Tag Archives: open houses

Targeted Marketing Attracts Schools of Online Buyers

Posted on by

Everybody knows fish tend to swim in schools.  The same is true with buyers.  93% of buyers search online, so knowing where they are and how to reach them is integral today. Targeted marketing attracts schools of online buyers.

This past month we’ve held some open houses.  We had one 3 weeks ago and 45 people showed up.  Last week we held one and 40 people showed up.  The lender who agreed to sit with us and help pre-qualify buyers who might need assistance was amazed.  He said he’d never seen anything like it.  He went to 6 open houses last weekend and none had that kind of traffic but ours.

Targeted Marketing Attracts Schools of Online Buyers
Last Week’s Open House Ad Online

We’ve developed a particular set of skills that finds specific buyers and brings them to your door.  We are targeting buyers, and they love it.  We asked each buyer who came through how they found us.  Many said the open house popped up on their phone, while others said they saw it online.  Were they mad they saw one of our ads?  Heck no, they were glad, and they acted and showed up.

In any advertising, you must target the right people, with the right message, at the right time.  If you fail at any of the three, you’re missing opportunities.  It’s not about how much you spend.  While it is true we spend more than other agents, spending alone won’t bring buyers.

There is blanket advertising and targeted advertising.  Advertising in the Super Bowl might cost $5 Million and blanket the US.  Sure it would attract attention for about a minute.  Targeted advertising hits the right audience, when they’re ready to purchase, with the right message.

First you must have a great page to send them to.  It must have compelling content, and either a call to action or a benefit to going there.  You can see from last week’s online ad there is compelling content with photos if you’re a buyer looking for such a home.  Our open houses generated 1,355 views of our two properties.

Targeted Marketing Attracts Schools of Online Buyers

Secondly, we chose buyers looking to purchase with the exact interests of each home.  We separated the buyers into different audiences so we could tailor each creative ad to each set of buyers.  We ran ads to 5 separate groups, and each group performed well.   Our Click-thru rate was over 15%.  This means that over 15% of people that saw the ad clicked on the ad.  The ad itself was engaging and was worth customers spending their time on.  The industry average is less than 2%.

Targeted Marketing Attracts Schools of Online Buyers Ad Performance
Ad Performance

Targeting worked.  I’ve heard people say they don’t like targeting.  We also put up open house signs on the road.  Those signs target people driving by.  Newspaper ads target readers for products and services.  Online ads are no different.  In fact, most people like it better because hey get to see ads for things they like or are interested in.

This is one reason why For Sale By Owners stand little chance of selling their own home.  They’re not reaching the whole market, and when you limit your market you limit the price you’ll get.  Imagine selling an item at an online auction.  If you have one bidder, you’ll get a certain amount.  What if you had 1,000 bidders?  Do you think you’d get a better price?

All Realtors are not the same.  It makes a difference which Realtor you hire.  We use both blanket marketing like newspaper, video, postcards, etc as well as online targeted ads on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, and more.  We corner the market.  Hiring the wrong Realtor could cost you thousands!

Always call the Ellis Team at Keller Williams 239-489-4042 to get your home sold fast and for top dollar, or visit www.LeeCountyOnline.com

By the way, we have two open houses this weekend in Reflection Lakes.  See our ad in News Press Homefinder, or find them at www.Facebook.com/Ellisteam

Good luck and Happy Home Selling!

Ellis Team Open Houses

Open Sunday 1-4 PM

Reflection Lakes Condo

13971 Lake Mahogany Dr #2623

Reflection Lakes  $215,000

Affordable Living in SW Florida

 

Reflection Lakes Pool Home

Open Sunday 1-4 PM

13624 Gulf Breeze St   Pool Home  $275,000

Brought to you by your Reflection Lakes Experts

2017 SW Florida State of the Market Report

Dear Ellis Team – Your Real Estate Questions Answered

Posted on by

Dear Ellis Team:

Dear Ellis Team - Your Real Estate Questions Answered

Q: I’ve been paying my mortgage but slipped behind on my HOA fees. I didn’t want the bank to foreclose. I was surprised to learn that my homeowner’s association filed foreclosure on me. Is this normal? Alex

A: Alex, sorry to hear about your dilemma. This however is a great question. We have been seeing more and more condo and homeowner’s associations foreclosing for non-payment. We always tell people, pay your HOA first as some of them will foreclosure faster than a bank will.

Q: My home has been on the market for 4 months and we haven’t had a single showing. Are agents lazy? How come nobody wants to show my home? I didn’t want to pay a commission in the first place and I didn’t like my agent’s price. I told her if she wanted that much we’d have to raise the price for her to get it. I guess she didn’t want it that bad! Anonymous

A: Well anonymous, where to begin? The seller sets the price and the market determines the value. If you’ve priced your home above where the market is, you may not receive any showings. Why would a Realtor deliberately show an over-priced home when they can show other homes a buyer might actually buy? Sellers often believe they can always come down but you can’t go up. This isn’t even true as we have several homes that sell above asking price. It sounds like you wanted what you wanted for the home regardless of what the market was bearing. The market doesn’t care what you want or need. The market only cares about value.I’m also concerned about 2 other things. You’re blaming your agent for your mistake. The agent isn’t to blame for you wanting more than the market will bear. I do blame your agent for taking the listing in the first place. Sometimes a home has few comparable sales to value properly, and sometimes you just have to bring it to the market and see how market responds. Your agent should be communicating with you about re-positioning your home in the marketplace. Your question doesn’t tell us anything about that. If she has, she’s doing her job. We really need more facts to answer this any better.

Q: I went on abc.com (we blanked out the actual website) and it said my home was worth $412,000. I go on every day and it changes wildly. One day it said $350,000 and another it was up to $475,000. How can the market vary that much in such a short time?

A: The site you are talking about is historically unreliable. In fact, in the fine print it used to say their data was intentionally off. I guess this made online viewers have to check back often, which increased viewership, and thus advertising rates. Some of those national sites are filled with bad data. To get a more accurate and reliable estimate, go to our site www.LeeCountyOnline.com Even then it is just a computer. For the most accurate, call us and have Sande or myself evaluate your property if you’re thinking of selling. 239-489-4042

Q: What are the qualifications to becoming an agent? Can anybody do it?

A: Just about anybody can. You must not have a felony. You do not need to be a college graduate at this time. Anybody can do it, but not everybody is the same. Anybody can play baseball, but it doesn’t mean everybody is good at it. The best practice every day, learn, take classes, and work all day at it. Real estate takes work, and for those that are prepared to out-work everybody else, you can do it. You can do real estate part-time, but you won’t be great at it. It takes years of learning about property, people and situations. There’s always a place for great people in real estate, and yet about 80% fail within a year. It’s all about you and what you’re willing to put into it.
If you have more questions, give Sande or myself a call. 239-489-4042. We love helping people.
Good luck and Happy Selling!

We hope you enjoyed our answer.  If you’d like to ask more questions, simply write Dear Ellis Team and we’ll be glad to answer your questions.

Ready For a Yeti?

Are You Ready For a Yeti
Ready For a Yeti?

Find out how you can win a Yeti cooler.

View Ellis Team Featured Listings in 360 Virtual Reality

Paint the Town Red Open Houses this weekend:  Coming Soon

Now We’re Cooking With Gas and the Secret Sauce

Posted on by

Have you ever heard the term “Now we’re cooking with gas?” Before natural gas people cooked with wood and it was a slower process. The advent of natural gas changed everything and thus the term was born.

That’s how we feel here at the Ellis Team.  Our marketing produces sales 19.7% faster than the average agent and our sellers average over $11,000 more than the average agent.  Recently we just added fire to our marketing program and we’re seeing some outstanding results.

Cooking With Gas and the Secret Sauce

Cooking With Gas and the Secret SauceWe had a waterfront listing in North Fort Myers for $525,000 that had been on the market for about 3 months. It was getting some activity but no offers. We added our “Secret Sauce” and it went pending.

This past week we added our “Secret Sauce” to a $700,000 listing in Cape Coral and it just went pending. It had been on the market a little over 2 months.

We listed a property in Bell Tower Park and tested our new “Secret Sauce” and it went pending in 2 days. Was it luck? Was it a hot market? Or was it something more?

What is the Secret Sauce? Let’s start out by telling you what it isn’t. It isn’t a simple 4 step process that anybody can do for free on the Internet. It has over 50 elements to it and most of them cost money. They certainly cost time. Some companies do some of the things in the formula, but we haven’t found anybody that does all the elements. The process is also important. Things must happen in order.

If you had the recipe to make the world’s finest wine and followed all of the steps but didn’t time each step perfectly, it probably wouldn’t turn out like you’d hope.

The Secret Sauce also isn’t a recipe to sell a home for double its market value. If we list a home worth $500,000 and try to sell it for $ 1 Million or even $700,000, it‘s not going to sell because it’s overpriced. Marketing can only expose a home to the market. It can’t make someone overpay or make the bank appraise it for more money.

Many agents advertise in the newspaper, in the Yellow Pages, on TV, radio, etc.  Many advertise online like Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist, Instagram, blogs, etc.  Some even use single property websites, pay per click advertising, re-targeting, search re-targeting, etc.

Cooking With Gas and the Secret Sauce Aerial PhotographyYes, we use all these, and more.  We also use aerial photography, enhanced photography, high definition video, virtual tours, and the list goes on.  If you found a company that uses all these tools that would be impressive enough.  It’s not the list of ingredients that produces results; it’s the process of putting it all together in a manner that works.

Once you find that secret formula that generates buyers, you have to have systems to capture the leads, and follow-up systems to convert them.

It does no good to pay companies like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com if you don’t have a system to follow-up and connect with people.  Yes, we advertise on these sites too, but that’s not the magic.  The magic is connecting with people, listening to their needs, and producing results.

When you combine the Secret Sauce with the Magic, powerful things happen.  We don’t disclose the exact ingredients or the process of the secret sauce.  Not because we’re afraid agents will copy it, because quite frankly nobody is going to do everything we do, it just costs too much time and money for the average agent.

We keep it secret because it’s something we’ve tested and developed over many years. We recently discovered a few new ingredients and a few tweaks to our process and the whole thing is producing magic.

If you’d like us to put our magic to work for you, call us at 239-489-4042 To search the MLS, visit www.LeeCountyOnline.com  Good luck and Happy House Hunting!

If you’re thinking about selling, you might also be interested in our Ultimate SW Florida Real Estate Selling Guide

Open Houses This Weekend

6087 Waterway Bay Dr Fort Myers

Gulf Access Home in South Fort Myers – 3 Bedrooms, 3 Baths-Open Sunday 2-5 pm

Oasis Waterfront Luxury Condo 14th Floor Unit

3000 Oasis Grand Blvd Unit 1407 Fort Myers, FL 33916

Open Saturday 12:30-2:30

1917 SE 36th St Cape Coral FL

Direct Access Pool Home

Open Saturday 1-4 PM

Follow Us

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on Google+

Check out our newest listings on Instagram