I was thinking of putting a small ad in one of those local weekly papers in a town that has expensive homes advertising "looking to buyer or sell a house....". Was curious if this type of marketing actually works and if there's any ways of wording the ad that has had success for anyone in the past.

I've been doing really well since I started less than a year ago in my current office but the bulk of my business so far has been very low end small condos and starter homes. Lately I've been using craigslist to try and get buyers in the higher end towns and so far I got four of them. They all have nice homes that they want to list with me and are looking at newer houses in the 400-500 price range. Everyone comes to our first showing with a preapproval letter already with them and seems to be a lot more movtivated at buying a home with a specific time when they'd like to be in their new place.

I'm really tempted to leave my current office and work in one of those towns directly but my broker is amazing and said he'd help me through my first flip whenever I was ready.

I've tried leaving business cards in stores and restaurants but never got any feedback. And cold calling was a disaster last time I tried it. lol Was wondering if advertising in papers would work or if there's any other approaches that you use to get these types of clients. Thanks in advance.

You are doing really well then. Look at what seems to be working in your area, look at those newspapers you are talking about, any Real Estate agents advertising there now? If so, be nice and call a few of them, and be really nice, see what you can do to become friends, take one or two of them out for drinks or lunch, pick their brains a little, but do it in a subtle way and they will likely give you a good indication as to if the newspaper adds are worth it or not.

My gut reaction is that the newspaper is a very expensive way to reach people, and the higher end the homes the more likely these people would go to the internet looking for info such as this rather than the newspaper.

Good advice James.

See what's working for other people in your situation and expand on it. I don't know what the effectiveness of media such as radio and television are, or what your advertising budget is, but don't count out any forms of advertising.

Good luck.

Hey thanks. I know there's one paper that only charges 25 cents per word. There's one agent that has his picture and an ad every week in one of the local papers (not the one I'm considering) so I might give him a call to see if it's working.

Haven't tried any form of direct marketing or advertising as of yet. So far the most effective way of getting a client for me has been to find out where they work and live and go directly there with a printout of all the homes in the areas that they're looking at and then send them email followups. Was expecting to get the door slammed on my face but they ended up talking my ear off for over a half hour.

In the mean time I might give that paper a one month trial to see what happens. I'll post up a thread if anyone's interested to see how it goes.

If you have a listing someone in one of those towns may be interested in I would advertise that. All of my good buyers have come from good listings I had.

Alex

I used to advertise in such a paper in a very upscale neighborhood but I have to tell you that it would be wise to consider it institutional advertising. My purpose was to keep my name and picture in front of that group, even though I knew most people in the area put the paper directly into the trash.

I managed to get my ad placed next to a sort of what's happening society column, which was good placement. And I quickly learned not to use a are you buying or selling approach but a providing quality real estate consultation to my __________ neighbors approach.

Most of the business was from direct contacts such as the country club, etc. where they were looking to do business with "our own kind". Snobby, yes, but my kids went to school with their kids, we ate at the same places, we shopped at the same places, and went to the same events, so I was on common ground with them.

I don't know what level your talking about when you say higher end, you may not be referring to the kind of area I'm talking about but many of the same principles would still apply.