RESULTS!

I am wondering what kind of results other Realtors get from certain types of marketing.  I have been tracking my marketing efforts over the years & have found that things that have worked in the past are not working as they used to.  For example, I use multi-page brochures loaded with all of the information about the home along with a couple of pages of color photos inside the house.  There are 2 main benefits that I receive from them.  The first one is that my homes are represented better than 95% of my competition which helps my homes stand out after the buyers have looked at 15 homes in a day.  The second benefit that I get is on the flip side.  I have had lots of new sellers ask me to help market their home because they liked the way that my listings are represented.

Another marketing tool that makes the phone ring is the road fliers.  These are fliers that have all of the information about the house including the price & 3^rd level domain address for the home.  I have been using the back of the fliers for personal promotion.  I get a lot of comments about the personal promotion on the back of the fliers.

Rob

Does anyone have any experience with a company called bookashowing.com?  They just made a presentation to my local board & it looks like the entire board is going to give them a 90 trial period.  Their program appears to be really good for scheduling showings right thru the local mls.  The only issue that I could think of is when an agent from another board tries to schedule a showing; their info is not in the system.  All of the showing confirmations & showing feedback is done thru e-mail & I think that is great.  When I got back to my office & started to discuss it with my coworkers, some of the agents were not as excited about it as I am.  They are the agents that are not computer savoy.

I just got back from our Realtor Golf Outing & had a great day on the course.  This is the 10th year that I have been involved with planning the golf outing & we had the best day on the course that I can remember.  The purpose of our Realtor Golf Outing is to raise money for local charities & for the Special Olympics.  This year our profit was a little less than the last couple of years, but we still managed to raise over 12k.  We usually generate closer to 17k, but with the local economy like it is I think that we did some good.

I was wondering if anyone else puts fundraisers together & if so what kinds of activities generate good results.

Rob

I have not given closing gifts out for over 7 years & the topic came up in my sales meeting the other day.  It seems like some agents feel the need to purchase their clients gifts as a way to say thank you for the business.  The agents in my office say that they need to do that to get referrals.  My opinion is that if I do the best job for my clients, they will remember that more than a bottle of wine or some other gift.

Rob

I was wondering what other agents do at a home inspection.  I have been in the business for 13 years & was taught to walk around with the buyer & the home inspector during the home inspection.  The problem that I have with doing so is that I usually end up running the conversation.  I think that the inspector should be the one talking.  For that reason, I have taken a different approach at inspections lately.  I bring paperwork or my laptop with me on the inspections & will sit at the kitchen table quietly doing work until the inspector & buyer complete the inspection.  At that point, I review all areas of concern with the buyer & inspector and move forward with any issues or remove the contingency.

I have had a couple of comments from other realtors saying that I am not doing my job if I am just sitting there, but I think that I am doing a better service to my clients by keeping my mouth shut at the inspection. 

I have not had a lot of input on this blog since I became a point2 agent, but look forward to reading all of the blogs that are here every day.  I would appreciate any input or suggestions.