Before I started using Service for Life!^®, I was always looking for ways to stay in contact with my clients after closing. As a result, I developed a checklist for closing day.

First of all, when I return to my office to turn in the closing paperwork, I make a copy of the HUD settlement statement for my files, and one for the client I just closed with. I address an envelope with their mailing address and I stuff it with the HUD along with a brief hand-written note that says something to this effect: “I hope you’re still enjoying your new home. You’ll need the enclosed form for your taxes this year, so I thought I would save you the trouble of digging it out of your files.”

Then I ask them to drop me a line or give me a call because I would love to hear from them. I don’t seal the envelope just in case I need to add something later. I put the letter in a file of letters to be mailed in January.

Secondly, I set a reminder in my contact manager to drop them a line in about a month to remind them to apply for their homestead tax exemption (it takes about that long for the deed to be recorded). I include any necessary instructions and the appropriate phone number (I have actually created a form-letter email for this; it only involves copying and pasting).

Third, I set a reminder for one year out to acknowledge their one-year anniversary in their new home and to provide them the name and number of the termite company that provided the clearance for their closing, and finally, I add them to my client list at www.lowesrealtorbenefits.com. Lowe’s will send them a 10% off coupon in my name.

These (the three here, plus sending Service For Life!^® monthly) are four service-oriented ways to remind my former clients that I am out there!

One of the most powerful ways to build credibility and prospect for new clients at the same time is to use education as the cornerstone of your marketing.

By educating people about the important aspects of buying and selling, you’re differentiating yourself from other agents in a very professional way (making you the stand-out choice) and building exclusive relationships that will bring you more clients and referrals over the years.

Here, agent Bill Brannon offers residents of a subdivision or area a free Home Selling Course (not a “seminar”) where they’ll learn important topics like staging, how to appeal to buyers, how to price your home, how to work with real estate agents, and more.

Offering a course like this will certainly create credibility and bring more clients, but perhaps even more importantly, when you host educational courses, you can add every one of the attendees onto your House List for sending a monthly direct-response prospecting tool such as Service For Life! (www.serviceforlife.com).

Do you think you could do the same thing as Bill and offer regular educational courses to are residents?

This is a terrific way to infiltrate any geographic market and make yourself the stand-out expert. But remember to capture these folks into your House List and continue to nurture the relationship month after month.

Do just that and you’ll be building a strong personal market share generating profits for years to come.

Here’s the invitation Bill uses. I would suggest you test not only a post card, but a very personal letter (“A-Pile” mail) sent to area residents.

“Here’s a great idea Jessica Tripp uses to increase readership of her Service For Life!^® direct-response newsletter (www.ServiceForLife.com). And the great thing is, this same method can be used to improve the results from any mailing you do – whether to a farm or your SOI (house list)…

“Instead of doing a ‘Client of the Month’, I do a ‘Friend or Neighbor of the Month’. I randomly select someone’s name from my contact list and give them a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant. They have to call me to claim their prize. Just this month, I started printing ‘Look inside to see if you are the winner of a $25 gift certificate to (the local restaurant)’ on the outside of the envelope to entice more people to open it.”

Submitted by Jessica Tripp, REALTOR^® (Thanks Jessica!)

Today you’re going to learn a great way to generate quick commissions (and sell your listings faster) with a great buyer marketing strategy, how to create a “house list” that brings you consistent clients year after year, and how to understand your Return on Investment with your marketing.

1. New Agent? Just Relocated? Need to Generate Commissions FAST?

Find an agent with several active listings. Tell them you have a number of “buyer” marketing strategies that will sell their listings in a fraction of the average market time. Offer to implement the 4 “buyer magnet” systems I taught you from this real estate marketing article for EACH of their listings. You manage everything for the agent so they’re out $0 and no time.

You implement the strategies, agree to take the buyer calls and qualify the leads, and sell them a home. Work out a commission split, and you’ve now got a marketing system working to bring you buyers, and even a few great listings. Plus, you’ll look like a marketing wizard in your office and agent community (not to mention you’ll automatically be building your own “house list” for increased referrals, word of mouth and repeat business).

If the listing agent refuses your offer (some people will step over dollars to pick up dimes!), move on to another agent who’s got some business sense.

Remember, the strategies from this real estate marketing article will also help sell your own listings faster by acting as active buyer magnets.

2. Create a “House List” and Make Them Your Primary Market.

You already know that 74% of all real estate transactions occur from a relationship – they know the agent or are referred from a trusted source.

Here’s something you don’t know: If you built a “house list” (database of personal contacts) with 300 people (homeowners), and the average home ownership period is, for example 7 years (nationally it’s 5.5 years), then 42 of those people will buy or sell every year – good market or lousy market.

Holy cow! Is this getting your attention?

600 people and it’s 84 transactions every year. 900 people and it’s 128 deals a year – and so on. And don’t forget, that doesn’t include referrals they could send you – it’s just the number of direct transactions that come from that group.

Now hold on. Before you start thinking you just hit “easy street”, there’s something you need to understand. These are not just “random” people. I’m talking about people who know you or know OF you.

The higher the “quality” of contact on your list (i.e. the better they know you), the more responsive they’ll be to your regular contact. This means the more inclined they’ll be to think of YOU FIRST when they think real estate.

I call this your “Personal Market Share™”.

So the “operative” question is: WHO will get all those deals?

ANSWER: The agent with the highest Personal Market Share™.

The one who’s stayed in contact (every Month), deepened the relationship, provided on-going value to their list, and demonstrated they’re a true professional committed to the relationship for the long haul and worthy of the client’s business over any other agent.

Are you willing to become that agent…the one who captures 74% of all transactions, holds such a high personal market share they generate huge income regardless of market conditions?

Then go to www.UltimateRealEstateSuccessSecret.com, download the FREE course there, print it out or read it on your computer, devour its contents and start using it. It will change your life!

Oh…and did I mention it’s FREE? Yes, it’s free – no strings attached.

3. Be Relentless About Building Your House List.

Building a house list is easy if you put your mind to it. Start with all the people you know (in the Ultimate Real Estate Success Secret™ Free Marketing System I give you “the big list” to prompt your thinking here).

Make it a point to add 2 people a day, and you’ll have 500 your first year – and will have gotten 10 to 20 deals just by putting people on the list.

Put leads you generate on your list. Every new and old client goes on the list. The other parties to any transactions you complete go on the list (hint: their agent will forget about them, so they’ll easily be yours when they buy or sell again).

Create “strategic alliances” with professionals who have clients that could be yours and get a “host endorsement” of your services: accountants, insurance brokers, etc. Consider reciprocating by introducing them to your clients as well. The credibility of the existing relationship is transferred to the endorsed person.

Final note: purge your list every 6 months to remove lower quality people. Within 12 to 24 months you’ll have a small, highly motivated group of people sending you consistent business month-in and month-out – something I call building “Critical Mass™” in your business (see Step 3 of the 3-Steps system). That’s what I mean by “Personal Market Share”.

4. House List Strategy #1: Monthly Contact is Essential.

Whether you’re farming or marketing to your “house list”, you must plan on monthly contact to make any inroads. Commit to monthly or don’t even start.

The Direct Marketing Association reports that the optimum contact time is every 21 days. There have also been studies out there that say for every month you forget about your house list/clients, you lose 10% of them – another reason for monthly contact.

Finally, the NAR reports that the “average” contact program takes between 8 and 12 months to “start” working. We’ve cut that time in half with Service For Life!^®, but even if it takes 10 months to start the “market share engine” producing, that’s still a great deal, considering most agents never get it going.

5. House List Strategy #2: Know Your Return on Investment.

Here’s how to understand how well your monthly marketing system is working for you…and I’ll use a simple example.

Let’s say you want to send 300 Service For Life!^® issues out each month to your house list. That’s going to cost you about 60 to 70 cents per issue without postage. So you’ll probably spend about $350 a month for the mailing, including having the newsletter written for you (see www.ServiceForLife.com)

That means you’re investing about $4,200 every year to contact 300 people 12 times each, or 3,600 contacts. Now, I know that might sound like a lot of money, but let’s get some perspective here.

Let’s run some quick numbers.

Of those 300 people, you know statistically that about 42 transactions will come from them (300 divided by 7 years average home ownership period = 42 transactions EVERY year).

If the average home price is $250,000, that gives you a co-broker commission of $7,500. Subtract out home marketing expenses and a broker split, and you’ll probably net about $4,500 from that commission.

Does it make sense to send your contact every month?

Well, look at it this way: If you get only ONE of those 42 transactions, you’ve broken-even ($4,500 commission against $4,200 to send for a year).

But after all that marketing, do you really think all you’ll get is a ONE paltry commission out of 42 transactions?

Here’s what’s more likely to happen…

First, ask yourself: Who will generally get the lion’s share of those 42 transactions? The agent who’s cold prospecting over dinner time or pestering people in the grocery store line, OR the agent who’s demonstrated their competency, brought great value, created a family-like relationship, and “been there” when it was time to buy or sell?

Are you getting a hint?

I have agents with small databases of 300 “quality” people who “net” more than $300,000 per year using that very system – and it’s their only marketing.

That’s a whole lot more than just one transaction out of 42.

Problem is, most agents quit before they get any traction – “instant gratification” takes priority over sound strategy. It’s a shame, but that’s good news for agents who “get it”.

When you consider the ROI in your marketing, you now have a benchmark to know when it’s profitable and/or unprofitable for you.