In this episode of Keeping it Real with Greg Harrelson of Century 21 The Harrelson Group and Frank Klesitz of Vyral Marketing features Ashlee Nath. Discussing, “Getting Started as a Brand-New Real Estate Agent in 2021,” you’ll hear tips on how to hit the ground running as a new agent and strategies approaching the market in a new way, even if you’ve been in real estate for decades.

Nath began her real estate career as a home stager and transitioned into becoming a transaction manager, and then determined that she could be an asset as an agent, and decided to take the test for her license through Kaplan online in three weeks. She didn’t plan to rush through, but while doing it realized that she could be learning scripts and reaching out to clients to let them know she was in school. For others that would like to get started, Nath suggested that soon-to-be agents can learn scripts, start conversations, and set up their social media. “They can start learning scripts before they have their license,” said Nath.

Using Social Media as a Real Estate Agent in 2021

Nath was strategic in building her client base. She chose to start with Instagram as a lead generation tool and searched for people posting near her in Colorado Springs. She’d make comments and like their posts and start following people, and they would do the same. She would like up to 200 items per hour. “I started focusing all my time and energy on social media,” explained Nath. “I learned everything from webinars!” Nath would look at someone’s Instagram page and make sure they were a local who had posted recently and had interests similar to hers and then she would send a personal message, using their name and referencing something from their profile which sparked her interest. To her the key was that she “made it beneficial for them as well as me.”

Over time, Nath learned what was good to post live vs. as a story, and found that an 80:20 ratio, with 80% of posts relating to her life as a mom and 20% of posts involving real estate was a good mix for her audience. “I want them to see I’m a human as well as a realtor,” Nath said. “You were proactively recruiting and prospecting,” Klesitz said,“reminding listeners that Nath “would make 50 attempts a day to reach out to people in Colorado Springs.” 

According to Nath, her main message was not about real estate, it was about creating local relationships and “getting to know people in my community.”  And, it worked. She doesn’t spend as much time prospecting on Instagram now because she is really busy with referral business and past client repeat business.

Nath also used Facebook but does not consider it her main source of social media. She posts home listings in groups and on local buy, sell, trade pages, but only shares a price and size range rather than exact details. The reasoning is that then the viewers had to click links to her unbranded Real Geeks property landing pages which required registration before showing home photos. Once she saw the leads sign up on Real Geeks, she would engage them in conversation. She felt they were warmer leads since they were already looking at homes. This strategy alone resulted in her selling 10 homes her first year.

Real Geeks Property Landing Pages Convert Easily

Nath said she used a landing page on her Real Geeks’ website and would post a short description and link the page to 5-10 local groups a day. She did not post to the same group every day, but rotated between 15 groups. Of those 15, Nath said 5 had the largest audience and better traction, but that posting to all made it more comprehensive. Klesitz noted that in doing so, Nath uses Facebook as an inbound strategy, whereas she uses Instagram as an outbound strategy. Harrelson and Klesitz were impressed as they calculated that she generated 150 free leads off Facebook where ten of those turned into deals, giving her close to 7% conversion through organic posting. Harrelson appreciated her approach in using forced registration when the leads came  to her page. “They volunteered their information, now that’s a qualifier,”  said Harrelson, adding that the qualifier brought conversion. Harrelson reminded that every Real Geeks user could generate leads using the property pages on social media. “Property pages have share buttons that make sharing it simple,” he said.

In addition to social media, Nath said she built her database from looking through her phone, checking who had come to her home for dinner and who she knew from volunteering at her kids’ schools. She contacted people she already knew to have more face to face “let’s go get coffee” interaction and was involved in “Mom groups” which allowed her to meet more people and grow her sphere of influence. “It’s all about keeping those relationships and nurturing those people,” Nath said. Even if they didn’t need her services, she knew, “they may know someone.”

Nath uses gifts to stay top of mind with past clients and contacts, delivering about 300 gifts each month through what she refers to as monthly pop-bys and events. She shared an example of a personalized art card + flower seeds that was sent and explained that at Thanksgiving mini bundt cakes were hand delivered by  their real estate team with the message, “we’re nothing bundt thankful for you.”

Harrelson mentioned that she’s created a formula and that “she came across the formula naturally.”

“She chose something that fit her personality style.” He described it as authentic, intentional, simple, and consistent. “She created a routine and she delivered value,” he said explaining that it works as she, “leads with the give and lets the take come in some sort of reciprocity.”