In any relationship-driven business, it’s important to be authentic and to provide value to potential clients without expecting anything in return. If you’re looking for ways to provide value but aren’t sure how, Chris Ruszkiewicz’s Annual Real Estate Review is a great approach to take. Chris provides an annual equity analysis to her sphere of influence and past clients. She builds touches around the information she supplies and shows her contacts how they can use the data to their own benefit, whether or not they are interested in selling.  

Read on to see the process she uses for the Annual Real Estate Review.

Prior to sending the Real Estate Annual Review

Before you send anything out, determine your target audience. After all, it can get a little overwhelming if you’re pulling property reports for everyone in your database. Chris started out by targeting those people in her database who were in their current home for 3-5 years. However, as her bandwidth increased, she was able to broaden the recipient list to her sphere of influence and past clients.

Chris then sends out the reports as a first quarter touch program based on the DTD2 list. DTD2 stands for “Doing The Database 2” and is a contact plan that involves grouping people together by the first letter of their last names. By using this system, Chris knows exactly who in her database should hear from her in a given week. She then implements a Smartplan to text and call the people in her DTD2 list around the annual review.  

Necessary Prep Work for the Annual Real Estate Review

In the week before she sends out her Annual Real Estate Review, Chris suggests doing the following:

1.  Prepare a Realtors Property Resource (RPR) property report for each client in your DTD2 list for the week.
   Input the full property address into the Realtors Property Resource website and make sure that the owner information matches what you already have. When you create and download the report, you can choose to remove some of the information if you don’t feel it’s necessary for your client. Remember, the purpose of sharing this report is to provide value and build your relationship, not to inundate them with details. Once the report is generated, choose to “Download Report.”

2. Save each property report you pull in a cloud-based storage system for easy access.
   Keep in mind that the RPR system only saves the reports you pull for 30 days, so be sure to save it elsewhere.
3. Keep your reports organized.
   Chris recommends preparing a folder and Excel spreadsheet for your DTD2 groups so that you can link reports and track outreach and responses. Maintaining an organizational system allows others on your team to have easy access when needed.
4. Set your Smartplan in motion.
   The Friday before you plan to send out the annual property report, send would-be recipients a text message to let them know to expect it. While everyone on your list should receive a follow-up phone call after the report is sent, anyone who replied to the initial text message should go straight to the top of your follow-up list. When making these phone calls, you want to verify that your clients have seen the report and understand why it’s helpful to know this information about their home whether or not they plan to buy or sell. Setting a meeting to go through this information together is the cherry on top of this plan.
5. Send the annual property report to the chosen contacts for the week.
   Create an email template that can be used for each and every message. Chris suggests incorporating a button or image that links to the client’s personalized report. Upon clicking on the button or image, the client can download their report. And when they click on a link or button, you can track it.
6. Be ready to explain the importance of the annual property report data to your potential clients.
   Remember, the annual property report is useful for anyone who owns a home, not just buyers and sellers. For example, they can use the information to make sure that their homeowners insurance policy is sufficient, to see if they can remove their PMI, or even to determine if they’d like to make use of the equity they have in their home for another purpose. As their agent, be prepared to answer their questions and share why knowing the value of their home is important.
   

With a minimum of twelve transactions attributed directly to this program, it’s clear that Chris has already seen great results. However, beyond the home closings, pending, and buyers, there is another intangible yet equally important result. Chris is providing value and information that can positively impact each and every one of her clients. And in a business built on relationships, becoming a trusted resource for the people in her database is invaluable.