Everyone’s heard about the basic skills, strategies, and tools that have been successful for real estate agents for decades. These basics are continually suggested (particularly for new agents) because they work. While mastering the basics and ensuring you stick with them is important, so is taking your business a step further by adopting new strategies, tools, and solutions that will help you remain relevant as markets—and the real estate industry as a whole—shift.
But the basics will only get you so far. Successful, modern agents take things a step further, try new solutions, and are constantly finetuning everything from their listing presentation and mailers to their suite of services. I’m excited to share three ways you can ensure you’re saving time and standing out to grow your business quickly and efficiently.
1. Take a step back to develop proper utilization of the digital space
The digital ecosystem is vast and ever-changing, so proper utilization of the digital space certainly does not mean mastery of everything digital. This is where strategy comes in. Pick the digital media types and channels that will get you the biggest impact. For example, if you’re currently posting daily on social media, but aren’t seeing returns and don’t have additional resources to increase your impact, proper utilization could mean posting less or pushing pause on the channel for the time being.
One thing every agent should be doing to build a better digital brand is focusing on high-quality photos and the digital curb appeal of their properties. Whether you share a listing’s photos on social media, your website, or just listing sites, your sphere (including clients and potential clients) will see the quality of the photos and the listing. Even if low-quality photos will get the home sold in a highly competitive, seller’s market, you should consider the effect those photos could have on your brand and reputation. As a bonus, having high-quality photos of your listings will make content creation for marketing purposes both faster and easier.
2. Re-examine your go-to tools and resources
There are basic tools and resources that every agent knows and uses well, but there are several new resources available for real estate agents to help you save time and/or scale business efforts. These tools, while not created specifically for real estate agents, are incredibly helpful for any business owner or marketer.
Below are a few that the team at Curbio uses!
Canva is a (free) design platform that enables agents to create beautiful marketing materials at scale for everything from postcards to social posts (get access to free marketing templates).
Asana is a (free) project management tool that can help you organize your ideas and tasks. You can also use it to assign and track tasks to your assistant or team members.
Milanote is another (free) note and project organizational tool that is so simple, it’s perfect. If Asana seems a bit too complicated for you and your team to use, Milanote can help you stay organized without all the bells and whistles.
BombBomb makes video marketing a little easier, and helps you better engage with your sphere
3. Source a better solution for client home improvement needs
The most successful agents know that all homes need some type of work before hitting the market, and many already have go-to contractors they use for basic repairs and paint. With sellers expecting an increasing level of agent support for pre-listing home improvements and the most buyers hoping for a move-in ready home, modern agents know they need more than just a go-to handyman to prep and sell listings quickly. What they really need is a team of contractors at the ready to complete any project necessary to get a home sold or move-in ready. Furthermore, they need a solution to address the time and money necessary to renovate homes.
Concierge programs help with the financing aspect of home improvement, but they’re not available for every agent and usually require a significant chunk of time from agents. As an agent, you have a lot to focus on, from market and industry trends to the specific details of each of your listings and clients. This is why modern agents use Curbio to achieve the five-star support they and their clients need for real estate home improvement projects.
Learn how Curbio can help you tackle pre-listing preparations without sacrificing time.