As an agent, you’ll constantly find yourself at the negotiating table, fighting for the best deal for your clients. Whether you’re going back-and-forth with a stubborn seller or trying to land that perfect property for your buyers, your ability to negotiate effectively is what separates the wheat from the chaff. In 2024, with market dynamics constantly shifting, mastering real estate negotiation strategies will be an absolute necessity.

Top agents know that negotiation goes way beyond just hammering out prices. It’s about finding creative solutions that work for everyone involved, building trust, and ultimately walking away with wins that keep clients coming back for more. So if you want to stay ahead of the game and elevate your real estate hustle, you need to be a negotiation ninja armed with the best real estate negotiation strategies for 2024. In this guide, we’ll dive into five battle-tested strategies to level up your negotiation prowess and start landing more deals.

1. Understand the Market

Stay updated with the latest market trends and understand the factors that influence property prices in your area. For example, if you’re working in a seller’s market where demand is high and inventory is low, you might need to advise your buyer clients to make more competitive offers.

Actionable Step: Subscribe to real estate newsletters, attend local real estate investor meetings, and use online resources like Zillow or Redfin to stay informed about your local market. Additionally, consider joining a professional organization like the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which provides valuable market insights and resources for its members.

2. Know Your Client

Understand your client’s needs, motivations, and limitations. For instance, if your client is a young family looking to buy their first home, they might prioritize safety, good schools, and proximity to parks and recreational areas.

Actionable Step: Streamline your client intake process by delving into their lifestyle, requirements, and future aspirations. Employ a comprehensive tool such as a client needs assessment form to gather pertinent details, ensuring a profound grasp of their priorities. Access a list of helpful questions tailored for this purpose by downloading it here.

3. Be Prepared

Do your homework before entering negotiations. This includes knowing the property’s details, understanding comparable sales, and being aware of the seller’s situation. For example, if the seller needs to move quickly, they may be willing to negotiate on price.

Actionable Step: Use tools like the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) to research comparable sales and gather information about the property and the seller. Additionally, consider utilizing a real estate data and analytics platform like Remine, which can provide detailed property insights and market trends.

4. Stay Calm and Patient

Negotiations can be stressful. It’s important to stay calm, patient, and focused. Remember, the goal is a win-win situation for all parties involved.

Actionable Step: Practice stress management techniques like deep breathing or mindfulness meditation. These can help you stay calm and focused during negotiations. You could also consider taking a negotiation course or workshop offered by organizations like NAR or your local real estate association.

5. Practice Active Listening

Listen carefully to the other party’s concerns and objections. This can help you address them effectively and move the negotiation forward. For example, if a buyer is concerned about a home’s old roof, you could negotiate a lower price or ask the seller to replace the roof before closing.

Actionable Step: During conversations, repeat back or paraphrase what the other party has said to ensure you’ve understood correctly. This not only shows that you’re listening but also gives them a chance to clarify if necessary. Consider role-playing with colleagues or attending negotiation workshops to improve your active listening skills.

Example: One effective way to practice active listening is to use the “mirroring” technique. For instance, if a buyer says, “I’m worried about the age of the HVAC system,” you could respond with, “I understand your concern about the HVAC system being older. Let’s discuss some options to address that.” This shows you’re listening and open to finding a solution.

Remember, mastering negotiation is a journey. With patience, practice, and continuous learning, you can become a more effective negotiator with these Real Estate Negotiation Strategies and close deals more efficiently and profitably.

Real estate closing gifts are not a new phenomenon, but sometimes real estate agents aren’t sure what to give. Let’s face it, our clients are all our businesses really have. Showing appreciation is not just polite but critical for keeping and building upon those relationships. Over the years we’ve learned a lot from our many friends in Real Estate, most of whom have built hugely successful practices, and we’d like to pass that wisdom along. Below are some important guidelines and some great ideas for your next closing gift.

How Much To Spend:

We suggest you spend between $40 and $100 on closing gifts. Spend more for big, complicated sales and less for smaller and simpler sales. When my husband and I sold one of our houses over the summer our Realtor gave us a simple, inexpensive, but very thoughtful gift. Our family has worked with this agent for over 20 years and probably bought and sold 20 houses with her. This particular sale was small, simple, and very fast so a small thoughtful closing gift was perfect. She hand-wrote a thank-you note with a $25 pizza gift card and also brought us a soft cooler full of water bottles. Every time we take the cooler to one of our daughter’s swim meets we think of our agent and how she even kept in mind the season when showing us her appreciation. It was a small token but had a big impact – nothing more was necessary.

However, if spending more is in your budget or fits your market better, go for it. We know an agent who spends $100 every time on fancy closing gift baskets and another one who always mails a $50 restaurant gift card and a bouquet of flowers. Both agents do this consistently regardless of the size of the sale. We also know an agent in the luxury market who will take the homeowners (or sellers) out for an expensive dinner to celebrate. Each sale brings in quite a bit of commission, so spending a few hundred dollars and a few hours of his extremely precious time makes sense. Most of the time we see agents spending more money on larger sales or sales that took longer or had more set backs. Whatever you do, don’t go too cheap, especially if the closing gift is generic. Generic gifts are easier to forgive if they’re pricier.

What to Give:

Buying a home, either for the first or umpteenth time, is a deeply personal task for anyone. Be sure that your closing gifts represent not only your personal relationship with your client, but also represent how building a personal relationship with your clients is something you always do. The gift should provide your client with a lasting impression of how much importance you place on your client relationships. Because your clients are your best source of new business, your closing gifts should say: “I know you, I care about you, and I’ll get to know and care about your friends and family just as much.”

Be Genuine and Thoughtful. This one is crucial, and happens long before closing. After all the time you’ve spent with your buyers or sellers, you probably know a lot about them. If they don’t volunteer personal information early on, be sure to ask. Ask about their kids and how they spend their weekends. Are they the indulgent type, or more practical? Religious? Artistic? Are they into wine, coffee, beer, sports? Are they gaga over their pet, or perhaps expecting a new baby? Tailor closing gifts to your client’s personality, stage of life, and preferences. For example, my husband and I are practical people with a bunch of kids, so pizza and a soft cooler resonated. My single, fun-loving sister, however, received gourmet coffee, a funny mug, and an Amazon gift card when she bought her first home, which was perfect. 

If you have a good sense for your client’s personality, here are some creative ideas:

Young families:

Think about closing gifts that will become part of the household, so you are thought about often, or things that make the hectic business of raising kids a little easier. You could also go the kid angle; parents are really moved when someone goes out of their way to make their kids happy.

1. Game Night basket; this is a great idea that we stole from an agent we know. You’ll have to put it together yourself because I’m not aware of a retailer who offers this. Load up a big basket with board games, Pringles, a sixer of IBC, and a gift card for pizza delivery.
2. Movie Night basket; this you might actually find online. A few family-friendly DVDs, a bucket of popcorn, and few movie-theater candy boxes.
3. Personalized Door Hangers; get Mom and Dad and each kid a personalized nameplate to put on the door to their room. This can be a nice-looking sign or a doorknob hanger they can flip to “Do Not Disturb.” You can wrap them in a gift box and present them with a nice housewarming bouquet.
4. Holiday ornaments; select a special ornament for each family member and wrap in a beautiful box. This gift will make a very sweet impression, and perfect if your client is the sentimental type.

Obsessed-with-the-pet People:

The fastest way into the heart of people who treat their pets like their children is through… their pets. Pet-related gifts should always be given with something else, like flowers or a restaurant gift card. Write in the Thank-You card how you wanted to get a little something for Fluffy because you know this will be a big adjustment for him.

1. A box of gourmet dog treats; some specialty pet stores or online retailers sell cute treats that look so good you’d want to eat it yourself
2. A personalized nameplate they can put on a doghouse, if they have one
3. A dog or cat bed monogrammed with the pet’s name; this is especially appropriate since they are moving into a new home, and the pet will have their own special place

Expectant parents:

If clients have their first baby on the way, this is a great opportunity to personalize your closing gift. Soon-to-be new parents are usually pretty over the moon about their little one, so anything baby related will be a hit. But like with pets, be sure to also give something for the parents or household, even it it’s just flowers. Warning: stay away from baby gifts for clients expecting babies number 3 or 4; for these parents, think of gifts that will help them to relax and unwind.

1. Monogrammed baby blanket; before selecting, be sure to ask about the nursery colors and try to find one with a “Home Sweet Home” or “Welcome Home” theme to tie it back to their new house.
2. Growth Chart; look online or at Babies R Us for a wall-mounted cloth that records the child’s height over the years. There are some you can stick photos in, and you may be able to have it monogrammed too.
3. Don’t get: baby clothes. They will never remember who gave them what outfit because they’ll receive so many, and the baby will outgrow the clothes in about five minutes.

Empty-nesters:

If you’re helping an older client whose children grew up long ago or a couple whose last child recently moved out, sentiment and thoughtfulness are probably more important than practicality. Think of gifts that remind your client of the important things in life, or helps a couple reconnect after years of rearing children.

1. Romantic evening out; give them a gift card to a nice restaurant with a heartfelt letter expressing how much you hope they enjoy this next chapter of their life together. For the right couple, something fun like a ballroom dancing lesson or couples massage might be appropriate.
2. Gardening gift basket; assuming they like gardening, fill a basket with seeds, a colorful book on gardening tips, tools, gloves, and maybe a watering can or lawn ornament. This is doubly appropriate since it relates to homeownership.
3. Personalized mantelpiece with a family portrait and picture of the new home; this may be tricky because you need to stealthily get a family portrait. You may find one on your client’s Facebook page, if they have one and shared it with you, or you may need to ask. Simply tell them you’d like to frame a family photo for their new home. You can do a side-by-side of the new house and the family, or have a picture of the old house with the dates they lived in it, the family in the middle, and then the new house with the move in date inscribed below.

Compassionate bleeding hearts:

People who live to make a difference are often turned off by flashy presents and sometimes even feel guilty accepting them. You can spot these types by their modest home decor, church involvement, and how often they talk about others.

1. Donate to a charity in their name; we got this idea from an agent in Ohio and she says her clients are usually very touched by this. Make sure the charitable cause is something they believe in – or, better yet, a charity or church they are already involved in. Make sure they have a plaque or another physical item to commemorate the donation, and we recommend you also give them a small gift.
2. “Adopt” a family (or child) in their name; be sure to get a photo of the family or child being helped, and also make sure they know how much money or what items were given to them on their behalf.

If you really don’t have a sense for the client’s personality, here are our favorite standbys:

1. Welcome mat; this can be customized with the family’s last name
2. Treat basket; everyone loves a basket of goodies and there are thousands of retailers out there putting together great baskets. Warning: be sure you know about any food allergies, or if your client is vegetarian or vegan, a super health nut, or avoids gluten. If you’re including alcohol or coffee, be sure to first ask if your client partakes.
3. Restaurant gift card; all you have to do is ask where they like to eat. You should always accompany a gift card with something tangible, like flowers or a box of cookies.
4. Edible Arrangements. Yum! Fork over some extra cash to get them one with lots of chocolate-covered pieces.

A Final Caution:

 Now that you know what to give, here are a few “Definitely Don’t” gift ideas:

1. Cheap branded stuff. You know what I mean. It’s fine if you want to give them a refrigerator magnet or a $2.00 calendar with your face all over it, but stick stuff like that in with the closing documents and also give a real gift.
2. Nothing. Bad bad bad. You must give a closing gift.
3. Babies. They are cute, but not practical. Plus, I think it’s illegal.

We hope you’ve found this useful! Please share your thoughts and what gifts you give.

How Real Estate Agents should measure Marketing ROI: the Right Way and the Well Intentioned Way

As Agents work to pivot and re-group, we’re seeing an influx of new agents and a resurgence of effort from existing agents. With so many realtors in the game, carefully selected marketing has become a key differentiator of the best agents. And when it comes to marketing, there have never been so many choices… so knowing what works for you in your market has never been so important.

So let’s talk marketing ROI, and why we should be a little more careful in how we analyze it.

ROI is just “return on investment.” In the real estate business, this usually refers to the amount gross profit off of marketing-generated leads (less marketing expenses) as a percentage of marketing dollars spent in the same time period. That’s:

But beware!

Oftentimes it is this very equation that causes an agent to abort good efforts in the name of “business sense.” Why? Two reasons: first, a marketing effort by itself might not work. Your marketing plan should be a concert of several different channels playing in harmony with each other, delivering a consistent, top-notch message; and second, marketing programs often need a year or more to truly build traction, especially for agents with less than 5% market share. The standard marketing ROI equation ignores these truths.

So, we’d like to offer a slightly modified ROI equation with the big caveat of be prepared to wait. For this equation, we let the marketing do its magic, then we calculate.

First, let’s define the pieces of the puzzle:

• Average customer commission. This is how much commission you earned in total last year divided by the number of sides you completed.
• Lead conversion rate. This is the percentage of leads that become customers. Do you track this? If not, take an educated guess.
• Marketing cost. This is the total cost of the marketing program you are honing into. This can be actual or anticipated and must span a specific time period. Include a percentage of staff time dedicated to helping with this type of marketing.
• Leads generated. How many leads did you receive from the marketing program you are honing into? This must be measured over the same time period as your marketing costs.

Next, you’ll want to determine your Time to Break-Even. Because so much of your marketing is intended to communicate what you’re already doing, the more active you are now, the quicker you will get results from new marketing efforts. So if this is a new plan, or one you are considering but have not yet tried, put a deadline on the break-even and discipline yourself to wait until that date before you decide to measure marketing ROI and being running calculations.

In general, your Time to Break-Even should be set based on what the industry declares, and then adjusted based your market share. It is simple to figure out your market-share:

If you’re unfamiliar with housing turnover, it is simply a measure of how often people in your target market move. If 100 homes sell in your neighborhood of 1000, your turnover rate is 10%, and there are 100 listing prospects in your area per year. Here is a great article from Joe Manusa on housing turnover.

A good baseline on any new channel, especially direct mail, is 1 year (if you are hitting your farm with quality mail at least once per month). If you have greater than 20% market share, you might expect results a little sooner, and if you have less than 5% market share, you might be waiting 2 or more years. You should also adjust your time to break-even according to the turnover in your area. If you’re marketing to 10,000 homes with a 5% turnover, you should expect to wait longer (paying more in marketing costs) than if you marketed to 5,000 homes with a 10% turnover.

Now that you have established your Time to Break-Even, here are two ways to look at your marketing efforts. The first is a way to see what the performance of efforts should look like after they have already broken even. The second is a way to “spit out” how many leads you need to generate from the marketing channel for it to pay for itself, so you can gauge how realistic the new method is. If you only need a few leads a year to make it break-even, you might adjust your Time to Break even.

Measure Marketing ROI after Break-even:

Number of Leads needed in 1 year to Break-Even:

We hope this helps as you forge ahead this year. Best of luck, and never hesitate to reach out to us here at Discover if you’d like feedback on any of your marketing decisions. Please click below to download a complimentary calculator.

Download Calculator

A 7-Question Litmus Test for Real Estate Marketing

Today, it’s more important than ever to market in ways that will help you stand out, and there are a million products that can make that possible. But agents need to know how to evaluate real estate marketing products; just because the product itself stands out to you does not mean it will stand out in the market.

Conferences underscore this better than anything we know of. Just browse through the rows of exhibitors at the shows such as NAR, RE/MAX, Inman, Keller Williams, Century 21, ERA, Better Homes & Gardens, on and on. Vendors know that real estate agents are always in search of the next big thing that will differentiate them from the crowd. Most of the offerings are uncannily reminiscent of the television commercial in the early days of the Internet: A young web designer is enthusiastically showing off his creation to the business client. “Look, look, music plays, it spins wildly, and then fire comes out of the top!” The client looks very disenchanted and says, “But does it update our inventory?” Alas, where’s the beef?

Successful Innovation is a very tough commodity and we don’t intend to short-sell ideas that don’t quite hit the mark. Many of these ideas are wonderful and can really help you stand apart from your competitors, even to the point of exclusivity in some cases. However, we’d like to offer a short litmus test to increase the odds that your marketing campaigns hit the mark, get you remembered, and build your listing inventory:

1. Is the product unique? Have your prospects received anything like it from competing agents?

Real estate direct mail, for example, is dominated by postcards and the occasional envelope or newsletter. Agents that want to know how to evaluate real estate marketing products for geographic farming can eliminate thousands of options with this simple question: how different it is? Will homeowners actually open, read, and engage with it?

2.Does the product have a real value, not just perceived value?

Before signing up for a new service, ask around the industry. Make sure the company has multiple case studies they are willing to provide, and multiple clients they will put you in touch with. Read Zillow or Trulia reviews on the service, if there are any. If too many agents are griping about wasted money or lackluster results, it might be best to move on.

3. Does the vendor give you the right of exclusivity to a marketing area?

Exclusive territories are of paramount importance, especially with unique marketing that an agent could not easily replicate. For example, Discover Pubs locks up clients’ ZIP Codes (even the homes in their ZIPs they actually don’t mail to, in some cases), which prevents copy-cat competitors from watering down results. Any agent in the business for a few years with a decent amount of marketshare knows that competitors do play follow the leader.

4. Can other competing agents reproduce your product easily?

Products that are complex are ideal for preventing competitors from trying to duplicate your efforts, which is important if you are fortunate enough to have an exclusive territory for an effective product. For instance, competitors are hard-pressed to write, design, print, sort, and mail their own newspaper every month, and there isn’t a second company out there that can do all that for them. There are many great examples of exclusive marketing products in real estate that are unique and hard to replicate.

5. Is the product used by other successful real estate agents?

Indeed, agents using a particular service are the best benchmarks for how to evaluate real estate marketing products offered by a company. Again, ask for case studies and references and look to see who those agents are. Have you heard of them? How big are they? How many homes do they sell? If successful agents use the product or service, and have for many years consecutively, odds are it’s working for them.

6. Do past and current users vouch for claims of achieving substantial ROI?

When checking references or reading case studies from real estate marketing service providers, look for concrete evidence of effectiveness. While results widely vary with just about every product (because agents vary so much, and not all have the best conversion systems in place), if a significant volume of users are getting substantial ROI, you should too.

7. Does the product endure over time and can you use it repeatedly with similar strong impact?

Many agents get stumped about how to evaluate real estate marketing products that are new or seem to be constantly in flux. If a product is brand new, it’s a risk – with you as the crash test dummy. And if a product is adding and subtracting features every few months, get curious about that. It may be smart innovation, but, more likely, something about it isn’t working. Products with stable histories (so long as they keep up with the times) are likely to have a stable future.

We hope you found this information useful. When you attend your next conference, think about these 7 questions and you will feel much better about availing yourself of a new marketing service.

Why Salesy Real Estate Marketing Fails with Today’s Sellers

Quick: take a look at these two headlines. Each appears on the front cover of a real estate agent’s local newsletter or publication.

1. “Peter Pumpkin-eater named #1 Producer at Joker Broker Inc!” (by Peter Pumpkin-eater)
2. “Record High Prices for Sunnytown Homes this Season!” (by Berta Experta)

Which article would appeal to you, a homeowner in Sunnytown? How much would you care about Peter Pumpkin-eater’s awards, even if you happened to know him? After getting a newsletter with a cover story like Peter’s, month after month, you’d probably start throwing it right in the recycle bin without so much as a glance.

But what about receiving a newsletter – or publication – with cover stories like Berta’s, month after month? You might begin to anticipate some useful market information when it appears in your mailbox. Instead of pitching it, you might toss it on the counter, and read it the next morning while your coffee brews. This all seems obvious, but yet we see it every day: agents who wouldn’t give two hoots about, for example, their insurance agent “hitting goal” turn around and build huge expensive campaigns about their personal awesomeness.

You’ve probably already made massive changes to your business in the wake of Coronavirus, so what better time to take a good hard look at your marketing messages!

Fact: buying patterns have changed dramatically in the last 10 years.

As more advertising mediums become available, the more consumers are becoming conditioned to tune out to anything that seems “promotional.” Content Plus found that 70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles rather than ads, and a TMG Custom Media study revealed that 78% of consumers believe that organizations that offer custom content are interested in building good relationships with them. While it’s important to communicate the value you offer – and to share real-life success stories about who you’ve helped – building a trust-based connection is the foundation for generating listings and referrals.

Trust is built in the emotional part of the brain, deep in the subconscious.

We don’t decide to trust a person; rather, we one day realize that we trust someone. Add to that the the fact that big decisions – including most major purchase decisions – happen in the part of the brain where emotions are processed. Trust is an emotion. To put it very simply: trust = purchase.

A brain scan study by Mart Lindstrom in 2015 backed up claims that 90% of purchasing decisions are not made consciously, and that brands that are intentional about evoking our emotions always win. Decision-making may be wired to our emotions for very good reasons. For one, it is impossible to consciously tally, process, score, and react to the hundreds of facts and other non-overt pieces of information coming at us. Our emotional subconscious does this for us and outputs a “gut feeling,” without our awareness.

The beautiful thing is that this “gut” is very efficient at making the right call. It’s in no way a shortcut. In fact, relying on a well-honed instinct is indeed more efficient than manually – consciously – wading through a million variables. We’re built to rely on it – in extreme cases, our very survival depends on trusting our gut rather than a painstaking conscious calculation. For most people, the emotional brain is a well-oiled super-computer so it’s no surprise that decision making occurs there.

What does this mean for real estate agents?

The key take-away for real estate agents is this: if two agents are competing for a listing, the one who has taken time to embed themselves in the emotional brain of the homeowner will get the listing, even if they’re younger or less successful.

“Embed themselves in the emotional brain” means marketing and prospecting in a way that resonates at a human level, garners an emotional response, and leaves the prospect feeling that the agent knows and cares about the market, gets great results, and can be trusted.

In order to develop these emotions about the agent, the homeowner needs to repeatedly experience these emotions while at the same time learning about or engaging with the agent’s brand. For this to happen, the agent must truly be trustworthy, get good results, and care – because those are the things he or she need to impart through their marketing. Otherwise, no amount of “messaging” will seed legitimate emotional headspace in prospects.

So, how can you do this?

How to implant yourself as the Real Estate Agent of Choice
in the emotional brain of homeowners in your farm

First, you must show (not just tell) your prospects that you care about them, the community, and ultimately, their home sale. Marketing with information they personally care about accomplishes this much faster than sending information they don’t care about. Against our best advice, we’ve worked with agents over the years who’ve insisted on publishing self-promoting articles on the front covers of their publications. After investing thousands of dollars, they either learn the hard way and begin publishing community-related content, or they quit publishing altogether in frustration (and to be blunt, arrogance). We encourage agents to keep their custom content focused on the community; for example, during the pandemic, we published articles for agents about how Coronavirus was impacting the local housing market. Similarly, we take care to ensure the general articles (the syndicated stories we publish inside each client’s paper) hit home and resonate with homeowners. Whether you publish with us or do your own newsletter, these principals apply.

And here’s the key: make sure your picture and branding is on the header and all throughout your marketing, so that when the reader is engaged with an article or feature, they implant you in their emotional brain as they read and react to it.

Branding remains paramount

When you regularly supply your prospects with interesting, valuable information (such as with your newsletter, publication, emails, social posts, webinars, etc.), you need to be front and center. This doesn’t mean how great you are, but your branding must be prominent. Otherwise, you’ll be cultivating meaningful emotional responses, but the connection to you will be lost.

Additionally, it’s important to layer in messages about what you do and how you can really help. Do this in ways that actually resonate; for example, instead of a dry testimonial, run a short feature called “Sunnytown Success Story” with a photo of a happy couple you helped, and tell the story of how they needed to move quickly, how you helped them with fix-ups and staging, and how you marketed it to your broker network for multiple offers. Or instead of an ad about being #1, present an infograph of exactly how you stack up to other agents (Average Sunnydale Agent: Sells 2 homes per year. Berta Experta: Sold 28 homes last year. / Average Sold Price in Sunnydale: $200k. Average Sold Price for Berta’s Clients: $235k). This communicates to the homeowner that you don’t expect them to hire you just because of a fancy award – that you mean business and get tangible results.

The most important message here is that self-promotion fails as the core of any marketing strategy. Think instead of how to show the area you are a caring, knowledgeable, trusted expert. And make sure they know it’s from you.

We’ve talked about content marketing in previous posts and Discover’s mix of traditional and digital in its approach to the concept. We’re going to focus in more today on what makes traditional mediums – specifically our custom community newspapers – work in local markets.

Here are three ways you can use content to create a following (and generate more business) in your community.

1. Localize It!

At the beginning of my career I was a newspaper reporter for a regional daily paper in Ohio. One afternoon, as I mused to a colleague that it was a slow news day and I was already done with assignments from editors, Roy Cross, a “real news man” from the old school, looked up from his work and said, “Localize something!”

Roy knew that in our smallish college town and the several mostly rural counties we served, the difference we made at the Athens Messenger wasn’t in reporting broad, national or state stories – we had the Associated Press for that. Our power was in reporting on local events and public officials – or taking a national subject and finding the local angle. That was in 1992. Roy’s admonition led me to discover that day an Athens, Ohio native, David Wilhelm, was serving as campaign manager for the guy who was about to win the Democratic nomination for president. My ensuing phone interview of Wilhelm became one of my first front page stories at the Messenger.

How Top Agent Dale Ross Localizes his Paper

Discover Publications client, Dale Ross, publishes the Dale Ross Realty Group Real Estate Report in Katy and West Houston, Texas.

Dale’s Discover publication is mailed to over 11,000 homes monthly to targeted zip codes. He localizes content on his front page each month, not by taking on a national subject, but by crunching regional real estate data down to his targeted zips. The charts featured on his front page each month speak directly to market activity where the publication’s readers live. Dale is “hyper-localizing it!”

And, about those charts. Dale knows his community. Katy, Texas is heavily reliant upon and populated by professionals in the oil and gas industry. Many of those homes he’s mailing his paper to are owned by petroleum and other engineers. Dale knows engineers like charts and data – and his paper’s front page will be noticed.

2. Inform

What about offering the sort of local content that used to be in your local daily newspaper or in local broadcast media? Offering what is essentially neighborhood-level information will attract readers and builds your brand as an integral – and trusted part of the community.

How Craig Strong Informs his Community

Craig Strong is a real estate agent serving Toluca Lake and Studio City, California. His approach to his Discover publication is a front page devoted to community events.

For example, this spring he had a feature story highlighting festivals and farmers markets in the area. The article describes what makes things like the Toluca Lake Farmers Market unique and provides the whens and the wheres for this and other markets and events. This edition also included coverage, via photos and captions, of recent local events he participated in, like the annual Neighborhood Garage Sale and Taste of Toluca.

On the inside of Craig’s paper there’s even more local content, and, what I think is the most interesting piece of all – the Toluca Lake Crime Report. With so many local news outlets dying or scaling back operations, this is useful information. And, remember, only households in Toluca Lake are getting this targeted mailing. Craig is providing a community news service at essentially the neighborhood level. Craig’s newspaper is getting attention – and Craig’s brand in the community is burnished.

Craig actually does two publications, the other targeted at Studio City. Of course, Studio City gets its own crime report. Both of his editions also contain recent real estate activity reports, including listings, sales and pending sales by address and transaction/listing value.

3. Give Back

While providing information about the local housing market and local events is indeed engaging (and will get results), other top agents find that publishing articles about good deeds going on is even better. If you or your team participates in any charities, donates money to any causes, or volunteers regularly anywhere in the community, sharing this with homeowners will take their perception of you to another level.

How Victoria Valle Gives Back

Recently, Victoria Valle was passing through Columbus and stopped in at Discover Publications for a visit. In anticipation of meeting her, we pulled together her last ten or so publications. We found that on the cover of each and every one, she talked about all the wonderful charities she supports.

Victoria is passionate about giving back – in fact, she recently received the Jefferson Award for Public Service. This award praised her work with Esperanza and Children’s Development Center in El Salvador, but in addition to this she is also involved in the Maumee Rotary and serves on the boards of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Toledo as well as the D.O.V.E Fund.

When Victoria visited, she brought along a friend from El Salvador who works with Victoria at the ECDC. This emphasized for us that with Victoria, it’s not just about the warm and fuzzies – it’s about doing real work that makes a real impact.

Victoria works in the luxury market in Maumee, Ohio – a group of neighborhoods that are especially blessed and tend to look for ways to give back. They appreciate seeing other professionals doing the same. Not surprisingly, she shared that her publication generates a minimum 200% ROI over the years, underscoring how much her community appreciates reading about the good work she does (even though it’s unrelated to selling homes).

You don’t need to be an internationally recognized charity superstar like Victoria in order to show your community what you do to give back. Anything you do to support the neighborhood can become a front-page story that, depending on your market, will get attention.

Local is a Winner

The fact is, Discover’s clients who spend a little time to find and develop the local niche for their community newspaper get more attention – and more leads. By knowing their audience – and speaking directly to them about things that affect their daily lives – their content marketing pays off by setting them apart in a crowded real estate market. When it’s time for a homeowner or home buyer in Katy, TX, Toluca Lake, CA or Maumee, OH to find an agent, they’ll know where to start. They’ll start with the agent that knows – and is an active, positive part – of their community.

Other Local Content Ideas Used by Discover Clients:

• Real Estate Q & A with agent
• Stories on local youth sports teams
• Coverage of local school district events or accomplishments
• Reporting on local charitable activities
• Photos – snap pictures with that fancy iPhone or Android device in your pocket