported international transactions, and while buyers and recent immigrants purchased throughout the country, Florida, California, Arizona, and Texas accounted for 55% of the total reported purchases. Many factors have led to the increase in international home purchases and real estate investments – affordable home prices, favourable exchange rates, and growing affluence abroad.

Through the first quarter of this year, almost 60% of reported international transactions were all cash, compared to only one-third of domestic purchases. This in part speaks to the affluence of the international buyer, but could also be due to the lack of a U.S. based credit history and difficulties in mortgage documentation and financial profile requirements. Roughly 65% of these acquisitions are single-family homes, and 42% of all purchases are used as a primary residence.

It’s undeniable that foreign buyers are becoming an increasingly important group in real estate markets globally. While there are always exceptions, most fall into two categories of buyers with different motivations for buying overseas properties: buyers from emerging markets who are generally wealthier and often purchase for real asset capital appreciation value, and developed market buyers who might be interested in a lower median price and are often more focused on investment yield.

International buyer’s habits are often quite different than domestic purchasers. According to Nicole Morris, a Palm Beach real estate agent whose primary focus is on international buyers, “Foreign buyers don’t necessarily look for the best residential real estate deal first. They look for the best location. After they’ve found the best location, then they want the best deal. And they usually aren’t in a hurry. Honestly, American culture wants everything to move so fast. This scares international buyers and sellers who don’t want to be pushed or pressured. They want to feel comfortable with the process.”

Realtors who are focused on increasing their production would be well served to develop a plan to cater to this growing segment in the market. Understanding the buyers, their unique needs, and the purpose of their purchase could expand an agent’s pool of prospects, and in turn, grow their business.

Bio:

Jonathan Ensey is a Senior Partner at GoThink!, a retail marketing and business consulting company, and the Managing Director of eSpend.

Rental Management Service – A Convenient & Hassle-free Service!

Do you have a house or an apartment or any other property that you have rented to someone? Do you face tough times managing tenants, collecting rents & maintaining those properties? Do you want to get rid of the tension of your property located in a different city? If your answer is yes then the following post might help you out in a big way. Check it out:

Issues associated with renting a property

While we do advocate renting a property, we do not deny the stressful issues that come along with it. Your tenants are most likely to give you following tensions:

• Irregular or non-payments of rent
• Untimely vacating the property
• Unexplained excessive maintenance costs
• Damaging the property
• Sometimes not vacating the property
• Non-payments of public bills

Other than these, other issues may include – finding a new tenant, conducting legal formalities before handover, settlement of dues & several others.

I know after reading all the above problems some of you may have started doubting the institution of renting & it’s very obvious too! So what to do? Relax mate; you don’t have to do anything. Everything will be done by the guys running Rental Management Services.

Rental Management Services

These are new emerging services which take care of all your rental problems. You just have to register with them & pay them a commission from the monthly rent that you receive. These guys will:

• Collect timely rents for you
• Find you genuine tenants
• Maintain your property
• Complete all the paper works
• If you desire, sell your property
• Renew agreements & rental deeds

When we first came across these agencies, we were skeptical about their functioning. But after seeing them work in Hyderabad, we were mesmerized. These guys will definitely take all your tensions & stresses over their mind at just a small cost.

Is it worth paying them?

Just one word – TOTALLY!

You can totally trust them & enjoy your sleep back at home.

Disclaimer: The above post is just a piece of information & is not intended to advertise any agency. Although we trust their functioning, we do not take any responsibility for any of such agencies.

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