By Craig Proctor
RISMEDIA, July 16, 2008-An agent approached me the other day with a problem. He wanted to work with buyers who were looking for homes in a highly desirable area of his marketplace. Most of us have such an area where the homes are worth more, and thus the commission earned is higher. In my marketplace, the areas are called Glenway, Stonehaven and College Manor. In this particular agent’s marketplace, the high demand area was called Ruby Hills.
Sensibly, this agent reasoned that his cut of the commission on a home sold in Ruby Hills would be worth 1-1/2 to 2 times what he was earning on homes in other areas. The problem was that he had no listings in Ruby Hills, and thus didn’t know how to attract buyers who were interested in this area.
You Don’t Need Listings to Attract Buyers
I explained to this agent that you don’t need listings to attract buyers for a certain area. In a mere couple of minutes on the phone together, we wrote the ad below. It hits the hot buttons that will attract buyers who want to purchase a home in Ruby Hills, and offers them an easy, free, non-threatening way of getting information on several homes for sale in that area.
RUBY HILLS – Luxury homes on huge lots, professionally landscaped, backing onto golf course, trees. Free computerized list of homes for sale in this prestigious area. Call 1-800-000-0000 ID#0000. <
When you run an ad like the one above, a couple of important things happen:
1. You’ll get calls from buyers who are interested in purchasing a home in Ruby Hills.
When they call into your hotline to get the computerized list, your script will say something like: “Thank you for calling about the homes for sale in the prestigious Ruby Hills neighborhood. We know of several homes for sale in Ruby Hills that range in price from $500,000 to $600,000. All of these luxury homes sit on huge, professionally landscaped treed lots, and many back right onto the golf course. The homes in this exclusive area offer many elegant upgrades, such as gourmet kitchen, cathedral ceilings and stunning decor. To receive a free computerized list of current homes for sale in Ruby Hills, please leave your name . . .”
2. You WILL generate leads with this ad, and it will be easy enough for you to find and show them homes in Ruby Hills.
With these buyers in your database, you can now advertise to sellers that you have a large database of buyers who are interested in purchasing homes in their area (i.e. Ruby Hills). With this important leverage, you should be able to gain some listings in this area and build this momentum over time into good business activity in this area.
Importantly, because you’re not marketing a specific listing (at least initially), it’s impossible for the listing to sell. As a result, the relevance of this ad will never change and you can (and should) keep re-running it forever.
“Classified ads have the unique position to call out directly to the targeted person and have that prospect uniformly respond when and if you identify their dilemma and offer a solution. This process has a built-in qualifier because only the prospects meeting your criteria call,” said Lynn Horner-Baker, an agent in Marietta, Georgia. “And, as the ad writer, you do not need to be an expert or an area specialist. You simply need to provide what your targeted prospect wants and needs.”
She continued: “Selecting a target market is most successful when the statistics and the odds demonstrate a high percentage of need and activity. The level of return for each ad increases incrementally when there is a rush of demand and a supply equal to or slightly below the need. Target the emotional benefits of this specific area and offer exclusive and proprietary notification that no one else has. Then limit the number of prospects who can have access to your program either by number or by time of response. Prospects always want something of value more emphatically when they might not be able to have it.”
To find out more about how to write targeted classified ads that will compel the prospects you’re looking for to seek you out, you can visit http://www.hypertracker.com/go/cp/a22a080716/ where you can learn about my 3-day SuperConference where I train agents on inexpensive direct response marketing systems with proven results.
Billion Dollar AgentTM Craig Proctor has been in the top 10 for RE/MAX Worldwide for 15 years. To receive free training from Craig with no obligation, visit: http://www.hypertracker.com/go/cp/a22b080716/. These seminars are held year round in cities across the country.
