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Success Stratagies for 2009 on a Budget

High Impact Business Strategies on a Budget for 2009

Start out your Day with a plan and just as important stick with it. An unplanned day is day doomed to failure. Some of the old ‘tried and true' methods still work very well today. Like Prospect, Preview, List and Sell.

Quick Sources for New Business :

Contact your_title_company marketing representative. Their job is to look for new ways to increase revenues for their company. They do this by attracting more business, mainly you. They can provide you with a lot of ideas to help you create new business. An example would be to provide you with Weekly lists of FSBO's, Foreclosure and Pre-Foreclosure notices.

Expired listing search. Most MLS's will allow you to search Expired listings. Do this on a daily basis. Get out there early. Preview those homes then pursue them. Remember this, it takes at least 6 contacts before people will remember you. Do your first 3 contacts in week one. Two the following week then weekly thereafter.

Advertise and promote yourself and your services. Advertise a Listing for Sale. If you don't have a listing then borrow one from a co-agent or your office. Believe me when I say that most agent's will be more than happy to let you advertise one of their listings. Remember the idea is to make the phone ring!

Long Term Sources for New Business :

A very underrated and under utilized method of attracting new business is the Business card. We normally pass them out as if they were made of Gold and should be given out sparingly. Stop it ! Set a new goal of passing out 400 Business cards a month. At the store, when buying gas, in the envelope when paying bills. Everywhere! You will not find a more cost effective way of getting your name and picture out in your local area.

Promote your self on Craigs_list under services offered. Join as many Social platforms as you can like Myspace , Facebook , Twitter etc. Blog and blog often but stay focused. A Blog about a new listing one day and then termites another day will confuse Search Engines and your reading public. So stay focused. If you want to cover more than one topic then join other blog sites creating a profile and blog role that is focused only on that topic. Link, Link, Link! Yes Link them all together with RSS feeds and or links via your profile page. Keep something in each one that gives consistency so that while jumping around your readers will recognize that this all comes from you.

Traditional prospecting for new listings works very well today. Get out in those neighborhoods and knock on some doors. Pass out your cards. Promote your Web site and Blog site on those cardsand flyers. Prospect around new listings. No matter if they are from your office or from your competition. It is better if it is around your competition. Why? Because in case you hadn't noticed in any given neighborhood there may be several for sale signs but rarely from the same office or Agent.

Sphere of Influence:

Make a list of everyone you know then send them out a letter announcing your business. Follow up every 6 weeks at a minimum to let them all know you are still in the business and looking for new clients as well as past ones. Past Clients are an excellent resource for finding new business. Especially right after they have bought a new home and have invited all their friends. Cater or provide a Dish for that event along with an ample supply of your business cards. What you don't have any past clients? Then do a search of past Sales and a secondary search to see if those agents are still in the business? Go back two or three years. Add this new group to your sphere. Honestly most agent's do not follow up with their closed clients. After a while many Buyer's will forget who they dealt with but will be impressed with you tenacity.

Advertise:

Today's agents have more opportunities than at any other time in our history to reach a broad audience. The Internet gives you many free avenues, use them and constantly search for new ones either by yourself or by reading others finds right here on Activerain. Get your listings out their not only on your own web site but the free ones as well and don't forget those Social platforms like Facebook as they have ad space as well free or pay for use. So do most search engines like Google , Yahoo and MSN and all the rest.

Think outside the Box. In today's struggling economy investors are constantly looking for a place to shelter their money so that the Stock Market doesn't eat it up. Contact Financial Planners and adviser's sending them your new listings or MLS potential Short Sale properties that will make good rentals. Back it up with sound demographics ( a good title company can provide this for you ) that will support your opinion of value. Check out your local chamber of commerce for recent inquires especially those searching out schools. Example of a focused post could be on a Blog site that you designate to be information about your town. Write a few posts about schools in your area. Keep it keyword rich and very focused. Follow up then with your Stats program to find out where the readers are coming from. Look for advertising opportunities then in that area.

Contact Agent's for Referrals. Like me! I am more than happy to give your clients the best in real estate service. You can follow along on their progress as well through my interactive site at www.househuntportland.com the Buyer's Web Site of Choice. Or stop by my Portland_Oregon_Information site and property tour. Be sure to check out a few of My_SOLD_listings .

And Finally : If you are going to Farm. Then for heaven sake do not farm geographically. Do High Impact prospecting or farming. Do not send letters to people who never intend to move.

Search Portland Oregon Homes For Sale Right Here

" A Real Estate Transaction with Herb is one YOU will Profit from "

Posted by Downtown Portland Real Estate Broker~Herb Hamilton on 01/06/2009 12:21 AM

Comments (48)

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Originally posted at: Herb's Portland Oregon Real Estate Blog your RE/MAX Agent: Success Stratagies for 2009 on a Budget

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48 Comments on Success Stratagies for 2009 on a Budget

JAN

Excellent Herb! I am printing your fantastic to-do list. Best wishes to you in Portland!

Thanks for stopping by Julianna. I wish for you great success and happiness in 2009 and beyond.

Herb if these points are followed an agent could have a wonderful year. The key here is to be consistent.

Ahhhh, from the Queen of consistency her self. Thanks Jennifer for stopping by and your comment.

Herb: Some really excellent tips for success, especially in these economically challenging times. Using social media is one of the most cost effective methods at our disposal, and one that the majority of agents don't take advantage of. Thanks for putting this together!

Dear Herb,

Thanks for your excellent suggestions! I don't think there was anything I hadn't heard before, but you clarified it.

You were also able to convey a healthy sense of guilt! If I knew it, and I am not doing it, I have no right to ever whine!

Where you a Jewish Mother in a previous life?

Sincerely,

Barbara

Herb, a million bucks worth of advice here. Thanks. We tend to forget that our goals must be in writing or we flounder! Persistance and consistance pays! Happy 2009!

Later in the rain~Deb

Herb, I was surprized to see you say not to blog on one site about more than one subject. Does that truely mean that everryone on activerain shouldn't be blogging about all the various things they blog about - pets, music, the internet, seo, etc? and just stick to real estate? This is the first time I heard that - I am new to activerain but in following the trends I see, that seemed ok within the community. I don't want to do anything that will hurt my business, but I thought it was part of building community.

Great info here, thank you for the tips.

I would enforce...reinforce and reinforce again...SOI, SOI, SOI...grow it, use it, stay with it regularly...they know you, they like you....you can teach them to "spread the word".....people do business with people they like....and people they like refer them to other people they like...Happy and prosperous new year to you !

Wonderful post Herb and a well deserved feature - congratulations. 400 cards a month -- that's quite a challenge! (Our printers made a very slight color error so our cards were slightly "off" from other marketing materials - we got 2000 free so I have 4000 . . . guess I better accept that challenge and get them off the shelf!)

Great points here for any real estate profession.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. "Back to the basics" is what we all need in 2009!

Herb: Thank you! I appreciate the to-do list, especially at the first of the year.

Herb, thanks for the list and great post! I appreciate the reminders and the importance that SOI has on our business.

Herb, I love the Title Company Preforeclosure, Foreclosure idea.

I just sent my Title Company of choice an email asking if they have access to these notices and if so, could they send them to me. It will definitely mean more business for them if I would get these listings sold.

Great info. Just what I needed to spark my imagination today.

Rich,

Thanks Rich. I my self belong to enough social sites to fill two blackboards.

Barbara,

LOL. Oivey. I am glad this little post has given you a little boost.

Deb,

Mike Ferry said to me one time " Wouldn't it be wonderfull if your day planner was full of actiities for the next year" ?

Herb, working with our Alliance partners is a good strategy that I have found to share leads in different complementary areas. All great tips. Thanks.

Joanne,

I am so glad you brought this up. Being new is the perfect time for this to happen. When establishing a new blog you begin to write about all types of subjects.

Each and every time you choose key words that seem appropriate for the post. After a month or so you have written a variety of posts with there associated key words.

Now lets look at the search engines. Your first post is about your new listings and other homes for sale etc. Google and the other search engines crawl your blog and say " ahah this is a site about real estate".

They crawl your second post about dryrot issues, and they say " Hmmmm, perhaps this is a home inspection site"?

The third post they crawl is about technology. They surmise then that this is a general information site.

If you want to build such a site it is fine and many of us do. If you want to build a site for real estate and business then keeping the keywords and main focus of the site directed towards real estate will serve you well.

Jon,

Your welcome. Thanks for stopping by. Best wishes for you and yours.

Sally and David,

Well said and a happy New Year to you as well.

Margaret,

It is actually the cheapest form of advertising there is. 400 a month works out to be about $450 a year. So go spread those cards and reap the rewards of recognition.

Sunil,

When all else seems to fail the basics always pull through.

Paul,

Someone had to kick you in the pants. LOL

Jason,

My very first Broker was a C-21 office. That company from day one stressed SOI.

MeLisa,

I wrote a post sometime back about Title companies and how to choose one. http://activerain.com/blogsview/71473/Choosing-A-Title-Company-and-Escrow-Officer-My-Top-21-Questions

You might find that interesting. There is also one for Lenders. http://activerain.com/blogsview/71334/Choosing-the-Right-Lender-My-22-questions

Gary,

The truth is that this post could have been an entire book dedicated to the simple business opportunites that we overlook each and every day. Best to you and yours.

Harb,

Great insight it really means a lot when brokers as your self give us new comers tips and ideas that are sound.I for example all ready do most of them but I am also guilty of not following my own rules.keep up the good work sir.I am trying to read more on idx and seo's if you have anything on this topics please let me known.Great wishes and success to you.

Fajardo,

Just because I know what works does not mean that I always follow it as well. This post was written as a reminder to myself what I need to do as well as for others.

As far as IDX goes, the public has become quite used to having the ability to search for homes via agents sites. If you intend to employ IDX on your site, it is mostly a comfort level as to the price. The key is to drive traffic to that site in order for IDX to be cost effective. Having IDX with no traffic is not smart business.

RE SEO: There are just to many brighter individuals who have written on SEO here. You can do a Search ( upper button SEARCH ) and type in SEO. You can get a lot of great stuff with plenty of links to some of Mary McKnight's Older posts on SEO.

Herb, terrific post and a ton of good content and reminders that I plan on using. I appreciate it very much that you took the time and effort to put together such an exhaustive list. Take care and happy blogging!

Jason,

Thanks for stopping by on a day where it is challenging to say the least to read and comment on the blogs. ( some AR Button Links are down)

Great post...what is your recommendation for high impact prospecting in a farm? Curious about your thoughts on that and how you accomplish that...thanks!

Sonja,

Thank you for bringing up this very important question. It all depends upon you. If your are the type of agent that is just looking for listings then you could begin by targeting Expireds and Fsbo's.

If you are looking at dominating a geographic area then you could look at past history of Solds. Some homes seem to sell more often than others. A good pattern would be to find a home that has sold over and over again in perhaps a 3 year pattern.

Another source for that geographic area would be homes who's agent no longer is in the business.

Another avenue would be to look at foreclosure and preforeclosure notices as a source.

For me I am always looking for Fixer Upper properties. So I tend to drive up and down the street looking for those type of prospects. You might have a fondness for home style such as the Classic Victorians.

Hope this helps. Have a happy and prosperous 2009.

Thanks for your excellent suggestions. You make some really great points, especially about bloggins with a purpose. I think social media, as part of a *focused* strategy, is an excellent thing.

Jackie,

Your so welcome. And thank you as well for the heads up on Yammer.

Thank you for sharing those great tips with all of us! They were definitely very useful! I hope you have a great day!

James,

Your welcome James and you as well.

Herb, I have been without email and documents. I got a Mac and the Apple store deleted all my file for 9 years OFF the PC. I am and have been in a pickle. I did get your email but have not had an opportunity to walk you through Google Doc's. There are great YouTube video's on it and that would be better than me anyway.

Just go to YouTube, type in Google docs and a Google Guy will walk you through it.

Hi Herb;

Thank you for sharing your tips with us! Very useful! Happy New Year 2009!

Anthony!

Missy,

I did that Missy. It lacked, I thought, that personal touch of the hands on aproach. I have been playing around with it though. Just thought you might have a few templates that you had designed that you liked.

So sorry to hear about your computer ailments. With virtually the entire world on a PC I could never bring myself to using a MAC. I don't care about the ease of use thing. Just think that it makes sense business wise to be where most of the users are.

Thanks again for stopping by. Wishing you tons of success and happiness for 2009.

Anthony,

It was indeed my pleasure. I hope that you can use some of the ideas to make you more successful.

Great List. We should all print this list and post it where everyone can see it. Lets make 2009 the best year ever!!

Jose Lopez
I specialize in Sarasota Florida Foreclosures and Bradenton Foreclosures.

Jose,

I agree, lets make it a Banner Year.

Herb,

Solid advice even for a mortgage consultant. Especially on the promote section the emphasis ought to be on Internet activity. ActiveRain, LinkedIn and all the other goodies.

Great list - I bookmarked it. Thanks for the tips.

JAN

Esko,

For any one who works for themselves they could probably find a few nuggets in this post that could help. Thanks for stopping by Esko.

Linda,

Your welcome. Thanks for reading and your comment.

Herb, Thanks for all the advice. I am not so new anymore, but can use all the reminders!

Herb,

Well said, we all have work to do this year for sure.

Kristi,

We all need the reminders. If procrastination doesn't get you a failed memory surely will.

Dan,

My favorite saying in regards to the market. " There is not an up market or a down market. There is Just a market "

JAN

Herb - Great post! The "Promote your self" tip is a great way to "get your name out" on a limited budget.

I appreciate you!

Thanks for stopping by Bobby. Wow what a great idea you guys have. Cash Flow with Trophys and everything. A great way to socialize with like minded people ' Investors'.