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Speed For LEADS: Your PACE Makes Or Breaks Your Business!

August 6, 2020/in Accelerator, Inside Sales, MOD Virtual Assistants /by Jeremy

How fast is your lead follow-up? If it’s more than 5 minutes, you’re losing business — and you’re losing a lot of it. Believe it or not, while many companies still cling to the belief that it’s good to “wait a few hours” so they don’t seem desperate, the truth is that if you don’t follow up within the first 5 minutes, you won’t make the sale.

In the Lead Response Management Study, Professor James Oldroyd performed an in-depth study of response times & contact rates and found that for every 5 minutes you wait, there’s roughly a 4x reduction in your chance of contacting the lead. If you wait more than an hour, your chances of contracting the lead are 10 times lower than if you’d called them in the first 5 minutes!

Keep in mind that 75% of prospects do business with the company that contacts them first. However, the average response time to an online lead is 44 hours and 50% of online leads never get a response! Why is there such a large disparity? In small businesses, the issue is usually that you’re busy with task-work and don’t have time to jump on new leads. With all the responsibilities on your plate, the lead response often falls to the bottom of the list when in fact it should be a priority.

Improve your speed to lead time and never miss an opportunity again. MyOutDesk Real Estate ISA Virtual Assistants can give you the leverage you need to boost your business. Schedule your ‘Grow Virtual’ Strategy Session to find out how.

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According to studies, the odds of calling to contact a lead decrease by over 10 times in the first hour.

The odds of qualifying a lead in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times. And from 5 minutes to 10 minutes the dial to qualify odds to decrease 4 times.

Online leads are a great source to grow your business and yet, they are extremely underutilized. Many leads get resold over FIVE TIMES mostly because business owners like you don’t call them. Many leads prospect several Realtors before settling on one but keep in mind that the first statistic we shared, 75% of prospects do business with the company that contacts them first!

A study by the Harvard Business Review revealed that contact within an hour of inquiry, you have 7x more of a chance to have a productive conversation compared to reaching out after over an hour, and compared to someone who waits 24 hours to contact a lead, you’re 60 times more likely.

In real estate, 64% of buyers and 66% of sellers end up working with the agent they speak with first, according to the National Association of Realtors. Those who are first-to-the-draw have a tremendous advantage.

As an example, let us tell you about one of our clients Amy and her ISA Virtual Assistant Rex. Rex is in charge of calling leads as soon as they enter their system. His speed to lead is extremely important and this sense of urgency was instilled in him from his first day with Amy. Aside from being tasked to make at least 100 calls a day, he is also given new leads that he must reach out to within 5 minutes of their query. Rex set 199 appointments in his first year alone and out of those, Amy has closed 142 transactions. This is 7 million in trackable sales volume and over $200,000 in GCI!

Amy, like many business owners we work with, simply could not take everything on herself. She realized that her team needed someone who could focus on their speed to lead time. So she hired and trained a Virtual Professional who could pick up the slack so she and the rest of her team could focus on what they needed to accomplish.

This is only one part of the whole speed-to-lead game, stay tuned as we will explore more strategies such as the best times of day to call leads, etc.

If you want to improve your speed to lead but know you can’t do it all yourself, book your ‘Grow Virtual’ Strategy Session with us today so we can have a conversation about how a MyOutDesk Virtual Assistant can help.

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Residential real estate is SAFE for now, even when people aren’t paying their bills (forbearance)

May 22, 2020/in Administrative, Inside Sales, Marketing, MOD Virtual Assistants, Real Estate /by Jeremy

We Have the Data & Numbers

If you’re concerned about the alarming spike in forbearance numbers, no need to fret. Here’s why. We’ve got numbers that show you why forbearance now is not as concerning as the global financial crisis of 2007 & 2008. Contrary to all the bad news, residential real estate remains strong.

Since 2008, MyOutDesk has been the single largest industry-leading partner of virtual assistant services—not only for thousands of agents & brokers, but also for national franchises like KW, Re/MAX, eXp Realty, Sotheby’s, and many more. Request a free consultation & learn how MyOutDesk can save you time & money!

How Real Estate is affected by Consumer Spending & Forbearance

Sacramento, California has always been the testing ground for major consumer brands, like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, General Mills, etc., for launching their products and measuring success.

The reason is that the general public in the US mirrors that of Sacramento, CA demographically. What does that mean for you? If you follow Sacramento data about the real estate market it’s going to match that of the national market (not perfectly, but still very close).

Nobody really knows that, so when a brand introduces a new whacky flavor, they do it here in Sacramento first.

You can apply consumer market research in real estate trends as well as mortgage loan forbearance.

The number of people paying their bills is high, but it is not the big picture.

In the graph above, you’ll notice that March 2020 saw the number of borrowers who need forbearance on their mortgage spiking due to coronavirus shutdowns. This number remains may, but as of May, it looks like the forbearance curve may be flattening.

These are the report’s forbearance numbers. It means that there are a lot of mortgages being held in private hands. Thus, much of the debt is corporately owned rather than bank-owned.

As many finance servicers are allowing consumers loan relief through forbearance, the problem is that consumers new to forbearance might think that they don’t have to pay back debts, but you actually still have to pay.

With the CARES Act, the federal government cannot change contracts. They have the power to issue guidelines that request lenders and debt companies to make programs, but the debt is not forgiven.

Contrary to all the bad news… this number is under-reported as private funds, such as Blackstone the Saudi Wealth Fund, don’t need to report these numbers.

As these numbers have flattened this month, the national inventory for MLS listings remains low, which means that market is continuing.

Why are these numbers important for real estate?

Back to Sacramento as the hot-seat of understanding consumer spending.

In 2007-2008, there was a consistent average of around 10,000 listed properties on MLS in Sacramento. Right now, the average is less than 1,000.

By comparing current trends against the crash that happened in 2008 & 2009, we can tell that challenges won’t necessarily be in residential real estate this period. It’s most likely going to come from commercial corporate debt.

What it means to this year’s economy and consumers

With the dip in GDP and consumer spending, residential real estate is likely to remain strong. Residential real estate prices will drop, but not like we saw last time in the residential space.

You can schedule a time with real estate business strategists to brainstorm how to best leverage today’s consumer habits and best real estate practices.

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Top 10 Underrated Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas!

February 26, 2020/in Administrative, Inside Sales, Marketing, MOD Virtual Assistants, Real Estate /by Markel Madrigal

Real estate lead generation is incredibly competitive and continuously evolving: the strategies you used a few months back are already saturated, and no matter how well you advertise in your local market, copycats will soon dilute the effectiveness of your marketing. Even worse; the Zillow iBuyer program, Facebook advertising, and search engine competition have turned real estate marketing into a “race to the bottom”.

It’s time to fight back! To win in modern real estate marketing, you need to keep several irons in the fire with diversified lead generation strategies, and always make sure to try a few unique strategies that none of your competitors are doing. Check out these 10 underrated strategies that may boost your current lead generation below, and keep your pipeline flowing constantly with a MyOutDesk Virtual Assistant. Book a Double My Business Strategy Session today to find out how!

Never Miss a Query Facebook Messenger Ads: Traditional forms of a lead generation tend to have too many steps and get tedious. With each step, you stand to lose your lead’s interest. Facebook messenger ads can be a quicker, easier way for your lead to get in touch. Because they have the option to start a live conversation when they click an ad as opposed to filling out a form, you eliminate several steps in the conversion process. You can also engage with your lead without pressuring them to divulge their personal information which may make them easier to convert.

Use Automated Text Marketing: Did you know that text messages have a whopping 97% open rate compared to 20% for emails? The only problem is that tapping out individual texts to your leads takes up way too much time you could be spending cold calling. Using automated text messaging platforms can give you a wider reach and open rate compared to say emails. Putting together an automated text messaging campaign is not complicated and can be a great way to get quality leads.

Buy Exclusive Seller Leads: While the age-old debate of buying leads vs. organic leads is an ongoing conversation with many for yay or nay, buying quality leads from a trusted source can bring you amazing results. Just make sure that you have a solid strategy to reaching out and follow up. And make sure that you are clear on your goals, budget, etc.

Create a Lead-optimized IDX Website: A well-optimized IDX (Internet Data Exchange) website is one of the easiest ways to bring in leads on an ongoing basis. IDX is an umbrella term used to cover policies, standards, and software pertaining to the display of real estate listing information on websites. Most importantly for agents and brokers, IDX is what enables members of multiple listing services (MLS) to integrate real estate listings from the MLS database into their own websites. Despite some stringent rules regarding IDX, it certainly offers many advantages for agents. It’s actually a win-win for everyone who uses it: real estate professionals and consumers. Today, consumers expect to see property listings on agents’ real estate websites. According to the National Association of Realtors, 44% of all buyers search online for property listings as the first stage of their journey. So, agents who don’t incorporate listings into their website via IDX end up at a disadvantage when compared to agents who do display listings.

Sign Up to Do BPOs, Then Market to the Owners of Distressed Homes: When a borrower starts to miss payments on a mortgage, a lender or loan servicer will often order a ‘broker price opinion’ (BPO) on a property in case they end up having to foreclose, do a loan modification, or short sale. They may do this before it is reported as a late payment to a credit agency, and well before they file a notice of default. This is an early indicator of a homeowner who may need to sell sooner rather than later.

Sponsor a Local Adoption Event: This is only one example of a niche idea that can give you an opportunity to network. You can approach your local animal shelter and sponsor the event and help with the marketing. Pets are an important part of many families. If you are a per-lover yourself, this is a great way to support a cause and get your name out there to fellow pet-lovers. You can be known as the go-to agent for fellow pet lovers!

Not a pet person? Think of other areas of interest that you can do something similar with.

Network at More Non-real Estate-related Events: If you are going to events where other agents will be going to network, then your odds of getting any leads are low at best. Instead of going to the same old real estate mixers or networking events, think outside the box and join some non-real estate-related local events. Your next client might be at a tai-chi class in the local park or even at a community theater production. Just be your wonderful self, mingle, tone down the sales talk, and make connections!

Become a Real Estate Expert in Facebook Groups: Whether you create the group or not, find different Facebook groups that are relevant to your areas and find a way to become the real estate expert in that group, create polls, ask questions and look out for any topics where you can jump in and give advice based on your experience or knowledge. You may not immediately see results but if you consistently interact with these groups, you may find more than a few leads.

Offer free consultations: Whether it is online or while you sit at a coffee shop, why not give some free time to giving out free Real estate advice? Advertise a free RE Advice hour at your favorite coffee shop or set up a direct line where people can reach you at specific times for any of their questions and concerns. Odds are that they will learn to trust you and because you aren’t pressuring them to sign with you, they will be more compelled to do so. Just make sure you are clear that you don’t expect anything in return but are available to help them on a more professional level if they so wish.

Hire a Virtual Assistant: All these strategies are viable ideas to get more and better quality leads. However, they can take a lot of time that you simply may not have. A Virtual Assistant could help you to focus on the revenue-producing activities that you need to focus on while they take care of your daily and repetitive but necessary responsibilities within your business. If you have things on your plate whose outcome will not change whether you fo them or not, then those things can be delegated to a Virtual Assistant. You need to be sure that you are working ON your business and not IN it.

Make sure to schedule a Double My Business Strategy Session today so we can find you a rockstar Virtual Assistant who can do so much more than help you generate leads.

Why Speed To Lead Will Make Or Break Your Business!

February 5, 2020/in MOD Virtual Assistants /by Abby

How fast is your lead follow-up? If it’s more than 5 minutes, you’re losing business – and you’re losing a lot of it. Believe it or not, while many companies still cling to the belief that it’s good to “wait a few hours” so they don’t seem desperate, the truth is that if you don’t follow up within the first 5 minutes, you won’t make the sale.

Keep in mind that 75% of prospects do business with the company that contacts them first. However, the average response time to an online lead is 44 hours, and 50% of online leads never get a response! Why is there such a large disparity? In small businesses, the issue is usually that you’re busy with task-work and don’t have time to jump on new leads. With all the responsibilities on your plate, the lead response often falls to the bottom of the list when it should be a priority.

Improve your speed to lead time and never miss an opportunity again. MyOutDesk Real Estate ISA Virtual Assistants can give you the leverage you need to boost your business. Schedule a Double My Business Strategy Session today to learn more.

According to studies, the odds of calling to contact a lead decrease by over 10 times in the first hour.

The odds of qualifying a lead in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times. And from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, the dial to qualify odds to decrease 4 times.

Online leads are a great source to grow your business, and yet, they are extremely underutilized. Many leads get resold over FIVE TIMES, mostly because business owners like you don’t call them. In addition, many leads prospect several Realtors before settling on one but keep in mind that the first statistic we shared, 75% of prospects do business with the company that contacts them first!

According to the National Association of Realtors, in real estate, 64% of buyers and 66% of sellers end up working with the agent they speak with first. Those who are first-to-the-draw have a tremendous advantage.

For example, let us tell you about one of our clients Amy and her ISA Virtual Assistant Rex. Rex is in charge of calling leads as soon as they enter their system. His speed to lead is critical, and this sense of urgency was instilled in him from his first day with Amy. Aside from being tasked to make at least 100 calls a day, he is also given new leads that he must reach out to within 5 minutes of their query. Rex set 199 appointments in his first year alone, and out of those, Amy has closed 142 transactions. This is 7 million in trackable sales volume and over $200,000 in GCI!

Amy, like many business owners we work with, could not take everything on herself. She realized that her team needed someone who could focus on their speed to lead time. So she hired and trained a Virtual Professional who could pick up the slack so she and the rest of her team could focus on what they needed to accomplish.

This is only one part of the whole speed-to-lead game. Stay tuned as we will explore more strategies such as the best times of day to call leads, etc.

If you want to improve your speed to lead but know you can’t do it all yourself, be sure to book your Double My Business Strategy Session with us today, so we can have a conversation about how a MyOutDesk Virtual Assistant can help.

How to Find & Close Qualified, Motivated Real Estate Leads!

January 29, 2020/in MOD Virtual Assistants, Real Estate /by Abby

Finding leads is easy – there are tons of platforms out there promising leads galore with low, low monthly pricing. The question is whether those leads are worth buying – and feedback from agents typically is that those channels are oversaturated & filled with unmotivated tire kickers that make them a waste of time & money.

What you need is motivated, qualified leads that you know will close fast – and finding these is a whole other ball game. Learning how to find well-qualified clients is only half the picture here. Plenty of agents can get their phone to ring, but only experienced agents can keep their phone ringing consistently.

Find and close your qualified leads with the support of a MyOutDesk Virtual Assistant! Schedule a Double My Business strategy session today to find out how.

Here are some strategies to find and close your qualified leads:

Never Forget to Follow-up

Follow-up is where the money is. The key to knowing your market is listening to their needs and wants as buyers/sellers and connecting them. Statistics show that most salespeople stop following up after only trying twice, so persistent follow-up is essential. Keep in mind that you are selling high-ticket items, so to speak. It will take time for many people to be ready to bite the bullet and make the big move. Following up to check-in is over half the battle. Create a systematized follow-up strategy and make sure you are tracking the progress of all your follow-ups.

Purchase QUALITY leads

In the past, we have discussed if buying leads is a worthy use of your resources. This is quite a polarizing subject, and you will hear opinions towards yay or nay across the board. However, being wise about purchasing leads can bring you a lot of good business. Look for a company that sells quality information and be picky about your purchase. Do your research and find lists that experienced lead companies procure. Purchasing willy-nilly will surely be a waste of your time and money. Keep in mind, Close even one of them, and you’re already in the black. Close two or three, and you’re getting a 200%+ return on investment (ROI) from your spend.

Bank on Referrals

We’ve shared numerous statistics about how amazing referrals can be for your business. TL;DR: Referrals are good. When you nurture relationships with your clients, you are investing in repeat business and referrals. If they love you, they will recommend you and send more business over. By far, referrals are more effective than any marketing strategy. Referrals will always get you higher closing rates than cold leads.

Share Insider Information With Your Audience

When you share a listing online, please don’t stick to the readily available facts they can find on any other website. Instead, share some insider knowledge. For example, does the home have an interesting history? Is there a secret nook or room? Did the aunt of someone famous live here for a period of time? Using little insider information drops like this can build trust because you are adding value through information.

Brand Plus Customer

A rising trend called marketing is a strategy where you are less brand-centric and more customer-centric when you market on different platforms. While your brand is still important, your main objective will be to ensure that your message speaks to your target demographic for each platform you use. The importance of the consumer experience is higher now than ever. This is because generation Z currently holds a lot of buying power, and so do millennials, each attracted to different types of messages. Keep this in mind when creating your marketing strategies, and as you adapt, you will find more quality leads that turn into more conversions for you.

Conclusion

These are just some of the strategies you can deploy to find higher-quality leads and actually convert them. But, whether you decide to utilize one or all of them, one thing is for sure. You need a strong team behind you to be successful. A MyOutDesk Virtual Assistant can be part of that team that takes you there. Book your Double My Business Strategy Session today!