Door knocking for real estate leads can be fun--and you get a lot of exercise. It's hand-to-hand combat for Realtors. Here are some basic door-to-door techniques I learned when paying my shoeleather dues. Door-to-door work is scary for some people. But there are a few things you can do to reduce the stage fright:
- work as a team
- rehearse what you're going to do
- visit only likely houses and bypass any that seem empty, disreputable, dangerous, or have "No Soliciting" signs posted.
I used to work as a two person team with a lender colleague. Now, this part may sound sexist, but I'm 63 years old, and I don't care. My door knocking partner was a drop-dead gorgeous leggy blond named Summer. Why should that description of my partner be relevant? Do you really need to ask? Anyway, Summer and I wrote and rehearsed our basic approach in great detail. We also researched our "farm" ahead of time and had a spreadsheet of the property addresses and owners with us on a clip board. You need to keep notes as you move from one house to another.
The main outline went like this: Summer rang the doorbell or knocked on the door. I stood a few steps away and slightly to the side so that I was visible but not threatening. After ringing or knocking, Summer would take two steps back so that she was not right in their face. Both of us are very relaxed, like friends dropping by.
When the resident opened the door, Summer would say: "Hi, I'm Summer from Bank of the Sierra." If the opportunity presented itself (the screen door was opened, the person was actually wearing clothes, etc), Summer would hand him or her a business card that had both of our pictures and contact info.
"This is Bob Jenkins from Century 21 Foothill Realtors." I'd say, "Howdy," with a little wave.
Summer would pick it up with something like, "We're walking the neighborhood giving you the up-to-date information about real estate activity in your neighborhood. We have all the recent sales of home here in Golden Hills and the prices that homes sold for in your neighborhood. May we leave it with you?
If the resident takes the one-page fact sheet, we were ready with several prompts, questions, or follow ups. At this point, we could usually tell if there was the possibility of that most important action:
a conversation with the homeowner.
I'm not going to describe the different scripts, directions, objectives, or whatever of the conversations in this article. That's a topic unto itself. We might get one conversation out of four opened doors, and one substantial follow-up out of four conversations. What is that? One out of sixteen opened door resulted in a follow-ups.
Initially we were surprised how kind and friendly many people were, how quick they were to "talk real estate." If the door was shut in our face, or there was some kind of negative or wierd response, we'd shrug, retreat and move on.
Finally, I'd like to mention that door knocking takes stamina and good shoes. Don't waste your time in neighborhoods that are not viable for this kind of campaign. Even working as a team, you need to feel safe walking the streets. The houses need to be pretty close together and without long steep driveways. If you pick the wrong neighborhood, you'll find out pronto! Switch to another neighborhood.
So many doors, so little time.
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