Nearly every generation starts their search for a new home online, and online searches are the leading predictor of which buyers will attend home showings.

It is crucial for real estate agents to capture leads by leveraging the vast number of online resources available to you. Here are 4 places to start.

1. Write Creative Posts on Facebook

There are 2 billion people worldwide using Facebook, and those people include real estate agents trying to capture home buyer interest. Your role is to stand out from the crowd and commit yourself to creating innovative content that reaches your target market – whether that’s millennial buyers, first-time home buyers, or individuals moving into your city.

Balance talking about yourself, and your listings, with helpful content. Frequently asked questions, scams that buyers should be aware of, and general tips are a good place to start. Make your Facebook a place that potential buyers know they can rely on for accurate, up-to-date information.

2. Share Listings on Instagram

Nine out of ten users home buyers state that photos are the most important feature on websites. Great original photos of your listings on Instagram are a fundamental way to capture interest among home buyers.

Images should be well-lit and feature prominent aspects of the home. Include a short, descriptive caption about the home with a direct opportunity to connect with you – either through an email, link to a website, or phone number. Be sure to tag the location and use relevant hashtags to reach as many people as possible.

Instagram stories are an excellent way to show walk-throughs of listings, especially when scheduling showings. Include a link to your email or website that users can easily go to for more information about the listing.

3. Create Videos to Increase Engagement

Videos offer the chance to enter into headspace of a buyer, through aspirational imagery, while also showing off the best features of a unique listing. A well done video for one listing can help drive traffic to your online presence in general – keeping you at the top of buyer (and seller) minds in the long-term.

With a higher price point than normal for the neighborhood, and a unique layout, a Toronto real estate agent knew she had to get creative to sell the listing. So she created a short-film that gained over a hundred thousand views, a score of new leads, and successfully sold the home just under asking price. Watch the film she created below.

Finally, along with videos of your listings, testimonial videos on your social media pages will let you prove past successes, and create personal relationships with viewers.

4. Engage Buyers with Well-Crafted Emails

With 89% of Americans checking their email every day, it remains a key way to cultivate a relationship with buyers.

Improving your lead-conversion rate through well-crafted emails requires providing value for buyers, using direct language, and the concept of exclusivity. When writing scheduling emails for listing presentations, use yes-or-no language for a greater chance of immediate response. Learn more about crafting the perfect email for buyer engagement.

Turn Followers into Clients

Whether you already have a strong online presence, or just created a fresh new Facebook account – posting relevant, helpful, and engaging content on your pages is crucial to connect with buyers.

As people spend more time online, using the tools at your disposal will help you connect with new leads for more successful listing sales. Once you’ve generated a large following through social media, find out how you can turn those leads into loyal clients.

Have you ever replied to a buyer email and never heard back? Was it a junk lead? Maybe. It’s more likely that you sent an ineffective email. Put simply, poorly crafted emails waste time and money, the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to do.

Leveraging the many years of experience I gained from being a Realtor and a sales thought-leader, I will teach you the four rules to writing killer emails to engage buyer leads, which will ultimately increase your lead-conversion rate.

1. Answer directly and offer alternatives.

It’s not unusual to get random, one-line questions from buyers searching national portals. “Does this property have hardwood floors?”

Agents often make the mistake of replying with a qualifier like “Hey, thanks so much for reaching out. I’d love to help you. Are you qualified for a loan?” But this is not the time for a qualifier. Instead, answer the question directly. It’s what the consumer wants, and it’s how you demonstrate your expertise. You’ll also find that when you dig a little deeper, whatever feature the buyer is asking about might be a disqualifier for them — used to decide which properties they don’t want. Always assume that this is the case and offer alternatives. That way, you’re covered in either case. For example:

When asked, “Does the home have a gas stove?” Respond with, “Yes, it is gas, but I also have one that has a brand new electric range.”

When asked, “Does this home have hardwood floors?” Respond with, “It doesn’t, but here are a few other properties at similar price points that do.”

2. Provide value, and then ask for value back.

Before you can expect buyers open up to you with important information such as price range or prequalification, you first have to stand out from the throng by providing instant value to the consumer. After all, you’re not only competing with a lot of agents, but also your prospect has no reason to trust you at this point in the conversation.

By explicitly providing value to prospects that only you can provide, you can ease them into revealing vital business information to you. For example:

“Here’s your login to my advanced search platform. What’s your price range so that I can set you up?”

“Check out this great property that just hit the market an hour ago. Is this within your pre-approval?”

3. Control client scheduling.

When it comes to scheduling, subtle cues can have a huge impact on getting your prospects to respond. “Yeah, I can show it Thursday night. Tell me what time is good for you,” seems like a perfectly acceptable suggestion. However, it forces the prospect to look at their schedule to find their best time and perhaps coordinate with their spouse, simply to respond to an email — it’s far too much work.

As a rule, every scheduling question should be answerable with yes or no. Better yet, this is the perfect opportunity for a presumptive close. Assume a time works for your prospect, and make them ask for a reschedule. For example:

“Sure, I’ll be in the neighborhood tomorrow. I’ll meet you at Starbucks at 4 p.m. Does that work for you?”

“Let’s talk when I call you tomorrow at 10 a.m. Let me know if you have a conflict.”

4. FOMO (fear of missing out).

Even during early stages of buyer engagement, you have the opportunity to create an urgency that can turn lookie-loos to serious buyers, using an advanced trick called FOMO — the fear of missing out.

FOMO accomplishes two things. First, it establishes that you are a popular agent and that market demand is high. Second, it encourages prospects to act instead of think, which moves them one step closer to a transaction with you. For example:

“I happen to be showing Thursday at 7 p.m. Let me know if that works for you — I can try and squeeze you in.”

“I know that’s a really popular listing. If you’d like to see it as well, I have some time Wednesday at 6 p.m.”

Any response is a good response

Follow the rules above, and you’re bound to get more responses from your prospects:

• The committed: “I love 123 Main St …” You’ve done well in engaging the prospect. Call. Meet. Show. Close.
• The recommit: “I can’t make that time …” You were direct, and suggested a showing time that didn’t work for them. Guess what? It’s the perfect opportunity to have your first phone conversation to coordinate schedules. It’s also the perfect time to reinforce your value and ask about their preapproval.
• The disqualifier: “No. Sorry, I’m not ready to see it yet. My wife and I just started looking to buy in about six months.” The consumer disqualified himself because you were direct with your next steps. You not only saved a bunch of time not engaging a lookie-loo, but now you also know information other agents don’t know. Add them to your nurture campaigns, and you’ll be first in line in six months.

With these rules in your toolkit, you can be confident that you’re making the most of our your email correspondences. Used the right way, an email will save you a huge amount of time and money, and it will become a core strategy to engage more leads.

What other rules do you follow when writing emails? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Home isn’t measured in square feet. With all of the technologies and national search portals available to home buyers today, anyone can search by bedrooms and bathrooms. What sets today’s killer agents apart is their ability to understand what is truly important to the buyer— exceptional local knowledge and expertise. While not a new concept, this “algorithm” for success remains one that few agents have programmed to perfection.

Technology is an important part of any agent’s arsenal, yet technology will never replace the real estate agent. In-depth, local knowledge of the communities you serve and the ability to understand and foresee your clients’ wants and needs is still paramount. There isn’t a code base out there that can deliver what you can.

So what is it about agents who seem pre-programmed for success? At RealScout, we’ve put together some of the best ‘code snippets’ from the most successful real estate agents out there, to help you create your own “killer feature” set and become the indispensable agent your buyers need.

Anticipate wants and needs to WOW your clients.  

Don’t just react to what your clients say they want and need, anticipate them. Getting out ahead of your clients is one of the best ways to show that you understand and are working for them, not just taking orders. For example, a buyer tells you they need to be close to the train station for work. Knowing where they work, you take it a step further and pull homes that reduce their commute time.

That’s a good start, but could you go further? If you know where they work, can you find homes closer to their company shuttle stops or popular rideshare locations? Or find homes with low-traffic routes that make it easy to bike to the office? When you’re able to connect the dots between your buyer’s wants, lifestyle needs, and the surrounding area, you can create a short list of homes that feel perfectly suited just for them.

Share neighborhood insights to make your buyers feel at home.

Share the good, the bad and the ugly – make your buyers feel at home by sharing neighborhood insights that give them more context to how the homes they’re considering fit into their lifestyle.

Does your buyer love to cook? Perhaps the neighborhood has a seasonal farmer’s market that foodies rave about. Maybe your buyer is an avid yoga enthusiast and the local park hosts open-air classes twice a week. Is there a flight path overhead that can create a commotion early in the morning? Key insights that aren’t obvious through online searching can make your buyers feel comfortable calling a new neighborhood home.

Use the “Five Whys” to really understand why.

The Five Whys is a technique that sales professionals in all types of industries have used for generations to get to the root of what their clients are trying to accomplish. It’s based on the idea that if you ask why enough, you’ll get down to the real cause of anything.

If your buyers say they want to live in a certain neighborhood, ask why. “Because we need to be close to our mother-in-law.” Ask why. “Because when we have kids, she’ll be watching them during the week.” Ask why. “Because we both plan on continuing with our careers after the baby arrives.” Whether you get to five why’s or not, you’ll learn a whole lot more about the real reasons that are driving your client’s decision making process when you ask why.

Take the couple above, by asking why, you’ve learned your clients are planning on having kids, and that the mother-in-law will be an important supporter, helping both of them fulfill their professional aspirations. Maybe now you’ll focus their home search in a great school district, looking for properties that include a mother-in-law suite, a park around the corner and are close to the business corridor. Getting to the bottom of what is important to your clients can provide opportunities to make your expertise shine.

Be the neighborhood detective.

Its not enough to say that you’re a neighborhood expert—you have to actually be one! Tour as many homes as you can when they come on the market. Take notes on floorplans, features and price changes. Nothing says expert like being able to rattle off the features, benefits and pricing history of neighborhood homes. Attend city planning and zoning meetings to keep current with changes to the real estate landscape.

What is the community like during the morning, afternoon and evening? Learn everything you can about the neighborhood’s amenities like dog parks, local farmer’s markets, tennis courts and the best place to watch the fireworks on July 4th. Becoming a true neighborhood expert is a time-tested winning strategy.

Use technology to step up your game.

While it can’t ever replace an agent, smart use of technology can help turn your local knowledge and expertise into superpower skills. There are dozens of tools out there that give you new ways to uncover what clients want. For example, use your clients’ search histories and saved properties to cue you in on changes to their desired amenities and pull new properties to meet their changing needs.

Go beyond basic search by bed, baths and price to allow your buyers to search homes using the criteria that matters most to them – schools, proximity to work, local grocery stores and more. Being cutting-edge with your buyer alert system and real estate technologies can help you anticipate the needs of your clients and will prove you’re the expert you claim to be.

At RealScout we focus on building technology that amplifies agent value and turns great agents into superstars. Our search tags empower agents to leverage powerful data sets and provide better service to their clients by being true experts. You can see in our #NorCalDreamin’ infographic below that being the local expert means going beyond just home features to truly helping buyers search and find homes that fit their lifestyle.

When executed correctly, this agent algorithm will leave your clients knowing you’re the true expert in town. What “killer features” do you provide to stand out from the crowd as the real estate professional your clients need and love?