BTW I have two sales meetings scheduled this week and 2 more houses tomorrow. Is it realistic to think I can get up to 3-5 houses per weekday? There are over 150 real estate companies within a 35 mile radius of my home/studio.

FYI North Georgia/SC is a big lake area so the reference to the lake/docks/ corps line at teh end of the presentation is for those listings.

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.html?fl=2804209&alb=0

Thanks,

Tony Ford
Cove Point Media

I’m working on a postcard now. Finish it up once I’m confident I have some good Gallery images. I’ll mail it to most every agent serving this area (around 100) I know people hate/don’t respond to email spam (me included)very often.

I also have done some websites for a couple of Realtors here, and have a couple more on the burner. Again, once I’m confident of my images and price structure, I’ll try to see if there is any interest there. I just don’t like to take advantage them, or put them on the spot.

FSBO= For Sale Best Offer? Whatever it means, good job on nailing the shoot. It’ll be hit or miss, the first freebie portfolio builder I shot never came back, never posted my pictures to MLS — and her shots were beyond terrible! I never understood why she did that, but I got MY half of the bargain and one of those images is still in my portfolio today.

Another thing I do is to make a web gallery once per quarter and then send a “New Work by Scott Hargis Photography” email out to a list of agents I’ve built up slowly. I hate spam, so I didn’t buy a list, but instead harvested emails from agents/offices I’ve had some personal contact with, but one could certainly be more aggressive. That has gotten a really good response, and of course it’s cheaper than postcards, which I also do quarterly.

Even if offices have “someone on staff,” there are discerning realtors without the ability who need you. Let them know you’re there when they need you

*Images: Your images do the talking. Agents don’t need another person explaining to them how competitive/fast-paced/visually oriented the industry is. All discussion of marketing to agents is moot if you are not displaying your best images on your website and print materials. They need to be big, bright and colorful. They should not look like brightened MLS pics. Minimum 550px wide. Each one must follow Larry’s 10 essentials.

*Marketing approaches: Once you have great images to show off, I would listen to what Larry has already said. Many agents (successful ones in particular) have a violently negative reaction to e-mail solicitations so do a lot of print stuff as well. The successful agents probably have assistants checking and filtering their e-mail anyway. Don’t be cheap with your print marketing either. Give out big, bold, colorful postcards etc and do it often. Again, you are offering your services as a photographer so agents want to see more photos and less talk.

*Pricing structure: I would hesitate to create a pricing structure based upon the “quality” of your images (ie: you only get HDR if you pay $300). No agent is going to pay you to do an “average” job so why even offer it? Instead, take your best shots on every job and price according to your creative time or what you deliver to them (multiple resolutions, DVD, slideshow etc). This way, they can upgrade if they like your work and you don’t have to do the shoot all over again.

I thought about the top ten reasons thing to, but I just came up with a couple.

‘You need me to do your photography because it’s good for your marketing and your photos are crap.’

‘I can do it much better and …. I need the work.’

How’s that for the top two reasons?

Also Karl, don’t think you’re going to get more business by going cheap. I tried that approach and I got more business when I raised my rates. Try to determine market value, work on your skills and get good at what you do and they will hire you not because you’re a bargain, but because you have such a great product/service. If you start off too low you will find it difficult to raise your rates. I got this advice from one of my early clients who told me to charge more when he saw my work. So I did. But I didn’t go overboard.