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Real Estate Agents stand out by showingcasing development opportunities

Agents spend too much time and money to get leads from Zillow or Homelight, but they go to waste if they don't differentiate themselves from the competition when they access the same information. Real estate agents needed an effective strategy to nurture high-quality seller leads and generate new buyer leads with every listing. In this article, we share with you how Brandon Kearney, Top 1% Realtor in San Francisco, was able to secure his listing at 8 Hill Point Ave., and successfully close the deal at over asking by adding CityStructure Development Analyses to market his listing.

Case Study about securing, marketing and selling at 25% over asking price a property using development opportunity

Brendon Kearney is a well-respected and successful Top 1% Realtor for Compass in San Francisco. Even though he has an immaculate track sales record for over 20 years, he’s facing competition coming from other powerhouse Realtors.

To stand out from the competition, Brendon needed to propose a marketing strategy that would attract 3 times more buyers than any other agent. In a low-inventory market, listings that match multiple buyers' goals are hard to find. So, Brendon realized that his strategy needed to go beyond the regular staging, listing website, and Open House event. He needed to stand out with an added value proposition to motivate the sellers.

Brendon needed to showcase the opportunity for this property!

About the Property

The property has a single-family house in the Parnassus Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. It has 4 view-bedrooms, a spacious living room with a fireplace, a formal dining room, an office, a recently reimagined kitchen with brand-new appliances, and 2 full baths. The lower level has a renovated basement with an additional flex room perfect as a media room, lounge, or yoga space.

The home sits on an oversized appx. 4,000 sq. ft. through lot extending from Hill Point to Carl Street. If the zoning regulations allow, this property may present a rare opportunity to develop.

EXISTING target market: One family with 3 kids

How to stand out from the competition

Step 1: Pre-listing Stage - secure the New Listing

Brendon needed an immediate answer, without any additional expense, to find out if the zoning regulations would allow this property to further develop. He knows that by going to www.CityStructure.com, he gets this answer instantly and reliably.

He searches for the address, and he finds out that this property has an untapped market value of $7,872,000. This potential comes from multiple types of possible improvements: horizontal expansion, ADU, and lot split. Each type of improvement could meet the requirements for larger-sized families, investors looking for passive income, and developers to turn immediate profit.

CityStructure

The NEW potential target market for this property:

1. One family with 3 kids

2. Multiple families

3. Investors

4. Developers

Great! Now that Brendon is confident that this property has development potential, he could claim in front of the sellers that he his a strategy to attract more buyers than his competition.

He prints out this free assessment and adds it to his marketing package proposal he put together for his seller. With CityStructure's assessment in hand, he was able to demonstrate to the sellers that by adding the development scenarios to the marketing strategy, they’ll be able to attract three times more buyers, and it has the potential to significantly increase the value of the offers they’d receive. The result?

Bendon secured his new listing at 8 Hill Point in San Francisco!!

Step 2: Listing Stage

1. Getting your New Listing ready to hit the market

Every agent knows that in the first week of a property that goes on the market, it is the time when a listing gets the most attention and it has the highest chances of getting the best offer. So, before going on the market, it is time to get fully prepared for the strategy to work.

Brendon started to prepare his listing to take full advantage of the first week. He helped the homeowners clean the house, stage it, and ordered the typical marketing materials (photos with aerial views, twilight photos, marketing brochures, video tour, Matterport tour, and a dedicated website).

It was important to order the CityStructure Analyses right away so he could take the rendering with the 3D massing studies and the development data to add them to other marketing materials. Each analysis uses detailed development data such as possible expansions, the maximum number of units, the maximum levels, the cost to build all these, and the added market value. All these are key insights that help prospective buyers see their options. By presenting clear data and visuals, agents can effectively demonstrate value and attract interest from developers and investors.

So, Brendon ordered the following Development Analyses:

1. Horizontal Expansion Analysis to attract families looking for a grand living experience or a multi-generational living.

2. ADU Analysis to attract investors interested in creating passive income or families who want to welcome friends and relatives into their house while preserving their private life.

3. Lot Split Analysis to attract developers and investors who are interested in adding value and then sell the new house right away, or just subdivide the lot to sell it and rent the existing house.

How did he know which analyses to choose? Simple. He selected “I’m selling this property” and the target markets he's after, right on the Development Score page of the property. CityStructure's algorithm calculates instantly what is possible to build on that property and gives suggestions to address the goals of the targeted market.

In just 2 days, he receives from CityStructure the analyses ready to be added to his marketing materials as part of his campaign.

Each analysis comes as three items:

As an HTML page or a webpage address
An embeddable iframe code to add to any website
Individual 3D renderings

These items are purposefully delivered in a format so that it’d be easy for the agents to add them to their marketing materials to showcase the development opportunity at any point when a prospective comes in contact with the listing.

How did Brendon showcase the development opportunity of his listing?

1. Listing’s website

Brendon uses Open Homes Photography as his website provider. The team at OHP is very helpful and accommodating with agents' requests as well as with other tech partners.

In order to add the Development Analyses on his listing's website, Brendon copy-pasted the code we provided, just like a Matterport page.

2. MLS & other channels

The renderings showing different development options were uploaded on MLS, just like any photos of the property. Brendon mentioned in the private remarks that the CityStructure Development analyses are available on demand and, in the public description of the property, he also mentioned that "The home sits on an oversized appx. 4,000 sq. ft. lot extending from Hill Point to Carl Street, that presents the unique opportunity for further development."

3. Blast e-mail sent to his CRM

Brendon has a long list of prospective buyers gathered from multiple referral channels. One of the channels is his Open House event, which we'll get into detail below.

He put together an e-mail to announce his list of prospective buyers that he'll have an open house for his listing. In this e-mail, he shared details about:

The Open House event
The features of the property
The development potential with 3D renderings and a link to the Development Analysis

4. Banners for social media

Social media has become a great channel to make other agents aware of your own listing. If most of the families are still on Facebook and Instagram, people on X.com or on LinkedIn check out these channels with their professional hat on. All four channels are great! Don't prioritize one over the expense of the other. Remember that any posting lets everyone know that you are doing business and you're busy.

Same goes for Brendon! He's very active on social media, posting a message every time he has a new listing, pending, or a closing.

Post on Reddit and BiggerPockets!

These two social channels have a very active community. Reddit is great to meet home buyers, and BiggerPockets is great to meet investors and developers.

Create a community or start a conversation yourself within each one. You can comment on the "First-time home buyers" conversations with helpful tips. You cannot directly advertise yourself on these communities. There is a classified section where you can list yourself as an investor-friendly realtor.

5. Card sent to the neighbors for the Open House event

Neighbors are a great source of getting referrals. Even if they're not interested to purchase or sell immediately, they can refer you to their friends and relatives if they like the way you presented the Open House. Make 50-100 cards and drop them off at the neighbors to let them know about your event.

The card is just a reason to make yourself known and to get referrals for a wide range of buyers, including investors and developers. This is why it is important to add details about the Development Opportunity with a QR code for quick access to the listing's website.

6. Printed posters and flyers

First impression counts. Having 18x24 or larger posters mounted on a foam core board on your Open House will impress your buyers! They'll grab their attention; they'll spark interest, imagination, and they'll open conversations even with introvert buyers.

Once they get excited, most of the buyers would want to stay in touch with you even if they think this particular listing is not what they were looking for. Showing that you go beyond the obvious to present the maximum potential of a property, they'd gladly give you their information for your CRM if they're not represented.

Before they leave your Open House, remember that there are at least two types of buyers: those who like to keep a flyer after they leave an Open House event so they can refer to it afterward, and those who like to keep everything digital and love QR codes. So, make sure you have a printed flyer with the development opportunities. This information will make you stand out!

7. Get new referrals, follow-up and... repeat!

The buyers who are not interested in or don't qualify for your listing can be added to your CRM to follow up with other listings. Start them on your newsletter and send them properties on the market or coming soon, along with the Development Score page for each property you send out. This is an IMPORTANT piece of information that'll make you stand out.

As a result of his marketing campaign, Brendon and his client received multiple offers and sold the property at 25% over the asking price in just 11 days.

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