The following anecdote is from experiences gained in actual, physical door knocking, walk about adventures.  I decided to come out of the closet after reading many SOI blogs and marketing on a budget type of blogs. My favorites are attributed in the introductory My Door Knocking Obsession.

 My question was, what if you don't have an SOI, yet?

I'm still laughing over this one. This story began with a phone call on a listing that I have in an upscale golf course gated community. I showed the home to the buyer suspect. It was actually far too large for her needs as she is a single female who may or may not have family come to live with her. She knew the size and price of the home before we had our walk through. Why did she make an appointment?

She loved the subdivision. There is always the hope that a seller might drop $150K or so :-) . I asked other questions and discovered she had called on several other homes in the sd and not had her calls returned.  I already knew she was not working with a REALTOR. Although it was not until I met her that I realized another REALTOR had shown her a home in another upscale subdivision that I had previously listed. This buyer had made an offer, but it was too low. To wrap up that scenario, my listing that she had previously viewed sold for $49K over what her offer had been. So, I am putting 2 and 2 together, I understand the buying personality that I am about to take on.

I told her that I would assist her in finding and negotiating for the right home. I would put a lot of work into helping her reach her goal. It would not cost her up front, most likely the seller will pay my commission. I do require before I go to work on her behalf, that she make a commitment to dealing with me exclusively. I will be her agent. Any properties of interest will go through me, I will research them for her including DOM, price changes, etc. That agreed on, we went about our ways.

Our relationship strengthened as we looked at and analyzed home after home. One day as I was checking in on my sellers with the above listing, I decided it was time to see if owners of homes not listed might be thinking of going on the market. So, I did my walk-about door knocking activity.

The last home I approached--I did knock on the door. A fairly pleasant man greeted me at the door. He visibly raised his eyebrows when I explained what I was doing and why I was doing it. He was very courteous but said his wife would shoot him if they sold this home.

A couple of months went by; it seemed like years. We were finally at the closing table. The closing attorney walks in. I remark that he seems familiar to me. He says, "You were the one that knocked on my door to see if I would sell my home!"

I blushed a thousand shades of red. I was a bit embarrassed. Funny as well were the looks on the builder's face who was sitting next to me, and my client who was sitting across from me. My client had no idea how serious I had been about finding her a home! Then it turned really embarrassing as the three started praising me for my tenacity as I sat there.

The builder also learned from the story because my client had called his office before we met. Her call had not been returned.  You could visibly see $$signs flowing out of his mind when he put 2 and 2 together. Returning phone calls=Closing table--eventually. Someone in his office had let him down and it cost him thousands of dollars. What if there were other scenarios such as this?

Now the moral of the story: One could make assumptions if you didn't dig deeper. My client was a single female. She had a strong accent (read between the lines). With the type of business she owned one could not see her as being able to afford buying in this community. I was in close contact with her lender. I knew that in spite of being young and single whe was pre-authorized for about anything she wanted to buy.

Yes, people will remember you from door knocking.

The following blogs inspired me to "fess up"

 Are You Tired of Pestering Strangers for Business? , Jennifer Allen

Don't work with strangers if you're broke!, Dee Copeland