I've been holding Home Buyer Seminars for about 7 years, and if you are interested in getting first time buyers, this is a great way to get face to face with prospects. I have a 30 point list.
•1. The objective of the Home Buyer Seminar System is to attract potential home buyers to your seminars, and ultimately to capture them as clients.
•2. Promoting the Home Buyer Seminar is the most important part of making this system work successfully.
•3. Your marketing message is simple... "Thinking of buying a home? Come to a FREE Home Buyers Seminar". Be sure to use your marketing message in each promotion piece you create.
•4. Target apartment renters. Focus on mid- to higher-priced apartments, lower rent apartments do not produce enough qualified attendees.
•5. Postcards create the best attendance, but you can use classified ads and flyers, in addition.
•6. I recommend mailing at least 4,000 invitation postcards to apartment renters. These mailings should arrive approximately 10 days before the seminar. Take this into account and mail them accordingly. Remember, if you are sending the postcards via bulk mail, be sure to bring them to the post office in enough time to get them to your target audience approximately 10 days before the seminar.
•7. Use your Proquest 800# on the promotion pieces to capture the highest number of prospects. If you do not own the Proquest Technologies Call Capture System, contact Proquest. Tell them I referred you.
•8. Magazine ads and classified ads have not proven to bring good results. However, if you regularly run magazine ads or display ads, we do recommend that you include details of the seminar in those media, or advertise on your website, blog, facebook, etc.
•9. To help defray (or eliminate) the cost of running this system, invite your vendors to participate with you. There is significant cost involved in the promotion of the seminar, and we recommend that you request co-op marketing funds from your lenders, builders, insurance agents, inspectors, appraisers, etc. as they will also benefit from the leads you produce with this system. Your goal should be to not have much cost in running these seminars in return for providing qualified leads to your vendors.
•10. The postcard is designed to get prospects to call your Proquest number to register for the seminar.
•11. Be sure to follow up with your prospects by email or phone to remind them a day or two before the seminar.
•12. Your goal should be to get 10 - 15 prospective buyers to attend the seminar.
•13. If you have 10 - 15 attendees you should expect to close 2 to 3 deals as a result of the seminar.
•14. Add your vendor's logos and contact information to your promotion pieces and to the Home Buyer Book.
•15. The vendors who contribute should also come to the seminar as speakers.
•16. The Home Buyer Book will be your among your handouts for the seminar. The book is laid out as "Ten Easy Steps to Buying a Home". This is also the information you will be presenting at the seminar. I do sell this book in a package, along with the postcard, the seminar handouts, the phone script, the seminar registration form, etc. in either pdf or word format.
•17. Familiarize yourself with the content of the Home Buyer Book and you will be prepared to lead the seminar.
•18. The seminar should be held in a ‘neutral' location. Meaning, don't hold it in a bank or in your Real Estate office, as these locations tend to scare prospects away. Hold the seminar in a community hall or the local library. More prospects will show up if they feel less threatened.
•19. Do not advertise free food, etc or you'll get the wrong attendees. Have bottled water or coffee and tea and something very simple like cookies. This is about buying a home, not eating a meal!
•20. Suggested start time for the seminar is 6:30pm if you have it during the week or 10am on Saturday. This gives attendees enough time to get home from work, etc.
•21. When attendees arrive, ask them to complete the Registration Form. I have a example for you. Give them a nametag so that you can easily address them by name.
•22. You should act as the "Master of Ceremonies" and begin the seminar by introducing yourself and your vendors who are in attendance.
•23. I have tried several formats -- one is sitting at the front of the room as a panel rather than using a podium, and the other, if there are fewer attendees coming, is to gather around a conference table or set up the tables in conference table style. This will usually create a more informal atmosphere where attendees will be willing to speak up and ask questions.
•24. You should begin the seminar by briefly reviewing the highlights of the Home Buyer Book. DO NOT READ THE BOOK WORD FOR WORD!!! Remember, they are taking it home and can read it for themselves. Instead, spend 30 or so minutes discussing the key points.
•25. Allow each of your vendors approximately 10 minutes to speak (keep the number of vendors to 2 to 4). Good choices would include a home inspector, an insurance agent, a local builder, and a lender. The builder and the lender will require slightly more time, but keep their talks to a maximum of 20 minutes.
•26. Control the timing of the seminar so that you have at least 30 minutes at the end for questions and answers, and time to mingle with the attendees and make appointments to meet with them privately.
•27. Remember to collect the Registration Form before the attendees leave.
•28 Follow up by email and phone after the seminar with any attendees whom you did not make appointments with at the seminar. I have an example follow up email.
•29. Other handouts that would be of interest to your prospects include a payment table, a piece on how much they are wasting on rent, handouts from your vendors, any pertinent newspaper articles, etc.
•30. Don't give up - it's like any other system -- consistency is key. If they see your mailer or ad or postcard enough, they will eventually notice it.
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