When I first started real estate, my broker told me I should pick a farm to mail to. Not wanting to look like a moron, I left his office thinking he meant mailing to actual farms in the area.
Fast forward...I started to mail to a neighborhood that I had a couple of friends living in. I asked them to keep all of the Real Estate mail they receive to see what and how often others were mailing to that same neighborhood. I quickly noticed that they received mail from dozens of agents, but not very systematic from any of them. I also noticed that he received the most consistent mail from me, by far. I thought this was sure to produce listings...man was I wrong. Thousands of dollars spent in over a years period to the same farm with only one real lead and no listings.
I decided that farming was useless and stopped mailing to this area. A few months went by, when I was having a conversation with my brother-in-law (a CA Broker), talking about open houses and farming. He made some good arguments and points that I adopted. His plan of action is for the long run and usually wont produce results for many months.
He told me to own my farm. What did that mean I asked. Well to own your farm is not to simply mail to people every 2-3 weeks (everyone does that), you have to get out and meet the people you are mailing to. I told him that is not in my business plan, nor do I care for knocking on random peoples doors. That's not what I mean he said. You have to be present at HOA meetings and neighborhood functions. When you do take a listing, instead of mailing to the 100 closest neighbors, you should go over to their homes in person and drop of a box flyer for the home. Whenever you do open houses, you should go around the neighborhood and invite the neighbors, if they are not home, leave an invitation by their front door. The first time he did it, he was surprised by how many home owners complimented him on his extra work.
He does very well now, and I can only suspect that it is because he does things that not many other agents are willing to do.
What other ideas are out there for effective farming/open houses?
I will let you know how this new approach works!
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