Some Realtors get a little too crazy with their closing gifts.  Most have their name emblazoned on whatever it it may be.  What I like to do is inexpensive and well received.

I go to the $1 store, yes the $1 store, and I buy two small garbage can or buckets.  I fill it with the things that most buyers will need but forget where they are packed.  Here are some item ideas.

• Paper Plates and cups.  There will be food of some kind.
• Paper Towels.
• Toilet Paper.
• Tooth brushes and tooth paste.
• All purpose cleaner
• Soap
• Bottles of Water
• Screwdrivers
• Hammer
• Snacks sometimes
• And always garbage bags.

That only cost $14.  Besides this being the perfect usable gift for your client, on the marketing side they will remember you every time they use those handy items to save them a trip to the store or some kind of improvisation.

photo via http://www.flickr.com/photos/80546354@N00/

Let’s say it is Monday April, 1st.  You find out about some new rule, law or idea and read it. Then put it in the folder “Today.” The first thing you do the next morning is read whatever is in the “Today file.

Because it would now be Tuesday, slip this paper into the “Friday” folder. If it was Wednesday or Thursaday you would put it in the Wednesday Folder. I think you are getting the point here.  On Friday you review everything in the “Friday” file and then place it in the “15th” file.  Then would finish everything in there and put it back in with a paperclip.  When the 15th comes back around anything in the “15th” with a staple would be reviewed and you should be done with it.

• Review new infomation the next day.
• Review information from the week.
• Review it again in 2-3 weeks.
• Review in a month and it should be very strong.

Completely understanding information is very important in our industry.  We don’t want to be giving half-truths accidentally.  Also an even stronger memory retention device is to teach others what you have learned.

• Coupons on the back.  Seemed like a good idea but I didn’t repurchase.
• Odd shaped cards
• Odd textured card
• Cards with your hours listed
• Cards with a “different” photo (posing on your car, next to your dog, etc.)
• No card, which causes you to take their information

I think something unique can work but I have kept an average card just because I forget to get something interesting.  I was told by a friend in the promotional item business that the average views a business card got was 3.

1. When you gave it to them.
2. When they saw it accidentally
3. When they threw it away.

The coupon card had 12 offers on back that only had to be shown to the business for my client to receive them.  I only gave out a few as I switched companies soon after.  Ooops.

I like cards that are arranged so you have to turn in 90 degrees from normal to read it.  Something that makes someone do a double take on your card would seem to be helpful.  I see reasons for and against off size cards.

One being that it will be larger or smaller than the rest and become more noticeable.  It will either stick out or fall out.  It doesn’t fit the holders or pages well but as Realtors we may not have our cards put with other business cards.  If we can get them to email us once, most likely they will have our information for a long time.

 Try a Range Extender or Repeater - You’ll find lots of hardware like this on the market. Some of it works well, some doesn’t. In general, I’ve had the best luck with extenders when they are made by the same company who made your router. Some vendors also offer “high-gain” antennas as a replacement for the little ones on your router. They’re worth a try.

There are  more suggestions and looking at the comments it seems some agree with the ideas.  Try them out and let me know.

The main use for this as I see it is to leave yourself an email as you drive.  Keeping track of ideas or tasks.  Drive by a FSBO?  “Jott” the address and send them a postcard.

They also have a reminder feature.  When you call and tell it “reminder” it will remind you later of the event you describe.  I haven’t played with that feature yet.  I use google calendar which integrates my email and calendar pretty well.  Jott will just make it easier.

You can play with it for less the 10 minutes and get a feel for whether it works for you. Check it out.   I think you will find it useful in your real estate life.

Zilby.com will show you an area and you can sort by duplexes, apartments and single family rentals.  Just another tool for when you need it.

Every agent needs to answer their phone.  I have seen plenty of agents ignore their phone because they were telling a great story.  Do your job. You don’t know how long you will have it if you keep skipping calls.

I know there is school of thought that says you should only return calls twice a day.  You set up your voicemail to say when those times are.  Maybe it works but if you aren’t working there is no reason to make that rule.  You have extra time, make extra money!

According to Redfin, craigslist draws more attention to your listings than any other site.

I haven’t had much success with craigslist finding buyers for my listings but I know it has sold homes. One almost client wanted to wait over a holiday weekend to list while he did some repairs. We spent way too much time configuring the flier and base colors to get maximum effect. We spent more time on minituae and I was willing to do it because he was going to be an involved seller.

The funny part is while we were working on all of these colors and planning, his basic Times-Roman lettering in craigslist with one picture grabbed a buyer. He sold it the day before the listing went active.

Two points were made. One is that craigslist works and that you don’t always need flashy advertising. Here is how I work craigslist.

I use postlets.com for other reasons too but it is perfect for craigslist. There is a spot where they have html code that you copy and just paste into the body of craigslist. Fill in the header, price and location and you are done with a quality online flyer.

Vflyer.com can be used on craigslist as well but I am not as familiar with it.

I will also make a separate listing in the basic style on craigslist. Some don’t like the slickness of the flyer. This way you can get attention by both.

Create a craigslist account and when they expire you can easily relist them. If the information has changed such as price, then you have to redo the craigslist ad.

In a future post I will talk more about Postlets.

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/acloudman/

Showingfeedback.com has increased agent responses dramatically. It is a free service that will give you a better response rate from showing agents.

Typically when you call an agent they don’t remember the house and you spend awhile trying to jog their memory. By then they just want you off the phone.

Showing Feedback allows you to send them an email with a picture of the house and a customizable survey. The agent can quickly click the survey answers and if they feel generous they can fill out additional comments.

You can also send a login for your client to see the responses on their home but that may not be the best idea.

Don’t get caught improperly using the word REALTOR ®for your web domain as in this example.  Whoever controls it now is trying to sell it for $1600 hoping to find some new agent that doesn’t know better.  Here are the rules:

1. The term REALTOR® , whether used as part of a domain name or in some other fashion, must refer to a member or a member’s firm.
2. The term REALTOR® may not be used with descriptive words or phrases. For example, Number1realtor.com, numberone-realtor.com, chicagorealtors.org or realtorproperties.com are all incorrect.
3. For use as a domain name or email address on the Internet, the term REALTOR® does not need to be separated from the member’s name or firm name with punctuation. For example, both johndoe-realtor.com and johndoerealtor.com would be correct uses of the term as a part of domain names and jdoe*realtors@webnetservices and jdoerealtors@webnetservices.com are both correct uses of the term as part of an email address.
4. The REALTOR® block R logo should not be used as hypertext links at a website, as such uses can suggest an endorsement or recommendation of the linked sited by your association. The only exception would be to establish a link to the National Association’s website, Realtor.com.

You could easily build up the ranking before NAR becomes aware of it and then have to scramble to come up with another catchy name.  This guy will probably find himself in this situation eventually.   This one really surprises me, illinoisrealtor.org, I guess REALTOR® associations can use it.

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/7301623@N06/