22 ways to get more listings

Since a number of my readers and coaching clients are realtors, I thought I’d lay something down here for them. They’ve all heard, “You have to list to last,” and since it is spring, well, here’re 22 tips—    

1. Lawn signs work
2. So, do free webinars
3. And doorhangers or flyers[1]
4. Develop a decent email list (legally, of course[2]); email still works
5. Start your own newsletter
6. Write and self-publish a book and give away a bazillion free e-copies of it
7. Speak to sell—get invited to talk to local organizations about what you do and especially why you do what you do, give away yet more e-copies of your book 😊
8. Collect testimonials from satisfied clients and publish them everywhere—on your blog on your social media, in your book, on your personal website—everyone reads those things
9. Offer free “clarity” calls on zoom for prospective clients 
10. Record some voiceover videos highlighting case studies of how you helped previous clients overcome issues and problems and achieve success then put them on your YouTube channel and promote them everywhere or record learning outcome videos like this one I did to teach folks how to calculate cap (capitalization) rates when buying property: How to properly analyze real estate investments using a spreadsheet, cap rates 3 Splinter example, https://youtu.be/OlYB7FLqZYU–

1. Set up a referral network where you refer clients to good quality suppliers—mortgage brokers, home stagers, designers, renovators, painters, landscapers, contractors, storage places (for de-cluttering, for example), moving companies, packing supplies, real estate attorneys, divorce lawyers, lenders, appraisers, planners, architects, architectural technologists, environmental companies, snow contractors, window washers, PSWs[3], tax accountants, investors, financial planners, homebuilders, developers and so forth—and they refer clients back to you  
2. Have an open house AFTER you sell a place—nosy neighbors will show up and then some of them may want to list their nearby properties with you
3. Offer property management services and portfolio management[4]—optimize client portfolios by helping them buy more of the right stuff and dump (ie, list) their losers
4. Offer to do (paid and free) CMAs (comparative market analyses) for prospective clients so that they can learn the value of their properties
5. Learn what a PAAN (Property Animation and Analysis) Report is and offer to do (paid) reports for prospective and existing clients so that they understand what the HABU (highest and best use) and best animation strategy are for each property they own, may want to buy or, indeed, sell[5]
6. Create your own clients; for example, I teach realtors and others something I call the “makeover model,” which is different from flipping or wholesaling—you can watch this video training on the subject to learn more[6], https://youtu.be/PRicFG69Cto.
7. Become an investment realtor and have a stable of investors at the ready so you can truthfully say to a would-be seller that you have buyers standing by to purchase their property
8. Broaden your pitch to include NEWPIN[7] advice—try to become a lifetime adviser for your clients—if you always put your clients first, you’ll always have clients
9. Develop and giveaway your own promotional product like Prof Bruce’s wrist bands[8] that have four words engraved on them: act, believe, verify, no

Prof Bruce’s youngest son, Matthew, modelling his wrist bands…

• Become a spreadsheet and finance pro so you can help sellers and buyers better understand not only the value of property but also how to properly finance it
• Answer your phone calls, emails, messages either the same day or the next day but not later… ever—communicate (!) and remember this—the harder you work, the luckier you’ll get
• Finally, always remember to ask, “Do you want fires with that?” ask your residential clients if they need help with any commercial work and vice versa as well as ask them for referrals to others who may need your services.

Easy peasy, right?

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FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT AND BUSINESS COACHING THAT’LL HELP YOU PROVIDE FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY FOR 3-GENERATIONS, PLEASE CONTACT:

Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD

Real Estate Investment and Business coach

Ottawa Senators founder

ROYAL LePAGE Performance Realty broker

613-762-8884

bruce@brucemfirestone.com

brucemfirestone.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/profbruce

profbruce.tumblr.com/archive

https://www.youtube.com/user/ProfBruce/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/reiroi

https://www.facebook.com/ProfBruce

BOOK YOUR FREE CLARITY CALL WITH PROF BRUCE NOW, https://brucemfirestone.com/coaching/prof-bruce-real-estate-investment-and-business-coaching/talk/

•   MAKING IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE

•   FREEDOM VIA REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT AND PB4L, PERSONAL BUSINESS FOR LIFE

•   FEHAJ, FOR EVERY HOME A JOB, FEJAH, FOR EVERY JOB A HOME

•   MAKE YOUR HOME WORK FOR YOU, INSTEAD OF YOU WORKING FOR IT

•   HIGHER ROI NOT JUST FOR OWNERS AND INVESTORS, BUT FOR TENANTS, GUESTS, VISITORS, NEIGHBORHOODS, COMMUNITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES, CITIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT TOO

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[1] Because I am a buy and hold guy, I’d probably take a wacky approach and put DON’T SELL YOUR HOUSE on my flyers, doorhangers and lawn signs. I’d try to convince folks to not list their homes; instead, they could refi them and buy (through my brokerage, for example) more property and thus build their portfolio that way. I follow a BARF strategy: Buy Animate Rehab Renovate Rent Reappraise Refinance Rinse & Repeat (with OPM) Financing methodology! It’s a riff on the BRRR Strategy, which stands for Buy-Rehab-Renovate-Refinance. 

[2] I often advertise, for example in BIA newsletters in areas where I want to develop a client base.

[3] Personal support workers for your elderly clients.

[4] I have a business model I am dying for someone else (other than moi) to try. It’s called Workey. The idea is to provide paid neighborhood help to folks living near you or in areas where you want to farm for clients. I have a few Workeys working for me—they do house (and commercial) cleaning for clients, landscaping, snow removal, window washing, personal shopping, minor renovations and repairs and much more. We get paid for this work (and I keep a bit, the Workeys get the balance). When a client needs realtor help or coaching assistance, they will often then turn to Prof Bruce. Comprehendo? It’s like a Greek gift (ie, a Trojan Horse) only this one makes money not war. If you are interested, check out the video training I did on this O-YES plan, https://youtu.be/boWFlQumAaY. O-YES = one-year exit strategy or how you can stop working for someone else and BYOB, be-your-own-boss. I have another part to this model that is really far out. What if you bought a home in a neighborhood you are interested in farming for clients and stuffed that home with Workeys, who then fan out thru the neighborhood and do their work, maybe even being able to walk to work some of the time? Workeys would pay rent, live in a nice place with collegial others and have a “guaranteed” JOB. It’d be a cool way to build a personal real estate portfolio too… with “guaranteed” tenants/residents. The tagline I came up with is FRIENDS HELPING FRIENDS because the idea (the thing that makes Workey different) is that, for example, Workeys are dedicated to individual clients. Hence, unlike Uber or Task Rabbit, you get the same cleaners, landscapers, personal shoppers, snow shovelers, window washers or PSWs each and every time rather than some random person assigned by an app nicknamed “SKYNET.”

[5] Part of any good listing is creating a spellbinding story about any property thereby making it an irresistibly appealing opportunity to a prospective buyer. To do that you need to know both HABU and PAAN 😊

[6] Basically, for realtors, it’s about buying a property (often with investor help), then animating it by, for example, adding a self-contained microsuite (aka studio apartment) or basement apartment (and thus adding REAL value not lipstick), after which they sell it for a profit. They do this a few times to build up their cash position and keep their investors happy too. This is their “cash engine,” after which they keep a few to build wealth. So, if you do, say, eight in five years with the help of two investors (who together own 1/3 of each property while the realtor owns 2/3), maybe you sell five of them and keep three. Next, you graduate to a non-partnership, partnership model. “What’s that?” you ask. It’s how you can exit without exiting. That is, you separate out—your 1/3 investor partners now own one property 100% and your 2/3 is exchanged for two 100% owned properties. This is how you avoid the two chairs in Heaven problem as in, “There are two chairs in Heaven waiting for the first two partners to get there and still like each other.” By separating out this way, you can accommodate different agendas—maybe the investors want to sell but the realtor wants to keep her/his properties? This way, there is no conflict… 

[7] NEWPIN is my term for “new era financial plan.” It’s my theory that most people need to own some real estate and their own PB4L (personal business for life) in order to have a decent retirement. Relying on government to do this for you is probably unwise. My NEWPINs have eight pillars: 1) Real estate investment portfolio, 2) Iron reserve (cash and near-cash), 3) Business interests, PB4L, 4) Insurance (mainly term insurance), 5) IPP, independent pension plan, 6) KISS, keep your structure simple & your focus tight, 7) Pass on to your heirs efficiently & effectively, 8) Giveback to your community.

[8] One of my daughters call them “Brucelets.” I call them the @ProfBruce Power Circle bands.

FEATURE IMAGE SOURCE: Release poster by Metro Pictures Immediate source, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014517/mediaviewer/rm2369805824, PD-US-expired, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60922042.