I created this system for myself a couple years ago to get my business back together. I have since taught this in class to some 1,000 agent throughout my city. Some items will sound familiar and others may not. Please note you will have to tweak them to get this to work for you but don't fret, they do work.
Suggested Websites to jumpstart your web presence
There are a ton of sites to do this but my suggestions are:
· www.ActiveRain.com The best source ( for obvious reasons)
— Your Company Site Your/ Personal Site
— Social Networking Sites
— www.ebayclassifieds.com
— www.MySpace.com Believe it or not , you still can get a ton of google juice from older accounts
— Ebay.com. You can post RE ads on here for 150 buck or 300 bucks for 30 or 90 days
— Craigslist.com
— Backpage.com
— www.epropertysites.com $10 bucks a month per listing ( great presentation of your listings and a bunch of other cool stuff)
Start with a Postlets.com ad.
Go to postlets and set up an account and input information for the home and pictures for the listing and then make the listing go live and then go to the links section and copy the html code and paste it on html code accepting websites like www.Craigslist.org, www.ebayclassifieds.com and www.backpage.com
You do that type of ad to please your seller and to show that you are marketing the home. And then once you have done that you do what actually works to get the home sold
I do what is called a reverse ad
A reverse ad is an ad that your prospect will self qualify for depending on the type of request you have made.
Area, Price, Style
If you have a house you are marketing in (whatever your town or subdivision is), you place ads in various advertising media. You advertise for a 4 bed 3 bath ranch on a basement with 2 car garage in a wonderful neighborhood and location for $450k and you ask your prospects to call you on the ad.
BORING!!!
In a reverse ad you would market the general features or area of the house and the fact that the property has more bedrooms than the buyer would ever need or all the space you are looking for. And say available for viewings now. The reason why you don’t put the bedrooms is that you don’t want to turn off people because of bedroom you. You want them to click on the ad and go to your site so you can convert them. Don’t cut them off at the knees with the bedrooms or the price for that matter unless you are in a certain price point you want to stay within as part of your business. But if you insist, you can always put in the number of beds and baths with an ad like this:
“We have x bedrooms and x bath homes for sale Atlanta has to offer. Daily tours of home available for select clientele.” (Then tell them to click to register for home tours on your site and get them off of the site where they are and onto your page)
Here’s another example:
“Private tour of select home available in (Scottgrove subdivision) this Wednesday 2-4pm” Must pre-register for the event; call Mary Real Estate Agent at 999-999-9999 for event starting point.
You can be as general or specific as you would like with the property parameters in your ad. The more specific the better the prospect you will get. But you will get fewer than if you do a general ad.
For reverse ads to find sellers do this
Here’s a ad that worked like gold for me. I put it in craigslist and backpage
Do you have a 3 bed 2 bath home in these zip codes: 30082 and 30080? We are looking to move on something quickly and would ideally like to be under a contract by tonight or tomorrow at the latest. The home will have to be able to pass inspection and appraisal, and will one need little to no work. The buyer is not picky, but mold, excessive need for outdoor paint or homes with lots of exterior stairs will not work. We have seen just about everything that is already for sale and are looking for something that may have not come onto the market yet. Her price point is under 100k and she will be looking to request up to 3 % in seller assisted closing costs. If you have a home you think would work and you are ready to sell it, give me a call.
(I received 4 calls and 3 emails that day I put the ad on and 2 more calls over the same weekend and got 1 listing appointment for about 3.5 minutes of work. THIS IS POWERFUL STUFF)
Next
Go to the real estate services sections and do a few ads there as well.
Say you have buyers for a specific area or style of home. If you sell 4 bed 2.5 bath homes built after 2000 in x school system and x zip code. Put that in your ad. The more specific you are the better the prospect you will get.
When I go to find sellers I also, in addition to doing service ads I also go to the tax records and look for prospects there. Now every mls and county tax record searches will be different but at a minimum you should be able to search beds, bath, ages, zip, city, year last sold and last sales price. Do a search and develop a list of property owners whose property would match the type of buyers you are looking for and do a quick and cheap mailer or if you want to go old school, go door to door and drop off the mailer and you will quickly find that you will get to know a neighborhood and its residents.
Now if you go door knowing you might what to know what to say. So here is what I say:
Me: Hey there, my name is Jackye Mumphrey and I’m a Realtor who lives (if you do) and works in the area. I came by to see if you may be in the market to sell your home>
Seller: My home isn’t for sale
Me: Well I thought you might say that.
Seller: What do you mean?
Me: Some homeowners who have recently thought they’d like to sell have put it off because they think the market is bad.
Seller: Hmmm, yeah, the market is bd. We don’t have any plans to move right now.
Me: Well let me ask you this. If I had a buyer, say in the next 30 days who had an interest in paying top dollar for a home like yours, would you consider selling it to them...at a profit to you?
Seller: Hmm well I don’t know... Do you have a buyer who would buy my home?
Me: Well I work the area and I work with a ton of buyers. I may have one. This is why I am at your door.
Seller: Well if we did sell our home we’d have to find a place to move, get this home ready to sell it to your buyer and get help with moving and the paperwork
Me: Well I can certainly help you with all of that. When would you like to move? And where?
Seller: Well I’ll need to first talk with my spouse.
Me: Okay, not a problem I understand. When would be a good time for me to come back and share with you what it will take to get your home sold and how I can help you do it?
Seller: How about tomorrow evening? Do you have a card?
And you guys know how to take it from there...
If you are kind of shy and don’t want to go to the door you can mail a letter like this:
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Seller,
I’m Sally Sue Sell-a lot. I work in the Middle Town area and I saw that you once had your home for sale with the parameters my client is looking for.
They are looking for a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home in Vinings Estates with ½ an acre with a basement.
My buyer is qualified and ready to close by the end of the month. They are looking for their dream home and I think you might have it. Call or email me if you’d like a buyer to buy your home today.
Here is another letter
Hi, my name is Dunwoody Dave. I realize your property did not sell while listed through our MLS service, but don’t let this discourage you: there may be a good reason. I use a very unique service to help locate buyers for my listings. I’d love pop by to preview the property to see if it may be a good match. If you are ready to sell and interested in seeing what we can do to help you move your home from listed to sold, please give us a call.
Sincerely,
Dunwoody Dave, ABR, REALTOR, Super Duber Agent
Super-Duber Real Estate
678-555-9999
The letters don't have to be long and drawn out or have a bunch of glossy pages in it. If you are a bit more glamorus or flamboyant, then go for it, but most sellers don't care about your flash, they just want cash.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Of course you can expand these letters or postcards to suit your needs. But the direct approach has always worked best for me.
If you would like to call them here is a voice mail script you can use:
Hello Mr. Seller it’s Sally Real Estate with Real Estate Realty... Listen I really need to talk to you about your home for sale… I really do need to ask you a couple of questions so call me a soon as you get this message at _____ again my number is____ Thank you
Here’s another
Hello Mrs. Scott its BOB Sellers. I’m trying to touch base with you… I know you’re probably busy but I really do need to talk to you… so please give me a call as soon as you get this message... My number is…
And another
Hello Mr.____ its Sally Sue again… I guess I’m persistent… this is the 2nd time I’ve called…but it is important that I speak to you… In the last 90 days _x_ homes have sold in your neighborhood/area. Would you please call me at ____ I need to ask you a few questions about your home.
Okay so that is basically what I do to generate business for myself. Here are some other suggestions
— Keep track of what ads and sites work best for you and then focus on them.
— Post at least twice every week to get the results you want. The more you post the more leads you will receive.
— Remember the goal is to increase your sales commission per transaction, so working expireds, FSBO’s etc is vital.
— Commissions are negotiable, but remember Agents NEVER get paid what they are worth, they are paid what they NEGOITATE!
— Don’t be a pop tart agent. Don’t send listings via email to prospects you haven’t met. Set yourself apart and make an appointment with them first.
— Don’t give too much info over the phone or via email. Give them something to look forward too.
— Don’t be negative. A lot of agents stab themselves in the foot before they get started. The market is not bad, the market is not depressed. It’s correcting itself and it’s the best time for them to buy real estate before prices go back up. Be positive and they will be positive. Be negative and you won’t have a sale.
— Learn to dominate your niche through ads, websites, blogs, social media, PR, articles and forums.
So this is about all of it in a quick and dirty nutshell. If you’d like to know more just hit me up in the comment section below. Thanks for reading my blog post.
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