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

Introduction

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!

Know these things before 2022

A. 2021 practices in selling homes 

1. Digital Promotion 

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:  

• Gain New Clients

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. 

• More Sales

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.) 

2. Virtual tours over Open house

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. 

3. Digitized process

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.

B. Expert's way of sourcing properties

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.

How do you get started?

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.

Look for properties owned by: 

• 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

1st - Zillow.com

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.  

3rd - Redfin 

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. 

Final Thoughts

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:

Floor Plans 

3D Renderings

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. 

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This article was last updated on Apr 25, 2024