Why Real Estate Agents Should Embrace Push Notifications (And Leave Email Behind)

April 25, 2025
Marketing
Marketing

In today's bustling real estate market, grabbing your clients' attention can feel like an uphill battle, can't it? While email marketing has been a staple for years, many agents are discovering that custom push notifications deliver superior results with less effort. That's where building a real estate app with HomeStack comes in. Here’s how the top real estate agents use push notifications to stand out from competitors, why notifications should be your new marketing cornerstone, and exactly how to get started. Let’s dig in!

Email Is Dead (Well, Almost)

Let's face it – the average person's inbox is a crowded battlefield:

  • The typical professional receives 120+ emails daily
  • Email open rates in real estate average just 19.7%
  • 85% of emails are never even opened
  • Most emails are read hours or days after being sent

Meanwhile, push notifications boast an average open rate of 70-80% and are typically viewed within minutes of receipt. This difference is game-changing in real estate, where timing can make or break a deal.

Why Push Notifications Win in Real Estate

1. Immediate Visibility
When a hot new listing hits the market or a price drops significantly, your clients need to know now. Push notifications appear directly on your clients' phone screens, regardless of what they're doing, ensuring time-sensitive information gets immediate attention.

2. Higher Engagement Rates
Push notifications see 3-10 times more engagement than emails. A simple push about a new property or open house drives significantly more traffic and interest than the same information buried in an email.

3. Location-Based Relevance
Modern push notification platforms allow geofencing capabilities, meaning you can send alerts to clients when they're physically near a property you're representing. "You're just 2 blocks from our newest listing!" carries powerful immediacy that emails simply cannot match.

4. Less Competition
While email inboxes overflow, push notifications remain a relatively uncluttered space, especially in real estate. Being an early adopter gives you a significant competitive edge.

5. Easier to Consume
Push notifications are brief by nature, perfect for today's short attention spans. Your message gets across in seconds, without requiring clients to open, read, and process a full email.

5 Steps to Launch Your Real Estate Push Notification Campaign

Step 1: Amplify Your Social Media Presence

Follow the lead of real estate social media queen Shannon Gillette in Arizona by sending custom push notifications highlighting your social media posts or videos at least monthly. Just filmed a market update for YouTube?  Blast it out in a push notification to keep you top-of-mind without being intrusive. "June market report: Local inventory up 12%, median prices stabilizing. Tap for my video breakdown of what this means for buyers." This cross-platform approach maximizes visibility and drives traffic to your social channels.

Step 2: Showcase Local Community Events

Take a page from The ART of Real Estate team in South Carolina and position yourself as the “neighborhood experts” by alerting clients to local happenings and events you sponsor. From farmers' markets to school fundraisers, these notifications demonstrate your community investment while providing genuine value and gaining more attendance.

Step 3: Highlight Luxury Listings

Trying to establish your luxury market presence? Create buzz by featuring the most extravagant listings in your MLS via push notification, like Michael Balliet, the leading realtor in the coastal Orange County market. By blasting out these showstoppers, Michael and his real estate team capture attention and reinforce their brand's connection to premium properties.

Step 4: Develop Open House Reminders

Schedule push notifications to go out 24 hours before your open houses, and another on the morning of the event. Included the address, time window, and a standout feature: "Reminder: 123 Highland Park open house today, 1-4 PM. Don't miss the newly renovated kitchen!" This is Mosaik Real Estate’s strategy in San Francisco, and it has resulted in more property views and attendance at their events, driving up interest and offers.

Step 5: Create Urgency with Off-Market Opportunities

Follow Cush Real Estate's Bay Area strategy by using push notifications to alert clients about exclusive "coming soon" or off-market properties. Delivering these properties from your branded real estate app creates a sense of privilege and urgency that drives immediate action.

Taking the Leap to Building a Real Estate App with HomeStack

Building a real estate app with HomeStack and utilizing the custom push notifications allows you to effortlessly stay top-of-mind with real estate leads, prospects, and past clients. Our user-friendly mobile app + dashboard allows you to schedule notifications, segment your audience, and track engagement metrics—all with little technical expertise.

The results speak for themselves: real estate teams, agents, and brokers that have built a customer real estate app with HomeStack report an average 27% increase in lead engagement after implementing strategic push notifications.

Ready to leave outdated email campaigns behind and embrace the marketing channel with proven higher engagement? Contact a HomeStack representative today for a personalized demo of our push notification capabilities.

HomeStack Apps empowers real estate professionals with custom mobile applications and advanced marketing tools designed specifically for the competitive real estate industry.

Learn more about building a white-label app for your real estate team or brokerage.

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