You have your new real estate license. Now what? How much should you plan to spend to get your name "out there?" Where should you be spending your money? What is the most effective way of letting the marketplace know who you are without breaking the bank? These are all important questions, and a little common sense will help you make good decisions when you are starting out.
Plan around your budget
Your first thought should be consistency. What can you do on a consistent basis with the resources that you have? You should be planning on some advertising that includes the cost of your open house signs with your name on them as well as newspaper and magazine ads. You should also be planning on lots of personal notes and the costs of those as well as the postage. Look at your budget then plan something that you can do consistently over the next six months.
Start with Advertising
Make sure you put a small display ad in the paper consistently-if funds are limited then run it once a month at a minimum. This display ad should be with your picture advertising an open house, or talking about the service you are giving your clients, etc. The cost varies from newspaper to newspaper, but try to stay in the $150 or below range per ad. Why do you do this? Because perception is reality-when you are in the paper you are perceived as successful.
Use the Telephone
The telephone is the most reasonable prospecting tool you have at your disposal so use it. Call For-Sale-By-Owners, call Expired Listings, call all your friends, or call around new listings in an area that you like to tell them about new listings. Make it a habit to call for at least two hours a day. Follow-up every contact with a personal note. This should cost you around $150 per month which would be the cost of the personal stationery and the postage.
Hold Open Houses
You want to hold as many open houses as you can. I suggest starting with four a week. Why not? You could hold other listings of fellow agents open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. This would be great advertising for you at a reasonable cost. Use at least 10 signs for each open with your name on them. This is virtually free advertising and imagine how many people are going to know your name in the first month? The signs may cost you $200 to $300; but that is a one-time cost. You now can use them over and over again. Just make sure you take good care of them so that they don't get all beat up. You want to make a good impression, so keep them looking nice.
Start a "Farm" area
Find a geographical area you really like in your marketplace and start knocking on doors to introduce yourself. Meet everyone. This works best on the weekends. Find something in your office that you can give to this area such as a map or some valuable information about the marketplace that your office has published. If you can't find anything, then make your own. Create a list of most frequently used phone numbers; e.g., the library, the movie theater, favorite fast food places, parks and recreation, etc. Copy the list on bright colored paper and give one to each person you meet. The cost is minimal, around $25, and you will be meeting more people to let them know that you are a real estate agent.
The most important thing that you need to do when planning your first year is plan to spend money marketing yourself. Most agents forget this. They stay in the office and wait for the phone to ring. That isn't going to get you anywhere. Create your own business by spending money wisely and consistently.
