Wow!  8:30 a.m. Saturday morning and my cell phone is ringing.  I answer and a man starts talking about a 3 bedroom house with a white picket fence.  Being a little early in the morning my mind is still groggy and I was thinking he saw a property that was listed that he wanted to take a look at, but I knew none of my listings fit this description.  Still confused, I finally asked him where he got my number.  He said, "From your ad in the paper."  What ad I'm thinking??  Oh..... I DID have an ad in the paper.  I got a call ALREADY???  8:30 in the morning on the first day it ran!!!  This is too good to be true!  I have first page ranking on Google under Portage Lakes Real Estate and I get quite a few buyers looking for lakefront or lakeview properties.  Being it is the first of the year, I'm always reading up on new ideas to generate business.  I came across one that said to have a quick call to action ad.  So I decided that since I have 4 buyers right now who are looking for lake properties and haven't found what they are looking for, I'd do a Wanted ad.  My ad says, Wanted - Lakefront or Lakeview Homes. I have Qualified Buyers!  I figured what the heck, maybe I'll get a call, find a house for my buyers or possibly get a listing from it.  Not realizing how quickly it might happen.

It gets even better!  After speaking with the guy for awhile, I find out that he has a total of SEVEN homes between he and his brother that they will need to sell in the next year or 2, so they can retire and head south.  Granted they are all little cottage-type homes, but this could be a BIG deal if I can get the listings and then also receive a few buyers off of it.  All because of a little $25 ad!!!  I'm meeting with him next week.

Update -  I received ANOTHER call from a man who bought a lakefront property at a Sheriff's Sale that he was working on fixing up.  He said that he was putting about $275k into it and it would be selling around the $400k - $500k price range.  He then mentioned that he wasn't sure he even wanted to sell it, BUT if I came across any fixer uppers on the water to let him know!!!!  Ha!!  I may have even gotten another buyer out of the ad!  Woohoo!