Have you ever wondered... 
What would it be like to have to start your business from ground zero? Imagine moving to a new city, new state, no referral base, no family, and deciding to take on the adventure of real estate starting your business over completely from scratch.
Where would you start? Where would you find clients? How could you build a sustainable business in less than 2 years?
Michael and Cindy Stockhaus had to do just that. One day at a time they built up their business as a husband/wife team, found and paid for any type of new buyer or seller contact they could, and then nurtured the heck out of online leads, focusing on service as the base to their future referrals.
Where did they start?
They started looking for business where they had as much fighting chance as any other agent in the area... online. Without a referral base and being completely new to the area, that was their only option!
Where are the 3 main places they found clients?
#1: Paid Leads from online sources
Knowing that if they could focus on getting sellers, they'd be able to get in front of more buyers-- they really focused on pumping up their seller contact opportunities. HouseValues.com (by Market Leader) is still one of their most lucrative and bountiful seller lead sources today. Trulia Pro also let them advertise and feature their listings on their highly trafficked website.
#2: Classified Ads:
Craigslist and eBay Classifieds were and still are a place they get a large amount of buyer and seller contacts they can add to their database. They adapted a lot of the strategies from this webinar on how to effectively leverage these sites after all of the recent Craigslist changes to still drum up more business. (Watch it here)
#3: Buyers that are also actually sellers
This is a common theme I'm seeing across top agents. It's amazing how just asking a few simple questions to people that inquire about buying homes-- that let them know you can help them sell their home as well can double your business. It's not a given that they think you can do both! Who knew it was just a question away?!
Don't take MY word for it... LISTEN DIRECTLY TO THEM!
How did Michael and Cindy make these buyer and sellers want to use them time and time again after their first online inquiry? Well... that's where the real magic happens... and it's something everyone can replicate. But it's better if you hear it directly from them. So if you're interested, watch our entire webinar here.
My parting advice.... When you look over the course of your business, and look at the years where you had the most growth and influx of new business... often times we get away from doing the key activities we did when we experienced all the growth. So if you're finding yourself in a rut, or downward trend... let your history be your teacher. Treat your business as if you were starting back over from scratch and you'll be right where you want to be :).
Thanks for reading!
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