Generating leads

[Richard Rountree]

I just started at Coldwell Banker in West Hollywood.  What are some creative ways to generate leads in a competitive market?

[Joshua McGinnis]

Hi @Richard Rountree - congrats on getting licensed and jumping into sales. 

While creativity is great and can open a lot of doors, what I've learned about being an agent in Los Angeles is that success in real estate comes down to two things: developing new relationships and outworking your competition. 

If you're not pushing yourself to form new relationships, nurture those relationships, and do everything in your ability to be the first person they think of when you talk about real estate, then you may not be doing the right thing.

If I were you, I'd go door-knocking tomorrow and start introducing yourself to the neighborhood. Start getting into the habit of telling everyone you meet that you are in real estate. Spend some time to get your online presence setup and automated (FB page, Twitter, Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, etc), but don't spend a whole of time on it.

Start attending networking events, collecting business cards and adding them to your database. Start building your process for managing leads and systematizing your daily leadgen activities (door-knocking, calling your sphere, writing letters, setting up new online leadgen campaigns, etc).

Go out and form a relationship with a title rep, two mortgage brokers, two developers, two architects, two handymen, two interior designers, a divorce attorney, a probate attorney, two escrow companies, and a transaction coordinator. You will need all of these relationships at one point in time and they'll also be a good referral base if you can return the favor.

Start attending your farms HOA and city council meetings, and participate.

Design and mail out a local newsletter to your farm each month.

Become active in your farm's school district by volunteering for a few events a year.

Organize community yard sales and other events that are aimed at improving the area.

Starting calling listing agents offering to help with open houses.

At the end of the day, you should be talking to people, face-to-face, as much as possible. LA is a tough market, but every market and every business (you are now in business) has its challenges.

There's no magic bullet or special marketing that will give you a long-term advantage. If you had a ton of cash, you could buy a ton of leads; however, without real relationships intact, it would be difficult to build a sustainable business.

I hope this helps!