Yorkieabroad

My sister in law is a realtor in San Jose. Well, she's actually a stay at home mom that happens to have a realtors licence from her career before kids. All she does now is list homes for people in her church - they use her to get the properties on the MLS, she arranges the listing, the photos, then waits for it to sell and turns up at the closing, then kicks back part of her commission to the seller. She sells about 5 or 6 a year, all in the $million+ bracket, and reckons to make 150-200k. Nice pocket money for a part time job for a stay at home mom! But she has experience, and she has her niche, and she works it. Without that niche, she'd be nowhere....

Michael

If someone can figure out a niche, they do well. Without a niche, all they can do is send mail advertising themselves to local residents hoping they will call but they seldom do.

Yorkieabroad

And the only people that make money out of those mailers are the recycling companies...

Seriously, does anyone actually know anyone who has responded to a mailshot from a realtor? This is a word of mouth/referral business, pure and simple.

Tarkak9

Ahh yes but you've remembered that he/she have sent you something. ..Regards to responding to the mailing (aka Farming), it depends on what they're mailing; noone will call if there isn't a reason or incentive to do so. Rule of thumb it takes about 6 or 7 'introductions' before people remember your name and what you do,

Yorkieabroad

Not really, cos I couldn't tell you the name of any of them! If advertising doesn't get the brand name to stick, then its wasted money. I'd say most of the realtors I remember names of are (in descending order) from:-
the roadside boards outside properties for sale (positive and negative),
previous direct experience
word of mouth

I have a magnetic notepad holder thingy from one of them on the fridge...been there for about a year and its really useful. Even though I use it just about every day, I had to go look to see which realtor it was for (one of the Remax offices about 20 miles from us). I don't think a post it note holder on the fridge is likely to influence my choice of realtor when I sell 10+ years down the line, but I may be wrong....

Tarkak9

I'm not referring to an actual name, the fact that you remembered that a person sent you their marketing piece has proven it works (your note pad too, even you recall its from a Re/max person...), it'd be more effective if you remembered their name, highly effective if it made you call them (if needed) ... its all about cultivating front of mind awareness, whether direct mailings or 'who you know' ... any of which happens over time and repetition.

Michael

I've also received many of those Re/Max magnetic calenders over the years and they have all gone into the trash bin. Of all the gimmicks, I suspect that one is one of the better ones for people that don't throw them in the trash bin.

Another one that works pretty well is to mail a list of recent homes that have been sold in the residents area/complex with the address of each home along with the price, sq ft, and selling date. These lists always interested me just to determine the probable value of my home. However, I never remember who sent those lists to me.

The most useless ones are when an agent leaves his business card on the front door. Others that are common and useless is when an agent calls and claims that he/she has desperate buyers looking to purchase a home in my complex. I would never use that agent since I know he/she is lying through his/her teeth and I also don't like unsolicited calls.

Yorkieabroad

Remembering that I received (and recycled) a bunch of marketing pieces but I can't remember who they were from counts as working? Wow, I wish I had your marketing account..............

Yorkieabroad

I agree - getting something in the house that is going to last longer than 2 seconds has to be an improvement on the instantly recyclable flyers, cards on the door etc.

The lists are also a good way of drawing attention, but as you say, the message is generally lost - people look at them as a guide to what is going on, "oh, we're up or down 5/sqft", but unless the name of the guy sending the report is remembered, he's wasted his time, on you at least.

If the business is running a proper marketing plan, and monitoring the returns on the dollars invested in that marketing plan, then good for them, but from the output a lot of them produce, I suspect not many of them are.

njmackem

You have to love those who are so niaive about advertising.

When a company advertised its products or services they are not advertising to everyone. Its estimated that less than 10% of a marketing campaigns target audience will be in the buying cycle. That is why they only market to that 10% of people (in this case those who may be think of selling or buying a property).

The fact that people do not remember a name from the paper mailers they receive does not mean that 10% of the audience didn't simply means that you are not in the buying cycle and do not have interest in the flyer.

That said though, it worked to some extent even though you are discounting what you saw, because even out of the buying cycle you remembered you saw Real Estate Agents details in there.

Enough about the merits of advertising, this thread was intended to get me some help on my realtors license. Big thanks to the member who PM'd me you have been a great help.

Jerseygirl

I don't read mail shots...ever. They go straight in the recycling bin.

Things that put me off realtors...the cheesy high school photos when they are almost at retirement age. Trying to be my new best friend and trying to make out that we are now 'family'.

njmackem

Yeah that I will fail at as I progress. For a career sales and management consultant, I am not exactly a people person.

I am hoping that my suave English accent and rugged good looks will be enough to get me through.. ha ha ha

Jerseygirl

If you look anything thing like your avi...my advice would be to not give up your day job.

njmackem

what, you don't think my avi caught my best side??? Darn, I was going to use this picture on my business cards.

Yorkieabroad

Lol - starting to see why you're looking for a change in career from management consultant....

OK - will take it (almost*) back on topic with the realtor thing - check out your local real estate licensing board, whatever it is - in Texas its TREC. They will have all the education and experience requirements you need to get into the business.

I looked into it a few years back as I do quite a bit of real estate and I was looking for easy access to the MLS to try to save some costs.

Round our way, you become a salesperson first (classroom/exam route) then have to have 4-5 years experience working "in a brokers office" plus quite a few hours more classroom/exam time before you can call yourself a Broker. From memory, it was something like 400 classroom hours to become a salesperson and another 400 to become a Broker. If you didn't have an accredited degree, that second chunk of 400 becomes something like 1000 hours. I have an MBA in marketing that should have got me around that second chunk, but as it was from a UK school, I needed to get the transcripts "translated".

At the end of the day, I wasn't looking to build a new career and wasn't prepared to put in the hours again (at the time I had was an NAEA member in the UK), plus the 4-5 years just for "personal" MLS access, so I didn't go that way.

From talking to a friend who is a Broker, the definition of "working in an office" is quite, erm, flexible - he takes people on on a "supervisory" basis, lets them use his office and takes a massive chunk of any commission they manage to generate. Not a period for getting rich by all accounts!

*if you do go that way, don't fall into the trap of assuming that the marketing of a realtors services can be achieved in the same manner as the company selling air duct/carpet cleaning/oil changes. Get some professional marketing help. Or montor the effectiveness of the campaigns of the office you tie to- maybe in some markets the blind mailshots do work.