Sometimes I have been called “ The King of Cheap Advertising “. My competitors often remark how Spartan my ads seem. (They are normally not more than 3 or 5 lines in length.)  In fact a Large ad for me would be a whole 6 lines. I have even written many ads that were only 2 lines long. How do you keep your Seller’s happy with ads like that, they ask?. If only they new. Do you know?

                                            What’s the Purpose of Advertising ?

The Old man had worked for the OREGONIAN Newspaper in the real estate advertising department for most of his life. He went on to say “ I recognize many of you who have signed up for this class in advance by the poor examples you have submitted to the paper for us to publish. You guys and gals just don’t get it. ” That was soon to change.

The Old man went on to explain how we should look at advertising as if we were looking through the eyes of an unemployed worker who half heartedly is searching through the help wanted section.

You first must thing like the consumer. Contrary to popular belief they are not there to find anything. In fact just the opposite is true. Let me demonstrate how the average consumer reads the classifieds. ” Nope I aint no brain Surgeon so I cant do that, I don’t have a college degree so I cant do that, I sure don’t have over 10 years of experience so that wont work for me either. ” And so it goes with those many Buyers who are afraid of finding the right house as well. ” Nope not enough bedrooms, Nope to small of garage. Nope not my kind of neighborhood.”

You need to stop giving your Buyers the ammunition to shoot your AD down. “So what kind of ad will work you say?” I’m glad you asked he answered before anyone could say a thing. Try something like this.

Caption :  ” Owners Sad.”

Body : Their Loss can be your gain. Be sure to call Herb today for this Charming home with Spacious rooms and a Great yard. ( Add the Price and Contact info and your done.

Here are some additional Captions ;

• Big Ugly House   ( for fixers )
• Call Now or Kick Yourself In the Morning
• Anthony Renaldo Smithe once Slept Here ( use any name of a previous owner )

“Obviously”, the Old man said “ the Caption is there to draw attention.“ You cant sell anyone anything who wont stop long enough to hear your message.

When it comes to the Body be a little vague. Build a story or emotion. Stop telling all of the details. Use descriptive phrases to make your point. Let’s say your listing is a Bungalow home with hardwood floors and French Doors  etc.

Here is an example for the body :

The moment you step into the sun-filled room you can feel the warmth sweep over you. Your pace quickens as you pass over gleaming hardwood floors, past the shimmering glass panels of the French doors until your standing on the edge of a SECRET GARDEN.

I left the seminar Full of ideas. I couldn’t wait to get back and employ my new found techniques. That weekend my first ad debuted. I went with the Owner’s Sad headline.  I had tried on multiple occasions to sell this house without success. My previous ad attempts had pulled in about the normal response rate, 3-5 calls.

The ad was set for Sunday. I received my first call on Friday afternoon from the Typesetter at the Newspaper who was placing my ad. By Monday Morning I had received over 75 calls. By Wednesday I had a backlog of 125 Buyer’s who had responded to the Owners Sad ad.

What truly amazed me then and still amazes me today is that People will make up the Story if you don’t tell them. In my Owners Sad ad people were sharing there sympathy’s with the Seller for their Catastrophic Illness, or loss of a Loved one. Some people even were wondering about the Divorce. How they ever come up with those ideas from my little ad I will never know. What I do know is, What’s The Purpose of Advertising!

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Two days ago while having coffee at My_favorite_coffee_shop_University_Park_Coffee  in North Portland, I witnessed an Older Lady discussing with the teller the appropriate amount for a Tip. After the Lady left, the Teller and I had a good laugh as I shared with her a story about Gratuity_and_Poor_Service.  The young lady working behind the Coffee Bar agreed with me and my story completely.

This morning when I walked into University Park Coffee for my morning wake up call the young lady was waiting. She told me that yesterday evening a group of friends and her had gone out for dinner and drinks. They were taken aback by the poor service that they received. In fact she made a point at telling me just how poorly they were treated for what appeared to be no reason at all. Before they left she mentioned my story to her friends. They all had a good laugh and left deciding that the poor service they received deserved no tip.

On the subject of Good Service and Gratuity in any service oriented industry, good service has its own rewards. They can come in the form of tips or even advancement in position or new jobs.

In Real Estate a bi-product of Good Service is the recommendation ( a referral ) from our clients to others. These are the highest forms of compliments that we can receive. Like wise if we perform badly we are likely not to hear from our past clients at all. And sometimes we wish we would not hear from them if they were terribly offended.

The Reward for  Poor Service does nothing to further the cause of this great nation. In deed the reward for poor service be it a tip or a referral does great harm. The reward for poor service is a validation to those providing the poor service that we accept there minimum standards as good enough. If we continue to reward minimum standards a downward spiral effect will eventually erode the great work that our ancestors started, that work that once said you were getting the best because it is MADE IN THE USA , be it a product or service.

Rewarding Poor Service degrades us all and is a slap in the face to those providing excellent service be they Wait staff or Real Estate Agents.

In 1988 as I began my Real Estate career in Oregonthe Personal computer was in its infancy . Most of us had small computers. In my small town the Commodore 64 was king. Back then the main function of the home computer was games. Software written for business was around but was pretty crude and any really good program was too large for the average consumer to use on their small memory computer. For these were the days before cell phones.

Innovation was the key for most of us. In those first months I was not able to afford much as I was just learning the ropes. My broker had given me a booklet of amortization tables and I had a hand held calculator which I believe cost a grand total of $5.95.

I remember being somewhat embarrassed about the whole situation each and every time a client would ask ” What would the house payment be on something like that ? “ So I started to make a game out of it. I would hand over the amortization book and the calculator to the couple i was working with and I would then give them the numbers. It was kind of fun and kept everyone occupied as we made our way to the next house.

A few months went by and I sprung for the HP12c. This is the Bankers financial real estate calculator. I still have and use mine today. However because it can do it all and the entry of the numbers and buttons to push are complicated there really is no interaction or participation with your Buyer’s or Sellers.

In the Old days I filled out an offer sheet ( back then it was just One sheet ) with the aid of my Buyer’s. I used to love to use what was known as the Order Blank Close. I would Slide a copy of the listing over in front of the Lady and I would ask verbal questions of the Guy.

Something like this : 

• Q for Guy : Could you write down on this paper you and your wife’s full names.
• Q for Lady: What is the address of the house?
• Q for Guy : What type of Loan did you say you would be getting?
• Q for Lady : What is the listed price of the home?

For each question that I asked of them I would write down there answers. That is in essence the Order Blank Close. The last thing you have to do is ask for signatures. Again much like the Calculator game it keeps all involved and focused on the task.

Today however with my laptop and on-line forms I generally ask questions and fill the forms out in advance sometimes emailing the entire thing to my client without personally sitting down together at the table. Although this technique I usually reserve for my long term professional clients who buy multiple properties from me yearly. Still even when sitting at the same table with first time buyers the amount of interaction is limited by the use of technology.

The pattern as you can see that has emerged is that there is a certain amount of disconnect with the client because of technology. I am not suggesting going back to the old ways. I am just suggesting that we should be aware of the disconnect and learn to replace it. Other wise we may eventually find so much of a disconnect that there would be no reason to connect at all.

Update : Part 2  Face_To_Face_Vs_Technology_Partners_or_Adversary’s 

Interested in How Technology can find you your next Home? Come to House_Hunt_Portland and let your next home find you!

Be sure to stop by www.portlandrealproperty.com for general Portland Oregon information. You will find Portland Public School information as well as area Golf courses. The Site is full of information.

Typically this would mean that I would be viewing some 10 to 35 houses before noon. By 12:00 Am or 1:00 PM I was back in front of the computer checking once again the hot sheet to see what had come on the market since I had been gone. Out the door again for more previews and maybe even once again before the end of the day. Finaly I would power down the computer about 9:00 PM or so in the evening only to start the whole thing over again the very next day.

Yet as hard as I seemed to work there always seemed to be a few houses that somehow slipped between the cracks. Now don’t get me wrong this is not a Rant. This is a demonstration of the power of Technology and my Real_Estate_Investor’s_Web_Site.  At first it was a little slow going getting people signed up. Part of the problem was that I was so busy doing business the old way I really had no time to promote the new way.

That was until one morning while I was out looking at the properties I had taken off of the Hot Sheet, when the Phone rang. Paul, one of my long term buyers had just looked at the email that had been sent to him by my automated web site. After I had gone out on the street looking at all of the hot sheet properties a new property had hit the market. Paul wanted to know more about it. He gave me the address and all of the details. I drove on over and went straight into the vacant house. I called him back immediately. Within 2 hours of his initial call we had presented and had acceptance of his offer on a fabulous Victorian home. The following day the Listing agent told me that within 2 hours of our offer being accepted he received another 10 offers 4 of them for more than full price.

Here is what made the difference. www.househuntportland.com for home buyers and www.portlandflips.com for Investors. Now here are the features.

There are 2 types of searches performed.

1) The Daily email search is sent once a day at 5:30 AM. Search criteria in the Daily search is by Price range in $ 1,000 increments and by area. The area can be as large as the entire Portland Metropolitan area including suburbs and surrounding towns or as small as a neighborhood area of only a few blocks.

2) The second search type is the Saved search. Not only can you choose area and price but a myriad of other search features almost as extensive as is available to Realtors. After your original search criteria is entered you will immediately be sent an email with all of the properties currently on the market matching your criteria. The web site will them monitor the RMLS 24/7 looking for matching properties to be entered. Those matches will then be sent to you within 20 minutes.

Sign up is Free and the success stories are building with 3 people in the last couple of months able to purchase prior to the other agents even knowing the property was listed. You can be on top of the market as well. Sign up today for HOUSE_HUNT or Portland_Flips and let the next success story be YOURS!

Or Visit my other web site www.portlandrealproperty.com  where you will find that 

” A real estate transaction with Herb is one you will Profit from”

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Are_YOU_in_a_Pickle ???

Have you received THE LETTER?

Perhaps you have or you are anticipating its arrival any day now. What letter am I talking about? 

It is the letter that you receive from your home mortgage lender. There notice to you that they have not received payment as normal. It is also notification of potential additional fees and consequences for not paying. Also known as the pre-foreclosure letter it can send a chill up and down your spine.

If you have or soon expect to receive the pre-foreclosure letter it most likely comes as no surprise to you. What actions could or should you take?  The last thing you want to do is sit and wait.

Believe it or not your lender did not want to send you that letter. Foreclosures are costly and time consuming and it often times makes more sense for towork out a solution if one is available.

Do you know what your options are? You do have options. As bleak as things may look now they will only look worse if you don’t act. Give me a call today and let’s take a look at how I can help.

Don’t Wait! Call or email Herb today. The longer you wait the harder it will be for me to help. Call now let’s get the ball rolling.

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