I am going to tell a personal story.
I need a new roof. My need is real, but not urgent; so I have been paying attention to the roofing jobs going on in my neighborhood for a few months. Based on what I’ve observed and on the signs the roofers place in yards, I had narrowed my list of possible roofers down to three, but I hadn’t reached out to anyone.
Then, a few weeks ago, there was a knock on my front door. When I opened it, low and behold, there stood a rep from one of my final three. He was bidding on one of my neighbor’s roofs and wondered if I needed a free inspection.
Guess who got the job.
This is such a common scenario! It happens all the time, but not just with roofs. It happens with landscaping, painting, remodeling and . . . with real estate sales. People have a need, perhaps not pressing, but hovering there on the back burner. They are in watch-and-wait mode. And then someone shows up At The Door and Bingo! We’re moving forward.
When you take a new listing, I URGE you to go door-to-door around that listing with information about it and also about neighborhood activity. If you want to be super-prepared, take a look at knockwise.com (also on Facebook).
It will provide you with all the information about every property in the neighborhood (thanks to Ruth Moisa of Help-U-Sell Wisdom Realty for cluing us into that great tool).
You don’t have to be fancy. Just ring the bell and say, ‘Hi, I’m James with Help-U-Sell Acme. We just listed the Baker’s house down the street and I wonder if you know anyone who might like to live in the neighborhood.’ That’s probably all you need to say because their curiosity will take over with questions about price and the market and so on. It’s a perfect time to offer something free; not a roof inspection, but a competitive market analysis.
Do the same thing when the house sells.
That’s it. Short, simple, easy and non-technical. Just MEET THE PEOPLE. After all, there’s nothing more powerful than face-to-face contact in helping people decide to move forward. According to the prestigious James Dingman Real Estate Research Group, it’s 65% more effective than putting a card in the mailbox and 80% more effective than in electronic communication.
Use every opportunity (or excuse) to knock the door, get face-to-face. MEET THE PEOPLE.