Inside Imagine Homes: Our Holistic Approach to Real Estate Marketing

At Imagine Homes, it’s important to us that our customers understand that we’re out to reimagine the single-family rental space. From property acquisition to real estate marketing and everything in between, we stay on top of our game to deliver best-in-class experiences across the board.

We caught up with our new Director of Marketing, Jeshua Johnson to understand his goals and plans on how we can better serve both home sellers and renters in the real estate space.

My name is Jesh Johnson and real estate is in my blood.

Growing up, my dad was always remodeling our home, so I got to see firsthand how homes were built. In my early teens, I worked for several contractors and did everything from swinging a hammer, demolition work, painting, to lugging really heavy loads up barely secure ladders.

What I consider my first true experience in real estate came shortly after graduating college—in a very unconventional way. I started a private equity fund that bought and sold single-family houses. I say “true experience” because I had a hand in every aspect of real estate, not just on the construction side.

It was a baptism by fire, but I really enjoyed it. Seeing a house transform from a property that needs a lot of work into a nice, liveable space was extremely rewarding.

That experience helped me secure a position with a private equity group. At first, I was hired to work in their acquisitions team, but later, I was promoted to marketing director leading their direct-to-seller efforts. This experience with direct-to-seller marketing eventually led to me landing my current position with Imagine Homes.

Imagine Homes offered an excellent company culture that is rare in this industry.

Anyone who has worked in private equity long enough knows it is tough to find a company with excellent culture. My introduction to Imagine Homes came by way of a recruiter who convinced me to have a chat with Jon Frank—the CEO of Imagine Homes. 

I didn’t have high hopes going into that call. However, as we talked it became clear that Imagine Homes was different from other companies. They truly care about their employees and value their contribution to making Imagine Homes not only a leader in the single-family rental space, but also an exceptional place to work.

That first impression has only strengthened over the past few months since joining the company as I’ve gotten to know both the people and the culture better. It’s a key to their success and has fueled their rapid growth in the single-family rental space over the last few years.

As Director of Marketing for Imagine Homes, I’m responsible for our direct-to-seller marketing.

Most of my career has been focused on real estate. When I ran my own company, I did everything–managed residential real estate construction projects, made calls to sellers, negotiated purchase and sale contracts, developed and executed real estate marketing campaigns—there wasn’t much that I didn’t do.

More recently, having worked for a private equity group as their marketing director managing all of their direct-to-seller campaigns, I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out the best and most cost-effective ways to reach home sellers. That experience is something I look forward to leveraging here at Imagine Homes.

Previously, we’ve relied on sourcing properties from the multiple listing service or through various third parties. However, as the real estate market has become more challenging, we need to be more strategic in how we acquire properties.

Directly sourcing from real estate sellers is one way to deal with the complexities of the market that’s both sustainable and cost-effective. We’re not as reliant on third-party inventory or the homes available for sale on the MLS. We also eliminate many of the costs associated with buying and selling real estate.

For Imagine Homes and the homeowners that sell to us, it’s a win-win. It’s the kind of work you can be proud of at the end of the day.

Aside from our direct-to-seller efforts, I’m also focused on creating a solid foundation for all of our marketing campaigns.

It’s essential we get this part right as so many other things will be built on top of this foundation that will be critical to our success in the future. We need to reach as many home sellers as possible in the markets we serve with the Imagine Homes way of doing business—with honesty, integrity, and love for the communities we live in!

We don’t just buy houses. We offer a tangible solution for people that need help selling their house. It’s my responsibility to ensure that they know about us, and how we can help them solve their challenging real estate issues.

I’m confident that as long as we always do the right thing for our home sellers and deliver an exceptional experience for them in the home-selling process, more homeowners will see the value we provide and give us the opportunity to help them by purchasing their homes.

Everything we do must be done in a cost-effective way so that we can continue to sustainably grow and assist even more people.

We’re committed to solving the issues sellers face, and we’re uniquely positioned to do just that because we’ve made a conscious effort to grow in a measured and stable way. This ensures our continued success and guarantees that sellers can rely on us for years to come.

Imagine Homes makes the home-selling process fairly quick and as easy as possible.

I can still remember a call I received from a distraught homeowner a few years back. He was panicking. He had just bought a house halfway across the country and had moved his family there. He got transferred by his employer and the move came with a huge promotion. What should have been a moment to celebrate turned sour very quickly.

So, why was he panicking? He had “sold” his property to a house-buying company who assured him everything was good and his house was basically already sold to one of their investor buyers. Nothing to worry about, they said. Except that their investor buyer backed out 2 days before they were supposed to close!

What was once a “sure thing” turned into a nightmare. The house-buying company didn’t have another buyer willing to buy their house, so they canceled their contract with the homeowner leaving him with nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing. He now had two mortgages to pay, two tax bills, maintenance, and utilities—he couldn’t afford everything. In short, he thought he was going to lose his original home to foreclosure.

Unfortunately, he’s not alone. There are many “house-buying companies” that operate like this. Their only goal is to get your house under contract so they can sell the contract to an investor. They have no intention of ever buying your property themselves. It never crosses their minds.

Why do I mention this story? Because when you need to sell your house, you need to know you can rely on your buyer—the one who is actually buying your house, and not just selling the contract to someone else.

At Imagine Homes, we don’t sell contracts—we buy houses. When we say we’re going to buy your house, we buy it. That’s as good as putting the cash right in your hands!

We’re reimagining the way houses are turned into homes.

It’s a catchy saying, but what does it actually mean? It means that in everything we do, we strive for excellence. Second-best isn’t good enough.

One way we display this quality is in the experiences people have with Imagine Homes. We seek to deliver exceptional experiences to everyone—from homeowners that just need a helping hand, to our renovation teams and subcontractors, to the residents of our amazing homes—even to our team members at Imagine Homes. It’s who we are and influences how we conduct ourselves every day.

It’s part of what makes Imagine Homes a great place to work, and I’m glad that I’m part of the team at Imagine Homes!

Interested in working with us? Let’s talk.

We’re looking for passionate individuals to join our Renovations team and help us deliver best-in-class homes and overall experience. If you think you fit the bill, let us know! We’d love to have you on board.

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