Real Estate Sales: How To Win In Peak Home Buying Season
Peak home buying season is coming and it brings a huge opportunity for increased real estate sales for investors and agents.
Peak season for most real estate markets in America is late spring through summer. This is a crucial time of year for real estate investors and agents. There is a lot more deal volume going on, and those flipping and selling real estate assets can often find they get more for their homes than at other times of the year.
During these months the market gets flooded with additional buyers and sellers. Done well, some real estate professionals may find they could sprint through this season and make enough to take most of the rest of the year off. However, most importantly, winning at this time of year is vital for keeping up market share, retaining clients, and fueling marketing and operating income for the remainder of the year, and for the next year. Those who do well summer after summer will keep growing, while making it much harder for the rest. So, how do you win?
Start Early
Get a head start. If you are serious about winning during this season you can’t just take it month by month, or week by week. Savvy real estate pros and companies are planning, building the framework, and are lining up business before school gets out. This includes preparing and scheduling marketing, loading up on targeted and themed content, and developing connections. Bulk up on those buyer lists, arrange financing in advance, starting securing contracts and inventory to serve the buyer boom.
Know Your Prospects
In order to market successfully, convert well, and cut profitable deals you’ve got to know your prospects. Who are they? Why are they active now? What is holding them back from signing a deal? Are they buyers on vacation who need more information about the area? Are they out of area buyers moving in who need more comfortability with the schools available? Are they local buyers wanting to get into a specific school district? Are they sellers who are in a distressed situation, but who really need somewhere lined up for their family to go before they can move? Are they short of moving funds, or time to arrange a move, or do parents need to balance entertaining kids with work and house hunting?
Expand Your Services
Many real estate pros and companies focus on one side of the business. Some focus on listings or acquisitions. Others focus on buyers or renters. Some play in the middle wholesaling and flipping houses. Specializing is great. Yet, at this time of the year when many are under pressure and time constraints to buy, sell, and move, expanding service offering can have a big benefit. If you can give your sellers confidence in moving or secure a great new place for them they are more likely to act. If you can help your buyers sell or lease their old place, they are more likely to pull the trigger and buy. If you can line up financing for buyers more might take action. In many cases it may also just be helping to coordinate and make the moving process easier. You or your company don’t have to directly offer all of this. Much can be accomplished by creating a network of referral partners. Connect with local and out of area real estate agents, local investors, mortgage loan officers, contractors, moving companies, leasing agents, and anyone else who can help serve your clients.
Scale
This is definitely the time of year to scale up. This includes scaling your branding, not just your direct marketing. You not only need to be there, calling for their business, but also build up the know you, like you, trust you factor. Load up your marketing budget. Consistent marketing is important, but your need to know when to weight your budget. This is certainly time to do this. Go hard. Be prepared to scale your team too. You don’t want to generate a ton of hot real estate leads only to burn them with bad service. Have customer service reps, assistants, and marketers you can bring in as needed. Just recognize how this businesses can fluctuate, and structure it in a way which can be scaled up and down as the seasons change.
