Thread: Where to start?

I SOOO agree with dspotleson below. As a new agent, don't waste your money marketing to strangers - $10,000???? Throw some great parties for your friends, take everyone you know to lunch, do a professional-looking newsletter to send out to your SOI... in other words, spend your marketing dollars getting in front of the people who love you and want to help you. THEY will be by far the best source of business for you, especially in your rookie season.

I'm actually rather shy, so in my first year, I knew I'd never be able to aggressively market to strangers. So, I took all my friends to lunch and got a lead and usually a closing from every single lunch. In fact, one "lunch" ended up earning me over $150,000 over the next five years.

As a brand new agent, you don't really have much to "say" to strangers anyway. You probably don't have a special niche and you can't brag about all your successes (yet!).

If you don't have a big SOI, focus your attention there. I actually offer an SOI-building service here in my local market, so I"d be happy to help you brainstorm. There's also a chapter in my book about this (CAUTION, SHAMELESS PLUG AHEAD: Sell with Soul, the New Agent's Guide to an Extraordinary Career in Real Estate-- sellwithsoul.com). I'll send you a pdf of that chapter if you like (or anyone else who'd like one).

Good luck!

Jennifer Allan, GRI

My experience has been that buying leads from lead aggregators can be very expensive and time consuming. Most to the leads you pay for aren't really leads at all. You have to buy a lot of really bad leads to get one that pays off. The number of good leads you get doesn't usually justify the cost and time committment to following up on these leads. I learned this lesson the hard way myself.

By the way, the companies who sell these leads mostly generate them through pay-per-click advertising. Build your own brand and generate the leads yourself.

I would agree. My only caveat would be that for real estate agents to suceed on the internet, they must, I repeat must be comfortable using the computer, understand how the process works and then and most importantly find a company or companies that are focused on the real estate industry. This includes the company that you choose to build your website and the company you choose to work with in regard to market your website online.

The internet is still in the days of the wild west and the term caveat emptor is very real. There are more scam artists than ethical companies and even the ethical companies tend to offer products. They may have a great product, but unless you have all the pieces in place, it most likely will be a waste of money.

You need to understand each aspect so that you have all the correct pieces to get the user to your website, convert the user to a contact, and then be able to keep in touch with a contact since research tells us that the average internet lead contacts an agent 12-20 weeks before buying or selling a property.

This is comparison to a traditional lead which contacts an agent 3-5 weeks before buying or selling real estate.

Hopefully, This form helps people understand what they need to succeed on the internet. Good Luck to All.

I imagine that conversion levels for lead services are much like PPC. If you have an online merchant store, doing well in PPC means that 1.5%+ of your PPC traffic converts to sales.

But with PPC, SEO, and/or a lead service for your real estate leads you need to treat these site visitors different than a typical merchant store visitor. Since most internet home buyers are not looking to immediately purchase a home, in order to increase your chances of conversion you must database the contact info and implement a drip email system.

A drip email system allows you to keep these prospects from forgetting about you and your web site. BTW, my personal preference is to call email inquiries and the like "prospects" and not leads. To me, leads are buyers where you have made contact with the person and at least preliminarily qualified them as an actual, future home buyer.

As far as drip email systems go, there may be a few decent pre-packaged ones on the market, but I don't think these will lead to as many sales as developing your own drip email content. Why?

Most packaged drip email systems contain stock content about buyers tips, sellers tips, working with a Realtor, etc. This content can be found anywhere.

What potential homebuyers really want to know is what it's like to live and work in your area, the best neighborhoods, the best schools, local school test scores, entertainment, activities, and shopping.

Think of your drip email campaign (and frankly all of your advertising campaigns) as a TV commercial. You need to appeal to a specific target demographic and provide them with a sales pitch that causes them to take action - namely, calling you about real estate in your area.

I wish I had a forum like this when I got into real estate. I would not have made so many mistakes. My little piece of advise would be Focus Focus Focus. For the first 2 years, it should be the first thing you think about when you get up in the morning and the last thing you think about before you go to bed.....and every minute in between.

After a year, you will have the knowledge. After two years, you will have the client and pipeline.

I agree - your first two years, you should be consumed with building your business. This goes against much of the advice you'll read that tells you to treat your business like a "real" business - as in, don't answer the phone after 6pm, don't work 7 days a week, don't drop everything to rush out and show a house... but... if you won't do it, someone else will and they'll be happy to take your prospects off your hands. It's a competitive business out there!

That said, my first few years I was so revved up about my new career that I couldn't have ignored my phone or taken a day off even if I'd wanted to. I LOVED to hear the phone ring or my pager go off. I've found that new agents who are already putting boundaries around their time are more likely to fail because they simply aren't prepared for the realities of self-employment.

It doesn't mean that you'll work 60 hours a week - it just means that you're willing to put your business first... or as close to first as you can. If you can't do that because of other obligations, that's okay! Just know that the people who are working harder than you are may be more successful. You can't have everything and do it all well.

Jennifer

All very true. There is no secret formula for success in any business. It's about being consistant, persistant, committed, and determined. Don't take your eyes off your plan and your goals.

When you get busy it is easy to forget about prospecting. To ensure that the business keeps coming in don't stop prospecting no matter how busy you are.

Good follow up is also crucial. You worked hard to generate a lead. Don't let them forget about you. It helps to have a good contact management program like Top Producer.