Introduction
The Lofty system has two types of property alerts: (1) Buyer Property Alerts aim to help you nurture buyer leads by sending active listings, and (2) Market Snapshots will help you nurture seller leads by sending listings that are sold moving forward as well as some other listings that are on the market in their target areas. Generally, we can display as far back as 3 years sold listings depending on the MLS. In this article, we explain how Buyer Property Alerts and Market Snapshots select listings from the MLS database so that you can make sure the alerts are set up correctly.
For more information on actually setting up buyer property alerts and market snapshots, please reference Property Alerts & Market Snapshots (Lead Engagement).
Summary
Buyer Property Alerts
Buyer Property Alerts nurture buyers by emailing selected property listings automatically. You can choose whether to send existing properties on the market to your buyer leads or just send them new and recently updated properties after the buyer alert is set up.
How to send new/updated listings
When setting up a property alert and selecting criteria, matching listings that are currently on the market will populate in the top-right “Results” section. The properties shown here are current matches.
Oftentimes, these results are too numerous for your buyers to be able to make a decision on which is why sending out new listings via Buyer Property Alerts is usually the best option. Additionally, most buyer leads prefer to have the newest listings to review first as well as any that fall into the categories of reduced price or changed status. So, our Buyer Property Alerts consist of new properties that fit the criteria you have set up in the process as well as the properties whose price or listing status changes to the defined price range or status.
To be more specific, if you uncheck the box ”Use listings on the market as a supplement,” the alert will only include new properties available on the market and properties whose price or status changes after the Buyer Property Alert is set up. A standard Buyer Property Alert will only send out listings that match the criteria moving forward--not those that are already on the market. Unchecking this box will prevent any other listings from being added should the number of matching listings be very small.
For example, if you set the alert up to send property alerts to your leads every morning (choose “Daily” and “AM” in the pop-up setting window), the schedule will be every 24 hours. The first Property Alert will include qualified properties that enter the market between the time when the Property Alert is set up and when it is sent out the next morning. Subsequent Property Alerts will include all qualified properties that entered the market after the previous property alert email was sent.
*There is no exact time for an alert email, due to the large number of emails that are to be sent out. Usually, AM is a time range from 8:00 am - 10:00 am and PM is from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm.
“Weekly,” ”Biweekly,” and “Monthly” are very similar to “Daily.” The only difference is that the time box changes from 24 hours to one week, two weeks, and one month accordingly. “Instantly” is generally used for hot leads who have specific preferences and relatively specific criteria. If you choose “Instantly,” once there is any qualified property available, your leads will receive an alert. These alerts will be sent every 3 hours, with no maximum number of emails each day. This is the ideal option for those clients who want to be made aware of potential matches immediately so they do not miss out on an opportunity.
How to send current listings
Check the box ”use listings on the market as supplements” in the pop-up window.
If you want to have the alerts you set also include some existing listings on the market as supplements from a specific period, you can define that period in the criteria on the previous page using the field for “Days On Site.”
Please note that the only way “Days On Site” will actually apply to the alerts is if the “use listings on the market as supplements” box is checked. If you do not check this box, the listings you send to leads will not include any listings that entered the market before the Buyer Property Alert was set.
It is worth mentioning that the maximum number of listings sent to leads in one email is 15. If there are more than 15 that match the settings of the alert email, the leads can click on the “View More” button at the bottom of the alert email to view all matches directly on the website.
How to send immediately
Don’t want to wait for the next alert to send out current matches? Using the box to “Send alert immediately,” your leads will receive an alert including qualified listings as displayed on the “Results” page on your initial setup. Just as with the standard alert setup, the maximum number of listings sent to leads in one email is 15, but leads can click the “View More” button to view all current matches on the IDX website.
Market Snapshot
Market Snapshot is similar to Buyer Property Alerts, but the listings sent to sellers do not include any supplements from previously sold listings. This means that Market Snapshot only includes properties that are sold after the alert is set up and during intervals between every two snapshots. For instance, if you set it up to send a snapshot to your seller leads on Monday of every week (choose “Weekly” in Frequency in the pop-up setting window), the schedule will be every seven days (except the first alert). The first Market Snapshot will include properties sold after the time at which it was set up until the next Monday (the selected day in this example). Subsequent Market Snapshot will include all listings that are sold between alert periods every week.
A "Market Snapshot" can be seen as a simplified CMA (competitive market analysis). In the email received by a lead, listings are categorized by listing stats (sold, pending, etc.). A Market Snapshot can also be added for buyer/renter leads.
Here is what the content of this email looks like:
After clicking on any of the "View More" or "Check More Details" buttons for additional information, a lead will be taken to a new Market Snapshot landing page which will display more information for the specific area they are looking at. If the email is old, the Market Snapshot landing page will still display the newest information. Here is the what page looks like:
Send Sold Listings Only
Newly sold listings are the most important features that property sellers are concerned with and the main content of the Market Snapshot. Most sellers are only interested in this information meaning that the Market Snapshot includes only newly-sold listings by default.
Send Active Listings
In addition to newly-sold listings, the Snapshot sent to your seller leads can also be set up to include newly-added listings (for buyers) and listings whose prices or status changed to the defined price range or the preset status. Those criteria can be defined in Filters.
Newly-sold listings and active listings(if any) will be sent in the same email if you choose to send both of them to your leads in Filters.
FAQs
Q: How far back are sold listings displayed?
A: Sold listings are generally displayed as far back as 3 years' worth of data, depending on the MLS.
Q: If I am missing a listing in the CRM but it's in my MLS, what should I do?
A: Contact Lofty Support and provide the details of the missing listing so we can investigate why it was not included in your data feed.
Q: How can I send all active listings in one alert email?
A: There is a limitation on the number of listings that can be included in one alert email because including too many images will cause the email to be marked as spam. Every alert email contains a button to redirect to the search page on your website, where the recipient can see every active listing.
Questions?
If you have any questions regarding this topic or any others, please reach out to our Support Team via email at <support@lofty.com>, by phone at 1 (855) 981-7557, or by chat with us through your Lofty CRM.
Related terms: sold listings, buyer alert, seller alert, market snapshot
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