Most Effective Real Estate Marketing Strategy

[Intagent]

A Good Website! Why is is important?
An expert real estate website designer can do the design, deploy and market your website at the same time. The internet never stops, it’s always online.

No matter how big or small your business is, having a website is important. Not just any website, but a professional and fully functional website. It is important that you have an online presence.

Your designers will design your site according to your taste and preference. They know what is the most effective and attractive site. Your site should convert the curious into customers.

The best website designers in the business will make sure that your website is user friendly, can be easily navigated . Website designers will create a website that describes the real you.

[nimmysnv]

The complete design is very good and I think it is even better for us to understand its effectiveness. The strategy here is very important to be needed and it requires to be done.

[jamespierce]

I think all of what you've mention are effective. But you should always think of risks. Most of those strategies has risks in your real estate marketing. 

[nsu1997]

I think all of what you've mention are effective. But you should always think of risks. Most of those strategies has risks in your real estate marketing. 

Jamespierce what risk are you referring to? That you might lose your marketing investment? That means you're focusing on cost control and not revenue. To get revenue you need leads and the ability to convert those leads into deals. This is a business, and no business will thrive without customers.

Yeah it's true you're not guaranteed a return on your investment...however you likely will never make a red cent if you don't spend SOME money to get leads coming in. Even Driving For Dollars has some risk (gas, possibility of a car accident, etc).

If you don't know where your next meal is coming from then of course don't spend your last bit of money on yellow letters and bandit signs. Also if you don't know what to do with the leads when they come in then don't spend a ton on marketing.

But if you are doing deals or if you have a few bucks the cost of marketing is peanuts.

[David Alexander]

Sellers are offline doing everyday things..
and you need them to call you...

I get so irritated at the new breed
of info guru that has bought maybe
3 houses in their entire career but,
never built a business...

and then says... yeah internet leads..
that's what works...

Their cheap...  but, you get what you
pay for...

it costs you time... it takes 300 internet
leads to get one solid deal...

Because anyone can fill out an internet
form...

You wanna make money in this business
do some real marketing...

Val pack mailers.. direct mail... flyers..
doorhangers... and of course what
works for me...

BanditSigns - nothing is less expensive
there is a bigger bang for the buck..

So, why you guys think about trying to
send a seller and email to get them to
sell you house... motivated sellers are
calling me and my students... direct on
the phone and we are doing deals...

You gotta get toe to toe with sellers..
they gotta trust you... or you are
wasting your time...

And then you'll simply say this business
doesn't work...


So, get "motivated" callers is the key..

not internet tire kickers..

There is no such thing as branding in
this business... on the buying houses side..

Do you know why... because the sellers
all think we are one giant company....

and what is happening to them will likely only
happen once in their life...

And guess what... they are talking about
it at the water cooler to all their friends..

instead they are trying to forget about it...

And your branding with it...

Talk to sellers and good things will happen..

[chunkoftheearth]

I totally agree with David.  It's something I've been talking about on this board for a while.  Banditsigns are where it's at.  I've never understood why people advertise "we buy houses" on the net.  I mean, everyone does that.  How does one differentiate themselves from the thousands of "investors"?  You don't.  And direct mailers I've been trying for a while, and its a joke.  Folks who do those methods obviously are in love with fewer leads, lots of competition and fewer deals.  More deals for me.

[David Alexander]

Intangent...

While ya'll guys are driving traffic
to your websites..

We are out buying houses...

Motivated sellers don't give one
rats patuty about websites..

I started building my real estate
website years ago...

never finished it...

Sellers don't ask and dont care..

The ones that do...

Its a trust issue and they aren't
going to sell to you anyway...

2 or 3 deals a month and you
are superstar in this business..

So, you go to about 5 - 10 houses
get toe to toe...

And you'll get 2 - 3 deals...

Or you can send 1,000 leads
to a website to screen and try to
get the same 3 deals...

the ratio on the web is..

300 to 1..

I tested it for 9 months...

I was the owner of WeBuyHouses.com
at the time it was affiliated for investors
Its not anymore...

I paid big bucks... to have those affiliate
leads sent to me....

What a waste...

[chunkoftheearth]

I agree with the website thing too.  For lead generation, in my opinion they are complete pieces of crap.  The reason people hate bandit signs are because they are hard to put up.  I read on this board all the time people sending out letters once, twice, three times through the postal service and claiming how good it is.  I'm sure they work.  But the topic of this post is "Most effective real estate marketing strategy".  What I'd like to know is how can a website with 300 to 1 ratio, or letters with single digit response rate beat bandit signs that have a way high response ratio, the target marketing ability and the cost effectiveness?

[nsu1997]

I agree as well. I tried Pay-Per-Click/Google Adwords, Search Engine Optimization, Craigslist, and all sorts of other online marketing, and for the most part it sucks...I prefer hands-on, tangible marketing too.

Bandit signs get an undeserved bad rap. Although I haven't used them on the buying side for some time, there's no doubt that they give you a terrific bang for your buck. Put them up in the right places and you'll most certainly get calls. You guys sold me back to them...lol

And when it comes to selling houses bandit signs are without a doubt my #1 marketing method by far. Nothing I've seen pulls calls for buyers better than ugly handwritten bandit signs. I even use them to find cash buyers for junkers. They just flat out work like nothing else.

[chunkoftheearth]

NSU

So what are you using nowadays primarily on the buying side for marketing?

[nsu1997]

NSU

So what are you using nowadays primarily on the buying side for marketing?

Lately it's been bird dogs to locate vacant houses, then yellow letters to the owners of record. Getting plenty of leads of course, and I got a couple of deals under contract. You guys have made me realize that somewhere along the line I totally forgot about good ol fashioned We Buy Houses bandit signs.

Hey are you guys going with that standard preprinted We Buy Houses/phone number message or something more creative? Also have you tried the "handwritten" signs to pull sellers? They work like gangbusters to pull buyers but I've been curious as to whether they'd work better than printed signs to pull sellers. Logic tells me it wouldn't because a seller would perhaps rather deal with a professional-looking company rather than someone who seems to can't afford a printed sign and therefore may be too broke to buy their house lol. But I could be wrong.

[chunkoftheearth]

NSU

So what do you say to the bird dogs to have them find the leads for you?  How have you been finding the bird dogs?  Bandit signs have been good for me, but I'm always looking for low cost/high yield ways of getting leads and deals.

I use the standard "we buy houses, no commissions or fees".  And yes, I use the handmade signs for the buyers.  I agree it works quite well.

Curious, how many homemade signs do you put up NSU for a house that you have for sale?

A few years ago just as an experiment I tried the non-handwritten signs for about 4 months and it sucked so I dropped it.

Lately for the first time my handwritten signs haven't been getting close to the call volume as in previous months or years.  So I've been doing more.  I typically will buy a big marker and pastel colored bristol boards (at DollarStore), regular cardboard boxes (as the backing for my sign, and clear tape over top to protect it from rain.  This way it is highly visable to drivers.

[nsu1997]

To find the bird dogs I posted the following ad on CL under labor gigs:

House Scout Needed
          Flexible part time hours. Must
          have web access, transportation, and
          digital camera.
              Visit http://www.MAKEMONEYHUNTINGHOUSES.COM for details!

The website linked to a simple form I built which looks something like this: http://www.househunterswanted.info/birddog_signup.php I've since taken my site down because I found a guy who actually is hungry to make money. It surprised me how many people responded but did precisely, absolutely nothing. No wonder so many people are broke.

Anyway, I pay my guy $5 per vacant house he sends me as long as they meet my criteria. Once I get the leads that's where my work begins. Most vacants in my area are bank owned or in some level of foreclosure, but some are just vacant abandoned houses. Some are even free & clear.

I usually throw up 25-50 handwritten bandit signs per house for sale. I use "cheap house $100k cash only" message for junkers and "rent to own 3 bd 2 ba" message for lease options.

Thanks for the tip on the handmade seller signs. Will certainly try that. Just FYI most sign shops will reproduce your handwritten sign and mass produce them. That's what I do. I write my message on a sheet of copy paper using a magic marker, scan it, and send it to them. I usually buy from supercheapsigns.com.

[cincyben]

Same experience here as NSU - we've got a similar site for attracting property scouts/bird dog that usually leads to 1 or 2 that actually bring us consistent leads.  But we still run the ad on CL occasionally since it doesn't cost anything and people end up self selecting themselves out.  It's not our best source of leads, but it adds to our long list of vacant/uglies that we mail to consistently.

For us Direct Mail to AO's is #1, but also the most expensive (that we use anyway), signs probably #2, vacants/uglies that we or others find #3, website/craigslist #4 - probates and flyers after that...

[Walter Sanchez]

I would say social networking works the best! It is only because one can reach bundle of people in a few seconds. Social networking is even making it possible to reach different geographical locations easily which in turn helps in communicating directly with different people. This helps in growing the business!