Tomorrow is Sunday and I have made it a practice to stop by two to three Open Houses on my way home from Church. This practice has been a great marketing tool for me, and one that I enjoy doing. Many of the business relationships that I have formed with the Realtors that I work with have been a result of stopping by Open Houses on Sundays.
Here in upper Middlesex County most of the Open Houses are done on Sunday between the hours of 1:00 – 3:00 in the afternoon. This time works great for me because I am usually leaving Church around 12:30, and it takes me about 20 to 30 minutes to get into the territory that I cover. I live about 30 minutes from Church, so my wife and family are getting home about the same time that I am stopping by the first Open House. Our main meal on Sunday is the afternoon meal, so I am usually arriving home by the time my wife has finished preparing it.
I started this practice shortly after I became a Loan Officer, and have continued it ever since. When I stop by an Open House I do not come empty handed. No I do not bring coffee and donuts, though I am sure most Realtors would appreciate that to. What I bring are Loan Scenario Flyers that I put together on the Saturday before. They look like the one on the left, which by the way I did as a demo for this blog. This is a Listing that one of our AR members, Linda Davis has for sale. I figured since I was going to show a sample of a Flyer, I might as well give some exposure to one of our own members.
I have created two different sets of Flyers for all the Realtors in my territory. The first set consists of loan scenarios for two fixed loan options, and two ARM options. The second set consists of one fixed loan options, one ARM option, and a Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) loan with a Downpayment and Closing Cost option with it. The Flyers are customized with each Realty Companies logo and colors, and the price of the house determines which one of the Flyers I use. For example in Gales Ferry the CHFA property limits are $331,700 so I choose a Flyer with a CHFA scenario, since this house falls under that limit.
I do the Flyers on an Excel Spread Sheet and have programmed it to automatically calculate all the figures, once I have entered the initial information at the top, selling price, taxes, and insurance. The only thing other than this that I have to do is to attach a picture of the house, which I get from Realtor.com, type in the address, and change the interest rate for that day. The cells are programmed to automatically figure the downpayment, loan amount, monthly payment with P&I, monthly taxes, monthly home owners insurance, and PMI. I can put a Flyer together in about ten minutes, the picture and taxes are what take me the longest to get. I print ten copies for each house on 48 lb. high quality glossy paper, which gives them a professional look.
These Flyers have been very well received at just about all the Open Houses that I have stopped at. I believe the reason why the have been so well received is, because Realtors generally do not have anything to give prospective buyers an idea of what the monthly payment might be. I would say that about 95% of all the Open Houses that I stop at the Realtor puts them right next to there literature. This is great for me, because everyone that stops by and picks up information on the house also picks up one of my Flyers with my information on it. What has even started to happen, is if I stop at an Open House for a Realtor that I have already done this for. The first thing that they say when I walk in the door is “Do You Have Flyers”. Some of them even call me the week of the Open House and ask me to put some together so they can have them ahead of time.
These Flyers have also provided a great way for me to sort of break the ice with a new Realtors, it gives us something to talk about. Most of the time when I stop by an Open House there isn’t anyone there, so this gives me time to talk to the Realtor and they appreciate the company. In fact the main reason why I developed these Flyers was not to try to get business form the prospective buyers that stop by the Open House, though I have gotten business from them. The main reason for the Flyers is to help me develop a relationship with the Realtors at these Open Houses. Realtor referrals are where the bulk of my business comes from, and I am always looking for new ways to expand upon those relationships. These Flyers have been one of my best tools in accomplishing this.
These Flyers are one of the simplest and least expensive marketing tools that I have established, and they have been very successful for me. I hope that this information proves useful for you. If you are a Loan Officer and you are not doing this, you might want to consider adding this to the ways you market yourself. If you are a Realtor, and the Loan Officer that you refer your business to is not doing this for you, you might consider requesting this from him/her. I think that you would find it a very useful tool for yourself, and the Loan Officer would appreciate the exposure. If anyone would like a sample Flyer, I would be happy to e-mail you one, so that you can see what a full size one looks like.
********************************************************************************************
Info about the author:
George Souto is a Loan Officer who can assist you with all your FHA, CHFA, and Conventional mortgage needs in Connecticut. George resides in Middlesex County which includes Middletown, Middlefield, Durham, Cromwell, Portland, Higganum, Haddam, East Haddam, Chester, Deep River, and Essex. George can be contacted at (860) 573-1308 or gsouto@mccuemortgage.com
Comments (110)Subscribe to CommentsComment