A RE investor friend gave me an advise concerning ads in the newspaper. He pulled out his newspaper and flipped to the ‘I BUY HOUSES’ ads section. Then he asked me, ‘WHICH AD CATCHES YOUR ATTENTION?’, Now, they are all ‘I/WE BUY HOUSES’ ads, so I pointed out only two of them. Here’s what we found out on how to get the sellers to read your ad.
(This is a given) A BIG AD
ADD GRAPHICS (drawings of homes, money, anything)
PUT YOUR PICTURE ON IT
AN EASY-TO-REMEMBER PHONE NUMBER (I use this)
These are the eye-catchers.
No doubt bandits signs will work and they are also expensive but hey, if you spend $250.00 on bandit signs and get 1 great deal, that’s a no brainer.
My experience with flyers is you have to do it for at least three months before you start getting calls. Now, that’s my experience and yours may be different in where you live.
In any case, don’t stop letting people know that you are there to help them with their real estate needs. I suggest read Jim Kennedy’s 33 ways finding motivated sellers.
I have put out Bandit signs on Friday night and by Monday morning they are gone, and I am get calls from aperson who would like me to “MAIL” them some info. With this person I tell them I have to do some research and will call them back. When I called, I got their voice mail stating “This is xxxx with the City Of XXX Code Compliance Division, please leave your name & # and I will return your call shortly” Now do you think I left my name and number???
Anyway, does anyone else have the problem of disappearing Bandit Signs? They cost alot of money to be gone in a matter of days. They seem to work if I could keep them out there. I only put out 7 signs and got 3 calls, but one was from the “Sign Police”. Any suggestions? i can’t afford to be spending that much money?
By the way, I thought about putting the normal ad in the paper, however, there are 16 to 26 other people running the same ad every week. I can’t see that I would get any calls with so many ads in the paper.
Help on these issues!!! Thanks
I know the state of North Carolina has been calling the numbers on the bandits and telling me I have 30 days to remove all signs from all poles along the roadway. Don’t know the fine if I don’t but I’m sure it is hefty
I had the same problem in my area of Florida. I sell health insurance and had a great return the first three weeks. The sign cost me 227.00 and I wrote about 30,000 in business off of them. Then the sign police started taking them down. I have had much better response putting them near a larger area, probably because of their inability to cover the whole area. I also use a toll free number with an answering service for calls (people like to get a live voice). You may want to try going farther away from where you live, maybe up to 50 miles away. Also, use a different color for the lettering, otherwise people won’t notice it.
Kristy,
I run into the same problems w/the bandit signs however i got some good advice from this news group and got a 800# (less than $20 mth Canadian) so i can screen any nasty callers,sign police or potential deals, i also got a small light-weight ladder (3 step). i just got back from putting up 24 signs using those plastic cable ties to prevent easy ripping and posted them about 10 feet high.
This probably doesn’t prevent city workers from removing them however, it will give the average person a hard time trying to jump up that high.
I also felt the same way about the other newsie ads however, i read somewhere, it’s the Persistency that counts! even if there were 30 paper ads, i’m guessing there would be more than 30 distressed homeowners in a month or even a week.
Best Wishes!
Kristy wrote:
“By the way, I thought about putting the normal ad in the paper, however, there are 16 to 26 other people running the same ad every week. I can’t see that I would get any calls with so many ads in the paper.”
We have the same number of “WE BUY HOUSES” ads on the paper but we average 4-5 calls a day.
when i put mine out i dont even bother going back to pick them up. i know they wont stay up for more than a few days anyways.
i am finding a lot of citites have crews working saturdays meaning a lot of signs placed out friday nite are gone by noon saturday.
BMP
I have heard and seen that. Do you know of any good companies to call for the 800#'s? I would like to be able to receive the calls myself(i.e. have the calls forwarded to my cell phone. Any suggestions would be helpful Thanks in advance
Dear BoY:
I am glad you had people respond to your ad. When I was in Chicago and latter in Ft Lauderdale I placed the “I BUY HOUSES” ad in the paper. I was there seven days a week and received zero calls each time. There are were at least a dozen other ads in the paper every day.
My experience suggests that the ad is like playing the lotery. Someone wins if you play often enough. At over $250 a month that is an expensive bet.
I would look to bandit signs or flyers before playing the ad game. I never advertised in the cheap papers like the thrifty nickle or small circulation papers.