For a lot of us, this has been a very slow year in real estate sales, with the inventory of houses for sale far outranking the number of houses sold. Since we didn't want to wait for the market to turn around, we brainstormed for ideas that would provide that extra spark to jump start the rise in home sales. The idea that we eventually settled on was...a Parade of Homes!
For a company as small as ours, it was a huge and somewhat daunting undertaking. The first item on our agenda was to line up some sponsors to share the cost of the Parade. We were successful in persuading a bank and several other local businesses that it would be to their advantage to back us. We arranged for one sponsor to supply us with a tent as well as with food and drink for the event, which was held in the parking lot of our office. There was live entertainment and a local radio station did a remote from that spot.
Nothing this big could be accomplished without the cooperation of the whole Mike Kelly Realty staff which gave a lesson in what "teamwork" is all about. Each staff member was assigned one or more jobs - determining where "Open House" signs would go, compiling a booklet of descriptions and directions to each property, designing a map showing the locations of the homes, etc. A meeting was held with the owners whose properties were being shown and they were given specific instructions on how to "prep" their homes for an open house. If the owners were in town, they hosted the visitors themselves. The other properties each had a Mike Kelly Realty staff member present.
In spite of all our planning and advertising, we weren't at all sure that this event would be a success. So as the Big Day grew closer, there were a lot of stomachs loaded with butterflies.
I'm glad to report that in spite of all our worries, our Parade of Homes was a tremendous success. We had a steady stream of customers and clients visit our office and then make the round of homes that were open. Were we pleased with the results of our Parade of Homes? Absolutely! Not only did it result in more listings and sales, but the name recognition that it engendered was priceless. We will be holding two Parades each year and are already planning the next one.
A big lesson here was that sometimes you have to make your own luck. We took a big chance, and it paid off in big ways!
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