More than anything, home buyers and sellers want to work with a local real estate expert who knows their market like the back of their hand. That means knowing all important data for their area:
- What types of listings have sold most frequently?
- What kinds of properties come on the market?
- What’s the average price point for a new home?
- What neighborhoods and developments are hot?
It also means knowing more than just home sales and value statistics, though. You need to understand your town — including those who live there — and be an integral part of your community.
While the following activities might not have much to do with buying and selling a property, they can help you show you are a local real estate expert, as opposed to you simply saying you are one.
1. Regularly attend your local government meetings.
Because almost everything your local government discusses affects your business in one way or another, it’s wise to start your path here to prove you’re a true, local real estate expert.
From public works projects to housing regulations, you’ll hear several topics of interest at town hall meetings. The issues discussed are ones that can make living in your community pleasant or painful.
As a local real estate expert, you can speak on behalf of your clients — the constituents of your community. You know what their concerns are, and you can convey those concerns to decision-makers.
You don’t have to run for office or serve on committees. Showing up and taking part in the dialogue, though, is a powerful statement about your commitment to the well-being of your community.
2. Support local kids’ sports teams and youth programs.
Whether it’s swimming, baseball, or gymnastics teams or the local scout troops or Boys and Girls Club, there are many different childrens’ clubs and organizations to which you can lend support.
For just a couple hundred dollars, you can sponsor youth sports teams uniforms for the whole season or help underwrite an out-of-town competition so the kids in question get to travel for events.
Similarly, you can help fund or advise other local programs, like ones for at-risk youths or after-school initiatives, to ensure every child in your community gets the guidance they need to succeed.
And when any of these programs come to an end, you can treat the kids to an ice cream and pizza party. The children won’t give much thought to who made it possible, much less that it was a local real estate expert such as yourself — but their parents sure will. Overall, this strategy is a win-win for everyone involved.
3. Join (or start) a community Facebook Group for locals.
There are Facebook Groups for just about everything these days: ones for fans of certain celebrities, ones for pro sports teams — even ones for buyers and sellers to get advice from (you guessed it) local real estate experts.
Your Facebook Group doesn’t have to be one in which you only answer questions for prospects. You can invite anyone and everyone in your community to join to chat about anything related to the area, like hot-button issues and growing interests in and around your town.
Once your members start conversations on these subjects, you can hop in to offer your two cents. If you do partake in these group discussions, it’s important you don’t use them for any marketing whatsoever — at least not directly.
Take part in these conversations to provide value to those who live or are interested in your market. Be a person, first and foremost, not just a local real estate expert who wants to generate more leads and clients.
As for marketing, you can eventually do some targeted Facebook advertising to members of your group and others you join who demonstrate they are, indeed, looking to buy or sell in the near future.
Your ads won’t show within the Facebook Group(s) in question, but if the members see your ads and then see you contributing to the conversation, they’re more likely to associate you with being a local real estate expert.
4. Create neighborhood and community tour videos.
Local real estate experts not only share their buying and selling tips and tricks with their clients. They also prove they know just about everything there is to know about their markets.
Arguably the best way to accomplish this is to produce videos that show off your area expertise.
Some of these videos can be simple, visuals-only clips that walk would-be home buyers through specific neighborhoods, businesses, schools, and parks in your area.
Other videos can feature narration from you explaining what makes your location so great. For instance, you could create a video that details the best pizza places in town with mini reviews for each.
To maximize the results of your efforts, make sure you showcase your real estate videos on your agency website and your YouTube channel. You can also share them on Facebook and Instagram, or highlight them in an email newsletter that you send to your contact list.
Whether you realize it or not, you are an authority on your market. Because of that, you can turn your knowledge into lead-generating and -nurturing video content that can add an essential boost to your online presence.
5. Give back to your local community as often as possible.
Depending on where you live, there are several ways you can participate and help others do so as well.
Single events, for instance, that help organizations get attention, funds, and resources are fun to put together and really help other community members get involved. Of course, there are many more cool ideas too:
- Host and promote a blood drive you could host in conjunction with an organization such as the Red Cross.
- Collect books and toys for kids. Donate to your local library, homeless shelter, group home, or pediatric hospital.
- Plan a coat donation. One Warm Coat has all the steps mapped out to help you conduct such a donation.
- Bring snacks and supplies to first responders. EMS and firefighters need our support, just like we need their help.
Becoming a local real estate expert is a top differentiator for today’s buyers and sellers. So, be sure to show them you’re an expert with both heartfelt, genuine actions and great, hyper-local content.
BONUS TIP! Share an interactive map on your website.
How many times do people ask you for recommendations? How often do leads ask for great local restaurant picks, funky boutique shops to visit, or cool festivals to check out? They ask because (bingo!) you’re a local real estate expert.
Now, imagine you had one digital location to which you could send your buyer or seller audience over and over again so they could consistently get top picks and suggestions from you?
Your website is one such place, but, more specifically, a customized, interactive map — like the one Relola offers agents and brokers — can help you make recommendations with ease and get those recs in front of your visitors and leads.
With Relola, you simply open the app wherever you are. You drop a pin on the local features you love. You write a few sentences about what makes it special (along with some keywords for the area to boost your SEO.) Then you publish it to your map.
And voila: Your map is an instant snapshot of your community, with the listings you’ve toured, the eateries you’ve tried, and the special locations that make your area unique. The map lives on your website and Facebook Business Page, where your prospects are most likely to find you online.
Add in the fact Relola is free for all REALTORS®, and you have the perfect solution to prove your local real estate expertise to your buyer personas online. All you need to do is update it routinely to keep your recommendations fresh.
