Mankato, Minnesota. A town that maybe a lot of us haven’t heard of? Yet, we’ve had our eye on the Mankato area for a little while now, and it’s because of the local Real Estate talent that’s making waves in her town of 42,000 people.

Sarah Allen is that local realtor… one who’s changing the game, and we’ll tell you why.

Sarah began working in the real estate industry part time as of October of 2016 while still working as a college professor and specializing in Communications full time… Sarah also had an exceptional eye for interior design, and a love for home renovation and decorating that couldn’t be left stagnant, which is why she decided to venture into the real estate world.

Sarah mentioned that she’s “always had a strong connection to people, including being able to read emotions and nonverbal really well. Buying and selling a home can be very emotional and stressful for many people, so I feel my background in communications has helped me to connect with my clients as well as to fully understand their needs.” With an empathy for others and a natural gift with words, Sarah was off to a great start when deciding to venture into Realty.

Within her first year, Sarah was able to hit the goal she set for herself and even received an award from her broker which she said, “felt amazing!” She continued by explaining that, “Considering I was only selling real estate part time, and teaching full time… it was a huge honour.”

This year, her main goal is to double what she listed and made in 2017, and so far… she’s on track to hit that goal. Sarah is also an individual that thrives on setting herself individual goals each week, each month, as well as the year. During our conversation, she mentioned that “It’s great to hit goals, but I also like setting goals so high they seem unattainable to really push myself.”

A huge component of staying on point, driven and towards your goal is creating these benchmarks – which is a fantastic skill that Sarah already has dialled in. She even went a step further and quoted expert sales coach Grant Cardone by saying that “he says to 10x everything in your goals, so I try to do that to push myself to succeed even further.”

With this much success, let’s dive into her systems and how Sarah approaches her leads.

Sarah uses StreetText to help her generate online leads. We’ve strategically built an advertisement for her, that helps in attracting the right client to her personalized funnel, and then directly into her StreetText dashboard. “StreetText is where I get 90% of my leads” she explained. When asked how her lead flow was, Sarah mentioned that “I get about 1-2 leads a day, so it keeps me busy.”

For the leads that come through her account that provide Sarah with a phone number, email, name and address she follows up within the first hour they come into her StreetText account.

The first thing she sends out is an email, which includes her Bombbomb video. Sarah is great at covering all her bases, and even mentioned that “I send this [Bombbomb video] via e-mail, but if there is a phone number, I send it via text, so I know they are more likely to open the text message.”

Already, within the first couple years of being in the business, Sarah has an expert follow up strategy.

After Sarah touches base with her initial email, she begins working on her prospects CMA. “I make sure to get this to them within the first 24 hours of their submission,” she says. From there, Sarah does the following:

“In the email that contains their CMA, I explain that I am going off of online data and that the range I am giving them is simply based on comparables sold in the last 6 months in the area. I stress the point that I need to be in the home to get a more accurate assessment and that I would like to schedule a free home walk through with them. This is where I try to close the deal to get the listing. I will point out in the email that with the home walkthrough I can also offer suggestions on small home improvements that can help get them top dollar for their homes, and sometimes include before and after photos of projects I have helped with. All the listings I have and have lined up are all as a result of going through this process. I really think the video and setting up the home walkthrough is crucial to getting the lead to convert to a client.”

Not bad right? A precise strategy that Sarah has taken the time to test, and perfect.

Sarah lives in a market where sellers are getting top dollar for their homes, the seller lead advertisement is working wonders in her market because people want to know how much their homes are worth. Sarah also mentioned that people are often genuinely shocked when they discover how much their home may actually be worth through the CMA Sarah provides them with.

Although she has her full submissions dialled in, she’s still working on developing systems her address only submissions.  She mentioned that she’s working on implementing a few different systems that she hopes to see some success in over the summer. Some of those included creating a postcard campaign that would operate on a 3-4 week basis.

All of the puzzle pieces are coming together for Sarah.

She explained that “I have another home being listed on May 3 and another going on at the end of May. I have several others that are going to list this summer but are going to do some small home renovations that I suggested before it is listed. It took about 3-4 months before I got my first listing though StreetText, but now that I have a good system working, I am able to convert more leads.” Sarah joined StreetText in October of 2017 – which means she worked through the hard Minnesota winter market and was still able to come out on top with listings. We’re excited to be joining her on this journey and to continue sharing in Sarah’s success.

Other Interesting Blog Posts:

Facebook Real Estate Ads Find buyers and sellers with Facebook ads Real Estate Leads Generator How to capture real estate leads online today.

Facebook Real Estate Leads How to generate inquiries with Facebook farming

Facebook Real Estate Advertising 70% of all home buyers and sellers work with the first Realtor they meet

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