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Moderator Jackie Soto started off a panel discussing listing lead generation by asking the crowd at Inman Connect Las Vegas on Tuesday how many people have been experiencing a tough market.
She then turned to a group of panelists including Gary Ashton, founder of The Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX; Mahsheed Parsons, broker-owner of Mahsheed Real Estate; and Delinda Crampton, team leader of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, for insights and strategies.
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Each panelist said they’d endured their share of challenges in their role. Parsons specifically addressed the shift in speed within the market.
“I have a lot of listings, and a lot of them are not moving. Even though inventory is low, they’re not moving because we have so many sellers who want a price pretty high, because they see there is no inventory,” Parsons said.
“Everyone’s aiming pretty high. And then when you do that right now, at a time where you know interest rates are high, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the economy.”
Parsons has been operating her Las Vegas real estate brokerage for over 18 years and expanded to Southern California in 2020. Parson’s boutique brokerage consists of about six agents and serves a luxury clientele.
Crampton is also based out of Las Vegas and heads up a team of seven agents who sell everything “from condos to castles,” as she put it.
Expectations to sell are putting pressure on those in the market. Building relationships through feeder markets, building an online presence and developing a loyal clientele are traditional strategies Crampton leans on used to generate listings.
“You know, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, those are big feeder markets. And I go to lots of events like this, where I’m developing relationships with Realtors.” Crampton said.
“At one of the events, I became friends with the CEO of one of the two largest real estate companies in the Bay Area. And now when I go on listing appointments, I can talk about these relationships that I’ve got in California and the feeder markets, and how I can market directly to them and help sell their listings and have a source of buyers that some of the other agents don’t have, she said.”
Ashton has been leader of the No. one RE/MAX team in the world for approximately six years. His team is based out of Nashville, Tennessee, and includes more than 180 agents.
When Ashton became licensed back in 2021, SEO, pay-per-click and IDX helped him become one of the heavy hitters in the market, along with investing in himself.
“So it’s all investment in the business, in myself, and then continually reinvesting that back in the processes,” Ashton said. “And then, you know, it snowballs. After a while, you start to build that presence.”
Parsons invested early on in her career in geographic farming, and now regularly sends out postcards to over 3,000 homeowners, including luxury homeowners. She has used billboard advertising as well, but postcards are where she saw the most return on her marketing dollars.
Parsons said that she’s gotten some of her biggest listings from those postcard mailers, including an $8 million listing. “I mean, that’s not bad bank, but this is Vegas. Yeah, the return always pays off.”
