TOTAL HOMES: 56 (approx)
TOTAL TIME: 1:30

In his books, Dirk Zeller advices giving yourself a little pep talk before each prospecting session. And since door-knocking counts as prospecting, I gave myself a little affirmation that got me started.

I live in my farm, so its really easy for me to head out the door and hit the streets. From the very beginning, there was one man that was very nice and I engaged him a bit. He was clear about not needing to move, but talking to him got me a little warmed-up and set a pretty good tone for my walk. We talked about the city and various issues (we both follow City Hall) and it was a nice chat but I moved on.

Another great thing was that my packet with the Dodgers schedule is a hit. If they're not interested in reading my articles, I flip the packet over and show them how a magnet with the schedule is included and they light up! At the very least, I'm getting some response with that.

The most surprising thing about all of this is that, generally speaking, people are very receptive to me. It's not a cakewalk, but it was a little easier than I expected. The only odd time was when one gentleman saw me hitting other houses and I eventually hit his. As I was walking up, he waved me off and said "too busy". But he was also watching me the whole time prior to that - it was almost as if he went out of his way to wait for me just to tell me that he was too busy . . . weird!

Either way, it's a good start. I hit about 56 homes in about 90 minutes.

congrats on your productivity, you are doing what others do not do, and as long as you stick with it, which is the hard part you will do just fine.


imagine if you took that same time and hit houses that were fsbo and expired. you know htat they want to sell, just have to show em why they need to use you.

Yay you!!

Good start, just keep at it because there are many agents out there too intimidated to knock doors. Since you live in your farm area when you see that guy you talked to stop by and chat with him when he is outside, he may be a source of referrals.

The guy that waved you off because he was too busy, never just walk away, just say "I respect that you are busy sir" hand him your magnet and continue on.

Wait til you get one lead while out door knocking, you'll get real hungry to get another.

Now tie in your door knocking on the Friday before your Open House. You'll find this very effective.

Yeah, I really wish I would have had a better reply. I simply walked away without saying anything. I should have at least said, "Have a nice day" to acknowledge him, but I didn't.

You are off to a good start! You will work out the wrinkles as you go.

I am surprised at how many doors you hit in how short of a time frame...

That's it, you don't know how to react when it happens for the first time until you go home and think about it and say...I should of done this.

Great start, Dennis.

Here is an article about a door knocking legend I had a chance to meet and watch working (pretty amazing) - Froy Candelario.

Froy made over $1 million dollars a year door knocking every single day. Hope it inspires you as much as it inspired me:

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/profiles/ferry_tale.php

Two reasons for this:

1 - I'm in decent shape right now. In fact, I have another marathon coming up this weekend (third one this year), so I'm in peak condition :). The walking goes by pretty fast.

2 - Not everyone is home. I have to leave my packet at about 10% of the homes.

Good work! You'll always get someone who thinks you are "out to get them" so don't take it personally. A "Have a nice day" is probably the best idea, like you mentioned.

Did you get anyone who said they are thinking about putting their home on the market?

So what time did you start walking? I ask because I am planning on beginning my door knocking campaign this weekend and what time to start is the one thing I'm still unsure about.

I do my walks during the week, so I start at 5PM. I could do them during the day (I work from home) but I decided to go at a time when most people are going to be home. It's tempting to sneak out during the day and only hit the homes that don't have cars in the driveway, but I fight that urge

If I was going out on the weekends, I'd probably go at around 9AM a reasonable hour but you could still catch people before they start their day.

Not yet, but I figure it's only a matter of time. I've hit less than 10% of homes in my farm, something is bound to come up.

Besides, I'm in this for the long-run. This is my first door-knocking campaign, but definitely not my last.

When someone is rude to you, and you say "have a nice day"... you know you don't really mean it and so you have that weird feeling because know you are lieng. What you REALLY want to say is... "eat sh!t and die you moron" ... now wouldn't that make you feel a LOT better! Stay true to your feelings and Try that next time.

When I first started real estate I did so by door knocking. Took 3 listings in about 3 weeks. It DOES work. Expect to generate one good lead or referral for every 50 or so people you talk to while you're getting to know everyone. In my experience only 1 out of 50 refused to talk to me, and about 1/2 of them gave me their email (I was doing an e-newsletter at the time).

If you're friendly and ask engaging questions, they'll open up to you and tell you all about the neighbors that are about to move! Just you wait. After a few weeks, you'll start to see even better results.

fiveostang - I appreciate the encourgement! I certainly hope those numbers hold for me. If so, I'll be swimming in leads in no time!

I just wanna know something. When you guys go door knocking wth do you say to people????

My first time out, two other agents went with me and after the first couple houses we were pretty comfortable and split the duty and hit the houses separately. All was going well, and then I got to THE house.

The man cracked the door, and I started my introduction. He promptly said, "I don't need no d*mn real estate!" Then he drew the door back until the hinges buckled a bit as to get a full windup to slam the door so hard all the windows on the house rattled.

It only took about a second for me to fall into a ball on his front step laughing my a*s off! It helped that my fellow agents were laughing, too. Had I been by myself I might have slinked back to my car with my feelings hurt!

Best thing to help getting in the mindest for door knocking is the set of tapes from David Knox "Take the BO out of FSBO." Keep up the knocking, and laugh the crazies off.

LOL, I can see how it would be funny - usually at the office we trade "war stories" and end up laughing over the crazies we come in contact with.

However - I have to giggle - you guys hitting the neighborhoods in pairs or in threes make me think of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) or Jehovah's Witnesses canvassing for new converts! LOL

Door knocking always makes me think of that Men At Work song from the '80s "Who Can It Be Now"