How Can You Sort Your Database?

How should you sort your database? We use five distinct tags.

Questions about your Real Estate Career? 
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The question of how to qualify or sort your database comes up a lot. I always say that your success or failure in real estate is in direct proportion to the number of people that think of you when they think of real estate. It's important to reach out to them consistently. 

For our database, we use Top Producer. Regardless of what you use, you need to create tags. We use five different tags for every client or prospect that goes into our database. 

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Regardless of what you use, you need to create tags for your prospects.

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The first category is my raving fans VIP list; people who trust me, know who I am, and whom I've sold multiple homes to or have given me multiple referrals. The second category is 'A clients,' or those who have referred business to me or would in the future. The goal is to get every level of client to the next level.

The next group, 'B clients,' are people who would do business with you in the future when they have a need or would refer you business. Then, a 'C client' is someone who hasn't done any business with you or referred you any leads. They might be an Internet lead or someone you met at an open house. 

Finally, the last category is the 'D prospects,' or people you just don't want to work with. You might have had a bad experience with them or they just don't return your calls. We have this category for tracking purposes only. 

If you have any questions about sorting your database or you'd like a copy of how we break down our categories, don't hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I'd be glad to help.

What Farming Strategies Work Best for Us?

How can you get more business in the neighborhoods you are targeting? Don’t be afraid of snail mail!

Questions about your Real Estate Career? 
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I had a conversation with an agent a few weeks ago who was working with some out-of-town buyers. He was working in a few different neighborhoods, but felt bad because he wasn’t doing enough prospecting in order to find more listings.

When he ended up driving through one of those neighborhoods, he was sad to see two yard signs on two different properties. They weren’t his signs however. They were from his competitors. That tends to make any agent feel crappy. However, I told him not to lose sight of his goals and I offered him a few tips on how to better market to different neighborhoods he was working. 

One of the things that works best for me and my team is a monthly newsletter. I present a lot of different information from housing market statistics to community updates and even recipes. I also include testimonials, data from recently sold homes, and information about any special events we have.

By getting in front of our geographic farm areas with a newsletter like this, we are always top of mind with homeowners. This helps us get more listings, more buyers, and more business in general. 

Another way we like to reach out to entire neighborhoods is by sending out mailers for different charity events we do. For example, we had a canned food drive for the local food pantry and it was a huge success. We gave away free ice cream to everyone who came and donated a can. We only spent a few hours and a few hundred dollars, but it was a great way to give back to the community and keep us top of mind.

Finally, “just listed” and “just sold” postcards are alway a smart idea. It lets people know what their neighbors’ homes are selling for and it’s a great way to insert testimonials into your marketing material. People always trust referrals, so this is an important step to building up a good reputation in an area.

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“Just listed” and “just sold” postcards are alway a smart idea.

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These are just a few of the ways you can up your marketing in geographical farms to attract more buyers and sellers. If you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.