Okay.....getting nervous here. I really love real estate.....not sure why. Haven't made any money. Been licensed a year made 1 sale in 2005 and HOPING to close on my 1 and only listing in a few weeks. I showed a loss for 2005.

I made a marketing plan with the help of another agent from here :p I hand deliver these to expireds and Unrepresented Sellers.I then call to follow up. Often the response is good......they tell me to call them in a few days and I do. Then they don't allow me to come for a listing appointment. So no listings! Really frustrated!

A local business is letting me put my seeds in a brochure stand at his register with my cards. So far the seeds are disappearing but no calls.

I walked my farm and hand delivered 300 seed packets and then followed up on phone=NOTHING

I volunteer at a kids reading group 1x/week and nothing except happy kids :p

Why would an expired seller or FSBO want seeds? I think they want to sell their house! If you want these types of sellers to work with you, you need to answer the question "why should I hire you?" The expired seller is probably mad at the last agent, but now is in more of a hurry to sell. The FSBO is either a cheapskate, had a bad experience in the past, thinks they can't afford you, or isn't motivated to sell.
These types of sellers can be difficult and there is no magic "seed" for them to grow into being your client.
If your market is anything like mine, I would focus on buyers. When there are 10-15 houses for every buyer, it might be time to change focus. My first 1 1/2 years were spent in open houses, and floor time. It was cheap, and worked very well for me. I was in a big office, but the top producers in the office saw me there everyday by 8:30am, in a suit & tie, always offering to help; they would very often pass their sign calls to me and off I went.

Ok-

I have a few questions/comments/suggestions.

It sounds like you are doing the mechanics of the job very soundly. However, its been my experience in multiple avenues of sales that sound mechanics are an enhancement to your abilities. So, I have a question: Can you close? Do you feel comfortable asking for the sale? Do you feel comfortable in the awkward silence between the time you ask for the sale and the next word spoken?

That is the key to any sales-based business. For a lot of people, it comes naturally. For most, it does not. It can be learned, however.

You need to immerse yourself in tools that will help you develop/enhance your closing skills. Do not just stay within the realm of real estate. Look at people like Tom Hopkins (he has a book/tape entitled "the art of closing" or something like that), Joe Girard, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, etc.

As for RE trainers, look at Mike Ferry. From reading a lot of your posts, I am assuming you are not much of a Mike Ferry type of personality, but listen to him anyway. There is no law that says you have to follow his plan 100%.

So, that is what I would do if I were you. In the next couple of weeks, I would take every available moment of time and dedicate it to enhancing my closing skills.

Good luck!

Thanks all........valuable insight
I probably am not much of a closer or else well I WOULD CLOSE SOME FRIGGIN DEALS!
I work on my skills everyday. I use alot of Darryl Davis stuff.

Besides the seeds.....I deliver my marketing plan to expireds and fsbo's

Bauer:

Sounds like you are beating your head against the wall with the FSBOs and Expireds. Maybe try another niche. And, have you developed a business plan for yourself. And, have you developed a weekly/monthly marketing plan?

All suggestions from somebody not yet in real estate but doing a ton of research on the business.

Aimee

I hear you Agent B. I’ve done the same things. I put out over 4,500 post cards, flyers, newsletters, seeds, information on how to do this and that, in a four month period and not one response. We all know that sellers and most buyers will not lift a hand to help themselves. They won’t read anything that’s too long; they wont save your magnetic biz card or any other type of information, but they will save a note pad with your contact info, but they wont contact you. So what to do?

I put out a diskette with an estimate buyers mortgage calculator, a buyers closing cost calculator and how to avoid the 10 buyer mistakes that all buyers make. Why do I do this? At open house, I’ll have some buyers ask how much is the mortgage, taxes and insurance is. I just give them the disk and tell them to do it yourself. And, I also tell them, make as many copies as they want and give it to all their friends, co-workers, relatives and anyone who’s interested in buying a home.

I also have one for sellers, with a sellers estimate net proceeds and a home value price range with ROI. Why? How many times have you seen a TV commercial for Home values, Lending Tree, Homegain and so on. After I explain why they should not use these folks because they are only a lead generator for agents, loan brokers, moving, staging and the rest. The seller net is a great tool. When I go on broker tours, I ask the listing agent if they made out a sellers net ? Guess what, most don’t know how to. Again, I let the sellers do it themselves.

Now, I’m getting calls, believe it or not, I’m actually getting buyer and seller calls.

BTW: These disks have all my contact info embedded in them (all the calculators are cobol programs) that can not be altered. By that I mean, it wouldn’t help another Realtor to copy or steal it..

So, I guess the bottom line is, be creative, be innovated, don’t do what others do, be yourself, that’s what I’ve learned from my 101 class years ago.

Dan:

Did you have software to prepare these discs (in terms of creating the calculators and whatnot)? Sounds like a great idea!!

Aimee

Aimee;
I wrote the s/w. I also have a version on my web written in javascript.

That's awesome Dan. I am not crafty in that way!

Agent Bauer,

I can appreciate how frustrated you must feel. When I started it took forever to start getting listings. Don't give up on the expireds but change your approach. Stop dropping off a marketing plan, just knock on the door and ask if they are still thinking of selling. Engage them in conversation, ask to have a tour of the home, ask for an appointment to talk about your marketing approach. You have to be face to face to get a listing. Do not phone to follow up. Go in person. Again and again as it builds their trust in you. Tons of agents phone expireds and the seller can't recall who is who. Face to face increases your odds of listing them by a huge amount. Chase new expireds everyday and follow up the old ones every week as well. I did this successfully for quite a few years till my farm started working.

Now about your farming approach. 300 homes is not enough! You need at least 1,000 but 1500 is better still. You must deliver to them at least once per month, 3 times per month is better in the start so they begin to recognize you! Use notepads, pens, magnets etc or keep it cheap and do a monthly newsletter supplemented with a flyer or two. If you are serious about farming see www.hobbsherder.com for info on selecting a farm.
Email me and I'll send you a great article from them that outlines the approach. The seed idea is cute and would be part of a farming approach but in itself you cannot expect any consistent business from one giveaway. Do 12 or 18 more in the next 12 months and you will start to get calls.

I disagree with Fraser..300 homes is enough for a successful farm but you may not have the "right" farm. Have you analyzed it to see if it has enough turnover? Nieghborhood farming is not a quick avenue to listings. It may take up to a year of consistent farming. You must touch them 10-12 times in a year.

Make sure you send the farmn something about real estate every month. Not a postcard with an Apple Pie recipe. You want them to think of you when they have a real estate need, not when the need a recipe. But it takes time.

Same with FSBO's & Expireds. Don't give up. The key is persistence. And bag the marketing proposal. FSBO's & Expireds do not want to hear about you. Again, send them stuff to help them (especially the FSBO's). Start off by trying to help the FSBO & gain their trust. You need to be there when they are ready to list. Don't give up until they list with you or sell. Your FSBO efforts are never wasted. The FSBO may sell the house on their own but they will remember your persistence & assistance & recommend you to someone else.

It sounds like you may be giving up too easily & yes, you probably need to sharpen your sales skills.

Agent bauer surely you have a mentor that's helping you along.
You have made so many posts in the past it would seem that some of these people would turn into business for you.

Maybe they see you as weak and needy,i am not saying you are but these people are choosing somebody to do business with and it isn't you so there has to be a deciding factor you are missing.

I know by being overzealous you can look desperate and unsuccessfull.What i do is be confident but not pushy that there business isn't going to break me because i have alot going on.It's the ere of confidence that psycholigically makes the seller or buyer feel confident in your abilities and that they are making the right choice.

People always want to do business with there friends,do you go right into your spiel or do you do the small talk first?Look at photos in the house when you walk in notice hobbies,sports,kids,interests.Listen to people about there lives it breaks the ice and humanizes you instead of making you just another agent that wants commission.

Technical doesn't mean squat,i know plenty of agents that are technical at re(very good) they are also tight,mechanical,not very warm and not very approachable by potential buyers or sellers.I also know agents that are horrible with papers but do tons of business because people just love them and click and they just get there assistants to run the tight paper ship.

Be a person first and a realtor second,humanize yourself as much as possible to make it harder for them to get rid of you.The we will call you in a couple of days is a brush off,there is a reason they do not want to choose you and you have to find that out.

good luck i hope whatever it is you are missing finally clicks for you.

One more thing to add. If you are planting a "seed," you are planting a seed. They aren't going to bloom overnight.

For example, a local salon always had a beautiful bouquet of flowers on their counter. The florist had placed his magnetic business cards on the counter and I grabbed one. Just two weeks ago, at least 2 years since I grabbed the card, I called the flower shop and ordered a bouquet.

It takes time. Just keep at it. I can sense how incredibly frustrated you are. I feel for you and don't look forward to it myself.

I think I underestimated the importance of sales skills when I entered this business. I had developed a large multilevel marketing business years ago and I gained my sales skills from that experience. I had to go to strangers homes two to three nights a week to talk to a group of skeptical people about purchasing an inventory of products in pursuit of a dream.

When someone walks through the door into one of my Open Houses I just have to talk to them until I can engage them and feel things click. Same with buyers or sellers. I'm compelled to do it unless there is something I don't like about that person, then I make no effort at all and let them walk away. It's just something in me that HAS to connect in a real way with the other person and I never try to bring real estate into the conversation, but it just naturally turns out that way because it is something I'm knowledgeable and passionate about and that the other person presumably has some level of interest in or they wouldn't be there either.

I never think of myself as a salesperson, but I guess every successful real estate person has to have those skills or as Greg says, you don't get to the point in your conversation where you get the person to make decisions and commitments that move your relationship along to the next stage.

Having said all that, I didn't earn a dime my first year either - luck does play a role at this stage. Expireds and FSBO's are hard for a newbie, my mentor recommended we leave those alone until we had a track record. I sent over a dozen mailings to my farm for a year before I had even a comment about them. I've done volunteer work for 25 years in my community in positions of high visibility and leadership -- that does make a difference in my real estate business (in fact it drives most of my business). Another agent prefers to do volunteer work behind the scenes and has found that the volunteer work had zero effect on her real estate business.

I would go back to the drawing board on the business plan. This one is just not producing the results you want. This business is hard, but it shouldn't be this hard!

Bauer,
I struggled to my first half year with only three sales. Then, I stopped doing all that crap like putting your name on pencils and mailing post cards to a farm and I focused my energy on starting clubs. I started a tennis club and started going to other existing clubs. Instead of waisting my time on the same ol' stuff all the other Realtors are doing, i just sat back and made friends, had some fun and boy did that work. I am currently farming out work to other agents, I am getting refferals every week from people i meet and from people that they know. Just learn to not act like a sales agent and you will do fine