Most Effective Ways to Advertise as Real Estate Agent

[Jacob Grandmaison]

Introduction:

Here is the situation: I have been a licensed real estate agent for a little over 2 years. My first year as an agent I was full-time. All of my savings and budget went to Zillow's Premier Agent platform. That cost me $300 a month and I was only able to close one sale throughout the whole year of advertising.

Because I only closed 1 sale, I eventually ran out of my savings and budget and had to get a full-time job to support my family. Of course, that means I had to stop focusing on real estate for several months.

Now, I am still working my full-time job, but am starting to put all of my effort outside of work back into real estate. It is very important to my family and I that I can build my business and become a full-time REALTOR without having to work another job.

Here is my question:

Now that I once again have some money to advertise, should I consider trying Zillow again? (now that I am more experienced on closing sales, managing leads, etc.)

If not, what are the best and most cost-effective methods of advertising as an agent to garner leads?

Other methods I have been considering are:

• Advertising Magnet to place on the side of my truck
• Facebook ads (though I attempted this with little results
• Farming neighborhoods with post cards
• Placing flyers around town
• "Lead Generation" online platforms/companies
• Others that I am not aware of?

Conclusion

I just don't want to continue to waste my time, money and energy on strategies that do not yield results. This may be my last opportunity to make it as a real estate agent. This is my dream and I want to try to everything the correct way this time.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts, opinions and guidance.

[Joel Owens]

Jacob do not reinvent the wheel.

Try to find a top producer team where you live and sell. They often are too busy with listings and looking for buyer brokers agents for their teams to handle massive influx of buyer leads to process.

Some buyer brokers in residential can make 100k plus a year income. 

Work your numbers.

You need your BURN rate. If after all your expenses for necessity items for your family the number to pay your bills is 4,000 then that is 48,000 a year. Back off taxes and likely need to be at 70k. That is to just break even and not have additional money to invest with.

If you are on a 60/40 split on a team after the brokerages fees and team fees it might look something like this.

Average commission sale price 300,000 X .03 = 9,000     9,000 X .60 (your commission) = 5,400

70,000 / 5,400 = About 13 closings a year at 300k sales price or a little over 1 a month. This is just to SUSTAIN and not THRIVE. This is example only.

Real estate is a tough business but once you establish yourself can be very lucrative and rewarding. Residential can be more nights and weekends and take a toll on your family. Commercial real estate if you like investors and numbers tends to be more 9 to 5 Monday thru Friday so better for family times and demands. Numbers tend to be bigger but closings take longer.