There's a question that we've had for a while now, which is: When are listing is going to come back in full force?

When can we have that expectation that we're going to start to see listings en masse start to come back to the marketplace?

We know there's been hesitancy because of COVID, but now that people are getting vaccines and the economy is strong. So when are we going to start to see people coming back and saying, Hey, I'm ready to make a sale. I'm ready to make a change.

There's an answer for us.

Zillow just did an extensive study talking to industry experts across the country. And the consensus is that it's going to be in the second half of 2021.

So we're coming right up onto that pretty soon here. And we're going to be right in the middle of 2021, which means we're going to start to see an acceleration of listings.

The question is: Are you ready for it? Are you out there lead generating to start stacking up that business now?

So here...

How are you positioning yourself on social media to have impact?

A lot of us are doing a lot of social media, but is it having impact? Are people remembering you or are they just scrolling past your posts because they're filled with meaningless fluff?

If you want to have impact, here's one technique that'll really help you shine in your marketplace:

Storytelling.

Telling a story about your client's experience and what your clients are going through will help you build a relationship with people that are in your audience. It positions you as the expert, as the authority, as a trusted figure, as an advisor, as a counselor. But it will also help people remember you as a REALTOR.

Why?

Because stories are remembered. Stories create resonance and connections with other people. People love reading about people.

So I'm gonna give you a couple of examples of that:

I've got a couple of my great coaching students that I work with in my company....

Hey guys, quick question:

Are you a global REALTOR or a local REALTOR?

What do I mean by that? I just had a phone call from a guy that I worked with years ago. His name is Dick and he's an amazing guy. He called me and said, Jim, I've got a referral for you. He's living down in San Diego now. But we haven't seen or talked to each other in 15-20 years, but he has a referral for me.

Now, keep in mind: Dick is 83 years old and still out there selling real estate — so congratulations to Dick.

But when he referred that client to me, it just made me remember this concept of being a global realtor versus a local realtor.

Sometimes I have agents come to me that are in coaching and they say: 

"I've got my database, but it includes some people from my hometown or from a town I moved away from years ago, maybe in Texas, Florida, LA, or New York. Should I keep these people that are not local in my database? Why would I spend money...

Hey guys, quick question:

Do you have a video bio?

If you don't have a video bio, you could be missing a massive marketing opportunity.

96% of agents are still resisting video. That means that there's a massive opportunity for those agents that are willing to embrace it.

By doing a video bio, imagine that you are a consumer and you're looking at 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 agents on an agent roster. Most of them have the old glamour shot. But you have a video bio. Who's more likely to work with you?

Almost everybody.

Almost everybody's going to click on that video and watch you and give you a shot. They'll give you an "at bat" so you can hit a home run. Instead of just looking at pictures and making a decision, they can actually kind of get to know you a little bit, your personality, your style, and your flair.

And here's what you do in that bio:

You're going to talk about your background, your passion for the market, your passion for real...

Almost all of us are going to get multiple offers on at least one of our listings this year, probably several of them.

So what are you going to do to market the fact that you brought your sellers multiple offers?

One way you can do this is by modeling my friend Bill up in the Portland, Oregon market.

He received 13 offers on one of his listings! So what he did is he took a picture with him and his seller reviewing all those offers on the table. All 13 offers were spread across the table and labeled. And he took it at an angle where so you couldn't actually read the offers. You could just see them all laid out there with the seller smiling in the background.

And then he put a statement on social media and said:

"Hey, I got great news:

My seller came to me to market this property. Zillow said the home was worth $429k. We listed it at $459k and now we have an accepted offer well above $500,000 for this home."

What is this post doing?

It's...

If you're looking for a story to post to social media today, here's a great one for you.

A study was recently done about homeowners and how likely they are now to list their home based on the vaccine being available.

So here's the study and what it shares:

It shares that 70% of homeowners say they'd be completely comfortable moving to a new home with widespread COVID-19 vaccine distribution. In other words, they're ready to leave and go into another house because the vaccine is available. That's 7 out of 10 homeowners compared to only 52% who currently feel that way.

Now, we're only at 52% today. But as the vaccine becomes more prevalent and widespread, which we expect them in the next couple of months, that number is going to move to 70%.

It's going to unlock a ton of sellers into the marketplace.

That represents 14 million homeowners who now feel comfortable moving after widespread vaccination. This is a massive opportunity...

What is educational marketing?

Educational marketing is one of the most powerful techniques you can use to build trust and unlock more buyers and sellers for your business.

But how do you do it?

Well, you got to understand that a lot of expert marketers use what's called "The Curiosity Gap." That's where you pose a question or you put a statement out there and then it makes people curious about knowing the answer.

Now we fall into this curiosity gap all the time — from headlines to news soundbites that are trying to get you to watch the news at six o'clock, book covers, wine labels, and all kinds of things create curiosity in us. But when we look at our knowledge quest as human beings, we're always driven by not knowing and the power of wanting to know what we don't know, right?

So here's an example of this:

One of my good friends, Scott Lewis, a superstar realtor that I work with put this post out. And it was simply about the...

You are sitting on one of the best CRMs on earth — but you probably know that.

Facebook is absolutely your best CRM on earth. And then Instagram comes second and LinkedIn is third.

All of these social media platforms give us an insight into what's happening in people's lives.

Now how do you use that information? A lot of us just get up, drink our coffee every morning and scroll through social media meaninglessly. But you don't actually look at it as a CRM.

I want you to look at your social media differently. Look at it like it's a CRM Strategy Feed.

That means, I want you to look for "life changes" — meaning new jobs, new babies, retirements, and college graduations. Or people that are sick or going on vacation. There are many different scenarios where people have life changes — even divorces and engagements.

There's so many different life changes that people go through and today it's all public. Every single thing is public.

Now, when...

Do you use a Social Media Blitz every single time you take a listing?

If your answer is no, you're missing a huge opportunity to create energy and excitement around your listings to capture more buyers and sellers and potentially add more closings and referrals.

Here are six posts you should do for every listing you get:

1. The Coming Soon Post

First thing you do when you take a listing is you record a raw, no edit walkthrough video of the house. This could be an Instagram story, a Facebook story, or both. This shows people you're actually taking listings and that there's a new listing in your market.

Now, in some markets, you may have to adhere to your MLS rules before you start marketing the property — it's usually between 24-72 hours in most markets. But in some markets, you can't do it at all. Hopefully, you can do that quick, raw, no edit video where you're doing the quick walkthrough in your market.

2. Launch it into your social media when it...

We see so much marketing that is irrelevant and meaningless — it doesn't resonate with anybody. It's trying to be ironic, cute, and Instagram perfect.

But nobody really cares so these marketing gimmicks fail.

What do our potential clients care about then?

Learning something new — which will always make them stop dead in their tracks and consider your message.

That's the basic idea behind my "Educational Marketing" strategy.

Now let's think of it in terms of real estate:

Not everyone has an interest in real estate. Buyers and sellers usually only get interested right before they're ready to sell their home or buy a new one.

So when a buyer starts to think that they should buy a house, that's when they start to look at all the terms and processes around real estate. Or when a homeowner gets interested in selling, that's when they suddenly get tuned into the market conditions.

That's the power behind using "Educational...