I knew an agent whose major advertising promotional compaign each year was to hand out a business card to nearly each person wh met during the day. I think she bought around 10,000 cards with the goal putting each one in the hand of a prospect (about 30 a day).

Someone wrote many would argue door knock is a necessity for success. If I asked 100 agents in my market if that were the case, I would be suprised if 3 agreed with the statement. Maybe it is a peculiarity central to my market, though.

Hunter, judging from the opinions in this thread, looks like we won't have any competition door knocking/cold calling ... even if you tell people it works beautifully, they still refuse to do it! ... how great is that?

Therre are agents that base their business Completely on expireds, or referrals, or fsbos, etc. Find what works for you and expands on your strengths and you will excel.



www.contractfordeedmn.blogspot.com

It is great, for the image of the profession. The less of us begging random strangers for business, the better. You are more than welcome to partake in the fabulous riches and glamorous lifestyle that are the inevitable result of melding Mary Kay and Tupperware with real estate agency.

If you want a different perspective, try picking up a copy of Jennifer Allan's "Sell with Soul" book. Surely somewhere in between her perspective and Mike Ferry's you will stumble upon your own favorite balance of profit and enjoyment. [/quote]



To my thinking Andy Perkins makes the most sense, we need to Get Mike Ferry to make a baby with Jennifer Allen and this would produce a well balanced and successful agent. I took the liberty to call Mike on this scientific experiment and he is on board and looking forward to spending some "Quality Time" with Jennifer.(Sabrina is not to know) The beautiful thing with this business is we can create our own custom version of these two that suits our own goals/personalities. Now if I was forced to bet on one horse I know for sure who that would be.


Nannyavak, that is one of your most feeble responses to date, what's wrong with you?, are you sick or just getting lazy.

Wow..these people that I work with must be really brave to trust bad image me with the biggest investment of their lives.

Agreed... I don't really enjoy doorknocking/cold calling ... I don't really enjoy asking/meeting my SOI for business and hoping I get referrals eventually ... I don't really enjoy blogging and/or constantly updating my website for SEO reasons to get leads that come from anywhere and get me stuck in traffic most of the time...I don't really enjoy spending tons of money on bench ads, flyers, etc, and hoping for the best after a large upfront investment... I don't really enjoy doing open houses.

I really enjoy spending time with family and going on vacations, so I picked doorknocking/cold calling because I can predict, measure the results, and net a lot.

When I look at my business cash flow statement, this is what I see:

Gross Commission - 4% for my broker - cost of business cards = real joy for me.

Everyone's different, everyone should figure out for themselves what's enjoyable.

I have a novel question to raise. How many of you do the Mike Ferry thing? Do you do this for motivation or to learn or both?

If you're new to the industry and need to get a few yard signs up in order to get your name out there, then targeted door-knocking is a very effective strategy. Rather than just blindly pester any random neighbor, who may or may not be in the market to buy or sell, turn your efforts to the MLS expireds or for sale by owner listings. Knock their doors confidently with a simple but effective I-pad sample listing presentation and you'll quickly establish a clientele. Then market those listings exceptionally well and buyer leads will inevitably follow. Keep converting the unrepresented buyers while adding in more listings and you can generate a modest amount of business for yourself.

Essentially, this is how many of the old timers got off the ground, regardless of market conditions. With enough listings (10+) and consistent buyer lead follow-up/conversion, you'll eventually have enough business that you won't need to door knock anymore (even though doing so definately wouldn't hurt your bottom line).

Obviously, the most successful agents most likely don't pound the pavement, but I'd be willing to wager that many, if not most of them did do so early on in their careers.

Like other posters in this thread, I'm not particularly fond of door-knocking, but I'll always do it when other makerting efforts either get too expensive or fail to bring in enough leads.

I was going to mention the same thing a seattleite. I would call expireds and FSBO's warm door knocks. These sellers get tons of calls but few face to face hello's.

Don