Hi all , I'm a newer agent (going on 4 months)

I'm wondering what some effective methods of prospecting are. I started 4 months ago and so far it hasn't been so bad , i got several listings in the first 2 months , but haven't got any the last 2 , i've sold a couple houses and i'm currently working with about 6 buyers , although i'm only in contract for one home right now (short sale) and don't know how confident i am about it.

Anyways , I'd like to know some effective means of prospecting , I love real estate to death and want to do it full time , and i know a effective base of prospecting will make the difference for me. So any ideas would be appreciated.

Walk the neighborhoods and knock on doors. Shake hands with 20 new people a day, Monday - Friday.

Do a search in these forums on this topic and you will get more suggestions than you ever imagined.

R

Whatever you do, do it consistently.

Maybe one mailing wont make people remember you, but if you choose a farm area and stick with it, really saturate the houses with information.

You want to farm the area with creative pieces that will be sure to keep you on top of peoples minds, so even if they aren't thinking of selling, when they hear a friend or co-worker mention that they want to buy or sell, they'll say, "oh, I always get mailings from soandso, he seems pretty good"

Going door to door isn't a problem , the only thing i don't know is how to keep the materials i leave fresh. Are there any good 'winners' that seem to work consistantly? I get my printing cheap , so alot of materials isn't too hard

Numbers... they change every week. That can be your primary pretense for knocking on the door. Your are bringing this weeks, bi-weekly, monthly data. That neighborhood not having enough action to generate new numbers that quick? Broaden the base of homes you are getting data from... maybe even include a second breakdown of transactions in the entire town.

You will want to have 1 or 2 other things in the goodie bag.

Try negotiating a coupon with a local vendor - pizza place, AC Guy... whatever. Just make sure your info is either on the front or back of the coupon. You don't want a situation where the person can cut out the coupon and your info is not still on it.

Auburn is right on with being consistent. To be honest, most direct mailing efforts don't start getting results for as much as a year to 18 months. At least that has been my experience.

R

I've been working on the cupon thing for a while, trying to get some freebies to hand out on my free CMA cupons. Direct mail is something i'd like , but i could spend 50-75 cents per mailing , or spend 5 cents per flyer , and go door to door ,and people would see me. Which is what i'm more leaning to.

I'm surprised people are still suggesting door knocking. It's just like ads on TV or radio. Most people won't care and just shut you out, but it takes a lot of time and effort. It's not targeted marketing.

I'd recommend building a good website with maybe a nice tutorial on selling or buying real estate, and make the web address prominent on your card. The site will be an extension of your business card.

Mailouts aren't bad, but considering you're probably spending $.50 per post card, it might be more cost effective to spend that money on pay per click, and then make sure to stay on top of every lead you get. I know several agents who are very successful and they haven't knoced on a single door, and barely ever send mailouts. They do most of their business off the web or through referrals.

I already PPC as well as SEO for my website , we're ranked 1st on some engines as well as the PPC which brings me 1st-3rd in the sponsored bracket of various engines. The website deal isn't too bad, i use it alot for my listing presentations. One of the issues with it is that i live in a area with a total of 20,000 homes in a 15 mile radius. Due to that, online traffic is moderate at best (although i do get 1 lead a week from it , or so)

Prospecting takes consistency as others have said. There are so many things you can do to keep your name in front of your niche market.

I think the best way to go is to have an effective drip marketing plan and use an expert to execute it. That way as your name appears in front of your niche consistently, you can be out networking in person (not necessarily door-to-door).

Good Luck!

Effective prospecting - interesting topic. There are probably a dozen or more ways to prospect for business. Do you like buyers or sellers? You can cater to first time home buyers, you can do mail campaigns, flyers, door to door, FSBOs, expireds, etc. The list goes on.

Work smarter not harder! Keep this in mind at all times. That having been said, I feel the best way to prospect, especially for new agents, is FSBOs and/or expireds and here's why. When you farm an area or do a mass mail campaign you drag net a demographic that reaches some people who are NOT interested in buying or selling a house. Those people are a burden on your marketing efforts and dollars. Not so much the case with FSBOs and expireds.

Those people have already decided to sell. Half the battle is already won. Most FSBOs list with a Realtor and almost all expireds relist and usually with a price reduction. Once you perfect a prefab sales routine that doesn't sound prefab, success will follow.

However you need prospecting techniques you feel comfortable with and you may not like FSBOs or expireds. Try a smattering of styles, find the ones you like and stick with it. You will be more effective with the ones you feel more comfortable with. Like the Nike ad says - "Just do it"

Also see if you can identify a target market or prospecting technique that is not being bombarded by tons of other agents (easier said than done). Remember - WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER!

BigMary,
Please share with us the source of this statement because it is definately not correct!

You must be forgetting all the top producers that get 50+ percent of their business from the best source around and it is not the internet, it is referrals from satisfied customers.

LOL, the dinosaurs are gasping the last breath before they die off.

Door knocking is a waste of time. People who plan to sell do their research ahead of time. They call signs of realtors selling in their neighborhood, who give them CMAs and if stay in touch with regular updates.

The market doesn't change quickly enough to justify even monthly visits, even here in Austin. Prices rise maybe 10% year in the hottest areas, which translates to less than 1% a month.

Also, someone who doesn't want to sell a home won't do it just because you showed up at the door and gave him a bunch of #s to look at.

The only door knocking should be to FSBOs and exprieds, and then you should tell them how you use the internet to optimize the sale of their home, and point out how you don't waste time running around begging for business, and instead spend your time following up with inquiries.


How long are you two going to continue trying to push the door knocking game. It's old school and a waste of time. Get over it already.


Look online and you'll find plenty of success stories for people who use sites such as google adwords. You can have the same weekly statistics for the local area and promote them to thousands at once on the web.

Right now i've got a website , which i've intergrated IDX into , currently i go around offering FSBOs a chance to list their house on my website free (Gets leads). I've SEOed and PPC'd the site so i get a reasonbly good ammount of results from it ( last week , i had a person that called out of the blue to list their house). The website stuff is covered outside of me including better content , i'm currently working on offering rentals off the website as well. I live in a area where pop density isn't that high , so i'm trying to find good methods outside of direct mail (too expensive to me)

Yes I agree with Rebel,
and also I say call, call, call. phone.
call FSBOS and EXPS... and sell them on listing their prop with you- get creative with the way you market yourself to them. Consistency is a must, just keep at it.

I love how some folks have this all or nothing attitude. If you say your doing one thing, that must mean you are not doing anything else.

Any truly effective strategy is going to be working on different levels. Your not going to hang it all on one thing.

You should have some part of your lead generation happening online. In addition, you should be getting out and meeting people - however you choose to do that. Then maybe doing mailers to carefully selected areas. Then maybe you have your car wrapped up in one of those annoying vinyl advertisement deals.

I am not going to get into a "Yes it is, no it isn't" argument on some internet forum about what works or does not.

However, I will suggest this. Don't believe ANY of us. Just do this, go to your MLS software and do a search. Find out who the top ten listing agents were over the last 6 months. Call them and ask them about each of these things and how valuable they think they are.

I am personally willing to bet that door knocking is going to considered something a bit more than "a waste of time".

I push what I know works. I am a bit surprised how many times I have to repeat this - I have used door knocking successfully in my own business - I am not some disembodied clump of text on the internet. You know my name, where I am, how to call me on the phone even. I am simply passing on WHAT HAS WORKED.

I am happy that atxdudes online experience has worked out so well for him. However, just because his way works, does not mean that others don't. You see, I have the courtesy to allow for the possibility that he is not lying about how the internet is working for him, a courtesy he is reluctant to extend to me.

Suffice to say that there are many ways to prospect, go with the ones you feel most confident with. Just don't sit at your desk ... if you find yourself with time to do that, get out and meet some people.

R