Be the leader in real estate to your community during this pandemic

During this time of global panic and fear, we’re faced with a very important choice. We can all choose to give in to the fear, panic and stress. We can opt to pull away and give up, to act irrationally and out of emotion.

Or we can all choose to come together — to build community, create, innovate and come up with amazing solutions. We can use this as an opportunity to educate ourselves and grow, not only in business but also as human beings and as a greater collective.

We hope this guide will help you to be seen as an expert in your community and to bring goodwill and calm among your friends and family. So, here are the top five things you can do to not only make it through this pandemic — but to thrive.

1. Go all in

Many agents ask us about advertising during the pandemic. Should they hold off until the economy stabilizes? Sadly, most agents are just sitting around hoarding their money like it’s toilet paper. Do you know what agents who will survive and thrive in this time are doing? You guessed it. They’re going all in.

Why do this? Because everyone else is turning off ads or scaling back. This translates to you having the means to corner the market with higher visibility and drastically lower cost per acquisition.​

Also, more people will be home, bored and surfing social media for hours on end. Whose ads are they going to see? Not your scared competitors who are “waiting for the storm to pass.” No. They’ll be seeing your ads. You will be the agent they call.

2. Be the authority

In times like this, agents who add the most value really have a unique opportunity. Bringing clarity in a chaotic situation gives you the chance to set the table for gaining market share and the trust of your clients. People will go from knowing and liking you to actually trusting you.

3. Overcommunicate with clients

Don’t wait and put this off. If they reach out to you, it’s too late. If you have fewer than 20 clients, call them individually and check in with how they’re doing and how their families are. If you have more than 20 clients, send out an email blast with an encouraging video. Make sure it comes from a place of support as well as authority. Your clients are relying on you to be the calm in the storm. Let them know what solutions you’re coming up with to serve them during this time.

4. Create resources for your clients

■ Email them personalized videos about the current state of the market in your community.

■ Instead of meeting clients for coffee, meet them over a Zoom call. Then mail them a $10 Starbucks gift card.

■ Conduct open houses via livestream, and make it an event! You can have buyers join in, comment, like and ask you questions about the home.

■ Send a bottle of hand sanitizer as a little thank-you gift to your clients. It will make you instantly memorable.

5. Time To Go On Offense

■ If you haven’t started running paid ads to get appointments with potential clients, now is the time. Ads are going to be on sale, so take advantage.

■ If you’re running the same cold email campaigns, ads and direct messages, shift the messaging to align with what’s going on today.

■ At Altas Real Estate, we’ve already created brand new campaigns addressing this situation. We’re offering engagement campaigns for our agents to establish you as the authority and expert in your community.

■ Most importantly, now is the time to step up as a Realtor and innovate your product or service so that it’s a solution to some of the problems your clients are facing.

I know that’s a ton of info — and there’s so much more. So, if you want help executing on all of the above, we have the resources available for you to:

■ Establish yourself as the expert and authority in your community.

■ Get your current clients to stay and recommend you to their family and friends by staying top-of-mind and relevant.

■ Stay ahead of the curve by doing livestreamed open houses and online meet-ups. If you act now, you will end up growing massively.

It’s your time to step up as a Realtor. It is time for you to step up as a leader. It is your time to dominate. You’ve got this.

Victoria Kennedy is the CEO of Atlas Real Estate, a lead generation agency that is committed to providing more leads and closings for real estate professionals. Because of her expertise in real estate, she has been a speaker and contributor to such organizations as the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Inman News and Yahoo Finance.