Real Estate Agents - Get Listings the Old Fashioned Way

In this day and age of real estate blogs, Facebook fan pages, and Twitter, door-knocking seems antiquated, inefficient, and ineffective. I mean – Tom Hopkins wrote about that in the 70’s!

But is it really?

Let me tell you a story, because I like stories: Earlier this year I had a call from an agent in California that was working as a buyer’s agent for a couple that was relocating to the area and their timeline was tight. The week before closing on the house they had under contract, the contract fell through. The buyer still needed a home – and needed it quickly. So on Saturday morning, armed with MLS listings for active listings in the neighborhood, for which their were only a few, she went on the hunt. After viewing the active listings, and realizing that none of those properties would meet her buyer’s needs, she became desperate and afraid.

She did what she had never done before – she went door-knocking in the neighborhood the buyer wanted to live in.

She just knocked on the door, and said…”Hi, I am a real estate agent that has a buyer that wants to live in this neighborhood, and the home they were going to purchase is no longer available. I was wondering if you would be interested in selling your home?”

Something amazing happened; everybody was nice to her and respectful, no doors were slammed in her face, and after three polite “sorrys” , she knocked on a door, asked her simple question, and the homeowner said “you bet – when do they want to move in.” Two weeks later she closed the transaction and earned a 6% commission instead of the 3% she would have earned as only the buyers agent.

The seller it turned out had previously listed their property with another agent and then “never heard from them again”, so he decided not to re-list his house because he was discouraged by the actions of the previous agent.

The seller asked the door-knocking agent if she would help him find a temporary rental while they look for a new home, and by the way he had a little money that he wanted to invest and was wondering if she could help him find a couple of foreclosures for investment properties.

4 Doors – 3 No Thank You’s – 2 Hours + 1 Yes = 5 Commission Checks. Not a bad return on the time she invested.

Now I know that not every door is going to lead to 5 closed sides – but I do know this – this best way to find motivated prospects is to look at your morning MLS Expired Listings Hot-sheet, download it, and go knock on those doors every morning. And if those prospects are not home, I am leaving something on their door that directs to my blog or website for special information, and lets them know I will be back later that evening with a free CMA.

I know there are many ways to generate leads. But if you need to generate one today – just go knock on 10 people’s door who have already shown they are motivated to sell their home.

Just show one of those a week that you are the right agent at the right time who will take the right actions – and you will be a Top Agent in no time.

Real Estate Agents - Get Listings the Old Fashioned Way