6 Dynamic Marketing Approaches for the Fall Real Estate Off-Season
Now that we’re in the slow season for rentals, you need to ramp up your fall real estate marketing approaches more aggressively. Luckily, there are proven ways to secure more leads, like elevator pitch listings, virtual tours, and more. Read below for more inspiration.
Main Takeaways
- Some fall real estate business ideas to consider are virtual tours, paid ads, networking with certain groups, and collaborating with social media influencers.
- In terms of other fall real estate marketing approaches, you should use different social media platforms to reach different demographics. Also, you should focus on creating “elevator pitch listings,” or listings designed to immediately attract attention.
Table of Contents
- One of the Key Marketing Approaches for Listings: The Elevator Pitch
- Provide Virtual Tours
- Post Your Ads on the Right Sites
- Use Paid Real Estate Advertisement Posts
- Team Up with Influencers
- Network With Industry Insiders
One of the Key Marketing Approaches for Listings: The Elevator Pitch
Every property manager in North Virginia knows listings are key to your fall real estate marketing approaches. They’re the jumping point when tenants decide whether to take action on your rental. And a real estate advertisement is a dime a dozen. Renters have plenty of options. So, if your listing doesn’t do it for them, they can easily move on to more appealing ones. Especially in the fall real estate market, you can’t let leads slip through the cracks.
To avoid this, ensure yours catches people’s eyes immediately, like an elevator pitch. Give them a listing they can’t afford to ignore. Here’s what you can do to accomplish this:
Kick it Off with an Eye-Grabbing Headline
This is your chance to immediately get eyes on your listing. Make your headline short but striking. Draw in tenants by addressing their core questions, right off the bat: what is the unit’s number of bedrooms and bathrooms? Furthermore, what is one rental amenity or feature that serves as its primary selling point? Try to distill these points in a sentence.
This might sound like an exceedingly difficult task, but it’s doable. For example, you could write, “2 bed, 1 bath with pool access,” or “1 bed, 1 bath near WMATA Metro.”
As you do this, put yourself in a tenant’s shoes. If you were looking at dozens of listings successively, and they all were blurring together, what would immediately stand out from the crowd?
Briefly Explain Basic Background Info
Now, you set up the scene with a general gist of the property details. This would include your bedroom and bath count, square footage, price, deposit amount, and renter qualifications. At the description’s end, finish it with your contact info.
Showcase Professional Photos
Photos are your real estate advertisement’s first impression, so make it count. Unless your property is currently occupied, try to take photos when the property is empty and cleaned. This way, your property is a blank slate, and renters can imagine making it their own.
Furthermore, ensure the photos aren’t blurry or dark. This way, your unit is presented in its best light. You may want to hire a professional photographer for the best results. Your fall real estate advertisement photos should include:
- The exterior of your property
- Common areas, if in an apartment complex
- Dining area
- Living area
- Kitchen
- Bedrooms
- Baths
- Basement, if applicable
- Laundry area
- Attractions and amenities nearby
Focus on Features That Appeal to Renters
Finally, we get to your fall real estate advertisement’s elevator pitch. Here is where you really make or break prospective renters’ interest. In that vein, you should emphasize your property’s selling points. These could include:
- Onsite parking
- Onsite laundry
- Pet-permitting policies
- Utilities-included policies
- Nearby essentials (like transportation and grocery stores)
- Nearby attractions
- Incentives or discounts (like reduced security deposits)
There’s one big asterisk, though: As the AppFolio 2024 Renter Preferences Report found, renters judge a real estate advertisement by its honesty and transparency. So, you should be upfront (but not overly blunt or negative!) about the property’s relevant issues. After all, renters don’t want to feel baited and switched.
Integrate Keywords Throughout
In your real estate advertisement, your marketing approaches shouldn’t end with the concrete information you share. It’s not just about what you say—it’s about how you say it. So, you should use descriptive power words to depict these features. For instance, if you’re looking to attract high-income renters, you might sprinkle the words “luxury” or “upgraded” into your depictions.
Check for Grammar and Spelling
When you’re done, proofread your description for grammar and spelling errors before posting. This helps ensure you maintain a sense of professionalism in your description.
Get Professional Marketing Support
Provide Virtual Tours
One of the newer marketing approaches out there is virtual tours. You could learn how to post a guided video tour on social media platforms like YouTube. This way, tenants can get a broader view of your property than photos can allow.
More importantly, tenants can get this expanded view whenever, wherever, unlike in-person tours. They don’t have to undergo the time investment an in-person tour requires. Removing such barriers to entry may push viewers on the fence to pursue your property further.
As a bonus, the video may provide enough information that it makes viewers definitively decide whether the property is right for them or not. So, if people reach out after viewing, you can feel sure they’re serious. In other words, this lets you filter out weaker leads and keep the promising ones.
Post Your Ads on the Right Sites
We all know that social media is king. However, you may not be using this real estate advertisement tool as effectively as you could be.
Not all social media platforms are equal. Each location and group may prefer certain platforms over others. For example, Gen Z is known to frequent Facebook Marketplace, but not so much Facebook’s original site itself. On the contrary, 83% of older adults rate Facebook as their top social media site.
As such, where you post your listings matters. Each app has its own audience and niche. So, you should pivot your fall real estate marketing approaches accordingly.
Here are a few other real estate business ideas:
- Gen Z is known to adore TikTok.
- Instagram and X (Twitter) are exceptionally popular with younger people.
- Facebook Marketplace, YouTube, Turbotenant, Craigslist, Trulia, Apartments.com, Rent.com, GoSection8.com, and Zillow are safe bets across demographics.
- To reach locals, you may want to focus on community-focused apps. For instance, you could post on NextDoor, Patch, or local university boards.
- Also, you can reach professionals on LinkedIn.
Use Paid Real Estate Advertisement Posts
If you invest in paid ads on Google, social media, or listing sites, it can boost your property to the top of tenants’ search results. To ensure you’re complying with all laws, you should hire a search engine optimization professional or use a tried-and-true template to do this.
Team Up with Influencers
More than ever, people turn to influencers for guidance on what is popular. So, if you collaborate with local influencers to promote your property, it could boost its profile exponentially. Many influencers use TikTok or Instagram, so you could seek out local influencers on those apps.
Network With Industry Insiders
Finally, you can try networking with other industry insiders. They may have real estate business ideas or marketing approaches you never considered. After all, when people put their minds together, they can accomplish more than they would alone.
There are a few ways to do this. For one, you could use LinkedIn to get leads. Also, you could go to real estate industry events or join organizations. In addition, you could get to know property managers, agents, contractors, real estate lawyers, and others who are in the loop. They may help direct you to tenants you otherwise couldn’t access.
Get More Fall Real Estate Business Ideas from BMG NOVA
In the fall real estate season, you can achieve more leads with “elevator pitch” listings, virtual tours, influencer collaborations, and other marketing approaches. By using these real estate business ideas, you can set yourself up for success.
If you want even more real estate business ideas, BMG can help. In fact, our property management professionals can handle your property marketing completely. We can streamline it from the moment tenants find your property online to the moment they finally sign their rental agreement. We can develop listings, post them to the right sites, and handle in-person and virtual property tours for you.
And that’s not all we do. We also take care of:
- Property maintenance
- Legal compliance
- Rent collection
- Lease renewals
- Tenant screening
- Accounting
- Inspections
…and more. So, contact us today to maximize your earnings!