Prospecting... a word that before this week drove terror in my heart! A few synonyms in my opinion would have been intrusive, irritating, annoying, unprofitable, and pretty much all that is horrible and negative! However, I have started to prospect by going door to door passing out business cards, visiting expireds and FSBO's, and some cold calling (following DNC list of course).
I went door to door yesterday, and I sat in my car for at least 10 minutes before my desire for success dragged me out and pushed me in-front of the first door. I waited... rang the door bell... waited some more... and much to my dismay, someone answered. I smiled, gave a non-intrusive, soft sell attitude casual hello, talked a little bit, gave him a business card, and then he started to tell me about the neighborhood! I was almost speechless! "This isn't the way it happened in my nightmare..." I thought to myself. He was actually rather kind and pleasant, and it is quite possible that because of him I proceeded to go to every house on that street. I had two positives, two neutrals, and one negative. Most of the people were not home so I left a business card in the screen door and would go on my merry way.
The sun was shining, I was in a good mood, and knocking on doors was nothing like what I thought it was going to be. I will have scheduled time maybe 2 or 3 days a week now where I will go to my farming area, pick a new street, and proceed to get to know the locals. Once my website is complete, I hope this will drive business online, which will then lead to more buyers and sellers calling my phone. I am convinced the modern real estate customer believes that he or she has enough information that they do not need a pushy hard selling Realtor. People will go with a friend every time, and I am out to show my city that I can and will be that friend who will look after their best interest.
I always imagined prospecting to be a horrible thing where desperate sales people go through a neighborhood annoying the heck out of the residents. I have never had a Realtor knock on my door, ask if they could give me their business card, and then proceed to ask how my day is going or what I thought of the area, and then tell me that if they can be of service in anyway to call them. Now I know that being a new Realtor in my first year that I will have a lot of ups and downs and learning experiences. But if I never had the downs I would never be able to go up, and if I never had a mistake to learn from I would never learn!
Comments(115)