We’ve been getting some awesome questions from the Carrot community lately so we’re going to be answering some of them here on the blog in detailed posts to help you get an edge on your competition with your real estate investing website.
The other day, one of our members from Indianapolis (one of the top turn-key rental property sellers in Indianapolis) asked…
“Hey Jake, good morning, in general, are there less real estate investor leads in holiday months then in the summer months?”
Francisco
(NOTE: This customer is in our Content Pro plan and saw their first leads in their market within the first 2 weeks after launching their sites and implementing a few critical steps.)
We’ve monitored this trend over the years while also monitoring search levels on many of the top motivated sellers, cash buyers, private lenders, and tenant search phrases out there.
Now… each type of searcher came up with slightly different seasonal search patterns…. so in this post, we’ll run through some of what we found so you can better prepare for fewer November and December lead volumes when leveraging SEO and traditional Google PPC specifically for motivated property seller leads and cash buyers.
So… Are There Less Real Estate Investor Leads In Holiday Months Than Summer Months?
When Are Motivated Property Sellers Searching Google?
We pulled a chart of 25 of the top motivated seller SEO search phrases and found some really interesting stuff.
First, let us look at the highest searched highly motivated real estate seller search phrase, “we buy houses”.
Average Monthly Searches Of The Motivated Seller Search Phrase “we buy houses”
That’s really interesting… but that doesn’t tell the whole story. So we took the average of the top 25 motivated seller keyword phrases to see overall… is there a seasonality for motivated sellers hopping online and searching for someone to buy their house.
The graph below shows the average of the top 25 search phrases in the United States for highly motivated sellers on Google across the past 24 months.
Average Monthly Searches Of The Top 25 Motivated Real Estate Seller Search Phrases
We see a similar ramp up in the warm months… and the number of motivated sellers searching Google with the common highly motivated search phrases dips in the winter months.
On average… the summer months are getting nearly 30% more searches from motivated sellers than November and December.
Now, we did cross-check this to make sure it wasn’t a “cold winter climate” vs. “mild winter climate” thing… and overall we still saw very very similar trends. So, for now, we’ve ruled out the climate being the major contributing factor to the seasonality of the motivated seller searches.
Why Do Fewer Motivated Property Sellers Search Google In November And December?
There are lots of reasons that could be causing this… but here are a few of my guesses…
- Fewer people want to move in the winter… especially during the holidays
- It’s COLD! (in lots of places) so they want to hang out
- It’s the holidays and people don’t have the time to deal with something else or don’t want to disrupt the holidays
- Generally, there are fewer properties on the market in general so many house sellers feel that “selling in the spring” is what you’re supposed to do to sell a house fast (even though some data shows houses that sell in the winter sell for higher prices and sell quicker)
When Are Cash Buyers Of Real Estate Searching Google?
Overall a cash buyer is in a different mindset than a highly motivated seller. Usually, a person who’s looking to buy investment property tends to look for properties when they are thinking about their financial future.
There is a bit of seasonality to cash property buyer searches as well. Fewer searches for the top 20 cash property buyer searches on Google in November and December than most of the other months during the year… but one key thing to take note of, if you’re selling investment properties or just looking to grow your cash buyers list in a bit way… is the single most searched month in the whole year is January.
Average Monthly Searches Of The Top 20 Investment Property / Cash Buyer Search Phrases
That’s pretty darn cool (and useful) eh?
Find Seasonal Opportunities
It shouldn’t be surprising that the real estate industry has seasonal patterns. To validate this… according to Realtor.com, homes are most popular in the summer months when people have their minds set on moving because it’s a peak season for inventory and sales.
But, the winter months should not be discounted. For example, wintertime can provide a unique opportunity for investors because they know people want their houses sold fast!
Winter Pro: Serious Sellers
Winter is known to be the most profitable season for buyers. When it’s cold outside and snowing, there are many more “serious” sellers who want their home sold quickly so they can get on with life in warmer weather; conversely, this means that you’ll find some motivated sellers right when you need them.
Winter Con: Low Lead Volumes
Winter weather can be a major factor in the real estate cycle. Cold weather, including elements of rain and snow, can make it more difficult to find sellers. This can have an impact on the buying and selling process, as the limited potential sellers may have an overappreciated value of a home in cold months.
What This All Means
What this means to me is that people are looking at their financial goals at the start of the year and saying… “Man, I need to get my butt in gear and pick up some more investment properties to hit my goals this year”… so they dive in right after the holidays and start looking for properties.
There may also be tax reasons that people are waiting until January to kick up their investment property search… either way… the data shows it’s the case… so now it’s time to act on it.
So, if you know the single most popular month for investment property searches online is January each year… what are you doing to build your own cash buyer list for your real estate investing business?
What Can You Do To Prepare Your Real Estate Investing Business For Seasonal Search Trends?
Really, what this data shows is that there are seasonalities to the real estate investor leads you can expect from SEO for real estate investing and even PayPerClick marketing.
So keep these things in mind as you’re generating leads for your real estate investing business through your website…
- Winter months for both investment property buyers and motivated house sellers bring in lower volumes than the summer months (but not drastically lower… at the least… maybe 30% lower on motivated seller leads)
- Now is the perfect time to start your Evergreen marketing campaigns if you haven’t already so your real estate investing websites rank higher in Google for keywords that matter when the spring and summer come around
- If possible, try not to rely strictly on SEO or PPC for your only lead generation if you’re not in a larger market in the winter months if possible… so your marketing plan is well rounded and you’re getting leads coming in from places other than just the internet in slower lead months.
- Get a cash buyer/investment property buyer campaign rolling asap so you can take advantage of the highest searched month of the year for people looking for investment properties. How? Start your Craigslist marketing… go to your REI club in January and start getting your buyers’ list built there… kick on some Google PPC campaigns if you have a bit of a budget to invest… Facebook ad campaigns are doing REALLY well to generate investment property buyers and tenant buyers… basically… get focused and leverage the January cash buyer traffic!!!
If you’re a Carrot member, you know how well the Cash Buyer websites on our system are converting… so put it to use.
Also, on the motivated seller side of things… having a real estate investing website with a high conversion rate (how many people land on your website and become a lead) is as important as ever in months with lower search volumes like December… so if your current website isn’t converting like it should… take a look at Carrot to see if it’s a fit for you.
We’re the only company in the industry as focused on results and increasing conversions on our platform each and every month as much as we are… so you can just focus on growing your business… not fiddling with building websites and trying to learn conversion rate optimization in your “spare” time.