Hosting A Realtor Event, Part 1: 3 Ways to Show Off Your Community

One of the key ways community associations benefit homeowners is by ensuring high property values. Whether your community is competing for buyers in an area with growing home construction or you simply want to raise the association’s overall profile in the marketplace, your community can get the attention it deserves with one little-known tactic: hosting a realtor event.

If local realtors understand the value of living in your community, they will know how to best present it to buyers, benefitting homeowners and the community alike by commanding higher selling prices. If you’re ready to reap these rewards, consider hosting one of the following types of events. Several boards I’ve worked with have already tested them out with great success. 

Open House

If you’d like to show off your community to many realtors all at once, host an open house for your entire community. With this format, realtors will come away with a sense of your community beyond the amenities while still experiencing an event that’s customized for them. Kick off the event with a short welcome speech, allow them to freely tour amenities, and schedule time to network with homeowners, who could become future customers, and board members, who can answer any questions. As with any major event, create a communications plan for promoting your event to both realtors and homeowners to ensure the best attendance.

Scheduled Walkthrough

For a different approach to engaging realtors, schedule a regular walkthrough event and guide groups of realtors through your property on a structured tour, showing off the units and amenities and explaining the benefits of their features in real time. This focused approach gives you more control over the complete experience and allows for extra time to discuss your community in depth.

Invitation to A Community-Focused Event

Why not give realtors a first-hand experience of what it’s like to be a part of your community? By inviting realtors to a widely-appealing event with a low time commitment, like a block party or barbecue, your board will build a sense of community while also building valuable relationships. As long as your board communicates the context of the event to your realtor guests, your association can accomplish two objectives with one event.

Because these approaches will help foster new relationships with local realtors, it’s important to take time to keep them going. Include realtors who attended other events throughout the year, or send them an end-of-the-year recap of the association’s improvements and accomplishments. By maintaining contact after the event is over, you’ll maximize your chances of maximizing values when a realtor sells a property in your community.

Watch for part two on this topic, where we’ll discuss the elements that can attract the most realtors to your event.