Rebar camp is very interesting. Once you leave the session they have a board set up and you just look at the times and look at the sessions. The 9:30 session the one that looked the most interesting to me was about "The silent market." The presenter was Joe Barfield
He was interesting in that his background was he was an archeologist before he got into Real Estate. I guess if being a professional poker player relates to real estate then his background might be even better. He described being an archeologist is like being a Realtor in reverse. He works in the San Antonio market and once he started doing it full time I think he had a volume of 3 million his 2nd year, 6 million his third and currently around 9 million. This is pretty impressive when you consider the average price of the home is between $150,000 and $175,000.
It seems like he is generating most of his activity from an email list. He initially sends out his mailing to around 50 real estate advocates who look it over. Then it goes out to the entire 2,000 names in his database.
What was fascinating to me is his listing are mostly focused on Vintage homes. His email that he sends out are written by an architectural historian. This really give a unique approach to highlight the significant features of the property. It also gives a historical perspective and research on the area.
I think his approach works great in a long standing community with older historic homes as opposed to the new build track community. Although Joe said he used the same approach with homes that were even two years old.
The specific action item and idea I got from the material was the idea of Having the homeowner list their top ten memories that they have in the home.
After he send the home out to his initial list if it still hasn't sold he then sends it to a list of 150 Realtors that work in the area. If the home still hasn't sold it then goes out to a list of 500 Realtors that he knows.
All of this marketing is done before the home hits the mls. That is the silent market.
I see several advantages to this approach
1) It's great for clients who are dealing with overpriced homes
2) It creates a cool factor and a sense of urgency. Better buy this house before it hit the mls.
3) For those deals that fall through it won't look that way on the mls. It will still appear fresh because it hasn't been listed yet.
Review of the opening session - Links to all of the presentations
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