Stop Hijacking Listings

Tech with Ty.

🖥️[T]echnology: Return of the QR

📝[E]ducation: Stop Hijacking Listings

👩‍🏫[C]oaching: When It’s Time to Fire a Client

✅[H]ow To: Get More Traffic to Your Website

[T]echnology

I’ll be the first to admit when I’m bad at something.

Carrying business cards around with me is numero uno. 😥

I used to carry them around in my car so I could run out and grab one, but I’ve even forgotten to bring them to a real estate conference. Networking is a lot harder when you don’t make a good first impression, and forgetting your business cards is not a good first impression.

Then I saw a loan officer carrying a metal business card with NFC (near filed communication) 🤯🤯. If you still don’t know what that means, it means you can tap the metal business card on a phone and it will automatically pull up all of your contact info.

This. Makes. A. Great. First Impression.

I knew instantly that I was getting one.

So I did my research and decided I was going to go with the wristband. I didn’t want the extra thickness of a metal card in my wallet and liked that it was always ready to be tapped. Unfortunately, it didn’t always work. 😥

It was not a good first impression when I asked multiple people to keep tapping my wristband to no avail.

Gary Ashton (the leader of the #1 RE/MAX Team IN THE WORLD) even made fun of me, and said “Get rid of that piece of junk”. He proceeded to show me a QR code that lived on the home screen of his phone. I opened up my camera and TA-DA…it worked…flawlessly. 🤯

I’ve used the Blinq App ever since. 👍

QR codes were all of the rage in the late 2000s, but much like NFC today, they were cumbersome. Agents were putting them on yard signs expecting people driving by at 35mph to be able to get their phones out and find the QR code reader app. 🙄 15 years later, people understand but it took Apple and Android to add the native function to their camera apps.

Now I see people even adding QR codes to their Zoom backgrounds, postcards, etc.

It might be time to revisit your QR game…the possibilities are growing.

Education:

I’m not sure who needs to hear it in 2023 but STOP POSTING PHOTOS AND VIDEOS of listings that aren’t yours. ❌

This includes, active, under contract, and to some extent just sold (when you use the other agent’s photo - you don’t own the rights to the photo). 😥

There seems to be a common trend on social media. Most recently, I see home inspectors going through terribly built or remodeled homes on TikTok. I’m not an attorney and am not pretending to be one, so I’m not sure what the repercussions might be for a home inspector, but I can assure you that as an agent, the division does not take these types of complaints lightly. 😨

From the OAR Whitepaper on Advertising: Section 1301:5-1-02 also addresses the issue of whether a licensee can advertise property that is not listed with the licensee. This could occur where a REALTOR mails ✉️ a newsletter listing all of the available properties in a particular area, including those listed by him/her and those listed by competing REALTORS. This administrative rule clarifies that a licensee cannot advertise property that he/she does not have listed without the consent of the owner (title holder), or the owner’s authorized agent (i.e., the actual listing broker or agent). ⬅️

It goes further and clarifies that such consent must be given in writing. ✏️ When such permission is granted on property being offered for sale by the owner or listed with someone else, the licensee must disclose the fact that he does not have the property listed and must include the name of the listing broker. This must be done in a type size that is the same or larger than the type size used to describe the property. ⬅️ Per the Division, this rule applies to licensees advertising another broker’s listing on social media. Thus, for a licensee to share or copy a post or URL of a property listed with another broker, written consent is required and the listing brokerage’s name must be included.

So next time you see the most awful ___________ ...act like you’ve done this before.

[c]oaching:

This is by far the section that takes me the longest to write every week. So, I’m changing it up a bit…

This video on “When to Fire A Client” ❌ will take you less time to watch than it will take you to realize that you sometimes need to fire a client:

[H]ow To:

To put it simply, driving traffic to your website is crucial for lead generation. However, one of the biggest challenges for realtors is attracting visitors to their website. ⬇️

To help you overcome this hurdle, here are a few strategies that I have implemented to increase my page views and revenue:

1. Consistent content strategy: By posting on the same day every week on an SEO-friendly content platform (such as YouTube), I have noticed spikes in my traffic reports.📈 Other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are powerful tools to help drive traffic to your website. Other ideas, besides posting, would include running ads and engaging with followers. I also highly recommend having your website link added to all social media profiles to drive traffic directly to your site. ✅ 
    

2. Live events: Going live by hosting live Q&A’s, property tours, and educational webinars is an effective way to build excitement and connect with your audience in real time. 🎙️
    

3. Ads: I’ve spent over $100k+ on Facebook and Google Ads, and while I don't recommend relying exclusively on ads to build your business, I have seen value in utilizing them in conjunction with an organic content strategy. If you already have a content strategy in place, ✅ ads can be a great way to funnel warm, engaged audiences over to a lead magnet, live event, or contact page.

    

If you're curious about how to set up an ad in Meta Business Suite, the whole process is broken down in my FREE Facebook Guide for Realtors.

Thanks for reading TECH!

Ty Morton