Apple Valley Ohio Lake Community by Sam Miller

Your buyers and sellers are the lifeblood of your business especially if you have been selling real estate as long as I have.  Why not negotiate discounts on products and services that your buying and selling clients will appreciate and can benefit from?  Here's an example:

I have many perks for my buying and selling clients but this client perk and discount has been generating far more business buzz than I expected it would.  I negotiated a 15% discount with my favoriate local furniture store in Knox County for all my past and present clients.  The deal we struck is a real win / win for everyone involved and the cost for my team was zero yet the benefits are huge.  If you want to grow your business and create client loyalty this is a step in the right direction.

Real estate marketing using video is growing at a rapid pace and I believe we haven't seen anything yet.  Many real estate agents are overwhelmed with the idea of doing video and have written off the idea simply because they do not know where to start.  If you are looking to do some basic video there is a new affordable solution and that solution may be "The Flip" F260W model.  This is a very inexpensive  video camera that holds 60 minutes of video.  The beautiful thing that makes the FLIP video camera so nice is that all you need to do is plug the camera into your computer and it will quickly bring in your video using a built in USB connection.  Here is a quick video I created using the FLIP...I just hung the camera out the window and shot a fall scene of my street.  The actual video quality is very good but YouTube did compress the file and quality it into a much smaller file so much of the actual quality was stripped away.

Many real estate businesses are not familiar with the term "Rainmaker" but it is a term that many will need to know in the future.  With the many changes in the real estate business I am continually hearing agents complaining that they do not have any steady business and they lack buyers right now.  This is where being a "RainMaker" pays big dividends because a Rainmaker focuses on continually generating a flowing stream of customers, clients and business.  This book a quick read with only 165 short pages and it is well worth reading.

Today the real estate market is more competitive than ever before and it takes more to keep a client for life.  The consumer has many choices and they want to know what is in it for them if they do business with you.  With airline frequent flyer programs offering free airlines tickets, credit card companies offering discounts on car purchases, grocery stores with their shopping cards offering points system and discounts...the public today wants to know if they buy from you what will they get that they would not get otherwise.

What I am talking about is beyond your Unique Selling Proposition and it is beyond good service   The client expects that they will get that as a minimum or they wouldn't even consider doing business with you or your firm.  Most consumers know they have options and the way to win many consumers is often though client perks or additional client benefits.  You may be asking yourself what can you offer and I can assure you there are things your clients will appreciate. 

• How about a 15% discount on furniture
• Or 10% off any major kitchen appliances
• FREE moving truck use for moving day
• A guaranteed home sale / trade program
• Priority service with a preferred home lender
• Automatic New Listing Notification by E-mail
• FREE loan preapproval and FREE credit report 

These are just a few basic ideas that will get  the consumers attention.  The key is for you to market them and use them to differentiate your business from others competing businesses so that you will set yourself apart from your competition.