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

I think we need to make a destinction between prospecting/lead generation and client relationship building. That will resolve the issue on the spot.


Prospecting is going through as many people, as quickly and efficiently as possible, to narrow it down to those who are interested in real estate services.

Relationship building is taking those people and applying personal communication skills to win them over and convert into a client.

So, some people here advocate door knocking as a means of lead generation. I say it's a waste of time because there are much quicker ways to generate leads.

However, the personal contact is vital in this business, and should happen as soon as possible.

With that in mind, the most efficient way to get business is to sift through hundreds of people online and then actively try to meet in person the select few who are interested. At the very least, there should be a phone or email follow up to indicate that you are responsive to their needs.

Here's a success story:

http://www.thesarasotamls.com/marc-sarasota-herald.php

This guy was posting on another real estate webmastering forum.

So how many transactions did you do last year and to date this year?

By your own words in a previous posting your own website has so far not gotten you a single listing!! Now there is an effective web presence! All talk and zero action..bet you had an IT background before becoming an agent!


One more time to get this past that closed mind of yours. There are many methods of prospecting available in todays market. Some require money and some only your time. Anyone that says "that does not work" without giving it a try is a fool!
You try and if it works you add it to the list. If it fails for you then your drop it and move on to the next method as there are countless methods to prospect for business. Find 5 or 6 that work for you and do them well and consistantly that is the key to sucess in the RE business. Keep your prospect pipeline full.

Well, since you started resorting to personal attacks on someone's intelligence, I'll make the low punches as well.

Yes, I was in IT, so f**ing, what? No, I don't have a site yet, but I know several agents, including one in my office, who do very well with theirs, and never have to humiliate themselves door knocking.

Finally, read the damn post, you numbskull. I never said it "doesn't work". I just said it's a very inefficient way of doing it, and I know several old school realtors who do it and aren't very successful. I asked them about it, and yes, the do go around distributing "SOLD" data, and people are very nice to them and waste a lot of their time chatting, but in the end, they go somewhere else for the listing. Some younger broker who is more effective at marketing.

Keep knocking on doors. Your days in business are almost over if that's all you do.

I knew it! Another newbie that thinks he knows Everything about the business. Before I switched focus to full commercial my residential business was over 70% referral. Let me tell you referral is much better than internet leads or any lead for that matter.

You really do have a serious reading comprehension problem. Please show me where I attacked your intelligence. I simply noted that you are close minded and a fool if you think that door knocking a farm area does not work while not the most efficient method it is free and does work, therefore perfect for new agent with minimal marketing budgets. BTW the materials you pass out have all of your contact information including your Website.

I am gonna try one more time to make this simple enough for even you to understand! Try a method before you say it will not work or is inefficient! If it does not work then move on to a different method.

Funny how you went from asking newbie questions in July to thinking you know it all and it is just September.

I'm curious ATX, what has been your production so far this year?

I do 2 deals a month, with the average home being around $200k. Not too shabby after 1 year in business, but I know I can do better, which is why I started researching into online marketing.

Most of my leads right now are past clients who leased a home through me, or a referral. At my office, we also advertise in local papers and magazines once in a while, which accounts for maybe 20% of the business.

The point I was trying to make here is that working with a client is a two step process. First, you get them as a lead, where they're not quite sure they want to work with you, but they are interested in working with someone. The second step is personal contact where you win them over and prove that you'r the man/woman for the job.


For some darn reason, there several dinosaur agents around here who claim that face to face contact is the best way to generate leads.


It's not something you necessarily have to do when generating leads. Your leads should be created as cheaply (time + $$$) as possible. Knocking on doors to reach 1 out of 100 will take up a lot more time than answering email and doing CMAs for people who request them on the web.

Also, I don't think it's good for your clients when you spend more time generating leads than actually working as an agent. If I can't sell myself efficiently and have to resort to forcing myself on people at their home, what kind of message does that send about me?

That's why I asked agents who do both types of marketing and read a bunch of advice online. It appears, based on other people's experience that advertising and having a useful website that generates inquiries is the way to go, which is why I'm setting one up.

However, you feel free to try door knocking. I won't even bother with it. I don't need to learn on my own mistakes that it's a waste of time when I can see other people who aren't getting anywhere with it.

ATX - What's your web addy ,and how many hits on average does your site pull in?

Personally , I know the internet is a strong way to prospect ,and the costs are much more effective than newspaper/printed media. Plus usage online is getting higher while print media is going down. Having said this , I live in a county with a total of 52k people , and in my town there's a total of 11k , which to me is fairly small , so building a relationship with locals is a good thing.

Another agent in the office was telling me one day. We had a politician come to town about 4 years ago , bought a house ,ran for office and won without hardly anyone knowing anything about him. The reason for his winning was he went personally door to door and met everyone in the county. My opinnion is that in a small community ,you can do both. I just am trying to figure out the best way to alocate my 3 hours of door-to-door time properly.

Unfortunately, don't have it yet. Still working on it and constantly learning new strategies.

In your town, maybe door 2 door might work. From what I know those kinds of places are heavy on referral and good-ole-boy type of promotion.

You can try the following. If your MLS allows you to set up an auto-update by email whenever a home gets sold, send out simple postcards telling people about this feature and how they can sign up on the website.
This is a lot more useful to them than generalized hand-delivered stats. You can keep someone updated automatically for several months whenever homes comparable to their's sell without having to do a damn thing.

Joining clubs might work as well. Word of mouth is more useful in a small place like yours.

Here in Austin it's just not practical. We have 1 million+ people with very active lifestyles and several hundred unique neighborhoods and tons of out-of-state buyers. Anyone who tries door knocking will burn themselves out. I lived in the hottest area of town recently (in terms of sales volume and days on market) and I did not get a single flyer or mailing from a realtor. That tells me it must not be very practical for them.


Politicians are a different story. Everyone cares about who their local representatives are, especially in small towns. Every person he met had an inherent interest in what he had to stay. With home sales, most of the doors you knock on will not be interested at all in selling their home, or they'll have a realtor whom they have a relationship with.

Try going door 2 door, but if you notice your conversion ratio is very low, stop doing it. Unlike what others have said, this buisness is NOT about getting out there in front of every living person in town; it's about finding a way to get the most leads with the least amount of effort. If you can get the same income glued to a computer all day as you get knocking on doors, why not choose the easy way out?

door knocking is one of the many effective marketing techniques- that DOES WORK and NOT only for Dinosaurs, I am a newer agent and everytime I door knock before open houses or before or after listings & closings it has been VERY effective for me. I haven't had much luck w/ internet and mailers marketing but that just means its not woking for me yet.
Thats why dinosaurs are so succesful- they do what works for them and they aren't going anywhere

"For some darn reason, there several dinosaur agents around here who claim that face to face contact is the best way to generate leads."

Maybe people just don't like you or want to do business with you, so stick to internet and leave door knocking to Dinosaurs who prospects like & want to do business with.
Dinosaurs are working for buyers or sellers knocking on doors learning about their neighborhoods and marketing homes going extra mile for clients-

Here's a link that sums up this "debate" fairly well. Whoever wants to figure out the best way to generate business, read this and figure out which method is best for you:

http://www.hobbsherder.com/newsletter/enews-0308/gregs-tip.asp

Just be the best at marketing yourself that you are the best person when it comes to marketing houses. Hobbsherder is a fine organization but they seem to be focusing only on agent marketing materials. That's half the battle.

The other half is marketing houses.

That's true (btw, I'm not promoting that company, just thought the article was interesting). I think how you market yourself is a good reflection of how you market people's homes.

Even though there are many ways to generate business, there's only one way to sell a home that's the quickest, and that involves heavy use of technology and internet.

If I tell people I'll market their home by having maximum exposure and following up on dozens of interested buyers, it won't look very credible when I'm out there spending my time knocking on doors.

However, this lead generation strategy might work fine for poeople who enjoy open houses and sending out flyers, but those ways of selling do not work nearly as well. That I know for a fact by talking to several dozen realtors.

I find that most people use the internet as a first port of call these days, so like the previous post I would agree that a well designed well optimized website will help you get those listings that you need.

Hey atx...

Could it be that your door knocking didn't work because of your cheery disposition? You went from zero to pissed in no time. It may be that online is the only way you can get someone to work with you.

If you want to act like a know it all, that's fine. But to be new in the business and have already decided that certain ways are antiquated when there are many successful agents using them is a little arrogant. The only way to grow in this business is to watch successful agents before you and repeat their successes.

I've gotten some leads and sales from random strangers online, but I've gotten a ton more from people that personally refer me because they know me. People I've met face to face.

Online you're nothing but a website. Even in today's tech filled society, many many people still prefer a handshake and a face to face greeting.

If what you're doing works, that's fine. But for someone who's been in the business for one year to be telling very proven and successful agents that they're going the way of the dinosaur is arrogant and just plain stupid.

Yawn, stop putting words in my mouth and go knock on some doors.

I never said that I failed at it. I never even tried, nor do I ever plan to. And yes, I did watch what successful agents do. They follow up on their online leads, and turn an anonymous email into a very personal and friendly relationship. I've gotten many leads just posting ads to craigslist, and some of them have turned into clients.

Again, please don't use the "you're too new to know any better" bull**** to try and make me shut up. I know many successful agents who work almost exclusively from the web, and I know only a handful of realtors who have ANY kind of leads from door knocking, and they don't have a lot.

Yes, personal contact is key, but it's all about getting more chances to start a relationship with a potential client, and door knocking is a very inefficient way to do it.

If you old school guys don't know how to convert anonymous internet surfers into happy clients, than I guess you just plain suck and should go back to the old school way.

There, how's that for arrogant and stupid. Go back to your cave and start inventing the wheel.

The old school guys are "believe it or not" dying. Their business ways are dying and they too are dying. If left to them we'd be using computers the size of a school bus.

How's that for arrogant and stupid?

Pretty darn good. Throw childish in there and you've acheived a the perfect trifecta of ignorance.

Here's the thing about real estate. It doesn't matter how you get leads. What works for some, doesn't work for others.

What's going to screw you in your business is acting like a child. If you can't seem to control yourself here, you won't be able to control yourself in a professional setting when something comes up that may threaten a deal.

Don't be stupid and sit here and tell all these successful Realtors that door knocking doesn't work for them, when it does. You cannot prove that your way is better than another.

Truth be told, a lot of people are now turned off with the internet because it's so impersonal. Car dealers all thought that the internet was how everything was going to be done by now, but nobody wants to buy a car online. It's still something that you have to sit in and drive in person to decide on that purchase.

As for your Realtor, there may be some people that don't mind finding someone online to sell their most valuable asset. Most people still prefer face to face.

We're social creatures. That's the way we were created.

Again, some people like the internet to find a Realtor. I've had quite a few clients come from my website, but I had to work harder to convince them that I'm right for the job than with those I've met face to face.

I've also gotten a few referrals from this site. But I'd be willing to bet that you won't be getting any Austin referrals from anyone on here, because you're a miserable person that just wants to start arguements. Those Austin referrals will probably go to Dee, or other people we can stand.

Best of luck to you on the net. Do what's right for you, but don't be so stupid as to tell other people that they're not going to be successful by doing something when they're proving you wrong every day.

Lol, you're saying some funny stuff there.

Yeah man, you're right, the internet is dead. Nobody looks at Autotrader anymore, people don't reserach car features on edmunds.com, people don't buy cars halfway across the country over ebay, and fewer and fewer people every day hop online to type in "city real estate" to search for homes.

Good luck to you bro. I never said door knocking doesn't work, just that it's not as efficient as it used to be, but seems like you have a grudge against the internet, or you're just jealous that the young broker is outproducing you and you have no clue how to catch up b/c you're afraid of technology.

In your second post, you stated "door knocking is a waste of time". I guess I took that to mean it was a waste of time, which I guess wasn't what you meant.

I think where you're off base is the fact that you don't even have a website, by your own admission. This isn't about door knocking vs. online lead generation. You're sitting here telling everyone that's knocking on doors that we're going to be extinct, but the funny thing is that most of us have a lead generating site as well. We understand that it takes both. You're pimping something that you don't even use, by your own admission.

So we'll end it here. You're nothing more than someone looking for a little attention. You don't practice what you preach which destroys your credibility, so there's no sense in listening to you educate anyone about the world of Real Estate.

Funny how a former IT guy like yourself has not even got his website up and running and you say you have been in business for a year now! That is really funny! Guess we know now why you are a former IT guy!

Successful agents have multiple source of leads of which the internet is a growing part but not the only method employed! Wow a full year you could have been advertising your website and driving traffic to it and filling your lead pipeline and instead you are Still "Under Construction"

For someone who does walks the neighborhood with flyers, you're kind of fat. Need to lose some weight.

Such a sad and spiteful little man you are! Instead of atxdude you should change it to atxJoke! With your lack of self-control you will soon be a former real estate agent.
A year and still no website! I am Still laughing about that "former IT guy" ! :p

Keep trying and one day you may be up to playing with the big boys and girls.......

One thing that one of my trainers mentioned was how it was easier to catch fish when you've got 10 poles in the water. He said to get as many poles in the water in your businesses so that when one fish isn't biting ... you've got another one ready to sink a hook in.

I say do it all and do it often and then track the results after 6-10 months those that aren't working can be replaced with something else new. Always dump the bottom 10%!