Thought a few of you might find this interesting…
I got a piece of junk mail the other day which at first glance looked like a hand written note, but on closer inspection I could see it was photocopied… It said something along the lines of:
“Hi! I may have found a buyer for your property! Give me a call at xxxxx real estate on xxxxxxx”
My first direct contact with one of the signs of a property slowdown
Or maybe he/she is just CHEAP and doesn’t want to pay for fancy advertising??? [blush2]
No, I thought just the fact that they are street-spamming in the first place means they’re running low on properties to list. Needless to say I didn’t call
I am not an agent, but I know many of them, and this sort of “street spamming” has been happening since I first started investing 24 years ago. It’s not new and is not necessarily indicative of the market; more the marketing strategies of the RE agency itself.[blink]
That marketing message is directly out of a book I read called “Hot Marketing, Cool Profits” – don’t be surprised if you get another crumpled up note that looks exactly the same but has “Please don’t throw me away again” written on it!
It’s just another form of marketing and is designed to make you look at it rather than just throw it in the bin like most people do with their junk mail.
I’d say it did its job – it’s got you talking about it, which is what all good marketing should do!!One of my local agents must have read that book too, I got one worded EXACTLY the same a couple of weeks back!!! Very pathetic effort.
~jo~
Yes, it is about as original as the old,
‘Genuine Buyers waiting’
If these people are trying to entice you why not have some fun with them.
I would ask them around for an interview, then get them to sign a letter that they guarantee they have a genuine buyer.
If they say they don’t then tell them you are going to report them to the department of fair trading for “misleading and deceptive information”
solution; no more box drops!!
Advertising is a fascinating subject.
It is our way to communicate, “here I am”, it is he interaction between normal individuals in a functional society.Since we all advertise in one way or another be it by one page in the SMH, two lines in the local paper or sucking the abdomen in and keeping the chin high at the beach, I don’t see the reason for finding the hand written letters from your local RE agent wrong cheap or ludicrous.
It is just part of the freedom in a functioning society. He uses fliers, you use business cards, Steve uses a Bulletin Board. I use a red convertible you use an Armani suit, he uses worn jeans…we all advertise in one way or another and if someone lacks inventive and copies a book…I say good for him. After all… you may have had to learn from a book how to advertise yourself to find a girlfriend, only are not ready to admit it just yet …[biggrin]
May God prosper you always.[biggrin]
MarcI agree Marc, I find marketing to be one of the most interesting and fascinating aspects to being in business – I love it.
Believe it or not, 95% of the marketing (small)businesses use is complete rubbish – most business owners wouldn’t even know where most of their business is coming from, or whether their ads are working or not.
I think the RE’s efforts where fine, I’ve copied many ideas out of many books, and tested which ones work and which ones don’t. Whilst Ian from Brisbane may have thought it was a poor effort, Joe Bloggs down the road may have thought ‘Wow, this came at just the right time, I’m thinking of selling my house and I’ll give this person a call because they’ve made the effort to contact me first’. It does happen.
I love to laugh at the Cars Guide ad where it says if you advertise with them 2,000,000 (or something similar) people will see your ad in the Cars Guide – unfortunately they fail to tell you that not all eyes are created equal – it’s very doubtful that of the 2,000,000 people reading the paper it’s in, that they will all be wanting to buy a car, especially YOUR car in particular as it is competeing with 1000’s of other cars listed in the guide – and so in actual fact they really have no idea exactly how many people will be reading the cars guide when it comes out, they just quote the readship numbers and hope that’s impressive enough.
I say good on the RE for trying something a little different – we all have to make money, even real estate agents, as much as you may loathe or love them. They’re not ALL totally bad…….At no stage did I ever say it was a poor effort, or anything similar. My point was that I hadn’t got that kind of mail in my letter box for months (maybe 12 or more), so I found it significant.
ian – i’d love to live in your suburb!! rarely does a week pass without a written entry in the mail box heralding ‘significant interest and thwarted buyers ready to pay for….’ in my cnr of brissy.
cheers
brahms
CALL NOW…adults only (boys and girls ask mummy or dad first) ~~ 1900 hot broker ~~Whilst Ian from Brisbane may have thought it was a poor effort, Joe Bloggs down the road may have thought ‘Wow, this came at just the right time, I’m thinking of selling my house and I’ll give this person a call because they’ve made the effort to contact me first’. It does happen.Sorry Ian, I didn’t mean to offend…what I meant to say was…..Whilst MoJoJo and g1 may have thought it was a poor effort, Joe Bloggs down the road…blah blah blah….this is what comes of posting late at night and not re reading my posts before submitting. No offense intended.
The point I was trying to make was about marketing methods in general and how one person (Ian) was not interested in the marketing piece, but someone else may have been. It was more a discussion of marketing ideas, not a go at you (or anyone else for that matter) at all.
Hi Ian
I agree in that I believe the market has definately changed! Agents now have to get out and seek business rather than waiting for it to come to them (as they were doing whilst the market was booming)!
The upshot of this is that we have turned the circle and are now in a buyers market (except for waterfront/prestige property). There is more now available for sale, it is sitting around for longer, vendors are much more negotiable and with interest rates set to increase very soon, then I feel, we as investors, will have a lot more choice.
With so many real estate agents doing the same thing when it comes to marketing, it does get a bit frustrating to receive the various flyers however it is certainly a great way to keep in touch with what is happening with prices in your area or where your IP is.
[dead2]
Yasna & Simon
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