RE: Ideas that work in todays market

Jim Clauser Licensed Real Estate Agent, Athens, GA

Date: September 22, 2008

Robert wrote: Wait a minute here JIM! You are confusing all of us! Your
claim that your motive to change was NOT economically driven?
>>

The point I was simply making was that I did not drop my print advertising
because of the slow down in the market Since the slow down I've seen some
agents beef up their print campaigns to attract more business. I decided to
just try some new things.

Time will tell!

Jim Clauser
Your Real Estate Consultant For Life
RE/MAX Associates Athens, Inc.
706-714-1181 Direct
706-433-0542 Fax
http://www.JimClauser.com to view over 3000 homes!
mailto:Jim@JimClauser.com
Check out my Blog at
http://www.VisitJimsBlog.com

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Rich Hudson Information Technology, San Diego, CA

Date: September 22, 2008

E-mail a monthly Newsletter. If you are not in front of past & present clients, no matter how good you are, they are going to forget about you. I started this just a couple of months ago and 2 past clients have contacted me about looking for property for them. In addition, all the inquiries that I get on my web site, I add their e-mail addresses to this monthly newsletter. Now...I am in front of my inquiries on a monthly basis.

Regards,

Robert Nardi

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Great stuff Robert. Sounds like you have a great, trackable marketing plan. Just one more thing to to add. Sign up for the FREE REALTOR Benefits program from Lowe's. The program offers a ton on information and is easy to use.

The program is perfect for listing clients, buyer clients and past clients. The direct marketing campaign allows agents and brokers to give customers and clients 10% savings coupons and rebates on selected products. Under this exclusive program, Lowe's will send valuable coupons and rebate offers to your customers & clients, on your behalf, via highly customized direct mail featuring your photo and company logo. In addition, participating agents get 5% off the purchase of gift cards. A great closing gift for the new homeowner. Best of all, like I said, it's absolutely FREE to REALTORS.

Do it today before your competition does. For more information, visit www.Lowes.InternetCrusade.com

Rich Hudson
Associate Publisher, RealTown
(619) 283-7302 Ext. 602

Rich@InternetCrusade.com

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Jeff Graves Real Estate Educator , Kihei, HI

Date: September 22, 2008

Dennis,

What you'll need to do is adjust the margin settings in Publisher - for a 4 up layout set them for .3" or .25" and print one page as a test. If you are not sure how to do this…let me know what version of Publisher you have.

Did you know you can also print the address information directly onto the postcard?

Let me know if you need some help.

Jeff

www.ImapctYourSalesNow.com

JeffsTechTraining@earthlink.net

Jeff Graves

Real Estate Marketing & Technology Trainer

***** original message *****

Dennis Vinegar says:

I agree in part. Print advertisement is very expensive but that's where I am right now. Today I am attempting to print 4 up post cards from Microsoft Publisher. My problem is that the printer spits out the sheet before the two cards on the right side are fully printed. As a result, I lose about a quarter inch off the right side of two cards. Does anyone out there have any feedback concerning setting margins to the end of the sheet with Publisher?? I thought I'd check with you E-Pros before going to Microsoft.

Dennis L. Vinegar

Huff Realty, Florence, KY

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speak2me Real Estate Educator , Raleigh, NC, NC

Date: September 22, 2008

Yea Charles, Stop It! My next book is titled, "Just Stop It!" As you know my latest book speaks strongly to the fact that even News Papers don't advertise in news papers!

Keep Smiling,

Rossi, Certified e-PRO Trainer
ROSSI Speaks, inc.
Edutainer, Humorist, Coach, Speaker, & Bon Vivant
E Me mailto:Speak2Me@RossiSpeaks.com
See Me http://RossiSpeaks.com

Text Me
Call Me 919-846-6333 / 800-722-7543

Author of top selling marketing book
"Dog Eat Dog & Vice Versa:
9 Secrets To Put The Bite Into Your Marketing"
Signed copies available from Rossi at
http://DogEatDogAndViceVersa.com
Or unsigned at http://Amazon.DogEatDogAndViceVersa.com

From: Charles Kraus [mailto:RealTalk@RealTown.com]

I have adopted a policy of NO PRINT ADVERTISING. Whenever I have a listing appointment, I tell the prospective seller that I don't advertise in print publications because print advertising is a dead man walking. I ask them is they would agree that internet information is both more abundant and content rich then print advertising. Most people relaize that when it comes to looking for real estate, the internet is the king of information. I tell them a little story about how 15 years ago a husband and wife may have begun their search by looking at the newspaper and perhaps running down to the corner convenience store to pick up one of those home magazines, but today they just grab their coffee and pad into the room where they keep their computer and plug into the world wide web of information. There they will find content rich information, multiple photos and now video. I have not lost a listing yet over this. If you are currently spending advertising dollars on any print advertising - stop it! It is a waste of time and resources. Put you time, money and efforts into the web.

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speak2me Real Estate Educator , Raleigh, NC, NC

Date: September 22, 2008

Attempting to print postcards is not the best use of your time, effort, and or energy. Instead use one of the many online printing/mailing solution companies. Expresscopy.com does an unbelivable job. 100 full color both sides, addressed, stamped, and mailed for $50! That's cheaper than doing it yourself. And if you don't have the addresses (ie just listed - just sold postcards) it's only $8/100 more. If you go to http://postcards.RossiSpeaks.com you can even get my schametic on how to tripple the number of cards you can send annually for the same cost and yet tripple the results. My clients are telling me it works better than ever. Here are some guidelines:

NO Ego marketing!

DON'T sell.

Less is best

Use pictures

Few words

Don't stop (ie. "I tried that postcard thing - sent out 20 of them and still haven't got anything out of it.")
Be Brief

Be Bright

Be in front of them quarterly

Be Positive (few others are)

Use respond marketing (that is offer them something via email)

It's not a bad market, it's a DIFFERENT market. People are still buying and selling.

Keep Smiling,

Rossi, Certified e-PRO Trainer
ROSSI Speaks, inc.
Edutainer, Humorist, Coach, Speaker, & Bon Vivant
E Me mailto:Speak2Me@RossiSpeaks.com
See Me http://RossiSpeaks.com

Text Me
Call Me 919-846-6333 / 800-722-7543

Author of top selling marketing book
"Dog Eat Dog & Vice Versa:
9 Secrets To Put The Bite Into Your Marketing"
Signed copies available from Rossi at
http://DogEatDogAndViceVersa.com
Or unsigned at http://Amazon.DogEatDogAndViceVersa.com

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Emily Hudkins Licensed Real Estate Agent, Llano, TX

Date: September 23, 2008

I have found it to be true also that just answering email inquiries with another email doesn't get the job done. The ones that I have gone the extra mile on and picked up the telephone and actually talked to the individual who made the inquiry have been the ones that paid off. It's just to easy to sit at the computer and email information, but it is harder to actually place that telephone call and that is the one that will get the results you are looking for.

Emily Hudkins
Realtor ePro
Jesse James Real Estate
Llano, Texas
325-247-0818
www.Emilyhudkins.com
www.jessejamesrealestate.com
Emily_hudkins@hotmail.com

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Robert King Licensed Real Estate Broker, Saint Petersburg, FL

Date: September 23, 2008

As the glib statement goes:

"I have adopted a policy of NO PRINT ADVERTISING. Whenever I have a listing appointment, I tell the prospective seller that I don't advertise in print publications because print advertising is a dead man walking."

So if Print Advertising is not working then what if taking it's place?

INTERNET ADVERTISING???

If you ask me neither policy is working! People have always been told, "if it's in the paper it must be true". So I guess our new policy is "if it's on the INTERNET it must be true"? The difference between both policies is that neither is actually working for anybodies best interest. I think we need to go back and re-examine ALL the evidence, starting with IDX and Lead Generation Policy. While we are conducting this investigation we may want to look at who has been capitalizing on all the misery? Just a thought! One thing I do know,if you price the listing right and get your product in front of interested buyers you'll make sales. Both print advertising and internet advertising are failing miserably if you ask me. And the people suffering the most are HOMEOWNERS and WANNA-BE Real Estate Investors.

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Glen Starrett Licensed Real Estate Agent, Cordova, TN

Date: September 23, 2008

> Carolyne, I've just started working hard on Craig's List marketing and
noticed that as you post it, there is a message that tells you how long your
post will be active. As for the others, I don't know if thre is a way.

Here's an idea: You can have the main image for your property linked back to your website instead of uploaded to CL or whatever site you're posting to. That is, the Image tag will point back to your site for the image, like this:

<img src="http://yoursite.com/listings/123main/front_main.jpg">

Then, when you sell the property, you can put a "SOLD!" stamp across the image on your website, and anyone viewing those listings from CL or wherever will see the new image with SOLD! stamped on it. Try it out first with a test image to get the feel for how it works.

Regards,

-- Glen Starrett, Realtor® Hyde & Co., Realtors Memphis, TN 901-682-8333 x704 mailto:glen@starretthome.net http://starretthome.net/

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Tal Kramer Licensed Real Estate Agent, GA

Date: September 23, 2008

I want to second Jason's mention of www.Postlets.com. My manager turned me on to it and its a fantastic marketing tool - and its FREE!

As for Point2, I love the distribution but its a real pain to enter listing information. Postlets is done in a few minutes, but Point2 takes way too much time to enter the data properly.

Tal Kramer

Tal and Jeanette Kramer
Re/Max Communities -Metro Atlanta
770-971-0025
Mobile: 678-978-1900
Kramer@MyDreamHome.com
www.MyDreamHome.com

We're never too busy for your referrals :-)

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Ken in Kansas city Licensed Real Estate Agent, Kansas City, MO

Date: September 23, 2008

totally agree that there is a major shift away from newspaper ads. I know several major newspapers have eliminated the real estate section entirely, including all the advertorial that runs in those sections. I was actually the Real Estate editor for a daily back in the day

Although each post has been based upon ROI (as it should be), here in Kansas City, my Open House ads smoke the online advertising. Over the past couple of months, I have advertised all of my Open Houses in the KC Star. Obviously, I ask each person that visits my Open House how they heard of it, and 90% of them saw it in the paper! Believe it. The other 10% either saw the signs (I use pennant wigglers instead of balloons) or saw it on the Internet. The great thing is that many of the people coming through open houses are without agents. I have been able to pick up 3 new clients just from open houses in the last 2 months. And, my sellers see me working…

Ken Smith, ABR, CRS, GRI, MBA

'Realtor For Life'

100 NW Englewood Road

Kansas City, MO 64118

Cell: (816)304-7580

E-mail: ken@MoveUpWithKen.com

Website: www.MoveUpWithKen.com

P.S. - I value and appreciate your referrals. As always, I promise to deliver such outstanding service that your friends, family, and coworkers will thank you for referring them to me. Give me a call if you know someone who needs a dedicated Realtor.

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