5 Key Marketing Strategies Every Realtor Must Know with Holly McDonald

Dylan Silver (00:01.89)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today on the show, I have a residential realtor based out of Orange County, TV host of American Dream, community supporter, and lots of involvement in media. We’ll talk about that here today. Holly McDonald. Holly, welcome to the show.

Holly McDonald (00:19.905)
Hello, thanks for having me.

Dylan Silver (00:22.582)
It’s a pleasure to have you. I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

Holly McDonald (00:29.491)
Yeah, well, I loved real estate as a child. My mom did it part time. So I I lived and breathed it for a little while. I thought it was so much fun. And ultimately, though, I ended up thinking that that wasn’t going to be like my career path. Maybe I would do it one day. Well, I ended up working with Home and Garden Television on some different shows. And the most famous of those is House Hunters, which I’m sure many of your viewers have seen. And I was a producer. So I got to go around, meet with the realtors.

meet with the people buying homes, you know, and it was so exciting. I loved the production of it, but what I really loved was, you know, helping people find homes and like telling their stories. So I ended up deciding at that point to get my license and I haven’t looked back.

Dylan Silver (01:08.504)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (01:14.286)
Let’s talk about the TV and the media space. How did you get involved in that space?

Holly McDonald (01:21.205)
I guess it was kind of a natural progression because I was really into like the arts as a child. I loved theater and drama and all of that. So I was doing a theater program in high school and then when I went to college, decided to major in communications and specialize in TV production. And then TV production like paved the path to going to intern with HGTV and ultimately work there.

Dylan Silver (01:44.84)
HGTV has got to be the spot for fixin’ flippers and everything real estate related on television. Did you know that you were going to maybe down the road look into real estate or was it when you were on House Hunters that you saw for the first time, hey, this is something I’m passionate about?

Holly McDonald (02:01.707)
think I really felt that I was passionate about it when I saw how the industry worked. I didn’t know, like when I watched my mom do it or like my friend’s parents do it as a child, I thought, that’s a cool gig. I didn’t, I don’t know. I don’t know that as a child, I really thought of it as a like.

as a job, if you will. So when I was on set and seeing people make a living at it, that kind of gave me more motivation that, hey, if they can do it, I can do it. And I really like this stuff.

Dylan Silver (02:25.688)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (02:36.354)
And so I am unfortunately a little ignorant on House Hunters, so I don’t know the premise, but was the show itself and the ebbs and flows of being a real estate investor what attracted you to the real estate space, or was it the people, or was it a combination of both?

Holly McDonald (02:56.193)
Besides, it was a combination. I love seeing houses as a child. I was always fascinated by looking at other homes.

we would go to a lot of properties with my mom. So like it was just so much fun. But then also the people, I really loved hearing what made people excited about a home and like just the almost the psychology of it, you know, like you see this as a realtor yourself, I’m sure, or even as an investor, that there are going to be certain things that are more broadly appealing to the masses than others. But then like one person might love that house with a red wall, you know, it’s all these little things and just

trying to be able to help them get what they’re looking for. It was really gratifying.

Dylan Silver (03:38.722)
I think, you know, a lot of times people think real estate’s hard to get into, which it can be. But what I found is so interesting, because I didn’t have anybody in real estate before I became a real estate agent, people kind of told me, what are you doing trying to this whole real estate thing? I was getting into wholesale, doing cash for keys, signing contracts during the executory period of the contract, wholesale, right? And people just didn’t know what I was doing. And I was trying to figure it out as I went. But when I would go to…

different groups and when I would go to networking events, was like shocked. I felt like man, these people are giving me all the game. They’ll just talk and talk about anything and I can go ask a question and they’ll be an open book. so real estate I found is particularly interesting for that reason because you don’t regularly see that you don’t regularly see people being so willing to share their knowledge.

Holly McDonald (04:29.481)
Yeah, think we’re all kind of working towards the same goal. If buyers and the general public don’t want to buy and sell, then there’s no business going on, right? So we have to constantly be educating people. And I think a lot of realtors are fairly obsessed with what they do. I know I am.

may not want to talk about some other topic, but if you get me started on real estate, I will talk your ear off all day. So I think a lot of realtors, since you do have to live and breathe it to really understand and know the market and explain it to other people, that’s what gets us going.

Dylan Silver (05:04.152)
Yep. I want to talk about marketing channels and finding clients and then referrals and scaling and building a business within the real estate space. How has that growth process been like for you?

Holly McDonald (05:19.615)
So I’ve been, essentially I’ve been a solo agent for like the 15 years that I’ve been in the industry. I am eventually now working on scaling because it just, it allows me to provide better service, more service and ultimately help more people. So.

That’s been like a big transition that I am working through because it’s, you you kind of get into your own systems, right? And you almost get in your own way because there’s so many excuses. It’s gonna be hard to teach somebody else this or train them in that. But at the same time, if I don’t do that, then I’m not able to get to everything. So the scaling is really important and finally ready to like divvy it up and work with other people so that we can accomplish more and help more people in the community.

Dylan Silver (06:05.442)
Yeah, I mean, I think the only way to free up more of your time is either to offload it to a tech tool that can do the same thing or to someone else who is willing to work for hourly exchange of wage. And in many cases, it’s a win-win because if you’re working with a new realtor or someone who wants some type of mentorship and they can take a lot of these tasks and then you can go from selling one amount to then double or triple because you have a team underneath you.

there’s risk, right? Because you might not be able to partake in every step of the sale, but there’s also the ability to help so many more people. I want to ask you about media and marketing, because we were talking about this before hopping on here. There’s so much overlap between real estate and marketing, and you have to not just understand the X’s and O’s of the deal and the area and your client, but also you have to be basically a

professional marketer, right? And all real estate agents deal with this.

Holly McDonald (07:06.195)
Yeah, well, think, you know, real estate is one of those things where it’s so expensive. it’s if you can get a lot of deals, that’s great. Right. But like ultimately, agents, you know, we don’t make any money until we sell a property and there’s a lot of competition out there. So we need to make sure that since there’s so much on the line for our clients and our own income that we are screaming it, you know, from rooftops, basically, we want to be able to get people’s attention so that they know what we’re offering.

Dylan Silver (07:31.246)
Thanks Ryan.

Holly McDonald (07:36.051)
It’s not like going to a store where there’s like a lower risk. If we don’t sell out of something small, some sort of small product, it’s not a big deal if you don’t make a $5 sale. I mean, ultimately maybe, but not as big as it is when you’ve got a big commission on the line. Yeah, so I mean, we have to be mouthpieces. Our reputation is really important too, because we’re so tied together between the property that we’re selling and how we’re presenting ourselves.

Dylan Silver (07:50.35)
$500,000, yeah.

Holly McDonald (08:04.865)
if we have a bad reputation, people aren’t gonna trust us and then want to spend money on a property that we’re representing. They’re gonna think we’re a liar or a crook or something like that. So, all that to say.

It is a combination of a lot of branding, a lot of marketing, a lot of social media. Now, mean, social media, I got into the game right when social media was very much taking off in business. And I’m really grateful for that. can’t, I remember when my mom was doing it and really like the media, the marketing was the newspaper and it was the magazines with the homes in them. And that was pretty much it. There wasn’t the internet.

Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t even think there was the internet. It was really all like paper, you know? So now we literally have it at our fingertips, but people are so distracted. We need to be making sure we’re marketing where they’re going to be. And that’s typically their phone.

Dylan Silver (08:47.16)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (08:57.44)
It’s like if you can’t beat them, join them, right? If you can’t get everyone undistracted, you might as well utilize it to your advantage. I forget where I heard this, but someone was saying, you know, if you’re finding yourself distracted, you’re on the losing end of social media. Unfortunately, it should be you distracting someone else, right? You should be making sure that they can’t get your image, your branding off their feet and that they actually want to see more of it. And I think I do this a lot.

Holly McDonald (09:12.747)
Yeah

Dylan Silver (09:26.466)
I’ll see people and I’ll be like, why am I following this person? And then I realized, well, it’s because I find their content humorous, engaging, and at the end of the day, I’m sure they have something that they’re selling, but also I just like listening to them. And I think a lot of what they do is providing some type of element of maybe reprieve or joy or comedic relief to my day. And so that overlap between media marketing, social media, and real estate, how have you seen that?

benefit you directly in the real estate space.

Holly McDonald (09:59.925)
So I’ve been working really hard and I’m sure this is something that you’ve done a lot of too Dylan, but I’ve been working hard on just trying to build those connections through a screen, if you will. mean, ultimately you want those through a screen connections to translate into in-person connections. But I do think that…

You can’t meet everybody, right? You can’t be in front of everybody at all times. So if the, like you said, if you can’t beat them, join them. If you can be in their feed where they’re getting to know you, feeling a connection, feeling a relationship, feeling like they can trust you and know what they’re going to get, that gets you that much closer to getting in the door with being able to be the person that they want to help them. You know what I mean? So I’ve been doing a lot of podcasting and a lot of just, like a lot of lives, a lot of education online and

Dylan Silver (10:40.311)
Yeah.

Holly McDonald (10:47.905)
knowing that that’s not gonna hit everybody, but it’s something I can do that I might be out in an open house, but how many people am I gonna really meet there? Yes, I will meet a few. Maybe it’s a good day, maybe I meet 15 people. But online, you can look at the metrics. You know how many people you’re meeting, and then from there, you’re making an impression on them. And that’s ultimately why marketing is all about impressions and all of that.

Dylan Silver (11:09.454)
trying.

Dylan Silver (11:13.838)
Now I want to ask you because I think people don’t understand the power of this. It’s not just about that they’re seeing your content and that they’re seeing you. I’ve had it where people actually feel like they know me. Where they feel like they know and I’m like, that’s amazing. I think especially with these longer form, they can get to know you pretty well. They can kind of understand how you think how you talk, you know, your

Holly McDonald (11:27.081)
Yes, that’s exactly, yes.

Dylan Silver (11:41.26)
you’re pacing when you’re talking and your pauses and they can understand, okay, well this is what it’s like to have a conversation with Dylan, with Holly. And that’s the real power of this, because even if I’m not talking to them, they’re listening, right?

Holly McDonald (11:55.243)
Yeah. Well, I knew like the reason I kind of started with podcasting myself too was that I found that I loved listening to podcasts, like, or I would find the ones that I really liked and felt like, okay, cool. Like I like their personality or like, you know, how they’re presenting themselves and I like what their topics are. I was like, if this can pull me in, then…

I can use this to help pull other people into whatever is, you know, I’m trying to attract, right? Like I wanna help people with how do you fix up your home or how do you navigate a really tough market as a buyer? Like those are all things like I told you before. I could talk about them all day. So why not?

Dylan Silver (12:32.856)
Yeah. Why not? Right? I might as well hop on a podcast and chop it up about it. I want to pivot Holly and talk about Orange County and real estate out there. I’m in Dallas, Texas. And so give me a picture because I’m not too too familiar with Orange County. What’s the average home price out there? Let’s get granular. What’s the average home price out there in Orange County right now? You know?

Holly McDonald (12:55.827)
Yeah, so I mean, it definitely varies. Orange County has very affluent areas and areas that are, you know, not as pricey. Overall, we’re looking at around 1.5 for the average home sale price for single family. But if you’re on the coast in Laguna or Newport, it could be three, four, five million for an average home sale price. Whereas another city might be right around a million. Yeah, that’s probably the range I would say.

Dylan Silver (13:22.19)
So 1.5 million, how many acres of land is this? Or is it single family plot? What is it like?

Holly McDonald (13:28.112)
acres. Yeah, I can I will paint a picture for you. If you’re looking at 1.5 million in Orange County, you’re typically going to have a six to 7000 square foot lot. So pretty small, like eighth of an acre. Typically like a three to four bedroom house, 15 to 1800 square feet, single story built in like the 1960s 70s.

Dylan Silver (13:39.535)
huh. Yeah.

Holly McDonald (13:55.841)
Yeah, mean, it’s a, Orange County is really now like a sprawling suburb of LA and even San Diego to a degree. Like it’s the county in between two larger cities that are also more of sprawling suburbs than your traditional skyscraper type of cities. So, the population’s been growing. There’s a lot more housing here than there was 20, 30 years ago.

Dylan Silver (14:21.486)
Sure.

Holly McDonald (14:22.017)
And there’s a high demand because of the lifestyle and the proximity to other cities and the weather. So it’s a pretty booming area.

Dylan Silver (14:32.567)
How big is Orange County? I’m trying to think of how big the county that I’m in. I don’t know if it’s Tarrant or Denton. I’m in Denton County.

Holly McDonald (14:36.83)
boy, in terms of like acres or population.

Dylan Silver (14:41.878)
So as it’s tough to describe in acres, right, because I don’t know how big Denton is, which I’m in North Dallas. But in general, I would say, for instance, when I was in Bear County in San Antonio, that that county felt enormous, because the city itself was like 40 miles long. And it was not just all of San Antonio, but it was like the outer areas as well. Meanwhile, when I’m in Denton County, we’ve got Dan, and it feels relatively small because we’ve got

Dallas and Fort Worth right here and I don’t believe either of them are considered Denton. So what is this Orange County feel like a big big area?

Holly McDonald (15:16.097)
So I would say that typically it’s probably about 25 to 30 miles across and north south. It will generally take you about 50 minutes to go across the county. But depends on traffic, it could be two hours.

Dylan Silver (15:29.592)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (15:34.498)
The, this is an interesting conversation. 1.5 million. What’s the mortgage on that type of house, typically?

Holly McDonald (15:41.441)
Well, I mean it will depend on your down payment, but typically in the 1.5 range Let’s just throw out there. It’s probably going to be like 10,000 plus a month

Dylan Silver (15:43.726)
Sure.

Dylan Silver (15:50.19)
You’re doing a lot of affluent people then in Orange County, to say the least. But I said this before hopping on here that I’m jealous because I see a lot of people in SoCal. I see a lot of people who are in Florida and I said, I don’t know what’s going on with real estate in these two areas, but it seems like there’s a lot of people who have real estate businesses. then it’s I think it’s kind of hard maybe to be making money in real estate and then to also be in such good weather and then to look outside and you kind of just get in.

better vibe, I don’t know, but I get that a lot from the people in SoCal and the people in Florida for sure. We are coming up on time here, Holly. Where can folks go to maybe learn more about your business or get in contact with you?

Holly McDonald (16:31.123)
Yeah, so while I have a website, it’s realtorhollymcdonald.com and from there you can find my Instagram or you know my phone number, email and all of that. But my Instagram I’m really, I’m very present on Instagram and that’s realtorhollymcdonald on Instagram too.

Dylan Silver (16:49.496)
Holly, it’s been great having you on the show. Thanks for coming on the show here today.

Holly McDonald (16:54.399)
Yeah, thank you for having me.