You may be surprised to learn that the biggest day in a medical student’s life is not graduation. In fact, it happens a few months before graduation: Match Day. 

What is Match Day?

When medical students graduate from medical school, they get their medical degree (MD), but they are still only licensed to practice independently once they complete further specialized training in a residency program that takes between three and seven years depending on specialty. Now, instead of medical students, these medical professionals are officially doctors called Residents.

On the third Friday of March, graduating medical students across the country will learn where they are “matched” or which program they will be at for their residency training. To read more about the Match process and history, click here.

How Does the Match Work?

It’s much more nerve-wracking than you might think for medical students and vastly different than accepting a traditional job or picking a college. First, they apply to the programs in the specialty they would like to practice. In general, students apply to programs all across the United States. Our team member Lexi’s husband is currently in his last year of medical school and applied this year to eighty different radiology programs! 

Then, students will receive interview invitations. Students will interview with programs in hopes of standing out in the crowd of sometimes hundreds interviewed. If they do well, these programs will rank them highly on their list of who they’d like to welcome to their program. Some programs are larger (think around 10) while others are quite small (think around 2) so competition is fierce. 

If a student is ranked highly enough on the program’s list, they do not receive an acceptance or offer letter as you may expect. Instead, the students must rank the programs they interviewed at as well in order from where they’d like to attend most to where they would like to attend least. The lists made by the programs are imputed into an algorithm along with the medical students’ lists and–if the medical student matches–the algorithm chooses where the medical student matches. Some students do not match, but typically, Match Day is a cause for celebration! It’s the first job a medical student will have as a doctor and often means they’ll be packing their bags to a new location.

Why Do Realtors Need to Know About Match Day?

Here’s what we know: The typical person can expect to own around three homes in their lifetime. The job of a Realtor is to find clients when they are at a point in their life where they are in one of those three stages of home buying/selling.

Match Day is an incredible (and often untapped) opportunity for Realtors because these medical students MUST move. Some own homes and need to sell, some are moving to a new location, and many do not know anyone in their new area. This relationship you can build with potential clients is immeasurable in terms of long-term potential. 

While Residents aren’t making “doctor money” yet, they will in a few years and, if you treat them well now, they will be delighted to work with you when they hunt for their dream home. Oh, and they’ll be referring you to all their doctor friends as well.

What Do Realtors Need to Know About Match Day for Clients?

There are three important things you absolutely must know in order to help your potential Match Day clients. 

1. What Match Day is. You’re already ahead of the game by reading this article, but we always encourage further research.
   Marketing Tip: Create Match Day-specific content so new Residents can easily tell you are their expert when they search for a Realtor or a Real Estate Brokerage.
   
   
2. The medical school(s) and programs in your area. Often these programs provide resources to students. It never hurts to ask if they’d be willing to refer you, but further, it’s important to know what programs these professionals are working in and the areas around the programs to help them navigate the real estate market by the hospitals.
   Marketing Tip: Use #Match2023 or #MatchDay2023 in your hashtags during match week, as well as the programs in your area.
   
   
3. Do not give up the momentum the day after Match Day. This is not a holiday that stops when Match Day is over. In fact, for Residents, their real estate search has just begun. Be sure to continue the momentum for the next few weeks.
   Marketing Tip: Showcase neighborhoods around the hospitals that future Residents may work at on social media. Continue those match-day-specific hashtags for a few weeks on content that may be relevant to them.

The best way to stay ahead of the market and potential clients is to know what to expect and Match Day is an incredible opportunity to do just that for Realtors. If you’re looking for creative and forward-thinking marketing for your real estate business, we’re ready to help. Click here to contact us today so we can discuss the best plan of action for you and your business.

This post was written by Lexi Upegui, Digital Strategist. Join us in congratulating Lexi and her husband, as her husband just Matched today and they find out where they will be headed in their next journey on Friday, March 17!