"Of course, nothing replaces face to face interaction."

I spend about 40 bucks a month with a direct mail campaign.I target mainly commercial and land listings.So I drive around and find the best listings that were not marketed correctly or the timing has just become right to sell whereas before the surrounding projects were not built up yet to a point for the seller to get there price yet.

This is one of the key components to listing land is TIMING.Some broker might here a whisper of a Publix going in and want to list land around it.The inexperienced broker doesn't know that developers,principals,and investors will not want to buy surrounding land for full value and will only want to LANDBANK at a reduced value and hold.Until the development for Publix for instance has been passed through any annexation and zoning issues,plans have been approved,and Publix has signed a committment letter for the project,and the sign has went up and ground has been broken then the value is not realized until that point where surrounding sellers will get top dollar.

I do mailings and people return phonecalls.The listings are usually great for me because they are on main road frontage and my signs get anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 possible vehicle impressions daily.

I started in residential years ago but with my business background I couldn't stand the residential side,weird hours,and PITA sellers.I love commercial as it's all about negotiation and numbers and emotions play a very small factor.

Super makes some good points, as commercial is a different breed of cat.

i.e. the leaving cards on window sills - the store allows it and lots of people do it. If the store didn't want them there they'd throw them out.

I'm trying an experiment. I bought magnet calendars, the kind you put your business card on. Cute calendars, full of home-owner tips and investor tips. Ran an ad in a local realty magazine with coupon for free calendar on request. I'll see if I get any results from this. Calendars cost about 50 cents each, and all my prior buyers and sellers will get one as well. I've noticed the retention rate for these magnet calendars is really great...people put them on their refrigerators and keep them all year. I think it's money well spent.

Hmm - interesting idea, neudot -

have you considered going door to door and handing out the calendars (and making note of the name and address of each one that accepts?)

I'll be curious to hear what your response rate is.

Giving away calendars is a great idea, but promotional items like disposable pens or cheap magnetic calendars work best only if you give them away to a lot of people (1000+). If you are going to do it in a more targeted campaign through coupons then you probably need to give away more expensive and better quality calendars otherwise they might get disappointed after going through the trouble of sending in the coupons. IMO



(not meant as professional or legal advice)

Oh, don't forget that Old Republic (ORHP.com) and other companies offer free promotional stuff for agents. Old Republic has door hangers, preprinted newsletters that can be modified to include your contact info and other stuff.

Also, there's Lowes REALTORŪ Benefits with free stuff and REALTOR.org has a number of affordable toolkits for us. Free or affordable is what I'm looking for.