Where to Start Marketing For Real Estate Agents (Short Sales and Loan Mods)

There are a few very common questions I get asked, and one of them is… “Marty, where do I start?” This question is asked for very good reason. There are SO MANY PLACES you can start and SO MANY WAYS to market! So where should you start?

Let’s break it down this way.

Here are the possible marketing methods:

Direct Mail (both to pre-foreclsoure list and to a pre-NOD list)
Bandit Signs
Realtor referrals
Word of mouth
Newspaper
Craigslist
Internet
Voice Broadcast
Door Knocking
etc…

So which one should you start with?

Well, let me answer this with a specific example. The latest person to ask me this marketing question was a real estate agent from Georgia. He is tight on money and for the past 6 years has been the top selling agent in his brokerage. The market has turned, and for the past 6 months, he has had a hard time selling… so what should he do?

Here is what I would do if I were him.

1. If I were him, I would contact all the agents I know. I would start in my own brokerage and find out who has expired listings, who has listings that are priced too high and probably won’t sell. Let everybody know that if somebody comes in the door (or calls) and the brokerage thinks they can’t help the homeowner, to send that person over to me. There is a VERY GOOD CHANCE that there is enough business just within the office, that I could get off to an awesome start! In fact, there might be enough business just within the office to keep me more busy than I even want to be. And here’s the best part… THE MARKETING IS FREE!!!!

2. Go to brokerages and agents outside my brokerage. Tapping into just one or two other brokerages will explode the business. Be careful, because if done correctly, you will have more business than you can handle.

Ok, so how do you structure it? That depends. Are you working the business as an agent or as an investor? If it’s as an agent, just see if you can get the listings. If the other agents consider the deals dead, then they’ll probably be more than happy just to hand them to you. Now you can call the lead and see if:

a. They want to keep their house but can’t afford the payments (LOAN MOD!!!)
b. They want to sell but owe too much (SHORT SALE!!!)

See where I’m going with this?

Ok, so what if you’re not an agent? Well, the ideas above should be exciting you, because if you’re an investor, you can use the exact same techniques. Start with agents you already have rapport with. Work some deals with them and get some testimonials, and then start working with other brokerages.

This is a much overlooked marketing method… give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

To your success!

Marty Schulting
Top Foreclosure Training
Accelerated Loan Mods
Co-Founder and Coach