Marketing... the old fashion way

[David Krulac]

Went to a settlement yesterday, settlement day whether buying or selling is one of my favorite days. Either its the start of a new project or a payday, hopefully big at the other end.

There was an agent at the settlement, who was telling me about a land subdivision that he was doing. He knew that I had been doing subdivision and land development for many years, and this was his first venture there. And here's how he did it; the secret sauce so to speak.

He got a listing for a vacant lot. and notices that on one side of the vacant lot there was a larger piece of land that was also vacant but not owned by the owner of the first lot. it belonged to the next door neighbor and was land most back in behind the owners house and behind the original vacant lot. The agent went to the front door of the owner house, and here's where the secret marketing took place. He knocked on the front door. The owner answered the door. The agent asked if the owner was interested in selling, and the owner was but at a high price. The agent agreed to buy the property at the owners high price with some contingencies. The agent knew that the land by it self was not worth what the owner was asking, but if a subdivision was possible then the property would be worth the asking price. The agent was able to turn the two tracts of land into 11 building lots, giving the owner his asking price and still making a sizable potential profit. Its that knocking on the door, that was the secret to his success.