When property professionals Franky and Irene Tjhin came to Hoole seeking help with their real estate marketing strategy, they’d not long established their business. Wanting to make the best first impression and realise their dream of building their own business, they engaged professional help.
Franky had been working in off-the-plan house and apartment sales for around 15 years, and even though he’d had success as a project marketing sales agent, he had made a bold move and decided to branch out and open a traditional real estate agency, selling established homes.
1. Establish a real estate business
Franky and Irene had decided on a business name, Notable Property Group, and had built a website. But they weren’t getting much traction for the new venture with homeowners of pre-existing residential properties. Franky’s income was still mostly derived from off-the-plan apartment sales and subcontracts with project marketing agencies.
Meanwhile, his wife, Irene, had recently left her corporate accounting job at Woolworths to step into the business and help Franky with real estate marketing and operations. As the person tasked with branding and marketing, Irene reached out to Hoole (and went on to engage us) to help them with establishing their real estate business and building their brand reputation.
2. Develop a brand marketing strategy
Our first challenge was to identify an area in which to focus Notable Property Group’s brand marketing efforts.
New homes are based on land availability and opportunity, so off-the-plan homes are typically spread out geographically, with projects located in different suburbs. In contrast, real estate agencies servicing established homes will focus on a single area and, in my experience, will service a core suburb with around 6 adjacent suburbs typically.
Depending on the density of the population and housing the number of residents living in an area serviced by a real estate agency will tend to be between 30,000 to 50,000 people living in approx 15,000 to 20,000 homes.
My first task was to help Notable Property Group identify which areas and suburbs to target. We considered where the owners lived, which areas they were most knowledgeable about, and what their own buying and selling experiences had been. Based on these points, we identified three potential regions and set out to gather data to unearth where the most opportunities lay. We delved down into information for property turnover, the volume of listings, the number of competitors, and how established the other real estate agencies were within that area.
3. Crunch the numbers to find opportunity
Being a smart, analytical woman, Irene was excited to get started on this research. Guided by me, she helped pull together the deep analysis we needed. Once we had the statistical information gathered, it became clear that the best area for Notable Property Group was Sydney’s newer suburbs located from Kellyville out to Rouse Hill.
Franky already had a lot of experience selling land, homes and apartments in Kellyville and was presently selling off-the-plan apartments in Rouse Hill, so he could talk knowledgeably about local properties and the history of homes in Sydney’s northwest. The area had a good mix of homes built around 15 years ago plus was continuing its expansion with land sales and additional homes and apartments being added to the outer edge.
We soon discovered that many Kellyville homeowners had reached a point where they were ready to sell their homes for various reasons, including upgrading or downsizing. The local real estate agencies were also fairly new, so we could see that there was plenty of scope for Notable Property Group to enter the market and gain a share.
4. Promote your new real estate brand
Up until this point, Franky and his project marketing sales team had been physically located in a display suite for the new apartment buildings they were selling. The display suite was not located in Kellyville and there would be no possibility to co-brand it anyway. So, the fastest way to get the Notable Property Group’s brand visible in Kellyville was as follows:
Bus signage: With no train line servicing the area, the bus service was vital to locals and commuters. We explored the cost of bus shelters and shopping centre signage. Still, the most cost-effective option, which would also physically move the signage around the area, was to put it on local buses, giving Notable Property Group a physical presence in Kellyville and the surrounding suburbs.
Social media ads: We could not guarantee that everyone would see the bus signage, but we could guarantee that over a period of six weeks, we could get a social media ad in front of everyone who lived and logged in to social media sites from Kellyville, Rouse Hill and adjoining suburbs. We devised a set of fun brand messages that helped to articulate the concept behind the name Notable Property Group, helping it to stay memorable to those who saw it.
5. Manage an ongoing marketing program
Next, we made improvements to the Notable Property Group website, adding the functionality needed to run marketing and lead campaigns. We also add a weekly blog to the website that talks not only about how Franky and the sales and property management teams help local homeowners but also touches on things that would interest families already living in Kellyville. This showcases to local residents that Franky and his team really know the area, can sell the lifestyle and can virtues to buying or renting a home there.
The Hoole team publish posts across Notable Property Group’s social media accounts with tips for making home improvements and preparing a home for sale, alongside local places of interest and weekend activities. Sharing regular updates ensures that the Notable Property Group brand stays relevant and visible at all times.
Sharing useful information and ideas helps the real estate agency stay in touch with people who were happily living in their Kellyville or Rouse Hill homes and not yet at the stage where they are ready to sell. The challenge for any real estate agent or agency owner is to keep an open dialogue with homeowners over several years and then be the first real estate team that comes to mind when a vendor is finally ready to sell. As I like to remind all my clients, “Repetition creates recognition!”
6. Convert property prospects into client listings
Ultimately, selecting the Kellyville to Rouse Hill region to target has helped Franky and Irene to have a more measured and focused approach to building their new real estate brand.
Today, they have a defined market, know the suburb stats, have a defined audience, and we can actively measure results to know how many people are seeing the Notable Property Group name each day, week and month.
Amazingly, they sold five times the number of established homes in their second year compared to their first. The Hoole team and I couldn’t be happier for them.
7. Open a physical real estate office
With home appraisals and in person meetings happening primarily at the sellers residence, there was no rush to establish a physical office or retail shop. This saved Franky the stress of covering office rental costs in the early days. However, 18 months after launching Notable Property Group, Franky seized an opportunity to open a real estate retail space within Kellyville – sharing the cost and co-branding the shop with one of their project marketing partners.
This strategic move further cemented the unique mix of real estate services Franky and team had to offer, being a combination of new homes in newly developed estates, off-the-plan apartments, established home sales, and property management services. With the region continuing to go through massive expansion, Notable Property Group holds an enviable position in that customers can find a broad range of options under the one real estate agency’s roof. Plus, with 20% of homes in Kellyville and 40% of homes in Rouse Hill currently rented, Notable Property Group has also steadily grown its property management division.
8. Sell the old to buy the new properties
Franky also discovered that there was a symbiotic relationship between people looking at new apartments (namely downsizers) who would also need to sell their existing homes. Notable Property Group found themselves in a unique position where they were able to help buyers interested in purchasing an off-the-home apartment to list and sell their existing property.
Franky has been able to maintain his income from project marketing and increase his annual revenue through home sales and property management services. He has successfully established Notable Property Group and cemented its place in the Kellyville to Rouse Hill real estate marketplace.
9. Back yourself and be ‘all in’ to achieve success
When it comes to launching a real estate business, dipping your toe in the water is never going to get you to the other end of the swimming pool. You have to dive in and sprint like hell to generate the momentum needed to keep your business afloat.
With a strategic brand marketing plan for your real estate business you can establish a name for your business and ensure that when it comes time to transact, your real estate agency is at the front of local residents’s minds.
Once you’ve done a couple of laps and have more business than you can handle, then and only then should you consider paring back on your marketing efforts. Whether you are an agency owner or an individual property professional, marketing should be seen as an investment (not a cost). Those who don’t reinvest a proportion of their earnings towards generating future business will ultimately lose market share, and worse still could potentially go out of business.
This is why we see so many people leave the industry when we experience a downturn. If you want to be here for the long haul, you need to invest in your future.
Want help launching your own real estate agency?
If you’re ready to leap into being a real estate agency owner, give us a call. As a full-service digital marketing agency that specialises in branding, websites and marketing programs my team and I can help launch and then cement your reputation, and grow your revenues year on year.
Book in a time for a free 1-hour chat, with me, Melanie Hoole, and I’ll give you on the spot recommendations.
Written by Melanie Hoole
My team and I specialise in helping real estate and property professionals perfect their personal brand, build a first-class digital profile and implement inbound marketing activities to attract leads. If you are unsure which direction to take with your digital marketing contact me for help.
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