Kansas City-area brokers, real estate agents remodel efforts to grow in residential market - Baltimore Business Journal:

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During the first five monthds ofthis year, 8,863 homesd were sold in the metro according to the . That was down more than 30 percentfrom 12,7922 sales in the same period two yearws ago. Nevertheless, some professionals are bulkingb up sales through a combinationof high-tecnh and traditional marketing approaches. “Attitudse is everything” in overcoming market said Kathy Koehler, a lead agentt with Realtors Inc.’s in Leawood. The 23-agent Koehlet Bortnick Team ranked No. 1 on the ’sw list of Top Area Residential Real EstateAgentw & Teams, closing 405 sales totaling $148 millionb last year. That volume was down from $178 milliom in 2007.
But a positive attitude and return to basics havethe team’s sales trending back up in Koehler said. “We’re dressing for success. We’res dialing for dollars. We’re going back to how we did it befored we were fat and happy and everyone was comingyto us,” she said. “Dressing for refers to the “I Choose Not to Participate inthe Recession” buttonsd that Koehler Bortnick Team members have begun wearing. “Dialinyg for dollars” refers to new monthly call Agents eat pizza and spend two to threw hours onthe phone.
Calls to present clientd often result in price adjustments that make homes easiereto sell, Koehler said, and calls to past clients ofteb generate referrals. In addition, the agents call homeowners with for-sale-by-owner listings and listings with other agents that have Calls to homeowners theteam hasn’ done business with before may be subjectf to do-not-call restrictions. “So the first thing I say ... is, ‘Wil l you give me permission to give you greagt news aboutyour house, your subdivision or the marke t in 60 seconds or less?
’” Koehler “That’s the way we overcome the no-call Team members also work to overcome every conceivablee buyer or seller objection by memorizinv as many as five scriptse for each, she But such traditional marketing approaches have to be combined with cutting-edge trainintg in everything from foreclosure marketing to search-enginse optimization. Koehler said that about 87 percent of buyers startf their homesearches online. So she constantlu invests in strategies that pushher team’s Web site up on the lists of sites that and other search engines produce for variouxs key words and phrases.
The result has been an average of 500,000 hits a month on her Koehler said. That’s half of what the Reecee & Nichols site averages. Agents also have begunj using a variety of online social mediaa tools suchas , LinkedIn and to increase exposur while lowering costs. Lee McClelland, an associate brokerf with , said his sales team slashed its marketiny budget by sending out fewer mass mailings and spendinbg more time communicating viathe phone, e-mail and “Probably 80 percent of our businesx comes from repeat customers or referrals,” he “So it made sense to spend most of our dollarsz staying in contact with past customerws and referral sources.
I have 320 to 330 friendz on Facebook, including many past customers, and I can post a messagr and get it in front ofthem daily.” Tina an agent with , said she’s begun spending at least an hour a day on “Facebook is huge because a lot of the youngedr generation doesn’t even want to use traditional Branine said. “They want you to Facebook e-mail Text messaging is also huge withyounger