[mikey]

My sites do well in picking up buyers. I normally get just a few listings per year. If you have suggestions for getting more listings, please share that info here.

Thanks, Mike

[rvolk75]

Make sure you call your buyer leads. Many of them need to sell a home before they buy. Of course in Hawaii that might be an issue, because of so many people buying are from out of town.

[AZAgent2]

I would also like to know some strategies anyone out there is using to effectively to pick up seller leads. I know the internet "can" work to find sellers but I have no clue how to maximize that area.

[paulsps]

Hi Michael - I have been working with Realtors for nearly 7 years now and I still think that the best approach for picking up listings is to focus on a neighborhood and own it.
This is a classic approach for so many reasons. But one of the key benefits is all the spin off benefit you get from working with anyone in that neighborhood - as your sellers they literally help you with your marketing.
As a supplier of marketing services we've tried to provide tools to help agents to do this.
Single Property Sites are a great way to build relationships (see link below!)
Neighborhood websites (see NonStopNeighbors.com) help because with a sign rider outside the house with a street address domain name on it - you get tremendous interest and presence and this drives referrals.
Anyway - no matter what approaches you adopt, i still say focusing on a specific target market is a great approach.
Of course, your target market focus could be 'any' community.

Good luck!

[Micheal Pannell Realtor]

Buy From me we will sell yours for free or 4.5% commission. We have over 25 listing right now most from this. We have around 10 more appointment set up right now. I am ordering signs left and right.

[Morristown]

Originally Posted by Micheal Pannell Realtor

Buy From me we will sell yours for free or 4.5% commission. We have over 25 listing right now most from this. We have around 10 more appointment set up right now. I am ordering signs left and right.

Hi Micheal,

In a number of states this sort of inducement is illegal, and it should be.

[Gloria Singer]

What do you mean "buy from me and we will sell your for free or 4.5% commission?"
Is it free or is it 4.5% And how do you do it for 4.5, do you put in 3% for the coop broker and only keep 1.5% for yourself?

[AZAgent2]

The buy from me and I'll list your home "free" (I assume you mean the 3% listing side is "free") doesn’t really get you anywhere as now you do a lot more work for less pay?? A lot of guys in Tucson started doing this and i guess they made a little money when the market was super hot and "listing" a home was just paperwork and they sold easily. But today all those guys are selling nothing because that "hook" gets them listings unfortunately since the listing sides pay little to nothing unless they have an under market price they can't even afford to do anything to help get the home sold, so that option seems not so good.

I'm talking about actually adding content or offers that will get sellers to want to make contact or view you as the "listing" specialist. I personally took the approach of lots of stats, selling tips, and general (even specific) selling info and I have received listings no doubt but its not the number of listing leads I was expecting. Right now I'm averaging one listing (completely off the site) maybe every 3-4 months. I also only take listings that are sellable since I have to put time, money, and skill into every listing and unless I can sell it, it's not doing me or the client and service to get involved with it.

So other then "free" (which I'm sure works well just doesn’t pay that well) is anyone cleaning up on listings purely off their website?

Also I don’t mean to sound rude or anything I do understand having signs up and the ability to pick up additional buyers off of listings that will never sell still pays more then not having the listing. It’s just not the way I prefer to do it.

[Bigtoe]

Buyers use the internet more than sellers. Sellers tend to get bombarded with phone calls and mailers so they don't have to go shopping like the buyers do. If the feds ever start enforcing the do not call this might change.

[DMG]

Although I am not suggesting I have it 100% covered or know it all (still learning every day ) But I agree with the statements that internet seems to be the "buyer playground" more than sellers. I had no web presence at all until REW and my site in 08 and for the last 9 years have been 100% a listing agent with my buyer team doing that end so my business is purely listings. I average around 15 listings at a time for just me, not office and I truly think the key is marketing by mailer / print / door knock / community service / community involvement and concentration on selling listings and the ability to show those stats.

The getting them to call you will happen when you're engulfed in an area, they will see you around and you will become the go to guy, then that's when stats come in as "AZAgent2" stated prior.

Sellers call those they trust, trust can be built by image and not always needed to know that person, look at shopping malls or restaurants, why do you go there for the first time - did you know the head cook, did you know the mall owner - doubt it, you went sometimes because its local and easy, sometimes because someone recommended it but often because the brand was there - the image was there and the feeling you got from seeing it or driving by it was a good one. Look at some of the people on REW forum, even though I don’t know most on a personnel basis there is almost a trust factor there and I am sure you all see that too, why? Lots of reasons, many posts and they have not been banned by the big dogs yet , more seriously you can see the passion and dedication to their area of expertise coming thru in their posts and web sites and we listen, as well as we should or at least I should, most here are much smarter than me.

A Realtor can do this also as long as he or she is doing it for pure reasons, yes everybody wants to get paid and make a living but if the passion is not there it will come through in everything you do, I love the small town I work in, I live there, eat there, buy gas there, office there and work within the community there.

I have GREAT respect for buyer agents and think mine are great but buyers are easier to come by, first they hit the web harder and they are typically always willing to drive around and look at properties with a "lets go" attitude plus they don’t pay to use the service so they are out nothing. Sellers on the other hand don’t typically call off the web and they do pay, and the cost of commission is not a cheap thing so you need to know your stats, know your worth and provide a true service that is better than the next guy.

So IMO to get more seller leads, pick your area of focus (to start anyway, better to go local than global, you can expand off word of mouth later) and dive into that area with good high end marketing, if you're going to do it cheap don’t bother, learn the stats, talk with people, learn what that community wants and needs and give it to them - but the key is to stop talking and listen, stop selling and start supplying benefit.

Just my 2 cents...