Alaska is not cold enough to cool down the Anchorage housing market.
Julie Erickson, CRS, has been a REALTOR® for 19 years and her top priority is to make the process of buying and selling a home as simple and as stress-free as possible for her clients. “I started in 2001 and I have been affiliated with CRS and RRC for many years,” says Erickson. “I’ve been on the state board, and this year I’m the regional vice president, which has been fun and somewhat challenging given the nature of the pandemic and how it has disrupted everybody’s world.”
The Anchorage Market
Erickson works in Anchorage, Alaska, which has a population of about 300,000 and a variety of housing types, including single family homes, condos and multifamily properties. “Anchorage is located near the ocean, so we get a milder winter than the central states. We don’t have bone-chilling cold, but we will get sub-zero temperatures; however, Alaskans know how to dress for the weather. The vehicles we drive are all-wheel or four-wheel-drive vehicles, and our state allows studded snow tires, so that helps us get around. With the exception of a heavy snowstorm, I’ve never been unable to function as a REALTOR®.
The oil companies based in Anchorage turn over staff every three to four years, so Erickson says it’s been a great niche market to work. There is also a large population of military members, and that’s another transient group with a similar timeframe. British Petroleum announced a year ago that they were selling their assets in Alaska, and that inventory is expected to come on the market soon. “As is the case with the other states, we have been experiencing low inventory numbers, so it means we have more buyers than we have homes,” Erickson says. “What precipitated that scenario is when the interest rates were so low, buyers who had a home decided to use their first home as an investment property and then purchase a second home. So we weren’t getting those homes back on the market.”
Erickson says it’s typical for there to be multiple offers in all price ranges. “Earlier this month, my co-worker and I were successful in writing an offer and getting a house for our client even though there were 10 offers on the property. It seems crazy that when a major oil giant is leaving and unemployment is high, there are still 10 offers on a $400,000 home.”
Referrals
Erickson sends out a lot of referrals. “I have sellers who are building a home in North Carolina,” she says. “An agent in North Carolina worked with the sellers—they started building their house while they were still in Alaska, and they just finished building it. They could not say enough nice things about the
agent I put them in touch with. That is the beauty of this organization—you can find someone in every market who values those referrals and maintains high professional standards.”
Showcasing Homes During the Pandemic
Now that Erickson is able to get out and show properties, her team approaches home showings a little differently. “If the home is vacant, we let buyers go in,” she says. “But we’re not doing open houses due to the limited number of people who want to go into homes. My business partner did a virtual tour with out-of-state buyers—one is buying sight unseen. We will walk through the home while connected with the buyer via FaceTime, or we’ll Zoom with the client. We have added those alternatives to our services for people who are concerned about going into a home, or who live out of the area.”
Community Connections
When COVID-19 started, Erickson felt it was important to continue to spend her marketing dollars. “I continued to invest in my marketing efforts,” says Erickson. “I farm a particular neighborhood in Anchorage that is heavily populated by oil industry executives and employees, and I continued to do that during these months that we’ve been working at less than 100% capacity. It has proven to be beneficial because my phone keeps ringing. I think it’s important to continue to invest and be present—even in this scenario.”
When it comes to getting the Julie Erickson Team’s name out in the community, Erickson emphasizes marketing. “The company I work for—REMAX—brought in Real Marketing, which is based in San Diego, and they produce some of the best marketing materials I’ve seen. I work with them once a month and they send me topics we think would be good for the current month. They have access to our MLS and they pull specifically for the neighborhood that I have purchased and farm, and I have full editing rights. They send me the PDFs and I approve them. These brochures give residents information on sales, what has sold and at what price, number of days on market, average sales price and other data. Fall and winter are also good times to give clients and potential clients updates on what they should do to get their home ready for the winter season.”
One of the tools that Erickson depends on is the automated digital marketing provided by InTouch Systems. “I use it quite a bit—I’m one of Pat Zaby’s biggest cheerleaders,” Erickson says. “You can’t afford to do all the work yourself. Pat Zaby and his team do it for you at a very reasonable cost. They do our social media content and they provide a daily post for us. They do a monthly letter to our sphere of influence. At the start of the pandemic, Pat created relevant content, for example, what should you be doing as a homeowner during this time? How can we help employers? They provided very useful information. So kudos to Pat Zaby—for what I pay for InTouch, I receive a tremendous value.”
Erickson uses a variety of marketing touchpoints. “InTouch does a lot of my Facebook content and a daily post for me,” she says. “I maintain business pages on Facebook and Instagram. During the downtime with COVID-19, I hired a company out of Oregon (Refine Digital Marketing) to help me with our Facebook and Instagram business accounts. It’s lifted a huge burden off the team because we were creating most of the content for our business pages. No REALTOR® should be managing their own social media account—we should be talking with our customers.”
Client Appreciation
Erickson also holds client appreciation events. Her Rotary Club sells daffodils every spring. “We have wine and cheese and invite our clients to stop by and take a bouquet of daffodils,” Erickson says. “The last several years we’ve hosted a Christmas party at a boutique downtown. We bring in food and champagne, and the owner of the boutique closes the shop and allows our clients to come in and shop at a discount. We also provided insulated grocery bags that clients could take to the beach or a soccer game, and they had our logo on both sides. I worked with a lender to sponsor the bags and then we mailed them to all of our clients. I had to write another order because people loved them. And then I asked them to take pictures of their bags when they take them out in public, and tag me on social media.
“Marketing is about repetitive thoughts and steps to make sure you create brand awareness so when people think about a REALTOR®, they’re going to think about us,” says Erickson.
