Author: Emmanuel Lao

4 Tips for Scaling Your Real Estate Business

Post author By Emmanuel Lao
Post date 08/10/2021
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Are you trying to scale your real estate business but not sure how to do it? Are you thinking about hiring a developer to have a website with great real estate web design to begin scaling your business?

Scaling is great for any business because this means that you’re growing your real estate business. However, the reality is, what most real estate agents don’t know is that scaling is a huge black hole. This means that scaling will require you to burn a huge amount of money quickly. So if you thought that getting your real estate business to where it is now was difficult, then scaling is a lot harder than that.

What to expect when scaling?

There are multiple factors that you have to consider when you’re scaling your business. One of the first few things that you have to consider is licensing software or applications that you’ll need to purchase for your team. You would also have to consider where your team is actually going to work. Last and definitely not least, you have to consider their payroll as well.

One of the biggest mistakes Realtors commit when trying to scale their business is that they usually end up working for less money because they executed scaling without the proper understanding of how to do it.

Whether they scaled their business without proper guidance, scaled too soon, or executed it out of sequence, there are a number of ways scaling can go wrong. As nice as the thought of scaling is, if it is executed poorly or incorrectly, you will only end up burning through your cash reserves and can even end up losing your business.

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Scaling: A Black Hole

Scaling a business can sound extremely appealing for a lot of business owners. The mere thought of taking yourself out of the day-to-day grind of working in your real estate business is the ultimate goal for most entrepreneurs.

Imagine being able to start leading a group of agents or a team of individuals towards a common vision is one of the most appealing things about being an entrepreneur.

That being said, Robert Crabtree explains in his book, ‘Simple Numbers’, that scaling to $5 million in revenue is one of the most difficult things to do. He further explains that scaling between $2 million to $5 million is a massive black hole.

This is simply because you’re going to encounter this very weird balancing act where you’re going to need to be making enough to hire new talent but also not be hiring fast enough to make sure that you don’t go through all of your cash on hand.

Depending on how prepared you are for this part of your journey, the balancing act will either make or break your business. To help you out, here is a list of secrets and tips on how to successfully scale your business if you’re just starting down this path of bringing in some new talent to build your team.

Tips for Scaling Your Real Estate Business

Tip #1: Learn how to manage your time appropriately.

This may seem like it’s a no-brainer but it is easily the first and biggest misstep of any Realtor who is trying to scale. That being said, not having enough time in the day is not a viable excuse. This just means that you don’t know how to manage your time appropriately.

The solution to this is to time block. Whether it’s for your lead generation, lead nurturing, fulfillment, or working on deals, you should always block off time for each specific task. Furthermore, you should also be blocking off time for personal development, time with family, and also for doing the things that you enjoy.

PRO TIP: Plan your week in advance. That means blocking off some time on a Sunday and listing out all the main tasks that you need to accomplish on your calendar. This way, when the week starts, you already have a plan of what to do.

LEARN HOW WE’VE GENERATED OVER 100,000 LEADS FOR OUR REAL ESTATE CLIENTS LAST YEAR

Marketing Strategy – create inbound strategies to better position you for the long game.

Systems Implementation – we design and implement systems for you to buy back your time.

Brand Building – position you as the thought leader and authority in your community.

Tip #2: Audit what you do.

Auditing what you do on a regular basis is important to scale your real estate business because what can be repeated can be delegated. Take what you have planned to execute for the week and log everything that you actually end up doing for that specific week because these are two entirely different things.

Planning and logging are two different things.

At the end of each week, you then have to audit every single task that you did and highlight the repetitive tasks. You see, one of the first and cheapest things that you do when attempting to scale is bringing on someone to your team to offload redundant tasks.

This is also called buying back your time.

Tip #3: Create instructions.

This idea is sound and this idea is that you need to create standard operating procedures for each of the tasks you’ve identified.

You have to list out what part of the business each SOP affects, what its objective is, what are the instructions for each step of the process, who’s taking ownership of each task, what is the definition of done, and how do you measure the results.

Once you are able to define these items, then and only then should you be hiring some fresh faces to grow your team.

Tip #4: Hire slow and fire quick.

This means that you can’t be overly eager to hire new team members. Take your time and hire the right person.

Warren Buffett, when hiring new people uses the 3 I’s which stand for intelligence, initiative, and integrity. Hiring the wrong candidate will only affect you negatively in the long run. And this is why you have to take your time and do it right the first time.

Training and onboarding new team members can take up a lot of time and time is money. By hiring the right people, you avoid wasting resources on people that won’t last within your organization.

PRO TIP: A bad hire doesn’t turn into a good team member over time. This is just human nature and you can pick this up fairly quickly.

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Final Thoughts

You see, in order for your business to expand exponentially, you need to be able to trust your team. If you can’t trust a team member, that is a clear indication of a weak link. And it will cost you more, in the long run, to try to make that weak link stronger. And in most cases, they usually stay the same. So once you’ve identified a weak link, get rid of that person ASAP.

Scaling your real estate business is difficult but it’s one of the things we’re good at. We actually have a system for it. If you’re interested in learning more about it, then click then schedule a strategy session with our team.

But if you’re not really to scale just yet, then I highly recommend that you at least join our free Facebook Group where we talk all things systems, digital marketing, and websites.

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How to Scale Your Real Estate Business with Systems

Post author By Emmanuel Lao
Post date 08/02/2021
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Having a real estate business is great. However, when you’re in an industry that is as competitive as the real estate indsutry is, then having a website with great real estate web design or marketing strategies is not enough to truly move your business forward. In order to truly scale your business, what you need are systems.

The Problem

What usually ends up happening for most real estate entrepreneurs is that they start running their real estate business but have eventually hit this point where they are just stuck. This can happen to you as well. Imagine the point where you realize that you’re making a certain amount of money but you’re finding it very hard to increase that number by a factor of two or more.

For example, you’re currently making $100,000 and you’ve been trying everything to hit that elusive quarter-million mark. The only problem is you’ve hit your ceiling. What usually ends up happening is you start searching for answers to grow and scale.

This is the point when you’re exposed to different marketing gimmicks or ‘shinny objects’. Whether it’s finding promotions online saying “Lead gen through Facebook ads”, or “We manage your social media”, or “Cold calling call centers for hire that guarantee leads”. There are a lot of these online.

Chances are, they’re probably flooding your Facebook feed as well. While some of these strategies do work, there is one underlying thing that you’re potentially overlooking that will help you scale prior to hiring one of these specialists and that one thing is systems.

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The Concept of Systems

Let’s say that you’re putting together some furniture that you bought from Ikea for example but it doesn’t come with a manual. Imagine how difficult it would be for you to understand and figure out what goes where in order to assemble this piece of furniture.

Of course, you can probably go to the original carpenter and ask that person for instructions but that would be extremely time-consuming and inefficient. If every time they sell that piece of furniture, they need to go back to the same carpenter and constantly ask for assembly instructions. This does not make sense.

Well, the same thing applies to you and your business.

If all the information that you used to operate your business is trapped in your head then how is anyone supposed to understand how your business works? Are you willing to trade your valuable time to explain your procedures to every single person that you bring on to help you scale? Obviously, the answer is no and that’s the importance of systems.

The Solution

You see, you’ve hit this financial glass ceiling because of one undeniable truth and that is that you are at capacity. You no longer have the time or bandwidth to scale your business because you’re trapped doing the day-to-day operations of your business.

Essentially all your time is focused on working in your business instead of on your business. All of these boils down to a basic understanding of how your time is valued.

As you started your real estate career, you essentially were trading your time for money. However, as you’re probably realizing now, you need more of your time back to focus on growing and you do this by buying your time back.

So what exactly does buying your time back look like?

It essentially comes in the form of bringing on a virtual assistant or executive assistant to handle repetitive tasks. Maybe a buyers agent to drive around potential clients, or maybe a marketing person to help with your lead generation. They come in many forms but the idea behind this is the same.

You see, if your hourly rate is $100 per hour and you’re spending your time on $25 per hour tasks, then you’ll be limited to that $25 per hour rate in the long run. However, if you can delegate that task to someone at $25 per hour, then you’ll be able to increase your output and productivity, by multiple factors thereby allowing you to scale your business.

Now, going back to that furniture assembly analogy, part of the process of creating systems for your business starts with creating processes and procedures or your business’ instruction manual.

How to Create Systems

You see, working in your business is essentially made up of five different categories. These categories are Lead Generation, Lead Nurture, Sales, Fulfillment, and Retention.

Now, the reason you’re trapped in this position of not being able to scale is that you’re currently working in your business. The goal of scaling is to remove you from working in your business and instead move you to start working on your business, and you do this by buying back your time.

The goal here is that in order to scale, you have to create systems for each one of these categories. For each category, you’re going to want to create a map of your process, or essentially take everything in your head and put it on paper. You can do this by answering the five items below:

What part of the business does this affect?
What is the objective of this task?
What are the procedures to fulfill this task?
What is the definition of done or what does done look like?
How do you measure the efficiency or accuracy of the results?

Now, the plan is to take inventory of everything you do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. From there, create a document for each of the tasks you repeat and that can be delegated for less than your hourly rate.

Once this is synthesized, then and only then can you start buying back your time and hire people to help you scale. And of course, once that’s done, then you can start focusing on working on your business instead of in it.

Now, if you need more help on installing systems into your business, it’s actually what we do and we’re experts at. I highly recommend that you schedule a strategy session with either myself or someone from my team and we can talk shop.

However, if you’re not ready yet then I highly recommend that you at least join us in our free Facebook Group where we go deeper into the discussion on real estate systems along with topics like lead generation, digital marketing, and websites for real estate agents.

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5 Tips to Overcome Real Estate Social Media Anxiety

Post author By Emmanuel Lao
Post date 07/28/2021
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Do you find yourself internalizing these questions when trying to post on social media? Would you just rather rely on your real estate web design to generate leads for you?

Well, as great as your website looks, the reality is it is not enough to grow your business. In order to fully move your business forward, you have to use social media.

Reality Check

Oftentimes, we come up with excuses to validate not posting online. Whether it’s feeling uncomfortable to always be promoting oneself or looking desperate online, there’s always an excuse to avoid posting on our social media accounts.

But if we know that social media is such a valuable tool for our businesses, then why do we self-sabotage? At the end of the day, these thoughts are no more than excuses to sabotage our ability to grow our business. And when a business isn’t growing, the reality is that it is dying.

This means that if your business is on life support and you think “you’ve done everything” to save it, but you haven’t really spent a concerted effort on social media and digital marketing, then you haven’t done everything.

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Sales vs. Marketing

So what exactly is the difference between sales and marketing anyway?

Sales refer to working directly with prospects to provide a solution as a service. On the other hand, marketing is designed to inform and attract said lead or prospect so the salesperson can sell.

The common challenge that most Realtors face is that most Realtors are fantastic salesmen but horrible marketeers. You have sales on one side and you have marketing on the other. The ones that find success and stride in real estate are the ones that have figured out how to do both.

That being said, marketing yourself doesn’t need to be that difficult but it’s vitally important. And using social media is probably the most inexpensive way to market yourself.

Understanding What’s Stopping You

In order to know what to post online, you have to understand your sales funnel.

You have your top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of the funnel. What social media allows you to do is stay top of mind, essentially for free, with all of these groups of prospects by simply posting.

You see, what usually works best, gets the most engagement, and resonates the most with your audience are posts that really showcase you. From showing yourself and your expertise, your opinions, and your vulnerabilities.

Now the challenge with talking about these things stems from insecurity. These insecurities lead to anxiety which inevitably leads to no action.

How to Overcome Anxiety and Insecurity

We as humans are born with 2 fundamental needs. Those needs are to avoid rejection and to find connections. By posting, you’ve effectively taken yourself out of your comfort zone and opened yourself up to either rejection or not being able to create a connection.

That said, here are a few tips to help you get over this little hump so that you can really start putting yourself out there and attract the leads and prospects you’re looking for.

Tip #1: Accept that no one is perfect.

You see, nobody is perfect online, and you don’t have to be either. Whether it’s your favorite celebrity or that other successful agent that you follow is not perfect.

One crappy post does not equal a crappy account and definitely does not equate to a crappy person. Your brand is a culmination of who you are as a person that can be viewed through the lens of your social media accounts.

Remember that one post that missed its mark does not define you.

LEARN HOW WE’VE GENERATED OVER 100,000 LEADS FOR OUR REAL ESTATE CLIENTS LAST YEAR

Marketing Strategy – create inbound strategies to better position you for the long game.

Systems Implementation – we design and implement systems for you to buy back your time.

Brand Building – position you as the thought leader and authority in your community.

Tip #2: Accept vulnerability.

Want to know what resonates the best on your posts? It’s when you talk about the struggles you’re facing or the things you’re celebrating.

Your audience will respond to your heartfelt authenticity and you want those responses because what resonates will inevitably build trust. Furthermore, you have to understand this concept to really try changing your perspective.

You see, you worked very hard to get where you are now, why keep it a secret? You should really be spending more time sharing it with the world.

Tip #3: The posts that you create are not for you, it’s for your audience.

Once you start to realize this, the process of posting becomes a lot easier.

This means that if you’ve ever wondered what to post, you have to think about the questions that your audience wants to be answered. Try to turn those Q&As into pieces of content. The more you’re able to answer those questions, the more trust you’ll build, and the more likely you’ll attract the right type of prospect.

Tip #4: Create a plan.

In order to grow your audience, you must consistently show up and practice putting yourself out there. You can’t just wait for inspiration or dip your toe in then run away. That’s why creating a plan is so vital.

Some experts say that this is more of a ‘pro’ technique but I don’t completely agree. Rather, this should be an exercise that anyone trying to get their feet wet in digital marketing and social media should have basic knowledge of.

The justification is very simple. You only have a certain amount of decision-making capabilities throughout the day, a full tank of gas if you will. As you start your day and continue to make decisions, that gas tank will start to empty, and the only way to refill it is by getting a good night’s sleep and starting fresh the following day.

That being said, the mental capacity of creating content is very strenuous. Trying to worry about what to post every day can drain on your fuel. Therefore, the better approach is to batch your content-creating capabilities to a single day or two throughout the month and schedule the posts out.

Tip #5: It gets easier over time.

Social media is no more than a muscle that needs to be exercised.

If it’s your first time, then it’s definitely going to be difficult. You can’t be expecting to be on Youtube, then Facebook, then IG live, then on TikTok right off the bat. It’s going to take you time to first get comfortable and to really learn how to use those platforms.

You really need to be patient as you start to use these platforms. Try to figure out a daily cadence for one, then a system for fulfillment. As you get the reps in, the easier this will be.

Once you’ve nailed that down, then work on the next platform.

Pro tip: Create, then publish, then look for ways to make it better. If you get too hung up on the perfect post, the harder it will be for you to publish.

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Final Thoughts

People love seeing other people grow, evolve, and change. The same goes for your social media and your brand. If you follow the philosophy of creation, then publish, then look for ways to make it better, the quicker your audience will grow and the more likely you’ll start attracting your perfect prospects.

If you’re still freaking out about posting or you need some accountability on this, then I highly recommend that you join our free Facebook Group. We discuss social media and everything digital marketing there. But if you’re looking for some specific ideas that will help catapult your business to the next level, then I suggest you schedule a strategy session with us today.

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Where Do Realtors Get a Bulk of Their Business From?

Post author By Emmanuel Lao
Post date 07/21/2021
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One of the foundational pieces of a successful career in real estate is identifying where you’re generating a bulk of your business. Is it from your social marketing efforts? Is it from cold calling? Or is it coming from your real estate web design?

When there are a hundred thousand real estate agents and only a thousand properties to buy or sell, how do you ensure that your source of leads and business is stable enough to allow you to not only survive but grow your business for a long period of time?

The Misconception: Silver Bullet

The biggest problem when it comes to lead generation and marketing in the real estate industry really stems from the fact that there are a lot of agents or Realtors who are sold on the silver bullet.

This silver bullet may be doing advertising like Facebook ads, Google ads, LinkedIn ads, or Zillow ads. Real estate agents invest their resources in these avenues expecting that these ads and efforts will move the needle for their business.

On top of that, when these avenues don’t generate the number of leads or amount of business that they’re expecting, they quit and stop the strategy after just a month or two.

However, what’s often misconstrued is that what’s going to really move the needle for a lot of these agents is knowing and identifying where you’re generating a bulk of your business from and capitalizing on that.

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Where do real estate agents get the bulk of their business from?

According to Paul Fig of Paul Fig LA, time and time again what he finds out is that way over 90% of almost all agents, whether they are newer or very experienced, it’s really coming from people that they have some connections to.

Your Personal Network of Connections

This means that when you’re an experienced agent, you’re looking at past clients as well as the group of people that you already know within your circle. These can be some sort of family relationship, or a neighbor, or can be somebody that that person knew, or someone that used to work for them when you’re on the job. It could also be your spouse’s friends at work

The Referrals

What usually comes next to your own network of connections, are the referrals from that same group of people. This is where the power of digital social media marketing comes in.

Social media allows you not only to market to the people that you know, but this provides you with an avenue to the different networks of the people in your network. These are the people that are close to your own circle but are outside of it.

Whenever you post online, there is always the chance that one or a couple of your followers will repost it on their feed. This opens up the window for other like-minded people to find you as well.

The National Association of Realtors released an article where they said that it takes around 13 to 18 months to convert a cold lead into a warm lead. This means that even if you spend over a year trying to nurture a cold lead, you still won’t get to generate business.

This means that the reality is, the bulk of your business isn’t going to come from this cold traffic. As a matter of fact, for many of the top producers, it works the same way. They don’t get a lot of their traffic, at least nowadays, from super cold leads. This is because they have friends of friends, or stragglers, or friends that refer and promote their social media accounts and business. Ultimately, this helps them gain a bigger audience.

How do you continue to grow your network?

The simple answer to this question is by nurturing your leads and connections.

According to Paul, more than a housing business, real estate is a relationships business. This means that it is not enough for you to take care of your clients when they’re trying to buy or sell a home but you also have to keep on nurturing them even after a deal is closed.

Whether it’s by sending them emails from time to time to check in on them or maybe saying hi when you see them around town or even maybe get a cup of coffee when you can. This may seem like a lot of work but it shouldn’t be.

Work with like-minded people.

The key to having a strong personal network of people is to be selective.

As much as you would want to generate business with anyone and everyone, you have to choose the people that you work with. These are the people that resonate with your brand, vision, and goals.

When you work with like-minded people, it becomes easier to build stronger relationships over time. This will work to your advantage when you start growing your business. Furthermore, the level of compatibility can also indicate how well a person fits into your perfect client avatar.

This means that if you can hang out with a person over coffee or even drinks, then they might not be who you are looking to do business with.

LEARN HOW WE’VE GENERATED OVER 100,000 LEADS FOR OUR REAL ESTATE CLIENTS LAST YEAR

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Systems Implementation – we design and implement systems for you to buy back your time.

Brand Building – position you as the thought leader and authority in your community.

Beware of red flags.

For newer real estate agents, it can be exciting to work with strangers or with people who are outside of their network. It’s great when you see random people interested in your work and getting your expertise. However, this may not be the case all the time.

Back in March, it was released that the number of real estate agents in the country was around 1.4 million to 1.5 million. If you happen to get a new client out of the blue who was completely outside of your circle who is looking to sell their 2-million dollar home and they found you online through sites such as Zillow, it might be a red flag.

Now, you might be thinking, how is this a bad thing when I am getting new business?

The reality is, it is a huge red flag because it is almost impossible for anyone in our country to not know any real estate agent within their circle. This is the time for you to start thinking about why no one wants to work with this particular client.

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Final Thoughts

No matter what you end up doing, the key to succeeding is consistency. You have to put your process in place. On top of that, don’t try to overcomplicate things. Remember that it doesn’t have to take a lot of people to do a good amount of business with if you focus on the right people.

Now if you’re looking to grow your network, I suggest that you join our free Facebook Group. We consistently discuss and share content about real estate digital marketing. However, if you’re looking to really focus on growing and nurturing your real estate business and network, then schedule a strategy session with us today.

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Marketing 101 for Commercial Real Estate Agents

Post author By Emmanuel Lao
Post date 07/15/2021
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How does marketing become effective for commercial real estate agents? What happens to my website and real estate web design when I don’t have a number of listings to show for? And what strategies generate results in the commercial real estate industry?

I had a great conversation with Alicia Shepherd, founder & owner of Nucleus, a coaching program that is specifically designed to help commercial real estate agents with their marketing to ultimately help them move the needily and find success in their commercial real estate career.

Here are some of the key points discussed:

The Misconception

One of the most common problems for commercial real estate agents is the feeling of marketing being cannibalized by the residential industry. Most commercial real estate agents find that marketing works a lot better for residential agents than for them.

But the reality is, this is far from the truth. At the end of the day, the brand of a commercial agent is just vitally as important as the brand of a residential real estate agent. And in order to break this down, we have to understand the differences in the experience of a commercial and residential real estate agent.

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How different is the experience of commercial real estate agents from residential real estate agents?

Essentially, when you’re getting licensed, what’s often being said is that a residential agent will typically get more transactions but at a lower price point per year whereas a commercial agent is going to do fewer transactions with a higher price point per year.

This often misleads most to assume that commercial real estate agents get paid more by doing less. However, the reality is that although commercial real estate agents deal with fewer transactions, there is a considerable lot more legwork that goes into each transaction.

The Problem

The reason why most commercial real estate agents refuse to engage in intricate marketing strategies is that they are trying to avoid understanding and learn the basics of it even though there is a lot of opportunities that they can exploit in the commercial market.

Why is marketing vital for a commercial real estate agent?

Alicia shares that as a commercial agent, she may not have 30, 40, or 50 deals a year that she can leverage to put her brand out into the marketplace. In addition to that, she does not always have a new listing or a new sale that can give her something new to talk about. These situations can ultimately lead to a different amount of exposure that she can get from her pipeline from that of a residential real estate agent.

This is because the reality is, in commercial real estate, a 7-figure earning commercial agent might only have around 8 to 20 details in a market such as Los Angeles.

Because of this imbalance of market visibility through their pipeline, not only is it an option but it is vital for commercial real estate agents to be intentional with the marketing that they’re going to put behind themselves to support how they are growing their books.

LEARN HOW WE’VE GENERATED OVER 100,000 LEADS FOR OUR REAL ESTATE CLIENTS LAST YEAR

Marketing Strategy – create inbound strategies to better position you for the long game.

Systems Implementation – we design and implement systems for you to buy back your time.

Brand Building – position you as the thought leader and authority in your community.

The Messaging

One of the key components in marketing is messaging. This is especially true for commercial real estate marketing. Unfortunately, this is something that often gets lost in the chaos of it all.

According to Alicia, when she is looking at the marketing around commercial real estate, the pieces that truly hit her and make her want to engage more are the marketing pieces that understand what it is that is keeping their client up at night. It’s all about the ability to integrate your client’s pain points into your story instead of just saying that you have a new listing.

It is not about you. It’s about understanding a full narrative of what the current reality of that real estate is and what the opportunity it creates for someone’s financial legacy. You have to become a storyteller and think of ways to convey the data and numbers that are authentic in such a way that it helps people realize where they have a chance to thrive through that property.

The Strategies

There are a number of marketing strategies that commercial real estate agents can use to their advantage. However, it would be best if commercial agents refrain from looking at the strategies that are being used by residential real estate.

Here are two different marketing strategies for commercial real estate that are highly effective:

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The Specialist

The first strategy that Alicia suggests is the specialist. This agent is someone who is really deep-diving into a product or a territorial location. This is also referred to as real estate farming.

This means that you are just going to eat, breathe, and sleep this community until you are the agent of choice in your product type. It’s all about persistency and consistency.

In this strategy, you are going to build your brand through consistent marketing. This can be in the form of monthly emails or a bi-weekly email campaign. You can also upload the contacts and ownership of the properties that you serve in that neighborhood on Facebook and see how you can get direct ad messaging right onto their page.

What we’ve learned to be true is that you can take those lists, direct, upload them into Facebook. Facebook will then go hunt down their pages for you and put those ads on sophisticated and specific pages that you’re looking for.

Ultimately, this will give you direct access to the people in your database that own the exact real estate you’d want to be in service to. This is something that you can utilize daily for your target audience and not have them be bombarded by your competitors there because most of your competitors are stuck in the mindset that that is not for them.

The Generalist

A generalist is the kind of agent who goes where the client takes them. The greatest asset that a generalist has in his arsenal is his ability to tell great stories.

Try to convey to your clients where you have been exceptional in the past because this industry is about creating opportunities for your clients. Therefore, if you are working with buyers, tell the story of how you were able to create a great investment opportunity for your former buyers. Try to describe the financial legacy that you are helping your clients create.

One of your main objectives is to separate yourself from the rest of your competitors. You can do this by telling your potential clients what exactly helped you keep a pulse on the market in a way that their own or through another agent who may have not shown up as much as you did to help their investment experience.

A great avenue for this strategy is social media. Phone calls are still great however, marketing gives you the ability to get online and to be more of a sharpshooter with that. And if you’re going to be a generalist, you have to have a really robust social media game plan through strategic social media sites.

Final Thoughts

The concept of marketing applies to both commercial and residential real estate agents. However, there are differences with how you approach this given the nature of the business and sector. Whether you choose to become a specialist or a generalist, the idea is to choose one and to stick to it. A marketing strategy will only be effective if you stick to it and commit to it over a long period of time.

If you’re looking to set yourself up for success in the real estate industry, then I suggest you schedule a strategy session with us to see which strategy best fits you and your goals. However, if you’re still looking to learn more about real estate marketing before diving into any strategy then join our free Facebook Group today.

Trends

2021 Real Estate Web Design Trends

Post author By Emmanuel Lao
Post date 07/06/2021
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Staying updated with current web design trends is essential for creating a compelling online presence in the real estate industry. Here are five cutting-edge trends shaping real estate web design in 2021:

Parallax Animation
Nemorphism
Scrolling Transformations
Interactive Storytelling
Video Backgrounds

Are you interested in getting your website built or revamped this 2021? There are a number of things every real estate agent and entrepreneur must consider when trying to create great real estate web design. One of these things is ensuring that your website looks good for the future and is not easily outdated.

With hundreds of real estate web design options to choose from, creating a cohesive and visually pleasing website can get tricky. To help you out, we’ve listed down the top real estate web design trends you should consider this 2021.

Why is real estate web design important?

As the real estate industry continues to grow bigger, it has grown to be more dependent on technology as well. More and more customers are using their mobile phones, tablets, or computers to search for their real estate agents.

That being said, your real estate website is your online business card.

This is the online representation of yourself and your business where you have to create a great first impression. Having a professional website that looks fresh and current will definitely help you create just that.

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What are some of the 2021 real estate web design trends?

Here are the five core concepts that you can use as inspiration when starting your new real estate website:

1. Parallax Animation

A trend in 2020 that seems to be doubling down in 2021 is parallax animation.

This trend refers to the motion and movement of your website. In this situation, motion does not refer to videos on your website. You won’t be needing a hire a professional video editor for your website.

Parallax animation actually refers to the continuity of motion and movement on your website as you scroll through a webpage. As this trend continues to evolve through 2021, you will begin to see that animations are getting a lot more complex. Web designers are now utilizing multiple layers to illustrate animations a lot more clearly.

2. Nemorphism

Simply put, it’s the successor to flat design.

If you can recall, back in 2010 Windows did its best to present a minimalist design with most of the iconography and shapes that they utilized. It seems that designers are now looking to bring back flat designs but with a modern touch and flair.

The goal of nemorphism is to make flat icons look realistic by turning them into 3D objects.

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3. Scrolling Transformations

This trend essentially is when you scroll down a web page.

Imagine that as you scroll down a web page, the colors will change as well. It could also be the shapes of an object that transforms as you scroll down. It can even be the entire layout of the page that transforms.

The concept behind this is that scrolling is really one of the most subtle forms of interaction or engagement within a website. Scrolling transformations will really ramp up the visuals of the experience. Ultimately, this will provide a unique user experience for every site visitor that you have as they scroll down through your webpage.

4. Interactive Storytelling

Just like with any other story, the idea here is that you are trying to convey a story for your user by creating a beginning, a middle, and an end of the story as they scroll through the webpage.

This revolves around the concept of not simply creating a web page that has a bunch of information on it but rather creating a user experience that engages and immerses a visitor in that experience.

For real estate websites, try to picture visiting one of your listings where the whole experience is immersive on a single web page. Remember that you have to keep your visitors and potential customers engaged.

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5. Video Backgrounds

In previous years, we’ve seen how utilizing video backgrounds as well as using large typography has trended. In 2021 however, the new trend is merging both those concepts and essentially creating a hero section to a website that utilizes large typography and video as the call to action.

Final Thoughts

It is important to remember that these trends are not set in stone and are completely subjective. Try to look for inspiration everywhere in order to make it uniquely yours. Note down things that you find cool or innovative and incorporate bits and pieces of those when developing or revamping your real estate website.

Looking for more real estate tips? Join our free Facebook Group today and enjoy similar content. On the other hand, if you need help building out your real estate website, we’re just a call away! We’re experts so feel free to reach out to us and we’ll be more than happy to help you out.

Trends

How to Tell More Real Estate Stories

Post author By Emmanuel Lao
Post date 06/02/2021
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Time and time again, we are reminded that content is king. But this is especially true when it comes to the real estate industry. With how competitive the real estate market is, building a great real estate web design just won’t cut it anymore. You have to push out good content as well in order to get leads. However, not all content that you post for your digital marketing is created equal. You see, there’s a huge distinction between good content and bad content. People, especially your audience, can typically tell when you’re creating value versus just posting when to post. You have to remember that good content provides value to your target audience. And if you haven’t tested this out, I really challenge you to give it a try and really see the results you see.

If you create a thoughtful piece of content and share it on your online platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram, you are more than likely to get engagement. That is, compared to just throwing up some generic picture of a market report, or maybe a home that just listed or just sold. But let me let you in on a very tiny little secret if you really want to move the needle and really create more engagement in your posts you need to tell a story.

For this week’s article, we break down a very simple framework that every single one of you can utilize to tell and create better stories for your social media content. Use this as your guide in order to provide more value for your target audience.

Why tell stories?

You see, storytelling is a lost art. However, if used correctly, you can really move the needle in terms of building your brand and creating more engagement with your audience. This will then eventually turn into more aspects and more leads which will ultimately lead to more clients. The reality is, it’s one thing to provide value through the use of data, charts, and numbers, but most people aren’t really that analytical. Chances are, your audience isn’t either.

Typically you would show the average person, a bunch of data and numbers. When you do this, they’re more likely inclined to be turned off or zone out. And really not care too much about what you’re creating or what you’re posting, or really what you’re talking about. However, if you can synthesize a really great story and turn that into a couple of compelling pieces of content, you will find that you’ll be able to generate a lot more conversations online.

The bestselling author, Donald Miller, who wrote the book, StoryBrand really doubles down on the idea of telling stories. He firmly believes that nothing brings out clarity to our communication than actually telling a story. A great story is really the key to being understood. Quoting Donald Miller, he actually says that a story is the most powerful tool you can use to really connect with another human being. Now, if this is in fact true, then why aren’t we telling more stories on social media accounts? When really, our goal is to try to resonate with more people. In order to tell a great story, there are four main parts.

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Part 1: Start with the Problem

Part one is all about starting with the problem that you solve. What specific problem in the marketplace do you solve or cater to? Which problem of your target audience do you have the solution for? What value can you bring to the table that will encourage people to work with you? How can you make your value to the marketplace unique and stand out? This is essential to your story. With hundreds of thousands of realtors saturating the real estate industry these days, it’s all about being able to identify a specific problem, a specific demand in the marketplace, and bringing value to the table.

For example, you’re a realtor and you want to represent a buyer on a deal. However, you found out that that buyer is already working with another agent. Now, one of the problems that you can potentially solve is how to break up with that other agent who is probably underperforming. When identifying the problem that you can solve for your audience, it’s always best to put yourself in their shoes. Think of their possible issues, obstacles, or even frustrations. From there, identify which specific frustration you have a good solution for. Always keep in mind where the need for your services and what type of clients you actually serve.

Part 2: Agitating the Problem

Once you are able to identify and state the problem, the next part is all about agitating the problem. Now, the process of telling a really great and compelling story really means that you will have to dig pretty deep. This is the part where you have to truly figure out what are the fears and the frustrations or the failure of no action for the hero of the story. This is the part where you have to express and amplify what it will cost your audience should they choose to not work with you.

In the above example, you have identified that the problem is that they are currently working with a realtor and are wanting to switch to a different realtor. In this part, you would want to drill down into what is going to happen to them should they not change what they are currently doing. Show them what happens if they continue to keep going down the path of working with a bad realtor. Start synthesizing the emotions of the last value or frustrations that this client will potentially have if they continue to do the same thing.

Part 3: Positioning Yourself as the Resolution

After identifying the problem and showing them the cost of no action, you alleviate them. This is the part where you remind them that what plays out in Part 2, is not fixed and set in stone. This is where you, the expert, comes into the story. Part 3 is all about positioning yourself as the resolution.

Think of it this way, every story has a hero and a guide. And your job in your story is to position yourself, not as the hero, but as the guide. It is important that you remember this whenever you are telling a story. You are not meant to be the hero of the story. The hero of every story you push out is your clients or your prospects. You are simply there to guide them and help them reach their happy ending. Now, let’s continue with the above example in order to really carry on with this story. This is the part where you show and tell them that you were able to provide that client with a solution to their problem by giving them the proper guidance on how to really and truly break up with a bad realtor.

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Part 4: The Happy Ending

The last and final part of telling your real estate story is all about describing the happy ending. It’s all about describing what your client wants and the feeling of resolution. Describe how despite that problem, frustration, or pain that they alluded to in the very beginning of the story, they were able to pull through.

Now, to really wrap up my quick story example, it could be something as simple as saying “Hey, I helped my client buy a home or get into a home in seven days or less. While this other realtor was really dilly-dallying and wasn’t able to get them into a home after 30 days or 60 days.” Really try to show them what the possibilities are if they take action and choose to work with you. When telling a story, it is important that you are able to show them their happy ending with them still being the hero of the story.

Final Thoughts

This is a very simple four-part framework that you can really use for anything. Let’s say you’re putting together an Instagram carousel, or it may be a video, or maybe you’re putting together an Instagram story or maybe a TikTok. If you copy this very simple framework when creating that content, you’ll see that you can resonate with a lot more people. Now to quickly recap part one is all about starting with a problem that you solve. Part two is all about agitating the problem. Part three is all about positioning yourself as the resolution. And of course, part four is all about describing the happy ending.

If you are feeling stuck or you really need some help in terms of creating content or really a digital marketing strategy, then I highly recommend that you schedule a strategy session with either myself or someone on my team because storytelling, digital marketing strategy, branding, it’s stuff that we’re good at. However, if you’re still not there yet, then join our free Facebook Group for more similar content.

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Real Estate Web Design: A Complete Guide

Post author By Emmanuel Lao
Post date 05/27/2021
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This is your complete guide to setting up a real estate website. Read up on everything you need to know about creating the best real estate web design.

The real estate industry is extremely competitive and there is no magic formula for a successful real estate career. However, there is a commonality amongst all successful real estate agents. And that is a real estate website with a great design. A well-designed real estate website should allow real estate agents to grow their business through lead generation. If you are able to build a real estate website that is structured to generate leads, you can focus more on helping your clients rather than finding clients.

Now, the question becomes “What makes great real estate web design?”. We understand that coming up with ideas for the best design for real estate websites can be difficult. In this article, we specifically break down every aspect that makes an effective real estate web design. Use this as your evergreen guide on everything real estate web design. From new real estate website design tips to trends, strategies, and tactics you can deploy, expect us to be updating this post regularly with all the latest information. The goals are that after you’re done reading this article, you’ll know how to design a real estate website and know exactly what makes a good real estate website design.

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PHASE 1: CRAFTING YOUR REAL ESTATE MESSAGE

Why is the message important for your real estate website?

For agents who are starting to build up their real estate website, what’s often overlooked are the prerequisites. These are the details that you must formulate first before actually starting on building your real estate website. In this case, the most important prerequisite that’s often overlooked is your message. We believe that the best way to start this guide is to emphasize the importance of this point. You see, what good is a website if you can’t convey a clear message to your prospects? This, for us, is the best way to design a real estate website.

In fact, many times than not, a poorly designed website with a good message outperforms the websites with the best real estate website designs and doesn’t have a clear message. Time and time again we encounter a lot of agents who have wasted a lot of money, time, and effort on websites that don’t work. These agents are the ones who focus a majority of their energy and resources on the website’s aesthetics when in actuality, the top real estate website designs must first have great copy and a clear message.

How do I create the content for my real estate website?

It is important to note that when it comes to creating content for your website this will completely fall on you. This is something that you cannot contract out to any web designers for real estate agents because that is simply not their expertise. It doesn’t matter if you’re working with an expensive or cheap real estate website design service or developer. However, if you have the budget, we highly recommend that you start working on your message with a real estate brand strategist. It may seem like something that you don’t really need but this will definitely be one of the most useful investments you can make throughout this process.

On the other hand, if you don’t have the budget, you really need to take the time yourself and establish a few things. First, you need to have a very clear mission, vision, and unique selling proposition. Your mission is your guidebook. This will help you stay on track with your day-to-day operations and should clearly define who you serve as well as how you help the people you serve. Next is your vision. Your vision is your goal within the next three to five years. To create your vision, try to answer the question “How many people do I want to serve in the next three to five years?”. Lastly, your unique selling proposition or your USP. Your USP should clearly define what makes you unique in the real estate marketplace. This should clearly showcase the value you provide to the marketplace. Here’s a useful resource, in the video below we break down how you can craft your mission and vision.

Pro-tip #1: Your message should be laser-focused and concise.

How do I identify my target audience?

The next component to crafting your message is identifying your real estate avatar. Find a community that is being underserved and target that community. Ultimately, your goal should be to become the best and only option for that underserved community. If you’re having trouble figuring out a community to serve, then I highly recommend that you niche down. Niching down serves several purposes. For one, it helps you test your message a lot quicker. This is because when you’re only targeting a small group of people, it is easier to gather data and make conclusions. The second reason is that it helps you cement yourself as a real estate authority and as an expert much faster.

One of the easiest ways to figure out your customer avatar or the community you serve is by taking a moment of self-reflection and begin to identify what you enjoy doing. Think about the habits that you have. You can also think about the hobbies that you enjoy. From there, you can start weaving in different things to identify a unique community that you can serve. The smaller the niche and the more specific your target community is, the easier it will be for you to succeed. Check out this video we uploaded below to help you understand and identify your real estate USP.

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How do I hook my target audience through content?

As the saying goes, go one inch wide and one mile deep with that community. This simply means that the more you can understand that community, the more you can speak their language, and the more likely it is for you to capture new business. One of the key things with messaging is really identifying what your real estate prospects usually say and saying it before they do. If you are able to synthesize what’s being talked about privately around the family dining table and actually put that out on your website in your messaging, the more likely it is that you are able to build trust with your prospects. Once you are able to build trust with your prospects, the more likely it is for them to be more inclined to want to work with you.

Pro-tip #2: Try and think about the several conversations that you have had with either your real estate clients or prospects. Recall these conversations and make note of the questions that they asked you. You’ll quickly realize that most of them will typically ask the same set of questions. Use those questions and conversations to your advantage. Use them as key identifiers to what the common frustrations are in your community. Once you’re able to do that, proceed by incorporating that into your messaging.

The last little note about messaging is that it is designed for your prospects and not for you. Talk about your prospects and how you could serve them better. With every step, remember that this website is not about you, it’s about your prospects and audience. Position yourself as the guide to help get them close to their goals.

PHASE 2: PLANNING THE WEBSITE

Where do I begin planning my real estate website?

Now that you’ve addressed your messaging and have a clearer approach to who you serve, it’s now time to start thinking about how you want to build this real estate website. You have several options with regard to execution. We’ve listed a couple of them for you.

Website Builder Application: Applications such as Wix, Squarespace, or ClickFunnels are classified under website builder applications. There are a number of real estate agents who build their real estate website designs through site builders.

PROS:

- You won’t be needing the help of professional real estate website designers to set up these types of websites.
- Most versions of these types of websites are very inexpensive. If you’re worried about your real estate website design cost, then creating your real estate website through Wix and other website builder apps is a great option for you.
- Some of these applications have free real estate website design templates that you can choose from and have an easy drag and drop interface.
- There are a lot of designs you can come up with by simply mixing and matching the available design templates for real estate websites.

CONS:

- A big con for this is that you don’t technically own this website. The way website builder applications work is that you are paying them a monthly subscription fee to have access and use their software as a service (SAAS).
- The moment you stop paying them, you lose access to what you create.
- You don’t have the ability to feed in MLS Properties or IDX. If you are thinking of featuring any property on this website, you will then have to manually upload and update them yourself.

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Content Management Systems: One of the biggest and most famous content management systems is WordPress.

PROS:

- The first pro here is that, unlike with website builder applications, you actually own this website.
- You can install IDX here which will allow you to feed properties automatically into your website or search the MLS.
- There are plugins that help you design your website such as Elementor.
- You can use other plugins like custom post types, advanced custom fields, and an application like Calendly to schedule your appointments.

CONS:

- The con with content management systems is that it does become a little complicated to set up. You potentially will need to tap on the help of a web developer to execute the exact vision that you are looking for if you’re not really technically savvy.

Custom Web Application

PROS:

- For custom web applications, a great advantage is that you can create whatever you envision in your mind and have a custom real estate website design.
- Gives you the freedom to design your own real estate website.
- You have free reign over the creatives and have no constraints.

CONS:

- The big con here is that you will most likely not be able to execute this on your own.
- Custom web applications tend to cost a lot of money as you will need to hire an expert real estate web developer to be able to fully execute your vision.

Many times, custom web applications are overkill. It is best to always consider and keep in mind what the goal is for what you are trying to create. If you are simply trying to generate new real estate leads or prospects online, then one of the above options will be more viable. However, if you are trying to create an application that provides a unique solution to the marketplace, then building a custom web application may be more aligned with your needs.

How do I integrate MLS into my real estate website?

Depending on the solution that you decide to go with, you may have the option to integrate an MLS search into your website. Should this be a viable option for you, you now have three options on how you can integrate a search.

Iframe

The first option is via an Iframe. Depending on your MLS, they likely have a very rudimentary search application that you can install into your website via an Iframe. Iframes are essentially a way for you to have a window into another person’s website. In this case, the Iframe solution is no more than a window into your MLS’s website which will allow your users to search for properties on the MLS. You also have to consider that the Iframes are not really that customizable or flexible. With Iframes, what you see is what you get and they typically only work within the constraints of that Iframe. This means that you cannot have multiple pages for properties. Everything will live within that Iframe.

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IDX

IDX is a third-party application that you install into your website. IDX can typically be installed into WordPress websites. IDX is no more than simply a semi-customizable cookie-cutter solution that will allow you to search for properties and information from the MLS on your website. This will allow you to have multiple pages for properties on your website. However, just like with Iframes, you do not have the full flexibility of creating a very unique and specific design for these properties. The cost for IDX IDs is fairly inexpensive and will only set you back anywhere from $30 to $60 a month. Here’s a short video on everything you need to know about IDX:

RETS

The final option is RETS. RETS can be thought of as raw data. This is a feed that sends you directly from your MLS. The advantage of having RETS is that you can control and manage this data however you please. This means that you can customize how you want this data to be displayed and presented on your website based on your vision. The caveat to RETS however is that it is quite expensive and RETS is simply just a raw data feed. This means that you will still need to hire a company to synthesize that data and turn it into an application that users can actually use. If you want to know more about RETS, here’s a video for you:

If you need help deciding between IDX or RETS, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a video comparing the two (2) platform:

Pro-tip #3: You actually do not need IDX or the ability to search the MLS on your website. Oftentimes, many Realtors are sold to the idea that this is necessary for every website but that is quite the contrary. The truth is if you present a website with the right message that touches the right pain points of your prospects, you will more than likely be able to convert them. Having pictures and details of properties that anyone can find off of Zillow, Redfin, or Realtor.com won’t make them want to work with you that much more.

Additionally, unless you have a budget that rivals giant websites such as Zillow, Redfin, or Realtor.com, you cannot expect an IDX technology to compare to the amount of time, effort, and money that was invested into those applications. In a day and age where most consumers are tech-savvy, they will probably know those applications and are more than likely going to use those applications for searching for properties rather than an IDX on your website.

What else do I need to plan for my real estate website?

Domain

Once you’ve decided on which platform you want to use, you will now need to purchase a domain for you to house your website in. There was this old belief that you needed to spam the keywords that you are trying to rank for on your URL. However, that is not the case. If you’re looking for a website address, we recommend choosing something simple for the name such as your company or maybe your name.

It is not a requirement to have the words “RE”, “Real Estate”, or “Realtor” at the end of your domain. Whether you have or don’t have these words, your SEO will stay the same. These do not help your SEO directly. SEO is part of a larger strategy. Simply putting the words “RE”, “Real Estate”, or “Realtor” on your URL will not guarantee your rankings.

Hosting

Now, if you are planning to go with a content management system or a custom application solution, then it’s important that we discuss hosting your website. Based on our experience, typically you would want to go with a hosting provider for your website that either specializes in the content management system of your choosing or with one of the bigger cloud computing services. Some of these bigger cloud computing services are Google Cloud Platform or Amazon Web Services. This is simply because when you are managing a lot of data, you would want to make sure that your website is performing at its very best. This is where real estate website design and hosting play into one another.

I also want to quickly mention the big names in the space for hosting such as GoDaddy and 1and1. While these Hosting service companies are extremely inexpensive, you do get what you pay for which will typically result in a very slow and underperforming website.

PHASE 3: CREATING THE SITEMAP

What is a sitemap?

Phase 3 is all about creating your sitemap. A sitemap can be thought of as the navigation of your real estate website. This is the structure of your website. As excited as you are to dive into the design and development of your website, you must first create the sitemap. This is the step where you need to consider how many pages have to be designed for your website. Moreover, this is also another vital requirement that you must do prior to actually starting to create a website. The sitemap acts as your plan for your website. Think of it as the blueprint of your website. It also illustrates the architecture of your website so that you’ll know how the different pages flow together.

A common misbelief is that your website needs a lot of pages in order for it to be successful. However, the reality is, successful real estate websites are no more than websites with three (3) to five (5) pages. These pages can include your homepage, your about page, your testimonials page, your properties page, and a contact page. The pages that will ultimately be on your real estate website will depend on your goals.

It is also important to note that having a blog page on your website is not really a requirement. This is especially true if you do not have the capacity to update it on a regular basis. The only moment you should consider adding a blog is if you can allocate time or resources to creating content at least once a week.

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PHASE 4: FINAL PREPARATION

What assets will I need for my real estate website?

Now that we have established all of the precursor tasks to developing a website, let’s now talk about the preparation involved in really starting the real estate web design. Before ever putting together a design, you first need to collect and organize your assets. These assets include your headshot, which can be done professionally. But in many cases, headshots are now done with phones because the quality of photos that are created from your phone is already high enough.

The next asset you would want to prepare is your bio. If you’re not a very good wordsmith, you can use services like Fiverr or Upwork to create it.

Another asset that you have to prepare is your social proof. Social proof is nothing but your collection of testimonials. You can actively collect them or can even just take screenshots of messages that you have received from your clients. These messages can also be used as evidence of you being a professional and expert.

Lastly, you would want to prepare your properties. Collect all the properties that you would want to feature on your website. Whether these are your active listings, sold listings, or maybe listings from other agents within your brokerage. It is recommended that you at least show a few properties on your website.

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Marketing Strategy – create inbound strategies to better position you for the long game.

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Brand Building – position you as the thought leader and authority in your community.

PHASE 5: MAKING THE DESIGN

How can I create a cohesive and effective real estate web design?

With your message now clarified and with your assets collected, we can now finally start with your real estate web design. If you have made it this far, you now see why most real estate websites fail. There is a lot of preparation involved long before we can actually start thinking about designing a real estate website. There’s a basic framework for designing a website. We first need to consider the structure of the web pages. From there, we need to synthesize the actual look and feel of these pages. If we’re talking about the basic framework of designing a website, we’re referring to wireframing.

Wireframing is a very simple process of sketching out how the web page is going to be laid out. You can think of it as if you’re baking a gingerbread cookie. The stencil that you use to create the shape of the gingerbread is what, is in our case, considered the wireframe. Ideally, you would want to have a basic idea of how the elements will be laid out on the web page. This isn’t a complicated process and it can simply be done by just grabbing a sheet of paper and a pencil and just sketching it out.

Pro-tip #4: Your web page is really built with columns and rows. It’s best to look at it this way when you think of the layout of your web pages. The columns of your website consist of where you want your content to be positioned. The rows on the other hand are viewed as the different sections. You can try to revisit the real estate websites that you like and find attractive to get real estate website design ideas as well.

Once you sketch the layout of the webpage, you can now start thinking about the design. The key to making the design is to find inspiration from everywhere. Look at websites that you like or gravitate towards and identify why you like them. What elements really made you like those websites? These are great strategies to get some real estate website design inspiration. From there, design your own web pages based on your inspiration.

Pro-tip #5: As good as it is to look for inspiration online, you should never look at another real estate agent’s website and base your decisions on what they have created. They must stay as inspirations and not as your framework. This is simply because what may be working for them, may not necessarily work for you. The key to the success of real estate websites is that they are iterative. You must constantly be testing them to figure out what’s working and what is not. You can’t keep on referencing another agent’s website because you do not have the data to back up the reason as to why they made their decisions. Therefore, pulling inspiration from them is no more than an emotional decision, and emotional decisions cannot be tested, measured, or executed. If you’re looking for a basic framework of how you should be laying out your website, then check out this video below.

Remember that the key to having a successful real estate web page is to not overcomplicate things. Try to keep the text to a minimum of 250 to 400 words. Anything beyond that becomes too much to read for someone using your website unless it is a blog post. My last note for your design is that content is what makes your website, not the layout. Always try to find ways to create unique and valuable content for your prospects. Write content that they will enjoy enough that they would want to start a conversation with you.

PHASE 6: BUILDING THE WEBSITE

Once the designs have been laid out, we can now start the development of the real estate website. If you’ve executed the design correctly, then development is no more than copying the design to the web page builder. There are some things that I’d like to point out here. First, is that depending on the hosting provider that you decide to go with, they may have one-click installations for many of the content management systems such as WordPress to easily help you install it into your server.

Making use of page builders such as Elementor or Wpbakery also makes it a lot easier for you to construct your web page based on your design than having to hire a developer to create one for you.

How do I choose the videos and images for my website?

Video Backgrounds

One of the most popular key components to a lot of the newer real estate websites is the video background. The real estate video background should only be between five (5) to ten (10) seconds long. It should also not contain any text. If you don’t have a videographer handy, one of the easiest ways to create a video background is by purchasing the stock video from websites like Shutterstock or istockphoto. There are also several free resources with stock videos that you can utilize for your real estate website.

Once you’ve chosen your stock videos, you can splice the videos together using free applications like iMovie. After having put together that video, you could then upload it to video hosting services like YouTube or Vimeo. We recommend hosting these videos on the servers because they do not bog down the server speed of your real estate website. Also, if you have a website builder like Elementor, then all you simply need to do is copy and paste the link into the video block module of the builder. This will automatically make your video appear on your website.

Images

An often misunderstood ideology is that real estate websites look bad because of the layout when in reality, the visuals of the website are what make a website pop. If you do not have access to high-quality images, then we highly recommend that you purchase the photos or use royalty-free photos to embed on your website. As good as these photos may look, unique photos that you have taken or own will always resonate better with your audience than any stock photography you’ll find online. So try your best to go out, take photos, and use them for your real estate website.

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What is responsive design for real estate websites and why do I need it?

The last component of Phase 6 is one of the key elements of a real estate web design. However, this component is usually overlooked. We’re talking about responsive design for real estate websites. Responsiveness is in reference to your website’s ability to respond to the different displays for viewing like a desktop device, a tablet device, or your mobile phone.

As you design and develop your website, you have to be cognitive about how your website will display on various devices. You have to be aware that more and more people are now looking at your website through their mobile devices than an actual desktop. So in many cases, it might be a better idea for you to design your real estate website “mobile-first”.

In any case, always pay attention to the builders that you are using. As many of them have the ability to repurpose the view into a mobile or tablet view which will allow you to see how your web page will appear on those devices. The caveat here is that if you’re building a web application, AKA building it from scratch. If so, you will need to create your own mobile and tablet designs.

CONCLUSION

This complete guide is designed to be the play-by-play book that we use, as well as many of the professional web development agencies out there. As long as you follow this framework, you will find that it is easier for you to create and deploy a real estate website very quickly. I know it’s quite a lot to take in. But if you’re feeling stuck or you need help, please feel free to reach out to us because it is one of the things that we are experts in and we are more than happy to provide you with any assistance.

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Table of Contents

What to expect when scaling?

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Scaling: A Black Hole

Tips for Scaling Your Real Estate Business

Tip #1: Learn how to manage your time appropriately.

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Tip #2: Audit what you do.

Tip #3: Create instructions.

Tip #4: Hire slow and fire quick.

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Final Thoughts

Table of Contents

The Problem

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The Concept of Systems

The Solution

How to Create Systems

Table of Contents

Reality Check

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Sales vs. Marketing

Understanding What’s Stopping You

How to Overcome Anxiety and Insecurity

Tip #1: Accept that no one is perfect.

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Tip #2: Accept vulnerability.

Tip #3: The posts that you create are not for you, it’s for your audience.

Tip #4: Create a plan.

Tip #5: It gets easier over time.

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Final Thoughts

Table of Contents

The Misconception: Silver Bullet

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Where do real estate agents get the bulk of their business from?

Your Personal Network of Connections

The Referrals

How do you continue to grow your network?

Work with like-minded people.

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Beware of red flags.

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Final Thoughts

Table of Contents

The Misconception

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How different is the experience of commercial real estate agents from residential real estate agents?

The Problem

Why is marketing vital for a commercial real estate agent?

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The Messaging

The Strategies

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The Specialist

The Generalist

Final Thoughts

Table of Contents

Why is real estate web design important?

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YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION

YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T GENERATING ANY LEADS BUT WE HAVE A SOLUTION