Educate Your Clients to Make a Connection That Lasts

One of the most valuable things you can do to create and maintain effective, long-term relationships is real estate client education. Providing the answers to those hard questions home buyers and sellers are asking will help you become the industry expert in your area.

It’s not a secret that buyers claim the most difficult steps in buying a home are understanding the process and the paperwork. But what might come as a bit of a surprise is an agent’s knowledge of those things is the number two most important quality that buyers seek in an agent (honesty is number one).

Therefore, ensuring that your prospects and clients have a complete understanding of the buying or selling process comes with bonuses:

• They know what to expect every step of the way, so they are more relaxed.
• Since they’re more relaxed, the most common “freakouts” are avoided.
• Educating them is the type of customer service that they’ll remember – which will help you be remembered.

So, how can you help your clients and prospects learn more about buying and selling?

Seller/Buyer education workshops

Workshops not only work to ensure that your prospects are educated, but they’re also another way to acquire prospects and earn their trust and their business.

The first step to workshop success is to figure out if you’ll be doing it virtually or live. For a live workshop, we suggest providing refreshments or a serve a meal. Next, decide on who you’ll be targeting with your real estate client education plan. If you’re going after buyers, consider the following:

• First timers
• Golf course properties
• Vacation homes
• Downsizers
• Upsizers
• Senior homebuyers
• Veterans
• Ranch/farm properties
• Condo buyers
• Luxury homebuyers

Then, determine the topics you’ll cover. Budgeting, credit scores, how to prepare for the buying/selling process, down payment assistance programs, appraisals, inspections, and VA/FHA loan information are just a few.

For marketing your event, we suggest using a mix of old school and digital marketing methods to lure attendees. Develop a landing page where they can sign up and don’t forget to market the workshop via your social media platforms as well.

Believe it or not, people still read

The local paper, if you’re lucky enough to work in a market with a daily or weekly, is the perfect place to educate your prospects and clients. Oh—and another way to build qualified contacts and acquire customers.

For marketing your event, we suggest using a mix of old-school and digital marketing methods to lure attendees. Develop a landing page where they can sign up and don’t forget to market the workshop via your social media platforms as well.

Focus on blogging for real estate client education

If you consider yourself a pretty good writer, consider writing a blog that dives deep into the buying or selling process. There’s a lot more to blogging than just writing though. You need to promote your posts to drive traffic to your blog by posting them on your social media channels. Doing this consistently will help you become an industry expert in the eyes of your readers.

Real estate client education blog topics that your clients and prospects and  may be interested in include:

• The mortgage process – first-time buyers especially will appreciate a walk-through of the mortgage process, from start to finish, in plain English. A list of down payment assistance programs and how to buy a home when selling (which comes first?) are examples of additional topics that most buyers and sellers will find valuable.
• Do a series of posts—a glossary of sorts—of the most common real estate terms they’ll be hearing when they buy or sell. Examples include contingencies, seasoned funds, due diligence, and fixtures.
• The closing process – After the financing process, closing is a mystery to most of the prospects you’ll meet. Explain who will be there, what happens, and outline the paperwork they’ll encounter.
• Answer common, pertinent questions, such as “Will there be another housing market crash?” “Will mortgage rates rise significantly this year?”

There are lots of ways to educate prospects and clients. Do these things consistently and over time, not only will you be remembered, but you’ll become an industry expert in your area.