I own a small real estate company in a rural market in the mid west. There are approx. 20 or 30 other real estate brokers in my area. There is one company who gets about 90% of the business. The owner is a millionaire and owns a few newspapers, tv stations, radio stations etc. He has basically bought the market with huge spending on advertising. No one else can do it or match it. For several years, I have lived off of repeat business and REO properties. The other comapnies in my area are hurting about as bad as we are. A few years ago, a discount brokerage came in and started listing house for $2999. This hurt even worse. About the only way you can make money or get listings around here is to work for the BIG COMPANY or the Discount brokerage.

Over the past year, I have doubled my advertising and worked twice as long (and hard) and am still doing about the same business. I still get my REO's and referrals but I do not see how I can grow my business against my competition.

If I am still getting the same business as before, why shouldn't I go with some kind of gimmick commission rate (flat fee, etc.) and pick up some of the other business? There are just 5 agents in my office and I have talked it over with them and they are game. The only reason I can think of is looking like a hack in front of my other Realtors.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

I have some ideas for you.

#1 Since you cannot out spend them, you should out smart them. What is the big companies web presance like? You should be able to outsmart him by using the information provided here to out rank him and pick up internet clients and leads.

#2 What type of farming are you doing? I realize this guy is probally using his newspaper, tv and radio but you could do direct mailings and most likely steal some of that business away.

#3 You also might want to do some Door Knocking, Real Estate is a personal business and TV, Newspapers, and Radio are impersonal.

#4 Use his size against him, Ask people if they want impersonal, cookie cutter service or if they want personal service with lots of customer service.

Like Cedarcity said - go after web presence. Most of the old school agents don't believe in internet marketing. Also, it sounds like you have a good referral network set up. Are you using any systems to farm that network or just getting referrals passively? If you're just getting referred passively, it's probably time to use a system.

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Eric Bramlett

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I have a great website and are in the top 5 in searches for google and yahoo for my area. My site also has features that include a password protected site that my sellers can go to and see what kind of feedback was left for showings, IDX, virtual tours etc. I spend almost $12,000 a year on the web and cant really spend more.

I do monthly newsletters to everyone I have dealt with in the 20 years, FSBO and expired direct mail, neighborhood farming and such.

The "big" company has a weekly television show, a weekly 10 page newspaper insert, at least 10 pages in the monthly real estate guide, billboards, radio ads, not to mention they have their own real estate guide that is released bi-weekly in every supermarket within 100 miles. The "big" company is also bringing in 5 to 10 newbie agents a month.

It doesn't sound like you would want to even try to match marketing $$$ with them - all that print, radio, & TV presence is way too expensive. I would focus on what you're doing well, and try & improve on it. So...you're getting good traffic online - What's your capture like? How many pages/visitor are you averaging? How's your loyalty? Since you're already in the top 5 for the major SERP's any improvements you make to the site are going to help you big time. Spend some time in the website review section.

As far as your referral database - a monthly newsletter is great, but follow a referral program that helps you systematically sort & qualify that database, & follow up with them by phone & in person. You can more than likely really improve the # of referrals that you get.

People love the underdog! Play it up that you provide a "personal touch" that the big guys can't.

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Eric Bramlett

Take your blogging to the next level. PM Me For a Free Self-Hosted Wordpress Blog on YOUR URL!!!

Austin Real Estate | Austin Texas Real Estate | Austin Condos

If you can't beat them... Have you thought about joining them and creating a partnership?

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Borino
Complete Expired Listings Marketing System: Expired Letters, Postcards, follow-up marketing, and much more.
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You need to find a niche in your marketplace and focus on it as a specialty and be known as the only person to go to for that type of real estate.

Also, At the end of the day, Real Estate is a people business and clients are going to use the person that they like.... all you have to do is educate clients that size does not matter in the age of technology.

Do you have the same access to the MLS they do? Does the other agency use IDX to list other agents (your clients) properties?

Does being the largest agency sell homes for the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time? Absolutely not. Is your list to sell ratio better then theirs? You mention they hire a lot of newbies.... think you can use this against them? Probably.

I suggest you look up Jay Abraham and read everything he has written. Marketing is not about doing the most... it's about doing it the best. It's not about spending the most money, it's about getting the best ROI and peaking the consumers interest. You say you spend $12,000 a year on your site... what's your ROI?

Market your strengths against the competitors weakness. Analyze their advertising and focus on something they are not doing.

It's never about how much you spend..... it's all about the ROI.... something must work for you or you would not be in business. Focus on it and do it more.

Guarantees work great for us.