Perfecting online content, pouncing on opportunities and preaching positivity were the major points made by Real Estate Webmasters CEO Morgan Carey during an exclusive one-on-one with RISMedia Founder, President and CEO John Featherston as part of Real Estate’s Rocking in the New Year virtual conference earlier this month.
Featherston posed questions about the shifting residential real estate sales market of early 2023, providing his own thoughts and asking Carey what advice and strategies he would give agents and brokers in these uncertain times.
John Featherston: Morgan, a lot of agents, agent team leaders and broker/owners are interested in finding out what opportunities lie ahead of them. How will these real estate professionals who find themselves with more time and less money accomplish what they should be accomplishing in 2023? How can you help them build their businesses in the first few months of 2023?
Morgan Carey: It’s really important to revisit the list of things you always wished you could get to, but couldn’t during busy times. You’ve got clients, you’ve got listings, you’ve got everything going on. You usually have a list of things that never get done. And I think the top of the list from an opportunities perspective is reconnecting with your community. When I say that, I don’t just mean reconnecting with the people in your community, which of course is a great idea, but reconnecting with local charities, organizations, networking, all of that stuff.
You can double down by focusing on content. What I mean by content is you can go out and take photos of your various communities. You probably don’t have professional photos or high-resolution photos of your community. You can use your smartphone to take videos. You can go out and take notes about each community, then come back and produce that content. You then have the opportunity to share those photos on social media. You can post them to your blog and website. You can post videos to YouTube, etc. Most agents, teams and brokers know they need to have great content about their community on their websites, blogs and social media, but they never have the time to do it. So I think the first opportunity in this quarter is reconnecting with the community, producing visual content and writing content that corresponds and matches with the visual content. Then it’s all about showing off your local expertise and your local knowledge.
JF: We closed out 2022 and there was a lot of discussion about what is going to happen in the first quarter of 2023. We’re in a new normal, now we’re hearing that interest rates are stabilizing, going down a little bit potentially, and most likely we’ll finish the year probably below 6%. But what’s most important to our readers is that they want to become successful in this first quarter, setting up April, May and June to receive the fruits of what they do now in January and February. What do they have to be careful of as far as making cuts in their budgets, as far as technology’s concerned, that may inhibit them from taking opportunities that are out there in the first quarter?
MC: When I think about my budget or what I want to spend money on from a marketing perspective, whether I’m being the director of marketing for my wife, who’s a REALTOR®, or whether I’m running my software company, I really need to think about what my plan is first. If my plan is to produce content, if my plan is to get reengaged with social media and my website and my blog and my audience, there are a few things I’m going to need, right? I don’t need fancy cameras or video-recording equipment.
I have a smartphone. There are some things where good enough is good enough. But I need a really great website because that’s where I’m going to be publishing my blog. Obviously it has to have a blog. I need to have a really great social media presence, but maybe I don’t need to be boosting everything. I know you said technology, but I might reduce my social media paid budget and go for more organic reach by engaging people more. I would go through the engagement with my community and with my users in my CRM . So obviously CRM is critical. But are they engaging with all the things I’m paying for? Maybe I have an app, for instance. Do people actually use my app? If they don’t, then cut it, right? There’s no reason to have any piece of technology that is not being used by your consumer, by your agents, or that is not necessary for the delivery of your marketing plan for 2023, and especially just that first quarter. Because the first quarter is kind of done if you don’t have your deals lined up. You’re working for your second quarter right now, so this is the time to put in that effort.
JF: So content is king. You must have content that resonates with your prospects and your existing customer base. You’ve got to be seen as the leader that you are in the marketplace. Now, a lot of optimism is in peril because many brokers and agents are being bombarded with negatives by the mainstream media about what’s happening in real estate right now. But what are some of the unique opportunities they should be talking about and bringing to their marketplace that will help them turn 2023 from a potentially average year to a great year?
MC: It’s hard to ignore the media, isn’t it? There’s a lot of clickbait out there. Negativity sells, it sells newspapers. But those challenges are also opportunities. You just have to think about what the opportunity is that’s created by that challenge. Take for instance the fact that there will be fewer deals in the market. That’s a fact, right? We are going to sell far less real estate in North America in 2023 than we did in 2022 and 2021. What’s the consequence of that? The consequence is many agents are going to get out of the business. They’re going to listen to the negativity, they’re going to become afraid, or maybe they just can’t make it.
They need a more consistent paycheck and they’re not positioned well to leverage their skillset in a down market. The opportunity is there, each of those agents had deals, they had loyal clients that they were working with or are working with, and those loyal clients will no longer have an agent. This is a great example of the opportunity. And if they don’t have an agent, your best opportunity with them is to make sure you are connecting with all of the agents in your brokerage, in your office, or even in other offices. And let them know that you are available, that you are credible, that you will take great care of their customers and you’ll pay a referral fee.
Maybe they can ensure a soft landing where their customers are taken care of in a wonderful way; where they can also realize some revenue from their past customer base that maybe they weren’t thinking about when they were just giving up. I think that’s the biggest opportunity. But again, if you’re also focused on connecting, if you have time and not as many deals going on, you’re not just connecting with your community, you’re connecting with your REALTORS®, you’re connecting with business owners. When you focus on those things and you weren’t before, that’s a new opportunity that you just didn’t have time for. And there will be deals that come from that.
JF: I think you’re absolutely right, and I think it’s important to focus on what you said, to connect with people and be seen by them with relevant content that moves you up on the totem pole as far as being the credible source in your local market area. There will be more opportunities for those who leverage the technologies that you bring, and that our mass media brings as far as relevant content in bite-size information their prospects can digest, and then turn to you for more information on how they can succeed. I think that’s very important, and what you do is incredible. Tell me one pearl of wisdom for the first six months of 2023.
MC: Well, I think as we spoke about earlier, there is a lot of negative sentiment in the market. And I think that the community is craving positivity. So be that source of light. If you can be that source of positivity, people will want to connect with you. We are exhausted by all the negative headlines and things of that nature. You can be the source of positivity. You can be out there, you can be encouraging, you can be educating, you can be supporting, and people will gravitate toward you. These challenges are opportunities, and if you look at them that way and be that source of positivity, I think a lot of people will want to do business with you in 2023.
JF: Thank you, Morgan. The many thousands of agents, agent team leaders and broker/owners want to take advantage of the opportunities out there. They want to succeed, and they’re going to get the listings that are out there. They’re going to find the buyers that are out there because there are going to be 4.9 million-plus residential real estate resales this year, and they want to get their fair share.
Stay tuned to RISMedia for more reporting from this year’s Real Estate’s Rocking in the New Year.
