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Good info Dave,
I have been planning to send all the realtors information, but also the offer of a certain amount of square footage of roof, cleaned for free. Expressing our confidence that when they see the difference a clean roof makes, we know they will be interested in our service for some homes with very visible roofs. They know first impressions mean everything, and we know what we provide can make a tremendous difference in some cases. Some realtors offices themselves could be ideal (a daily reminder).

Good Luck with Realtors!

They live in their own world thinking they are special because they sell homes and charge 6% looking/acting important. I sent out 54 personalized letters to the brokers only, not the agents, last winter. I spent 6 hours on a cold winter day and mailed them to each office. Not one call, email or hey, go do something to yourself! There are a few others here who have tried Realtors to no avail.

Brett

I have had some luck with realtors. Have put alot of work into them and it is starting to pay off.

SprayNew wrote:

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I've been thinking about the realtors too.
Has anybody tried offering a commission if the referral turns into a sale?

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Legally, Realtors can't take a kickback/commission but they will gladly except gift cards to restaurants.

Most here haven't had the best luck with Realtors. It reminds me of how they wanted nothing to do with home inspections 20 years ago. It takes time a lot of letter sent in just one local area.

Brett

Roof Cleaning Virginia 540-949-6277 wrote:

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Good Luck with Realtors!

They live in their own world thinking they are special because they sell homes and charge 6% looking/acting important. I sent out 54 personalized letters to the brokers only, not the agents, last winter. I spent 6 hours on a cold winter day and mailed them to each office. Not one call, email or hey, go do something to yourself! There are a few others here who have tried Realtors to no avail.

Brett

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 Brett-

You are exactly right - most I deal with are exactly the same - they are in their own little self-important world - thinking they are the greatest beings to grace the planet...

I did try one thing recently - like just late last night.  I went and wrote some code/used some software to crawl the local "Board or Realtors" website, and grabbed all the local agents email addresses - about 440 of them.

Then, I sent them a short email, with before and after pictures of siding softwashes, and roof cleaning, including of course links to my website and all contact info.  I prodded them to call me for a free sample/demo on any properties they currently have listed.

I did run into SMTP server limits of 100 SMTP relays (spam prevention), so I had to break up the outgoing email addresses into 100-address blocks.  So, a couple hundred went out last nite, and I'll send the remainder today. 

I can join the local board of realtors as an "affiliate", which does not get me access to the agents MLS system, but gets me invited to the monthly meetings, and a chance to talk about my services.

I am also going to experiement creating customized coupons to give to agents for FREE - something like, "Good for $50 off any $250 or more house wash or roof cleaning.  Compliments of <agent name>!

The freebies they can hand out to make themselves look good - like they are giving something to a client - but it does not cost them anything.  I've talked to 4 agents about this, and they were all receptive..... just have to see if it works and gets the phone ringing.

 I saw a house go on the market with a black filthy roof so I called the realtor and she said she was just talking to the homeowner trying to figure out what can be done about the roof. I called the homeowner and gave him a price and then cleaned the roof. Now it is ready for the Open House. Plus she had me go to the office and leave a bunch of cards.

 They had no clue what to do about a dirty roof. I am going to contact alot of realtor offices around here.

Rather than wasting your money on all Realtors, target just a few top producing agents in your area and work on marketing them. 90% of all business is done by 10% of the Realtors. To be effective with your marketing dollars, figure out who that 10% are.

Great Realtor story.... A couple of months ago I splurged and bought the areas top office lunch, actually cooked it myself, served BBQ for 60. One month later my best friend who owns a competing cleaning company called me and said he'd been asked to bid on a townhouse rental development managed by a Realtor from this office (20 units). He figured he's competing against me.

She called three companies to get estimates, I was not one of the companies. Called the agent and asked why I wasn't asked for a bid. She told me she forgot about our company. SHE WAS ONE OF THE TOP QUESTIONERS ABOUT OUR SERVICES AT THE LUNCHEON when I did my dog and pony show. She's truly clueless and lives in her own world. Sh did however want me to give her a reduced price estimate on her OWN home when I called her and reminded her about my company.