Did you know that there are sales associates that use FSBO's and Expired's as their main source of income? You know where they live, so you should knock on those people's doors. I'm not going to phone; I'm not going to send mail to those people. The whole purpose of using the phone is to get an appointment. Well, if you know where they live , they are a for sale by owner, it's just as easy for me to knock on the door , then it is for me to pick up the phone and have them hang up on me. See, the trick with the for sale by owner is that, again, you need to be in front of buyers and sellers in order to do business. They're not ready to do business with you. They are convinced that they want to be for sale by owner. So sending something in the mail is just going to go in the garbage and calling them on the phone, they are going to hang up on you. But, if you knock on the door and talk to them. If you tell them that you are going to help them, and guide them through the process and spoon feed them information about the real estate business. If you show them that they do in fact need you, and that you prove your worth, then when it comes time for them to list their property, they are going to list it with you. You were in front of them and you helped them all along, and now you're in front of them when they are ready to do business! So that's a little trick about for sale by owners.
And when you're dealing with expired listings, the same thing holds true. Knock on the door, talk to them, use empathy, and explain that if they are still interested in selling their home, you'd like the opportunity to sit down and show them your marketing plan. And you can have your appointment right there; you're right at the door, knocking at the door. So use face-to-face marketing. It's very, very effective, and probably less expensive than any other type of marketing. Invest the time, get out into the marketplace and talk to your customers.
New ideas need to be explored to be successful in this business place. Using digital video for instance. The flip video has been a great addition to the real estate associate as a tool. For instance, you can have someone use your flip video and follow you around the home while you're going through its features and benefits as if you are with a customer. And by doing so, you can post that on your website, various networking sites, and now you've got a good tour of one of your listings. So use this, it's innovative, it's new and yet, it's a very inexpensive tool to get your property advertised in the various media.
Realtor.com is very special. There's somewhere around 80% of the people now out there searching online before they're actually getting to you. Realtor.com is the number one real estate site, so get in touch with Realtor.com and learn how to enhance your listings. When you enhance your listings, you as a sales associate get the lead as opposed to the company. If you have your company listing there, your company name and phone number is on the listing and there's actually no way to click there live to get to a web site or to get to you. When you enhance your listings, YOU are featured on the listing, your website could be present and they can just run the cursor over to a live link to get your website and leave you an e-mail and now you have that contact with the customer. So Realtor.com offers you lots of opportunities and since it's the number one real estate site, you might want to get involved with that.
Social networking is very important; Blogging, Facebook, Plaxo, YouTube, Linkedin, Twitter. All of the social networks are out there and people are doing business on them every day. It is another tool that we have to use and be familiar with. If you haven't been able to go online and do this, maybe you need to have somebody help you and start something new. If not, then maybe you need to get a kid to do it! I've found the people who are really up on this stuff are the kids. You're going to want to get them to help you out if that's the case. You can't just wave your hand and say, "Ah, I'm never going to learn this stuff." It is part of our business today and it is something that you need to be aware of. So get involved in it. Try it; it's not difficult, once you get into it. Have a little fun with it and make some money through the networking.
The next installment for success in today's market is dealing with education and designations.
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