I just read an article in Newsweek about how much the housing market is crashing right now1. Foreclosures were up 93% in July over last year. New single-home sales are off 22.3% from last June, and sales of existing homes are off 9%. Perhaps the most telling of all — there are 9.6 months of inventory for sale.
This makes it sound like it’s a bad time to be in real estate, the mortgage industry, new home construction, and related industries. But any down-market situation presents a real opportunity for forward-thinking and visionary firms to go beyond survival and actually thrive.
Here are 10 ways we recommend for businesses affected by the housing crash to thrive:
1. Orient your website so it provides the most useful and targeted information possible for your potential buyers. Go beyond the standard fare of linking to school reviews and community information: add information that will help people move and settle into the community once they’ve arrived (review stores and restaurants, publish information about trash pickup and parking regulations, blog about the “everyday things” people in town just know but will catch newcomers blind).
2. Blog regularly about community events and news and make your site the go-to location for what’s happening in your town. The more you’re an expert the more people will turn to you for finding the right home in the right neighborhood.
3. Focus on what makes you different. Do you have a keen eye on how to properly assess a home’s value? Can you figure out how to properly time listing a property? Can you use some home decorating skills to spruce up a home and make it more appealing during an open house and offer that to your clients free of charge? Promote all of this - heavily and repeatedly - on your site. Shout who you are and how you’re better.
4. Stay in touch with a real message. There are thousands of prewritten newsletters mortgage brokers and real estate professionals use. This is generic content and it reads that way. Write your own piece, give it a dose of your personality, and be real. That will connect with visitors.
5. Don’t hide the truth. Be honest and straight with people and weave this into the language of your site. Position yourself as a source of real information, not spin.
6. Integrate with MLS (or your own local listing service) and then augment that with more. Include direct links to Zillow and other resource sites. Do quick video interviews of neighbors and publish the best of those (a “meet the neighbors” clip). Record a podcast as you walk through the property. Anything to help immerse people in knowing about the home they’re going to buy. A new home is the biggest purchase most people ever make - go further than the grainy cell phone photos and list of stats to really present the home as someplace to love.
7. Host a seller’s party (the web part is promoting it online). As I drive around it seems that everyone is selling right now, and I’m sure they’re all in the same tough place. Get together and talk about it, hang out, and commiserate with others in the same situation. It’ll help to know that you’re not alone, and they’ll remember that you (the realtor) cared about them. Don’t worry whether or not it’s your sign in the front yard - building community is the right thing to do.
8. Use a compelling and high quality design. Design stands out, and the better an impression you make across your site (and all materials) the better you’ll be received in the marketplace.
9. Publish a sales celebration message. Every time you sell a home send out a quick e-mail note to people you’re still selling for and put up a blog article about it. Celebrate success both to keep you going and to keep up the spirits of your homeowners.
10. Use Basecamp. This simple and effective online communication tool is a great way to keep in touch with people and share videos, files, messages, and tasks related to a home. Give each buyer their own project and work with them to make their online customer experience with you easy and powerful.
Smart companies that work hard now are going to thrive during this slump and come out stronger on the other side. Build a strong site. Connect with buyers and sellers. Be real and communicate openly with them. Build a community. You’ll make it through this time and have a better time doing so.
1http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20546324/site/newsweek/page/0/
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