Mr Owens,


You work for Gary Keller, I heard him clearly state in an interview that he would not hire an agent who would not do 3-4 hours a day of lead generating activity. His reasoning was that if the agent didn't do this work that he would bring down the office and he would prefer to see this individual join his competition.

Gary even hired some scientist to perfect a system called 36-12-3 or something like that.(had someting to do with calling people)

I respect people who are honest, you have a brave boss. Many brokers say you are charming/delightful and will do very well in the real estate but don't talk about scientific formulas.(women especially don't like scientific formula's, they are not very cuddly or cute).

Anyhoo there is a tropical storm coming to visit you in SC today so I guess you wont be out door knocking but dont forget there is always the phone, no excuses. We all promise not to make fun of you or call you a girly guy if you only make 99 calls today, at least from Canada. I was just remembering door
knocking in a snow storm and see no reason why you cant door knock in a hurricane. You might be Lucky and see god while looking directly into the eye
of the hurricane.


Hunter.


Vermont, please proof read, thank's for your
back up.

Why? Do you have a better one? Many have posted here and PM'd me how they found it full of information and free knowledge.

What's your beef?

This chart is utter garbage. I have been in the 0-10 level for years and do not have a boss and never will. Door knocking and phone jockeying are NOT REQUIRED to be successful in real estate. The alternative, being a professional and competent agent, works better than any silly mechanical campaign, and always will.

Furthermore, it is amusing to watch the real estate mechanotrons cite "leads" as some measure of success: "I door knocked for 4 hours today and got 3 absolutely solid leads." Absolute rubbish. Many people are too polite to send you where you should go, so they will BS with you for 20 minutes and say they will call you real soon since they might be moving. Great! Now you can go home and congratulate yourself on accumulating more "leads". Leads that mean nothing and never become closings.

And please, every door knocker has the stories of fool's gold: "I door knocked this home and the timing was perfect, the homeowner listed with me the next day, we closed in 30 days, I made $20,000, and I got 4 buyers all of whom are going to definitely buy with me". Aside from the fact that most of these stories are puffed up lies, what we do not hear about are the 2 weeks before where the daily door knocking lead to precisely nothing and hours and hours were spent wasting time. And in fact even making enemies. Every homeowner who politely told you to get lost will implicitly decide NOT to use you when they DO need to sell. Why? Anybody desperate enough to go door-to-door with the vacuum cleaners is definitely not someone you want to trust with selling your home.

Meanwhile, a good agent uses the same "downtime" to perfect their practice and expand their knowledge, build and improve websites, take courses on mortgages and mold and home inspection and appraisal and computers and economics and on and on.

So after 2 weeks, a good agent has become a better agent. And indeed a better person. A mechanotron just needs a new pair of shoes.

I do understand that some people probably do not have the skill set to succeed as a professional real estate agent. So they are looking for some mechanical activity that will provide success, since being a sharp agent is actually beyond their capabilities. For these people, door knocking may be a means of scratching out a meager survival, so by all means, free country and all.

However, my message to the new agents is this: Become good and provide superlative service. Be the most knowledgable and competent agent in your office, the one who every one else comes to when they have a question. Look the best, perform the best, and be tireless in the pursuit of excellence. Do that, and I promise you, you will never have to resort to the miserable practice of schlepping from door to door to door to door like a bedraggled Jehovah's Witness, peddling your silly speech and phony friendliness.

The business will come to you. Like it does to all the best agents.

By the way, has anyone ever heard of a door knocking attorney? Or a door knocking CPA?

Would anyone give business to such a creature?

No, I thought not.

Would an Ambulance Chaser do ?

I liken televised solicitations to join Class Action Mal-Practice Suits to be just about as sleazey . . . . but jillions and jillions of others sign up. Can they all be wrong ?

But it's true, the Green Eye Shade Accountants are an introspective and shy retiring crowd. They don't hawk their services . . . . yet.

Here's another fool's gold story for Navarac's archive.

Listed a home yesterday from August efforts of prospecting door knocking / Flyers. $224,950 Full Commission...It's priced $15,000 below market value and has granite slab countertops and upgraded cabinets. Appraised Value of May 2010, $255,000 but market has gone a bit down since. Should sell easily.

This transaction may turn to be a listing and a sale as she likes one of the new construction homes I list.

This was my only side transaction for the month of August in addition of 5 builder sales I wrote up. Not where I want to be yet but I can see this system bringing me 1 solid side listing a month. Now I have to get it to 2 / month.

My brother lives near Puyallup.

Gotcha beat. 45 cent letter - 20 unit apartment complex seller called on the phone.

120k in commission all mine because I AM the broker.LOL

If people want to make it in real estate doing door knocking go for it.

I go for the most money in the least amount of time.That gives BOTH time and money to enjoy myself.If you only have money and not time you will burnout.

So don't ask yourself how to make more money.Ask yourself how do I make more money in less time and then even leverage other people to make even more money while I am asleep at night.

Even billionaires only have 24hrs in a day.What they can increase though is the amount of work accomplished in that time span through leverage.

That's a Super story Super. I love hearing stories like this. Very motivating.

How many commission cheques like that do you cash in per year?

Good that you found a seller willing to price it so far below appraised value. In my neck of the woods many sellers cling to their appraisals as their "bottom line" and in fact many are still rooted in 2005. LOL

Danton,

Congratulations, sounds like you have a very attractive listing. It appears you do have a penchant for talking to strangers, especially the female type. Now the trick is to be consistant, not an easy one but definity possible, personally I try and set activity goals rather than productions goals, the one seems to follow the other. Buy a golfing umbrella it's big enough to keep you dry and it will stop you from flaking out when it's raining.

I'm starting to have a new found respect for the word consistancy,
I suspect it's omnipotent.


Lucky,

Here is something weird, the results that I get from phone work
are very similar to your numbers. (2500 people per anum for many years).
So one can only assume you still have a quality component at play and are
not very Lucky at all, just doing more of the basics.

How often when you win a listing do you think chemistry or a meeting of the
minds is envolved as apposed to full tilt profesional skills?


Hunter.

Simple Formula.

Selling is finding people to sell and selling the people
you find.

I can understand both viewpoints on door knocking. Although, I wouldn't recommend door knocking in areas above $500,000; I believe some hardworking, middle class, areas would respect the work ethic you have shown. For me, it is a bit different. I am young (25) and don't think I should be ashamed of door knocking in this economy.

Typically I walk up, introduce myself. Then ask the person if they currently have a Realtor. If no, I say I would love to put you on my mailing list and send you local market updates. After that, I ask them if by any chance can "help a young Realtor in this 'fabulous' economy.” Most of the time people laugh and sometimes they open up and give me leads. It's not the end of the world for me. I am young and just trying to get out there and get the job done. I don't think when you begin your career in real estate door knocking is 'all that bad.' This is especially true for me because virtually NONE of my peers own homes yet. Personally, I think it's more unusual to do this when you are an 'experienced agent.' The flaw is likely lack of follow up with past clients. Or, a horrendously ineffective follow up plan with past clients. Yet, if experienced agents choose to door knock and make money off hard work, more power to them!
I think half of these of the negative comments are from people who are annoyed that one can make money of this Age Old technique. These alienating remarks likely come from someone who would never do it themselves. And fellow door knockers are taking a couple sales out of their territory.

My thoughts are, congrats to all door knockers that make money off your efforts. I applaud your hard work.

After all a sale is a sale isn't it??? Just some food for thought..

-Will

Also, I have a question for fellow doorknockers. I would think houses priced below $200,000 would grant you the best results...? (IE more leads) I have not been door knocking long but what is your exprience on gaining the most leads.. Does the price range have much to do with the quality or number of leads?

When I was starting out and a similar age to you I door knocked
a blue collar neighborhood that had high turnover. The irony of
it was the only people who would work with a young guy were
retired people. So in hind site I could have door knocked a upper
middle price point and suspect the older people would have used
me too. The agents in the area used to make fun of me, they said I was the perfect grandson that they all wished for, I always visited them on a regualr basis.

The only reason I landed up there was my mother with her 30
years of real estate experience thought it best, she didn't
know that young people would shy away from me because of my
age.

A great agent I know grew up in a blue collar neighborhood
but chose to door knock a upper middle class area, he is now
55 years old and a heavy hitter in the Remax System,
yes he still goes out door knocking when he has time.

A women who lives in a upper middle class part of the city
door knocked her way into the top 100 of Remax, it took her
6 months before she made her first sale. Her moto is "feel the fear and do it anyway". Lucky probably knows of Marion. A close friend who owned a landscaping business that operated in her area said he saw her out there in all kinds of weather on a regular basis. Her other advise was "keep your spirits high
you will be tested".

I know two great guys who door knock High turnover areas and
do exeptionally well. The one guy door knocks in the evening
and told me when he hands over his newsletter his hand is often
shaking from fear.

I heard of a women in our firm who door knocked and had reached
into the top tier of our 12000 sales reps, so I called her up
in some strange town, turns out she door knocked from 7-9 in
the morning and only an area of 300 homes, she was British and
didn't sound like a crazy so I had to believe her.


You mention If one had stayed in touch with ones past clients
that door knocking shouldn't be necessary, you make a good point,
but when your mother retires after decades of real estate sales and a past client opens her own relocation firm and chooses you as the "one" your time gets stretched very quickly. But nothing last forever, so back to the streets when things get quiet.


Either way I'm glad you are supportive of this Age Old Art that
I suspect will never die. It's not always easy to get yourself out
there unless you are hungry or disciplined.



Door knock an area:

- that you feel comfortable in

- enjoy the style of homes

- must be close to were you live

- learn to "listen" which is tricky to do when you are nervous

You will loose a lot of business to agents that are middle aged,
including middle aged agent that cold call and door knock, your
life will be easier if you just accept that.