The holiday season can mean two things for a real estate agent:
- A much-needed break from lead generation and closing real estate deals
- An unwanted lull in real estate business
If you’re currently fighting against the second scenario, we can make being a real estate agent during this time of year a little easier for you. Here are 6 real estate agent tips for surviving and thriving during the holiday season.
Tip #1: Be Available and Make Sure Everyone Knows It
If you work in a real estate market that slows down during the winter and fall, it’s likely the majority of agents in your area go on vacation. Even so, property buyers and sellers are still out there and no one is picking up their calls. That’s where you come in- you need to be available and make sure your real estate leads and clients know it.
This means continuing your real estate marketing efforts. Send out emails, post content to your agent website, and continue your newsletter. Mention that you’ll be available during this holiday season. You can even adjust your real estate market strategies to fit the holiday season by adding seasonal images and information regarding the local winter real estate market. Try offering different deals or buyer incentives, tying them to the holidays. This is a great tip for how to get more leads during this time of year.
Need a place to post content and attract new clients? Claim your free agent profile at Mashvisor.
However, don’t think that the first of our real estate agent tips means you can’t take time to spend with your family and friends. While other agents are taking all of November through December off, you can enjoy a few days here and there and still be making money as a real estate agent. Just be sure it’s clear when you’re available during the holidays and what days you’ll be taking off.
For more real estate agent tips on marketing, read Real Estate Marketing Tips for Agents: Old-Fashioned to Online
Tip #2: Remind Your Leads/Clients That This Is the Best Time of Year to Buy a House
The winter real estate market can bring with it less competition for buyer leads as well as better real estate deals. However, the average property buyer may be unaware of this. It’s your job to remind them that this can be the best time of year to buy a house- especially with you as their real estate agent! Send out an email with a few facts about your local winter real estate market that make it an ideal time to buy property. Create content about this topic as well. If you’re not up to writing new content during the holiday, share the content of others on social media so your leads and clients can see it and be reminded. Here are a few of our own blogs on this topic you might want to check out:
Find Out Which Season Is the Best Time to Invest in Real Estate
Why Christmas Is the Best Time to Make an Offer on a Property
Whatever real estate marketing strategy you choose, try to use facts and numbers to convince your leads to move now. That is key to the second of our real estate agent tips.
Tip #3: Nurture Your Leads and Past Clients with Holiday Greetings
Lead nurturing is sometimes neglected during the busy holiday season. But it’s actually a great time to build relationships with your real estate leads and prospects. It’s also a good time to do something nice for past clients, securing real estate referrals from them. Sending out holiday postcards or emails is a nice and easy way to nurture leads during this time of year. For past clients, you can get more personal with small gift baskets or hand-written holiday letters.
Tip #4: Network and Set Appointments
The market may slow down but your real estate networking should not. You’ll find you may have more free time, so use it well by building your real estate agent network. Be on the lookout for different real estate related-events in your area and make the time to attend them.
Set up appointments and coffee dates with leads. Even if they aren’t in the stage of your real estate sales funnel where they are ready to close on a deal, you may have more time to meet with them now and answer their questions in person. This can push them down the funnel faster and help with lead conversion even during the fall and winter season.
Tip #5: Reach Out to Real Estate Investors
You know who doesn’t slow down during the holiday season? Real estate investors. They are looking for investment property 12 months out of the year. Whenever they can find a profitable investment property, they’ll pounce.
Being a real estate investment agent may require different skills and even marketing strategies. Let Mashvisor help. Not only can we offer you the kind of investment property data investors are looking for, but we can actually connect you with qualified leads. You may not have thought of it before, but buying real estate leads could be one of the best real estate agent tips for surviving the holidays. Even though you’ll be spending money, working with qualified leads can only lead to making more money.
To learn more about our lead generation program, schedule a demo.
Related: Become the Best Real Estate Agent for Investors with Our Guide
Tip #6: Work on Improving Your Real Estate Business
If after following all of our real estate agent tips, your leads are still as cold as the weather outside, work on improving your business. While the thought of fine-tuning your marketing strategy or lead qualification process may not appeal to someone looking to make money right now, it’s the best way to use this time. That’s because if a real estate agent is able to make some real improvements to the way he/she does business, more qualified leads will be rolling in the spring and summer- enough to help you survive the cold, harsh winter real estate market. In fact, if you really dig deep and work on how to grow your business now, you might just be able to take a vacation next year like the other successful real estate agents.
What real estate agent tips do you swear by that help you through the lull of the holiday season?