Cole Information’s Realty Resource puts hyper-local tools in the hands of real estate pros
Leading a real estate team requires dedication, drive and a commitment to supporting your team, whether it be through training systems or providing the right tools. According to Christina Griffin, agent and team leader with The Griffin Group at Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, it’s not only important to offer your team the right tools, but to also help them set up a structure for utilizing them.
A force in real estate since 2001, Griffin currently leads a team of 53 agents. Her go-to suite of tools? Cole Information’s innovative Realty Resource service, which gives Griffin and her team immediate access to the contact information of target homeowners and potential clients. Through a focus on grassroots data and hyper-local marketing technology, Realty Resource helps Griffin and her team mine an area for the sources they need to spread their reach and boost their business.
Using an inventive geo-location tool, Realty Resource provides Griffin and her team with the landline, cellphone number and email address for potential leads. The system uses a Google® map application specifically developed for real estate professionals, allowing an agent to target a neighborhood they’re interested in farming, then spitting out the ownership details, contact info and other valuable attributes they need to connect.
Griffin stresses that while Realty Resource does an excellent job at providing her team the tools they need, it’s up to them to set up a system for utilizing them. “It’s a great tool if you use it properly. You have to decide how you will use it, time-block it and put it into your day. It’s powerful, but you have to work it.”
For Griffin, getting the cellphone number and email address of residents allows her and her team to hit many different avenues.
“Currently, we have a lot of listing inventory,” explains Griffin. “To help prospect, I can look up numbers of potential leads within a two-mile radius of my area of interest, upload them, then send out voicemail messages to all of them, letting them know about a new listing or an open house.” This expands Griffin’s reach, and the voicemail message ensures she doesn’t need to deliver one-on-one details to 200 individual prospects, saving her both time and brain space so that she can focus on other things like getting ready for open houses. “We have lots of people coming to our open houses and telling me they got my voicemail message. It’s nice to have proof this method is working.”
Griffin and her team also use Realty Resource to help with target marketing. “I have a foreclosure background, and I often target short sales, pre-foreclosures and expired listings.” Through Realty Resource, Griffin is able to search for the contact info of owners with expired listings or homes about to foreclose, contact them directly, and see if they’re interested in listing with her. “Recently, I used Realty Resource to search for expired listings and FSBO info, and through that reach-out alone, I got 22 listing appointments.”
Pursuing rental leads is another avenue Griffin and her team explore with Realty Resource. “The system has a great function where you can search for local renter leads. We’ll reach out through email and let them know about our right-to-purchase program.”
Griffin also notes that having Realty Resource on her side is a wonderful tool for recruiting. When pursuing new agents, she can let them know about this great suite of tools she has to work with.
“There are many ways to use Realty Resource. You just have to figure out what works for you,” concludes Griffin.
For more information, please visit www.colerealtyresource.com or call 888-231-0732.
Zoe Eisenberg is RISMedia’s senior content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at zoe@rismedia.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.