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Realtors and Mortgage Officers can use a professional graphic design company, such as Purple Dragonfly Designs, to create elegant, distinctively different marketing materials they can exchange, helping each other through reciprocal recommendations. This works because they both interact with clients who want the same things - to buy or sell a home.
 Listing Flyers with Financial Rates
A great combined realtor/mortgage officer marketing tool is a Listing Flyer that has current mortgage calculations for a particular home for sale. The realtor provides the selling points of the house, and the mortgage officer uses current interest rates to show detailed, specific numbers for a 30 year fixed loan, ARM, or even a grant or HUD loan, including projected down payments and up front closing costs.
The home buyer and seller will love this marketing tool because they don't have to guess what the re-finance or new mortgage costs would be for a home they are considering buying or selling. Taking the time to provide this information tells a client that you care and are willing to go that extra step.
Listing financial flyers could also be turned into an email, which opens a new target audience for the home buying and selling market.
Working Together
Work together to brainstorm ideas - what are current market trends? Large, or "jumbo" homes, or small family type homes?Are there programs for first-time home buyers that both realtors and mortgage officers can present as options to clients? What homes are selling, what homes are not selling, how can you help people get into or out of a house? If you can idenitfy a niche, or a piece of the real estate market that others haven't discovered yet, you can get a jump on the competition.
Focus on a Product
Kristi DeMoss, a mortgage officer who runs the mortgage branch of Green County Bank, suggests finding a financial product, such as government grants, FHA loans, or first-time home buyer programs, and learning it, "inside and out."
Know the product so that you can sell it to your client, and be confident doing so.
"Find something no one else is using, like reverse mortgages, or local grant and FHA loan programs, and focus on learning all you can about that particular product," she says. "If you can focus on a product everyone else avoids because they don't understand it, or know how to do it, then you could find a potential gold mine."
And it's all about presenting the product to the client. Don't skimp on flyers, postcards, newsletters, any marketing material. To make money, you must be willing to spend money intially, so make an investment in presentation, it does make a difference.
Don't forget apartments!
Imagine yourself 5, 10, 20 years ago, when you just got married, graduated, or finally decided it was time to stop paying rent and to start investing in a home of your own - what were questions that stopped you from taking that big step?  What marketing materials would have helped you face the daunting task of buying your first home? Develop a marketing strategy to target apartments, and work with a realtor or mortgage officer to find programs to help residents find and purchase a home.
Flyers are a great way to introduce yourselves and give residents a reason to call you, if only to learn more about how they can make their home buying dreams come true.
Consider an informative flyer, where real estate and mortgate terms are explained, or a flyer or newsletter that discusses current real estate marketing trends or local programs that could benefit first-time home buyers.
In essence, think like an apartment resident, and find a way to present yourself, your services, in a way that will make them want to contact you.
Marketing yourself is not easy, but if you can develop a relationship with a person who works in a profession that can complement yours, you can work together to reach a common goal.
- Kimber Malone
Purple Dragonfly Designs |
