Wow! It only took me 3 months from graduating real estate agent class to officially get signed up with the NCJAR and get my MLS access and my realtor digital key. For those thinking that is crazy, I have to admit that some of it was my fault…
- Working a 9 to 5 job made getting to the RE Commission’s office between 10am and 3pm a mite difficult
- Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years made me lazy
- Plain stupidity
But alas I have my digital key so I can get into any house with a lock box and I now have my very own MLS access. I haven’t really grasped all the costs just yet, but when I get a few minutes I’m going to sit down and break out what exactly I’m paying for. When I do that I’ll surely write a post so you guys can get a feeling for how much it takes.
Surgery
Yesterday I had to take a half day of work so I could go to the doctors for the final pre-surgery checkup on my foot. For those that don’t know, I’m having surgery on my foot to fix some toes. Long story short, I broke my leg playing soccer in high school (15 yrs ago) and complications caused the tendons in my foot to tighten which affected my toes. I have had a total of 7 surgeries on my foot and leg back then to fix the problem. Well over the years two of the toes have gotten tighter and I need to have the tendons lengthened again. Fun times, but I’m looking forward to working my JOB from home for the next couple weeks since i won’t be able to drive.
Anyhow, as I was trying to say, I got a lot done yesterday in that half day off..
- Doctor’s appointment
- registared with the NCJAR and got my MLS access and Lock Box Key
- got my over due car inspected
- went food shopping
- Spent the evening with my wife who was home from work cause she was feeling a bit ill.
Probate Update
On Monday I finally sent out my first round of postcards. They were very simple and I pretty much just duplicated what Ron Mead has here in his Probate Postcard example. Total cost for 78 Black and White postcards from Click2Mail was $26. Click2Mail takes about 2 days from ordering to shipping so I expect to get a few calls by the end of the week or on the weekend.
With Sending mailers I’m always trying to figure out the best way to track which method is working best. With that said I’d like to try and come up with a way to determine what was the reason the seller called me, postcard or letter? I guess I could just ask…LOL.
Speaking of tracking things, who reading this uses aweber.com and is it worth the costs and what do you use it for exactly?
Thanks and have a great Wednesday!
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I'm a aweber guy myself. I like em.
Two things, Scotty:
(1) Aweber rocks…I think its like $19/mo. and worth it as long as you have a strategy of online lead generation. And which one account and one price you can manage as many lists as you want.
(2) As far as ad tracking, you can use different extensions on your letters vs. postcards. I use grasshopper.com and I have multiple extensions to promote in advertising…so when testing different ad copy or formats (typed letters, handwritten letters, postcards) I can track the calls via the different extensions. Of course there are plenty of other voicemail services but grasshopper has been great for me.
At this point I'm using a Google Voice number which forwards to my cell phone. Only bonus is that it's free
Maybe I can signup for another number and use that on my postcards. hmmmmm
What sort of things do you track Nick?
I'm probably going to switch to aweber soon to manage my email list (I use 1Shoppingcart now). Everyone tells me that aweber is the best, although I don't know the difference one way or the other.
Congrats on getting your MLS access!
Congrats Scott on getting your key and access! You'll love having access to the MLS at your fingertips.
I've been thinking about aweber for a while now. I use something called Mailloop now but I don't like it that much. I get a lot of “junk” sign ups when using it.
As far as tracking mailings and such go, if you want to keep costs down you make it as simple as on your letters write in there call today and ask for LARRY. And on your postcards write in there to call in today and ask for MARY.
It doesn't have to be difficult, you just have to understand what and why you're doing what you're doing. You can test and track anything you like with codes in your mailings like who the person is suppose to call or have them call your number but put an extension after it on the letter or postcard. And for example Ext. 1 means you used this headline and Ext. 2 means you used this headline. Get what I mean?
You'll just have to track all of your extensions, call mary or larry, etc. and what they all mean on an excel spreadsheet or something.
Great job and good luck (good luck on the foot surgery too!)
I'm going to check it out today to see if they have a free trial or something.
That's a great Idea about using names as secret code words….”To sell a house, ask for Mr. Galafanakis” hehe
Congrats on getting MLS access. For 10 years I was a web programmer & database architect, I think you are a web programmer as well. Have you fully grasped the power at your fingertips yet?
I started running some serious queries on my MLS system out here on Long Island. At some of the REIAs I started talking about about how I could filter for certain criteria. Eyes started popping out of their heads. 99% of all realtors do not use even 20% of the power of the MLS, if you know what to look for and understand the intricacies of every MLS set of data.
Steph had mentioned a set of criteria to find buyers in her e-book. I asked 10 realtors before I had MLS access if they could run that query for me. All of them said that info was not available. Within 5 minutes of my MLS access I had the info.
I am sure you have started, but start playing around with the types of very targeted queries you can run, for both sellers and buyers.
I use a google voice # and a skype # to differentiate who is calling exactly from which piece of advertising.
Can you forward Skype calls to your cell phone?
I'm right at home with the advanced query tool in my MLS. I wish they wouldn't try and dumb it down with an interface, I'd much rather just type in the query instead of filling in clunky textboxes.
What sort of criteria are you looking for Chris?
Yes you can. It also has a different call answering set up than google voice which is how I differentiate the two.
Hi Scott!
I found your blog tonight while surfing various probate websites. After reading your past posts, I bought Bill Guerra's ebook and Ron Mead's probate ebook. I really enjoyed reading your blogs and look forward to the future ones. My husband and I started investing part time last year and stumbled across two probates houses. Those are the best and we definitely want to find more!
Oh, and congratulations on getting your license MLS access. I can't imagine trying to do this business without that!
Betsy
Glad you found my blog and I look forward to hearing about your progress and any deals you get or questions you may have that I can answer. I'm definitely psyched about my MLS access, now I just have to dig into it and see what I can pull out.
Have a great 2010!
I am tracking three types of marketing myself right now using google voice numbers.
Google voice only allows you transfer two G numbers to 1 individual phone number, so I have gotten a second patlive.com that forwards to my cell phone.
I got the idea from http://www.justinmcclelland.com he has a great write up on it with flow charts and everything. Check it out.
I know Justin pretty well. I'll have to hit him up for some advice. Thanks Chris.