I'm finishing my class on Friday, planning on taking the test on Saturday and should decide on which broker I'm going with sometime next week. I'm setting a goal for myself of having my first signed contract by the end of April, which will give me two months. Yeah, I know, tough goal, but I do my best when I challenge myself.

Besides the usual advice of doing open houses, going after expireds and FSBOs, and contacting previous contacts and family, what kind of creative ideas have the experienced agents come up with to find prospects? Has anyone found any certain types of events that attract potential buyers/sellers? Home expos? Hanging out in certain sections of Home Depot or Loews? In the library by the dewey decimal section 333 (Essentials of NJ Real Estate is 333.333, for those who are into useless real estate trivia).

I'm trying to think outside of the box to give me an edge over the competition. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Rainbow - great question! And here's the thing. Home buyers and sellers are EVERYWHERE. They aren't hanging out in secret clubs or reading certain magazines - they are all around you. The trick is to know your stuff well enough to be able to speak intelligently and confidently to a potential client (or gatekeeper to a client) when they cross your path.

"Your Stuff" includes your market (huge!), your contracts and your systems. It's tough to be confident, and therefore magnetic if you're unsure of yourself. Of course, as a new agent, you WILL be unsure of yourself, but you can control the level of that unsure-ness.

If you don't have that confidence, you could be in a room full of red-hot buyers & sellers and wouldn't be able to snag any...

So, my advice is to spend your first several weeks LEARNING. Preview houses like a madwoman. Read your contracts over and over and make sure you understand every single line. Practice using your contract software until you can write an offer in your sleep. Shadow other agents if they'll let you. Master your MLS and practice pricing homes.

Doesn't matter where you meet your propects if they aren't buying what you are selling........

Remember your potential client has tons of other agents and you aren't the only game in town.

What are you going to do to set yourself apart??

It's the number one reason agents fail is they can't get enough leads and when they get the leads they can't keep them as a client to get to closing so they get paid.

Remember potential cleints are everywhere but it's the MARKETING MESSAGE that get's people to take action.

Here's my point. You go crazy all along town distributing cards everywhere parking lots,libraries,whatever....

By sheer volume you might land a couple of prospects HOWEVER if you simply had a strong message and call to action on your marketing material your response rate would be much higher.

One of the agents in my office (the gregarious type) picked up 3 prospects at two supermarkets last week. They are out there.

This is, seriously, an idea I have had and am thinking of using. We should both try it and see where it gets us. Seriously.

Making a t-shirt that says "I Sell Real Estate For A Living"

and then underneath of that phrase, in smaller letters, have it say "no, seriously."

I think that might catch people's attention. They will ask you about it. EVERYONE wants to know about real estate...the 16 year old girl who works early mornings at the mocha shack by my house was asking me about it the other day!! Now, obviously, she can't buy a house. But I am close enough within her age group (I'm 20) that in a few years, maybe she WILL want to buy a house. Or maybe her boyfriend is a few years older and he wants to buy HER a house.

You see what I mean? People looooove to know about RE, and they always want to know "how is business?"

That's really cute. Maybe a button might be better since you probably don't want to walk around in a t-shirt all the time?!

Give stuff away on freecycle and be sure you're wearing your company name tag when they come to get the stuff. had a guy ask me about the market today and ask for my card - he's thinking about selling in a bit and thought I seemed nice and down to earth. hey, ya never know!

Hey Rainbow, I would say, attend networking groups in your area. Catching prospects online is the best one but takes time and a lot of money. Good luck!

I don't pay a dime to get prospects online. I have more leads than I can handle.

I've heard a lot of people say to always wear a name badge even when I'm "not working". I believe it'll work.

In my previous life in banking, we had to wear a lapel pin with our logo on it when we were working. Sometimes on my way home from work I'd stop at the store, or head to the mall and still be wearing my suit from work. People would see my pin and start asking me about their overdrafts, fees that they wanted returned, problems they had at the bank, problems with getting their checkbooks to balance...I always found it annoying because most of these people were from other branches, I didn't know a thing about them and really couldn't answer their questions. But now in this life, I can see welcoming people coming to me with questions because they probably aren't with another agent so they're a potential client for me.

Good advice everyone.

Great advice Viktor. I've been a member of various groups in the past and have tried to stay active in them over the past few months while I haven't been working. Waiting for the coveted residential real estate position to open in one of the local BNI chapters. I've been going through BNI withdrawal for the last 2 months since I had to resign my position when I was laid off.

Anything that takes a lot of money is going to have to wait until I start to collect some commission checks, and even then, I'll only do it if I think it'll pay off well in excess of the investment. It costs money to make money, but I don't like the idea of throwing away just for the sake of saying I spent a lot of money on my career.

I think a nice polo shirt with your broker logo would be a great idea (for shy people like me!!). Then, people can just casually find out you're in real estate, and if they're interested, they might strike up a conversation. And it'd be a little less nerdy-looking than a name tag.

Being a Notary Public has produced a few Prospects and some Sales. When I Notarize Documents I get a feel as to whether these are real people too, and our 1st encounter isn't with me trying to sell them something.

It doesn't cost much to hang out a shingle offering Notary Services, and it produces a few dollars. I have done several Notary Closings in my Office for $100 a pop; but that has really come to a halt with the death of the Internet Mortgage Business.

I find ways to mention real estate just about everywhere I go. I may be at a convenience store and start chatting with the clerk and say something like "I really needed a break from the office" which invariably gets a question like. "where do you work," or "what do you do?" I have said that at yard sales and one lady had me list her property which sold a few weeks later, another became an agent for us and a good friend. you never know who is looking to buy or sell.
I was at Wal mart one day when my daughter, who had been in the next aisle, came running over asking for my business card and ran off. She had heard 2 ladies talking about how frustrated one was trying to find a house, and gave them my card. I got a call the next day and sold her a house about a month later! yeah, I took my daughter shopping with that commission check!

I have found that my name badge is a great conversation starter, I wear it out every chance I have.