You can always use one more good idea in this business. So, in the hopes of finding at least one idea you haven’t yet tried, we asked speaker and REAL Trends co-editor Laurie Moore-Moore to come up with five hot ideas for building your business. Here’s what Laurie suggested.

Hot Idea #1

If you’re computer literate, look for more ways to use the Internet. For example, take your open house sign-in sheets and add a place for open house visitors to write their e-mail addresses. Agents who are doing this tell me that some prospects are more comfortable giving you their e-mail addresses than they are their phone numbers. Obviously not everyone has e-mail...but the number of people who do is growing rapidly.

Follow-up with these prospects using e-mail. E-mail is easy, it’s immediate, it has a sense of urgency, and it lets your prospect know that you have high tech tools to add to your toolbox of high touch services. Be sure to give your e-mail message a clear subject line that will separate it from junk e-mail. Maybe something like "Thanks for visiting my open house"

Hot Idea #2

If you have a company web page (or a personal web page). Take your open houses for the coming weekend and give prospects a sneak preview of your open houses early in the week. Take the copy of your open house newspaper ads and create a weekend open house sneak preview section on your web page. This special sneak preview section on your web page allows buyers to review the open house ads before the weekend paper lands on their doorstep. Prospects can map out their weekend home tour or may even contact you asking for a showing appointment before the open house. Buyer prospects appreciate the sneak preview and needless to say, sellers love the extra exposure for their properties. Promote this sneak preview in your advertising and add a teaser line promoting it on your property fliers, business cards, on sign riders and in other promotions you do.

Hot Idea #3

Use niche marketing to build your business. If you’ve heard experts like John Tuccillo (NAR’s former chief economist) speak, you know that the traditional market of home buyers in the 25 to 45 year old age range is weakening due to demographic changes. But there are market segments or niches which are expected to have unusually high demand.

Nationally, immigrants are becoming a primary source of first time home buyers. They form a niche that will be enormously important and profitable over the next twenty years. In fact, estimates are that by the year 2010, 80 % of all first time buyers will be immigrants. This is one reason some offices are promoting lists of their agents who speak foreign languages.

There are scores of other niche opportunities: Over a million divorces annually create sellers with special needs. Single women are buying homes in record numbers. Some buyers have disabilities and need the help of agents who are educated and equipped to work with the differently-abled to help find accessible housing. This is a large and satisfying market to target. There are many niches in which you can specialize—from luxury homes, to country acreage, from golf course developments to bed and breakfasts, from government owned properties to military retirees.

Look at where the opportunities are in your market and analyze your own skills and interest to determine the niches you might specialize in. Then, become the expert serving that niche. Strive to become unique and better able to meet the needs of buyers and sellers in that market segment, then your business will blossom.

Hot Idea #4

I call this idea the magic question. Use it when you are on the phone setting up your listing presentation appointment. Before you conclude your phone conversation, ask, "By the way, is there anything else you’d like me to know about your home?"

It’s amazing the answers you will get. At the very least, you will learn the sellers hot buttons. They will tell you about the kitchen they have just redone or describe some special feature of the home. This is important information because, as you can imagine, it usually has some impact of the seller’s pricing expectations. From your standpoint, forewarned is forearmed in your list price negotiations. And, knowing what’s important to the seller also helps you establish rapport.

Hot Idea #5

When you and a seller can’t agree on a list price, use the buyer for an afternoon technique. Now, this approach is especially effective when your seller is a business person. Here’s how it works. Your seller wants a price you know is too high. Your script goes something like this, "Let me ask you a question. In your business, would you ever want to bring a new product on the market without doing some research on competitive products and their pricing? Well, your home is a product and I’m going to ask you to take just a few hours to do some competitive pricing research with me. I know your time is important, but it’s critical that your home be properly priced, don’t you agree?" Then choose the two absolute best properties in the price range in which your sellers wants to list and the two best listings in the price range in which you think the home will sell. Show these homes to your seller. About eight out of ten times, the realities of the market will clinch the list price you want.

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