Attracting New Clients
Marketing your transaction coordinator business when you're first starting out is one of the most important things you need to do. The success of your business will depend on the daily activities you do to attract new clients.
There are so many ways you can find clients as a TC that is free. In this blog post, I'm going to talk about 5 ways to market a transaction coordinator business for free.
Who is Your Ideal Client?
Let's start out with who is your ideal client? As a real estate transaction coordinator, it's pretty obvious who your ideal client would be. Real estate agents right? Have you ever thought about working with real estate investors? There are TC’s that also work with real estate investors. Or even for sale by owners? Also known as FSBO’s
Let's go back to the obvious, real estate agents. Not all real estate agents are created equal my friend! Did you know an interesting statistic? 20% of the agents out there do 80% of the business? I was surprised when I first started out selling houses how apparent this became.
According to the National Association of Realtors the Median number of transaction sides in 2018: Residential sides for all REALTORS®-11
That's 11 homes per year people! Almost 1 house per month. In order for you to make a decent income each month, you need to work with agents that sell way more houses than that per month/year.
Check out this article from the National Association of Realtors. It gives some pretty good insight into agent statistics as a whole that you might like to learn about.
Quick Real Estate Statistics
Find Out Where Your Ideal Client Hangs Out
Another statistic in the National Association of Realtor article states that 76% of female REALTORS® and 73% of male REALTORS® use social media for professional use.
This confirms it’s a pretty good bet you're going to find a lot of real estate agents in places like Facebook, Instagram, and even Linkedin.
Now let's look at some easy ways to market your transaction coordinator business for free!
1. Meetups
Look in your town for networking opportunities. If you are looking for potential clients and real estate investors are on your radar look for those FREE foreclosure meetings for investors. It's probably something that you don't even know to think about especially if you're not familiar with real estate investing.
These types of meetings are held weekly in my area and teach people how to buy at foreclosure auctions.
Usually the next day they hold another meeting to go over all the upcoming foreclosure properties that are going on the auction block that week. Usually, a ton of investors show up at those meetings.
There are also real estate agents there and in fact, some real estate agents run these meetings so it's a great place to connect with people you wouldn't normally think about.
Connect with the people that are holding these meetings. Find out more about who is attending and ask if they mind if you network with investors and agents that attend.
Note. I would do this in person. It won't take much of your time and making that face-to-face connection is vital in your marketing efforts.
Creating the know, like, and trust factor is best to do in person.
2. Cooperating Agents
This is a big one. The agents that you currently do your transactions for also have a cooperating agent right?
How hard is it AFTER the transaction has closed to contact them with a nice email or even better phone call letting them know how much you enjoyed working with them and how much you would like to work with them on their upcoming transaction also?
I say AFTER the transaction has closed for a couple of reasons. First of all, if they already have a TC or real estate assistant that you worked with then do not, I repeat DO NOT solicit them.
You will only make yourself look desperate and trust me, it's a small world and these kinds of things get back to the TC's on the other side of the transaction.
Second, you want to keep it professional during your transaction. Complicating the transaction by trying to get their business just isn't the right time to do it.
Instead, take the opportunity to show your best work, best organization skills, and professionalism during the transaction and that will stand out to the cooperating agent.
When you market your transaction coordinator business you want to show agents what the benefit is to them. They want to know how they can make more money by utilizing your services. How it will save them time, and how professional you will make them look to their clients.
You could offer them an incentive to try your services out by giving them $50 off their first transaction with you. Be prepared to bring your value to the table and show them how you can save them time and money by utilizing your services.
3. Facebook
Here’s another great statistic from the National Association of Realtors. 76% of female REALTORS® and 73% of male REALTORS® use social media for professional use.
I can tell you from personal experience Facebook is a common place to find real estate agents. I hang out there and have done lots of lead generation for buyers and sellers on Facebook. Business pages are a good place to start looking for agents to connect with.
Did you know that in order to run ads on Facebook you can only do it from a business Facebook page? Yup, that's right!
Also, there is a Bazillion (Is that even a word?) FB Groups for real estate agents! I know because I can't even count how many I have joined over the years.
There are FB groups for investors, FB groups for real estate-specific software that agents use in their business (both public and private), FB groups for real estate agent website companies, the list literally goes on and on.
There is a FB group in my town that real estate agents will go on and post recent listings they have and posting open houses coming up. It's a mom's group, but agents that are moms also sometimes post in them.
4. LinkedIn
Linkedin is a great place to find agents to connect with and it's pretty easy. BUT..you need to have a stellar business profile built out before you begin this type of marketing.
Linkedin is a professional business platform where people connect, network, and look for job opportunities. This makes it a perfect platform to market your business.
Once you begin connecting with agents you can see who they are connected to and connect with their connections. It's kind of a Domino effect.
You can even connect with other real estate professionals such as title, mortgage, home inspectors, pest inspectors, home staging businesses, etc.
Focusing on real estate agents in the very beginning is going to give you the most impact for your time spent there.
Engage with articles that people are writing. Start your own TC blog and link to your own articles. You could write something like “How to find the perfect TC” or “Why having a TC will make you money!”
The bottom line with this type of platform you need to engage with other people. Just connecting with them to have a connection is not enough. Reach out and let them know how you can be of service to them and their business. Make it conversational. Not super salesy.
I just had someone reach out to me after we connected on LinkedIn and he sent me a message. The message talked about how he could help get me real estate leads, how great he was, and here is a link to his calendar to set a time to talk to him.
Are you kidding?? What a turn-off that was!
There is no way I will ever contact him. What value did he bring? All he did was tell me how great he was and to set an appointment with him. Did he take the time to ask any questions about my business? What my business needs and goals were? Nope.
You have to remember. People are always thinking...What’s in it for me??
5. Open Houses
Last but not least. Of the 5 ways to market your Transaction Coordinator business, this one is a no-brainer. You can drive around on Saturdays and Sundays in your town and other towns close by and casually stop into their open house and share that you are in the business too and handle Transaction Coordination.
Have a nice professionally done sheet with your services and contact information. Have a business card stapled to the top if you have one.
You can easily go to sites like Zillow and type in “Open Houses” in your specific area and all the open house that day will pop up with the hours they are open.
One word of caution. Do not approach them if they are already talking to potential buyers during the open house.
Wait until they have a free minute to talk. If the open house is busy with lots of people coming in and out, just say hi and let them know you will leave some info for them.
Then follow up with them on Monday morning.
Agents use open houses as a lead generation opportunity to find buyers so do not get in the way of that. Remember they are working while doing an open house and if you interrupt them with a potential buyer/lead they will not be happy with you. Then less likely to want to work with you.
So are you ready to start your online business as a Virtual Transaction Coordinator biz yet??
If you found these tips helpful to market your Transaction Coordinator business I would love to hear from you!
I would love it if you left a comment below letting me know your thoughts or you can always contact me directly at hello@inspiredhouseandhome.com. Every email that comes through I will read and reply to! Let me know if you have thought about making money from home and what is holding you back from getting started.
Here is a couple of other blog posts for you to check out.
1. How to Organize Your Business as a Transaction Coordinator
2. How to Start an Online Business as a Transaction Coordinator
