It’s mid-June 2020 as I write this, and we are in the midst of the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic. Life as we knew it has changed dramatically since March - many businesses were forced to shut down and we were all ordered to stay at home for the entire months of April and May unless deemed “essential” by the local government. For those of us in real estate, this meant that we could no longer rely on many of our normal tools, such as realtor caravans and open houses, to market our listings. For many agents, myself included, the shutdown not only provided us with an opportunity to expand our toolboxes, it made it a necessity. I found myself being more busy during the shelter-in-place period than I was in the months prior, when I was able to roam freely wherever and whenever I wanted. Being forced to stay at home gave me the structure I needed to focus on learning new things. I made a list of the tasks I wanted to accomplish during the shutdown and set about plowing through them. The first priority on my list was creating a virtual tour for my house listing, since most people would now be home shopping via the internet instead of in-person showings. I taught myself how to build a single property website and created a video using the photos I had taken for the listing. My principal broker was so impressed, he asked me to put together virtual tours for a couple of his listings. It was actually fun to put my new skills to good use and help out a colleague at the same time! The next order of business was to work on my online presence. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) offered some great deals on continuing education classes to support their members during the pandemic. I took advantage of the free e-Pro certification course, which teaches digital marketing techniques needed in today’s world. I revived my languishing Facebook business page and created a realtor Instagram account. As an early adopter of Instagram (I joined in 2010 when the company was only two months old) it’s ironic that it took me so long to get around to using it for work. My personal account has a rather narrow focus on a certain style of photography, so I’m having a lot of fun with my professional account as I’ve given myself the freedom to post a wide range of content. Plus, I finally learned how to use Stories on Instagram and Facebook, so that’s opened up a whole new rabbit hole to explore. The final piece of the online puzzle is the creation of this website. I’d been thinking about making one for years and never got it together. Nothing like a global pandemic to motivate you to get your marketing butt in gear! Big mahalo to Hawaii Information Service’s Ian Ho (sales) for guiding me through the process and Gail Matsushima (designer) for doing all of the heavy lifting in making this site come to life. I’m most excited about this blog section as I’ve been wanting a space for me to exercise my writing skills. I plan on updating it regularly and the vision is for it to be a mix of real estate and “real life” content, much like my Instagram feed. I hope that I can keep it up and keep it interesting and engaging. Feedback and ideas on content are always welcome!
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