Start Farming in your own ‘Hood

We’ve all received those pesky marketing mailings from Realtors. Some are postcards, some are letters, some are notepads, etc.  But, as wasteful as they may seem and as expensive as they are to the Realtors, this is a standard practice in Real Estate…it’s called “farming”.  The purpose is to put your face and contact info in front of as many people as possible in an effort to get more business.

Some Realtors have farms with thousands of addresses and do periodic mailings several times a years at over $1000 a pop.

It pays off eventually when people either die, or get divorced, or get a job transfer. “Hey, we have to sell this house now! Let’s get that guy who sent us those postit stickers last month.”

But, sometimes Realtors skip the really obvious areas for farming…your immediate neighbors!

Our Broker tells a story about his neighbor that he knew for many years who suddenly listed her house with another Broker. He asked why and she said that she “forgot he was in Real Estate”.

You’ve got to get exposure and keep it.

You can do a letter or postcard and actually deliver them yourself, saving a lot of postage.

But…don’t be annoying or obvious about it!  Choose a campaign that is first and foremost a community service.  You can hold a block party and invite all the immediate neighbors and collect their names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Then compile the list into a neighborhood watch contact sheet…which incidentally has all your Realtor contact info at the bottom.

How about a baseball and/or football schedule for the fridge?

Maybe a postcard with useful home safety information?

Be creative and be helpful…people will remember you for it!

You’ve got to FARM to reap a harvest!