Hi - Last weekend the St. Pete Times put on a home show at Tropicana Fields (home of the Devil Rays)

I didn't really want to pay for a booth - around 1200-1500.  But I was in the mood to "press the flesh" and see what kind of prospects I could scare up.

I concocted a fairly innocuous survey.  There were about 5 or 6 questions.  The only really important one was the last one - "Are you, or anyone you know, looking to buy a house in the next 6 months?" 

After I asked the first 5 questions, showed sincere interest in the person, joked around a little, I got some pretty good answers on my "key question."  Some definite leads!

It wasn't the least bit awkward walking up to people with my clipboard - asking them if they didn't mind a short survey.  Was only turned down by less than 5%.  I did all of the surveying out in the food area.  Didn't try surveying in the exhibit hall.

But, there was much more action in the hall so I decided to try to make something happen in there.

As I walked around, I noticed 2 booths where the exhibitor had not shown up.  One was in a pretty good location, had a table and no chair.  The other was on the far end, had a table and a chair.

So, I went out to my car, brought in my laptop with aircard  (aircard is a fabulous deal if you dont' have one - unlimited internet anywhere for 60/month).  I also had some flyers that I was giving out with the survey.

So, I walked back into the show, went straight to far away booth, grabbed the chair, then took it over to the good booth.  I took down the sign on the booth - was some kind of window company.  Then setup my laptop, flyers and cards on the table.

Logged into my company website and also the local board MLS.  After I was all setup, I started calling people over to MY booth.  "Hey can I sell you a house today?"  "You already have one?"  "How about a condo?", etc, etc.  Said the same thing to the security guy when he walked by.  He still plans to rent.

Was never kicked out and got some pretty nice leads.

It was fun and different and kind of exciting and hopefully, I will sell some of these guys!

Best, Shel