In the Salida Colorado and Down Valley area, the real estate business slows down from Thanksgiving until mid-January or later. Since my husband and real estate partner and I are near the end of building our house, a slow-down is not in our best interest.
We decided this year that we wanted to kick our business up a notch We already internet market pretty darn well. We send out expired postcards. What more?
AHA! We decided to try the infamous door knocking which I have resisted for 13 years. It was time to get over myself.
I knew we needed an item of value.... what could we offer that would pique people's interest and allow us to make connections with them?
The neighborhood we were in was one that we did not have a listing yet but had sold a house a couple of days before. We printed out of flyer from one of my blog posts on the local market and hit the streets.
Here is our secret sauce.
1. 1 page informational flyer on the market with some splashy color graphs (and NOT about yourself). I use onlinecharttool. (we ran out of color and the black and white worked just as well). Everyone is interested in local numbers. Use minimal text. It is just a way to get to know someone. A sample chart from OnlineChartTool is below.
2. Practice a script so you won't drool and stare when they come to the door.
3. Keep it short short short
4. If you have sold a house nearby, after giving them the market flyer, mention the declining inventory in that area. Then... "We have buyers who missed out on the home that just sold down the block and inventory is down. Who do you know who may be thinking about selling their home?" Then shut up.
5. If they warm up, you can put them on your monthly newsletter.
6. Send folks you connected with a personal note and stay in touch.
Instead of comparing it to eating cockroaches, I started to enjoy it.
We kept at it until each of us "Met" 20 people. Three days later, we have 60 new contacts, 5 new buyers, a listing and a buy/sell. Not bad for a slow end of the year right? (Thank you John Prescott, Bold Coach).
You have just given me that last push to start door knocking again...
It is never easy to door knock, but with your tips of providing homeowners with informative market flyer along with a well practiced script...one just can't go wrong.
Women of Westchester Working Together - West Harrison, NY
Women helping Women get ahead
I'm so glad this worked out so well for you. This is not my style at all, and other methods work much better for us, but bravo for making this work. A big part of that is your approach.
Incredible results, Paula! Face-to-face, belly-button-to-belly-button is THE best way to sell real estate - even the old door-knocking makes you seem accessible, a hard worker and what you share with them qualifes you as the expert. Smart cookie you are! :-)
Royal Shell Real Estate - The Koffman Group - Cape Coral, FL
We make it easy. You make it home.
Bob just promoted your post in the Crowdsourcing webinar so I had to come take a look. I keep thinking about door knocking and have a neighborhood in mind, but haven't tried it yet. You had good results with your efforts so I'll have to seriously think about giving it a try before long.
I have door knocked as well and it is very effective. How do you start your conversation and what do you say. Thank you for bringing this lead generation tool to the forefront again.
I door knocked right from the beginning of my career in Dallas in 2010 because I had never lived there before and thought it was the best way to get to know the houses and the people. While Dallas didn't work out as planned, back in my native Boston I find it is awesome to do this
I was just told about this posting on a webinar. Wow, so glad I took the time to come over and read! I love hearing inspiring real estate agents defeating fear and winning(;. Thank you so much for your advice!! Door knocking it is!
Nicely done, Paula. Thanks for the great ideas and informative post. I can't wait to try my hand with your door-knocking technique. I recently did some door-knocking myself in a neighborhood where I just put a house under contract, and it looks like I may have a listing...and I was only able to make contact with 8 people. Door-knocking works! Incidentally, I love the area you're in -- one of my favorite for its stunning scenery.
Guin, thank you!!! In our respective areas, I am surprisingly pleased at door knocking. When we come from contribution, folks get it and appreciate it, right?
Charts used in this article are really helpful and easy to understand. Thanks for such a beautiful article. I think you used some type of chart library for creation of chart.
Doing the dirty deed: Door Knocking on Steroids
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