Generating Listing or Buyers Leads

[Jacob A.]

My wife is a realtor that needs some help generating some leads for either listings.  We have tried a direct mail campaign that had decent response but has not turned into any listings yet.  She has also been networking her butt off over the past year.  No business has come from this so far but she understands she is planting seeds that will come to fruition down the road.

Would anyone be willing to share some strategies that work for them to help her get the ball rolling?

Thanks

[Patrick Britton]

I'm going to be the tough pill to swallow here...

Anything passive, like direct mailers, bus stop banners, print ads., is all great and whatnot once you have already established yourself.  Direct mail is the single biggest waste of money these days.  Does it work?  sure...after a year or more of sending someone a letter/postcard each month...and then contacting them by other means.  Admittedly, the expenditure satisfies one of our caveman brains' needs, which is for immediate gratification.  I am hardly a "feely-guy," but i've been there.  When you send off 500 mailers to a "highly targeted audience," somehow you "feel" you've been productive.  But this is a lie. 

There's quite the difference between being busy and being productive.  

I should add that door knocking, cold calling, etc., is all fine and dandy if it's YOU.  If you have to put on an act and feel uncomfortable buyers and sellers will see this and they will feel uncomfortable too.  Focus on what you are comfortable with and able to do consistently.  i know of people who swear by Facebook and Twitter, others love sitting at open houses, still others knock on doors (Edward Jones' business model)...and then there's the neighborhood expert, who spends so much time researching and analyzing the market that they become the go-to person the media leans on (Jim Cramer).  Some realtors call expireds all day long (Keller Williams).  Like Buckley's, it tastes awful, and it works.  This is why you get 100 different answers to the same question: what is the key to being a superstar realtor?

As well, certain activities work better in certain areas.  Here in the PNW floor duty can be incredibly lucrative for the realtor who truly knows the market.  Conversely, door knocking is considered an odd activity, and provides limited results. 

One thing is universal though: the more people who know you and what you do, the better you will do.  Take that thinking to the extreme and its clarity is pure:  if 5 people on the planet know that you are a realtor, you might get a listing every 3 years.  If 250,000 people know you are a realtor, you might get a few more :)  

Building on that, what if only 10 of those 250,000 think you add value?  Although the database is large, the quality is poor.  On the other side, if all 5 of your 5-person database think you are the greatest realtor ever, it will take a long time to reach critical mass.  you need number and quality.  

Start with creating a database and work to increase both the numbers of contacts and their quality.  How you increase the database and it's quality is up to you and your comfort level.  It helps to be extroverted, assertive, confident, smart, enterprising, but it's hardly a requirement.  In fact, most highly successful realtors only have one or two of those traits going for them ;)

Once you build this database to over 250, with a good 50 - 100 being of higher quality, you will see results...so long as you stay top of mind.  How you stay top of mind is again, up to you and your comfort zone.  

Just keep in mind that it's a marathon, not a sprint.

And for the love of the Earth, outsource the $10/hour stuff as soon as you can afford it.  Some mediocre/fossilized realtors will advocate spending $$$ on a website, print ads, mailers, or all that other passive nonsense after you have a few deals under your belt and cash in your wallet.  Those things work, but they are hardly the best investment.  The best investment is in yourself and your time.  Have you had a truly hard look at yourself and said, "you know, i spend X hours each day moving paper from one side of the desk to the other.  is this what i get paid for?  isn't there a way i can pay someone $10/hour to save me X hours, which i then spend meeting more people and increasing the database and its quality?"  

Now, if you are someone who says "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!" Ask a CEO of a multinational corp if that's a good mentality.  Doing everything yourself is the fastest way to plateau, burn out, and break down.  

Last and certainly not least, while a massive, high-quality database will guarantee you listings and buyers, it really helps to be a true professional who actually adds value.