In the past two years, realtors from different real estate market categories encountered different experiences selling properties. There are days when some realtors enjoy the perks of selling properties during a "hot" market, while some experience the opposite. The realtors who enjoyed the hot market perks are the ones who sold highly aspired homes from the countryside/farm town. In contrast, the ones who suffered from the cold market are the realtors from the international market and those who sell apartments and condominiums in places like Silicon Valley and Manhattan. The realtors from these markets even hire influencers to promote their listings. 

How did they reach that point? Here are some of the factors that contributed to the different selling conditions experienced by various realtors during the pandemic: 

"Hot" Market:  Rising rents, work-from-home setup and the urge to live in a more spacious home, the romanticism of life in the countryside, and the fad of buying houses for different reasons.

Cold Market: Pandemic Restrictions, tough competition against highly aspired locations (off the beaten path areas), and all the reasons indicated on the hot market. 

Which market have you experienced since the onset of the pandemic?

Whether you have been part of the hot or cold market, we would like you to be reminded of one thing: 

The current condition of the real estate market is just one thing. 

Don't just depend on the market behavior. There are more ways to stretch your capacity to earn more commissions. Here are three tips for selling properties to help you generate more sales during the pandemic: 

Did you know some home buyers who purchased properties during the pandemic expressed regret and frustration in their recent NY times interview? How does knowing this fact impact you, a realtor? Do you feel worried that somehow this could affect the buying decision of some homebuyers? If you think it does, what should be your action point? Did it prompt you to create strategies to make your customers feel they will not experience the same regrets? Do you feel relieved now? See how this train of thought made you feel optimistic about being updated? That's how staying informed works. It allows you to see the possible issues you may encounter, keeps you from being complacent, lets you set up on-point solutions, supports your thriving business, and ultimately, gives you peace of mind (on the business aspect). 

Considering all these benefits, it is essential to be updated with the latest information about real estate. Let us help you specify which things you should be informed about: 

What are the current rules for marketing your properties onsite or online?

Are there new laws and policies that need to be passed on to your team?

How can new regulations impact your business? 

Are there new strategies employed to help your business transact faster? 

What are the innovations in selling properties?

Can these new procedures apply to your business? 

What is the current market trend? How do you deal with it?

What is your current market positioning? 

How is your competitor doing? What are they doing on social media?

Where do home sellers often list their properties?

There are still many things that you should be updated with, and they all depend on the type of real estate property you are in. List them and be updated about them. Subscribe to newsletters, read online news, and research. Make reading and conducting research a habit, and apply what you've learned. Later on, you'll see how staying informed gets you more properties sold during this pandemic and even after it (🙏).

This tip is another thing that we would like you to keep in mind when selling properties during this pandemic and even beyond. It is also highly connected with the first tip. You need to be updated with the latest information to provide solutions and recommendations that will surely fit your client's needs. We'll share with you some solutions you can provide. Make sure you go the extra mile in providing them with these things: 

Assistance on how legal procedures on home buying are done

You're not obligated to assist clients in their legal matters, but if you do offer such a service, it will be greatly appreciated. Being able to help them with any legal issues they may face can provide them with tremendous relief. Incorporating this into your process will not only save time and effort but can also help speed up the homebuying cycle, enabling a faster sale. And by the way, satisfied clients could be your repeat customers, too; if not, they could still help you by referring you to their families and friends. 

Partner with many financial institutions as much as possible

Exercise due caution when carrying out this task. As we all remember, the great financial crisis of 2008 had a devastating effect on the global economy. We want our readers to stay well away from such economic disasters and not face a situation similar to what happened back in 2008. Thus, we need to explain what this service actually entails. Either they don't have a credit score yet (first timers), don't have the patience to endure the long underwriting process, or have limited options for availing mortgage (few financial firms). If this is the case (provided that they have a stable source of income), we advise you to somehow vouch for them by referring them to your financial partners, who can offer more leniency in providing mortgages to your home buyers. Practicing this kind of help during this pandemic can help you sell more properties–just assess your buyers carefully. Be an expert on it. 

Connect with all the potential suppliers in case a problem arises during the house inspection

According to some realtors, even sure buyers could back out because of unexpected house property issues during the inspection period. Thus, as a realtor, you must double-check the property before the inspection day. However, this doesn't mean you should feel secure already. After your inspection, we still advise you to keep your supplier's contact updated in case new problems arise during your client's inspection. By doing this, you can reassure your clients that there won't be so much hassle in buying that property by addressing their homebuying concerns right away. 

Results of the 2018 survey published by Statista in 2021 indicated that 93 percent of home buyers used online websites when searching for a home in the United States. This percentage went up by 4% in 2020, and considering the speed of technological advancement, the rate may even drive the remaining 3% to adopt the practice. 

If you don't have a website or any social media account for your business, you should be creating one right now. If you already have one, maximize them to sell more properties during this pandemic and beyond. Here are some contents that you can create as a realtor: 

Share your real estate expertise on social media. Here are some topics: 

Differences between modern and contemporary homes

Home furnishings that could make a home extra elegant

How to find the best home for your family

Tips to ensure that the property is legally sold

What is your favorite email besides the one that tells you your commission has been sent? Is it from the most popular real estate business in your town? Is it something about the breakthroughs and other inspiring stories from other realtors? Or simply about an email from your favorite health coaches like P.D. Mangan or your favorite excerpts from the works of C.S. Lewis? Those newsletters have probably excited you, taught you, and even guided you in your major decisions. The same can happen once you create highly relatable content for your newsletters. Your readers may feel excited, feel informed, and be guided. Once they've felt those emotions, their trust in you and your business may develop and eventually influence their decision to buy from your listings later. Do you want to know how your newsletter can become more appealing? Continue reading to discover.     

Highly relatable blogs, social media captions, and images are things that you should be sharing on your online platforms from time to time. These things add value to your business as they drive your audience to unconsciously promote your listings/business by simply reacting, commenting, or sharing your posts with their friends, followers, and subscribers, who could later be your customers. To help you create engaging content, you could get the help of content creators who are knowledgeable with SEO and pair it with highly structured floor plans and beautiful home renders. You may include these assets in your newsletters and see how they could double your website visit. 

Do you know where to get these marketing assets? We at HomeRender, provide them. Here are some works from our amazing artists which you may find very useful for your business: 

We also create marketing brochures where you can showcase these renders and floor plans and your competitive offers or even reasonable ones that could help you sell your properties during the pandemic. Here are sample Marketing brochures: 

Do you want these brochures to be posted on your website without any image quality or readability problems? Worry no more! At HomeRender, we made sure that our process of creating marketing brochures reflect your standard and aspirations to make sure you sell your property during this pandemic. 

Staying informed, Providing solutions or recommendations, and maximizing your online platforms are some of the tips we can provide to help you sell your property during this pandemic. Do you feel empowered after learning these tips? Do you think you are more than ready to market properties? That's how we want our partners to feel and achieve whenever they subscribe to our services. 

Contact us now if you have questions about Marketing Brochure creations, floor plans, or home renderings! If you don't have questions, have a quick view of our website to learn more. 

Here are some of the factors that contributed to the different selling conditions experienced by various realtors during the pandemic

Learn the basics of selling properties during the pandemic

3 tips in selling properties during the pandemic

HomeRender is dedicated to helping our clients thrive. We want to take our service a step further by making sure you're up-to-date with the latest trends in the real estate market, in addition to providing error-free, high-quality renderings. To be more specific, we're talking about the latest practices in selling homes for 2021, the expert's way of sourcing home sellers, and, lastly, listings that are likely to be recommended by clients in 2021. Hope you'll learn a lot from this!

Now that online tools are more accessible than ever, more realtors employ digitization, mainly social media, to grow their businesses. In fact, according to reports, 77% of real estate agents directly use it as a marketing and lead generation tool.

Using social media has several advantages:  

Based on a survey by The Close, 44% of the agents who responded to their survey noted that they gained new clients last year(2020) because of their social media posts. 

Those using social media advertisements have gained higher chances of selling properties because the said tool has a broader market for businesses. It can also provide more accurate analytics about their target market. 

Help assess the credibility of the buyer/seller.

By simply reviewing the profile of your prospective buyer/seller, you can quickly get an idea if they will be good clients or not. Fraudsters often operate those freshly created accounts WITHOUT any verified friends/followers. (Disclaimer: this may not apply to all, but it better be sure.) 

In 2021, more and more companies conducted virtual tours instead of open houses. Reports by Zillow revealed that companies who featured 3D tours were up by 200%, while those who advertised for open houses in April were down by 42% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Some reasons for the changes in conducting house tours are the following: 

97% of buyers searched for their prospective homes online. (RIS Media)

79% of homebuyers use digital resources. (Meta)

Thanks to the pandemic, conducting house tours has become more convenient to realtors and their prospects as more clients discovered the ease of virtually visiting the house they wanted from the comfort of their couch. 

The benefits of technological advancements in the real estate industry do not stop here. This year, some realtors started employing software applications that streamline their home selling system. With the use of software applications, some realtors could add reusable terms in their spec sheets, create accurate digital floor plans with furniture to show scale to standardize what service they can provide to their customers, and track leads using a user-friendly CRM.

Real estate professionals shouldn't miss out on the opportunity to use the latest software solutions. Looking at various applications could help you make more sales and improve your operations. We suggest giving HomeRender a go - it has been explicitly designed to make life easier for realtors, homebuilders, and architects. Check out our offerings or read this blog until the end to know how this software application can help you sell more properties in 2022.

In the meantime, let us share how experts creatively find ways to get properties for listings. 

In an article published by The Guardian last month, it was reported that the median house price in Byron Bay, Australia, in late 2016 was around $1.1M. As of August 2021, its value jumped to $2.55M. Every year, the increase is computed to be about 70%. 

While the rise in value looks good to the realtors, the truth is it can only benefit a few since there are only very few properties to sell. This only led to hatred among the agents, based on the article. This scenario may also be actual in other places. In fact, you could be one of those realtors who competes against the others. Therefore you need to leverage whatever you have to set an edge and source more and better properties that could get the attention of your target market. 

Let's look at some advice made by experts in a recent article published by Forbes. 

1. Find major area events using public media sources.

Megan Micco of Compass recommended using public media sources to search for trigger events in your market. In addition, she said that you need to set up Google alerts for obituaries, retirements, divorces, and marriages in your (target) area. According to her, those significant life changes often lead to property sales, and in some cases, sellers will need to move quickly and avoid the cost and hassle of hiring a real estate agent to prepare a home for sale.

2. Source potential sales opportunities online

Valon Nikci of Link NY Realty stated that there are websites where you can find properties that are delinquent in property tax, have tax liens, are pre-foreclosed, or are distressed. Nicki added that those properties most likely be for sale soon, so contacting the owners of those properties is a big plus.

3. Send personalized letters on behalf of your clients.

Jennifer Anderson of Anderson Coastal Group shared what they do when their buyers have a particular neighborhood or even street in mind--they pull a list of homeowners and send them a specific and personalized letter on their behalf. In their letters, they include personal details and wishlist items that are proven effective. According to her, those efforts result in a great lead and convert to a second client in the seller.  

4. Connect with people you think could be the least source of property listing information.

Adam Redolfi from Barnes International Realty mentioned that keeping good relations with your peers and people who might have precious information is the "golden strategy." He said the information about an off-market property could be found after a conversation with the front desk, the building manager, or even the janitor. According to him, many underestimate how much information these people have as they interact daily with potential sellers.    

Aside from what the experts said, here's another tip to help you source more listings. 

Landlords who live out of the state for a very long period and try to send them an email or a personalized letter indicating your listing intention. Be sure to prepare an offer that makes sense to them. 

Landlords who own tax-delinquent multi-family properties and tax-delinquent homeowners.

Properties of investors who filed for bankruptcy

Property owners whose assessment went way up on the current year

There are more to these, so make sure to collate as many ways as possible and evaluate which fits your strategy well, and don't forget to keep the experts' advice in mind. 

Now let's look at the sites most likely recommended by clients in 2021 based on the report published by Comparably. 

C. Listings that are likely to be recommended by clients in 2021

Zillow has also been hailed as the "Best Overall Real Estate Website of 2021" by Investopedia. In 2021, Zillow won Comparably's "Best Places to Work in Seattle 2021."

2nd - Realtor.com in the US or realtor.ca in Canada

Run by the National Association of Realtors, this site is also part of Investopedia's 7 Best Real Estate Websites of 2021 and hailed as the "Most Accurate" website of 2021.  

Last but not least, among the best real estate websites in 2021. 

If you're from the US, see if you're listing on sites that customers find most appealing, and make sure to list your properties on these sites next year. If you're from Canada, use realtor.ca, this site doesn't just provide listings; it also offers free data, which you may need to position your marketing strategy further. 

Use the available reports on popular real-estate websites like the one we shared above. Those sites, mainly Zillow and realtor.ca, provide a comprehensive database of all the houses they sold recently and much more. Once you can gather those data from the sites mentioned, you will be able to identify the value of your properties which helps you prevent incurring unnecessary costs in the future. 

Success in real estate takes a lot of effort, skills, and experience, but for starters, seeking help from seasoned realtors and proven studies might help. However, if some of their pieces of advice do not apply to you yet, particularly the complicated ones (such as identifying property values), which usually require heavy resources, shift to another strategy first, try boosting your negotiation skills by providing better and more appealing 3D renderings and marketing assets that make your buyers pay beyond their market value. 

Does this sound better and more interesting to you? 

If yes, allow us to remind you why we're here. 

HomeRender is a subscription-based rendering service platform where you can order high-quality floor plans and 3D renderings as much as you want, as long as there are slots*! HomeRender employs a system where all you have to do is fill out a project wizard and wait until your project is ready for approval and delivery. 

Do you want to get as many projects as possible but are too overwhelmed to take care of them all? Get our service, and let us take care of your projects. Once you do, all you have to do is focus on upscaling your business. 

*Slots may vary depending on your subscription. 

Here are samples from our HomeRender artists:

Do you think HomeRender can help you start your 2022, right? If so, get in touch with us now so we can begin rendering images that achieve your sales target next year. 

Coming up: 2021 updates you can use to prepare for next year!

The benefits of technological advancements to the real estate industry do not stop here. This year, 

If you're trying to sell a home, you should know these things before 2022

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If you're trying to sell a home, you should know these things before 2022

3 tips in selling properties during the pandemic