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CLEANING KEYS TO PASS ONTO YOUR CLIENTS When selling a property, cleanliness is key. Here are a few things homeowners may overlook when preparing their home for sale: • Dust ceiling blade fans and light fixtures • Vacuum and wash the floors behind and under appliances • Clean out the refrigerator and cupboards/pantry • Wash the windows (inside and outside) • Wash the front door and entry way as well as other entrances to the house • Wash all baseboards • Polish all woodwork, mirrors, faucets, sinks, hardware and light fixtures • Clean inside the oven, dishwasher, microwave, washing machine and dryer • Empty the garbage cans and clean inside them to remove odors • Remove all ashes and soot from the fireplace; leave in a new, fresh log

Real estate is all about marketing. You're marketing yourself to the public, friends and family to gain their trust and business and you're marketing properties to help your clients meet their housing needs. But just how important is marketing and how much time should you spend on it? We took to our client base (you) to help answer these questions and more. Here's what we found out: Marketing: Importance vs. Time Spent - Does It Add Up?

Let's look directly at marketing yourself to current and past clients - otherwise known as relationship marketing. The goal of relationship marketing is to build on the relationship you have so these clients refer you and continue to do business with you in the future. From our survey, the top four methods of staying in touch are: 1. Social media, 2. Email, 3. Phone calls and 4. Addressed Mail. This is great! A mixture of connections works best to strengthen relationships and that mixture should engage all the senses in a visual, tactile, and personal way. However, knowing the average agent spends less than 30 minutes a day on these connections, it is likely they aren't being used as effectively as they could be. Furthermore, if marketing is not consistent, you could be leaving business on the table at the end of every day. When asked how many hours they’re spending on marketing in a month, these agents averaged 6 to 15 . Broken down, it means the average agent is putting in less than half an hour a day on marketing. Considering business in real estate comes from the people who know and trust your brand, are you spending enough time marketing to them so you stand out? We surveyed 85 real estate agents in Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa in the last few months and found the majority of agents ( 95.3% ) believe marketing is important or very important in their real estate business. Over half of these agents ( 54.8% ) have been in the business between 4 and 15 years , so we believe they know what they're talking about.

95.3%

of agents believe marketing is important in their real estate business.

Hours Spent on Marketing in a Month

0 to 5 6 to 10 11 to 15 16 to 20 21+

Keeping In Touch with Past Clients

73%

68%

67%

53%

45%

31%

6%

6%

Email

Other

Nothing

Phone Calls

Social Media

Client Events

Drop-by Visits

Addressed Mail

Take a look at your week and your marketing practices. If you fall into the same category as the agents we surveyed, marketing is very important but there’s not quite enough time to spend on it, think about outsourcing. Social media and of course phone calls work best when it’s your voice coming through, where as email and printed newsletters are effective with a small personal touch and can easily be outsourced to free up your time.