New Ways to Leverage Tech to Build Real Estate Leads

It is all just fun and games until someone sells a house using drone footage on TikTok.

Real estate agents can leverage technology to generate new real estate leads. This article discusses using social media, drones, apps, and email to get new leads. Let's ‌look at how we can use tech to find new customers.

Live Stream Open Houses

We all know that open houses have been one of the most important ways to generate new real estate leads. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we can use technology to give us an edge at doing what already works well.

One of the newest ways to leverage technology to find new leads is live streaming open house events. 

We can share the live stream on social media. Potential buyers are more inclined to attend the next open house in person if they see a live stream first. When people attending open houses in-person notice the event is streaming online, they'll realize there is more competition than they initially imagined. 

Live streaming is a great way to expand ‌open houses beyond the neighborhood. While joining online isn't the same as attending in person, buyers across state lines can get a good idea of what the property looks like with people inside.

In addition, broadcasting busy open houses shows demand, something buyers and sellers both love to see.

Add a New Perspective to Listings with Drones

Use drone footage to set listings apart from others. New leads like to see every property angle, and aerial footage is an attractive addition to high-quality pictures. Drone footage could save buyers a trip out to the property.

Giving new buyers as many views as possible will improve their understanding of the property. In addition, you can turn your videos into ads to improve your online engagement. We should expect our ads to perform better when enhanced with drone footage.

We can use footage like this during open houses and live streams to exhibit the property features and acreage. It also ‌shows the distance from schools and nearby attractions like shopping and dining. Drone footage can even ‌give examples of the weather ‌during different seasons. 

New generations of homebuyers respond well to video advertisements. For example, a video fly-through is engaging content for social media. Uploading interesting footage to YouTube on a regular basis will expand your outreach and bring in more leads.

Get Leads from Social Media

Social media is a crucial way to generate new leads. It helps us share listings in different cities and states. Facebook is almost 20 years old. There have been a lot of new channels developed along the way.

Set up free accounts on Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. Remember to add some time to your calendar to do social media marketing every week.

Doing as little as one post a week is enough to notice a difference in new leads. Sometimes the most challenging part is getting started. Once we have a routine, it is easy to keep the content going.

Here are a few examples of how to use social media:

1. Discuss home buying and selling tips in videos on Facebook and YouTube
2. Survey sellers and buyers on Reddit with polls and discussion threads
3. Share a listing, article, or video on LinkedIn
4. Upload professional pictures and videos from listings to Instagram and Pinterest
5. Make ‌summary clips of different property features or parts of the buying and selling process for TikTok 

Besides posting content, we can leverage social media to network with other industry professionals. We should also ask for reviews from buyers and other professionals we've worked with in the past.

Social media is a great place to find ideas for content to emulate from other agents, especially if we get writer's block.

Increase Curb Appeal with Home Renovation Apps

Curb appeal is fundamental to capturing the people viewing our listings and seeing our signs. It includes everything exterior to the house that makes them attractive to buyers. We'll want to work with sellers to suggest the most valuable upgrades. 

Fresh Paint

A fresh coat of paint works wonders for curb appeal. Encourage sellers to pick colors that match the neighborhood and features found in nearby listings. Neutral colors appeal to most buyers.

A bright-colored door that contrasts nicely with the neutral exterior color can be a great way to draw attention. Doors are small enough to paint if the new owner decides they want something less noticeable.

Nowadays, there is an app for everything. Suggest a design app that helps homeowners get a clear timeline of how long the enhancement will take to complete.

Contractors sign up with the design apps to get their painting leads, making it easy for homeowners to find a trustworthy tradesperson. Apps like this make it easy to collaborate with sellers.

They can ask for input on the upgrades they should do before they sell the house.‍

Professional Landscaping‍

Besides paint and a bright door, trimmed bushes and a freshly mowed lawn go a long way in the eyes of potential buyers.

Planting trees can be a great way to add value and curb appeal at the same time. Agents should encourage sellers to make strategic landscaping decisions that fit the community.

The idea is to make the outside look well-kept with professional maintenance. We can use apps to find the best landscapers in our areas.

Mailbox Upgrade

One of the easiest ways to increase curb appeal is with the mailbox. Mailboxes are great ways to add flare to the exterior of the home. Antique mailboxes can be appealing in some neighborhoods.

In others, a natural wood post may be more attractive. If the mailbox is in front of the house, upgrading it is a great way to catch some additional attention. Recommend using an app to make finding a handyman easy for homeowners.

Upgrade Your Email Marketing 

The ROI from email marketing is hard to beat. Newsletters are among the best ways to establish a relationship with new customers. Advertise the newsletter on social media channels and ask people to sign up.

Setup a scannable QR code to display at open houses and online. Make asking people to sign up for the newsletter a regular part of the sales pitch. 

Once we have a list of email addresses, we'll have to get into the routine of sending them content. Draft a marketing schedule for the newsletter. Consider a different theme for each month.

We want to send at least one newsletter per month. Talk about new listings, market trend analysis updates, and success stories or reviews from recent customers. The newsletter is a great place to share social media accounts for people that want even more information.

Besides a newsletter with a monthly marketing plan, it is crucial to have a contact plan for buyers and sellers interested in working together. When fielding calls from new customers, remember to ask for their email addresses.

We can use various customer relationship management (CRM) platforms with automated follow-ups to make sure we're making contact after the first conversation.  

We will have more emails to sort through when we ramp up our marketing with newsletters and CRMs. So take some time to organize overloaded inboxes.

Create new folders and labels that make it easy to stay organized and see who needs to follow up. Don't let new leads fall through the cracks.

Target For Sale By Owner Listings

We can target "For Sale By Owner" listings when looking for new homes to sell. If the listing stays on the market longer than a month, it might be an excellent opportunity to get in touch with the seller. 

There are a variety of places owners sell their homes online. Zillow and Craigslist are some of the most popular online directories. Local newspaper websites can also be a valuable source of FSBO listings. We will want to create alerts for new listings and target those that don't sell right away. 

Of course, we can always find FSBO listings the old-fashioned way by driving around target neighborhoods and taking pictures of for-sale signs.

But, no matter how we find them, we'll want to make sure we have our online presence on point.

Showing off a similar listing with drone footage and a recording of the last live-streamed open house could be enough to convince the sellers to use our services.

Final Thoughts

The best way to build new leads is to improve on what already works. Technology has opened the door to do our jobs better in a variety of ways.

Taking advantage of free social networking channels may be the most effective way to leverage technology to build new leads.

Whether you decide to live stream an open house, use drone videos, or record regular market updates for YouTube, the sky's the limit for reaching new leads. The best part is that using technology to build new leads is easy to learn and only costs you in time.