REALTOR® has successful plan in hand

The National Association of REALTORS® has asked members to send in ideas to produce the best low-cost ideas to improve business. One of Spokane’s REALTORS® was featured in the event for an idea that is inexpensive and helps customers.

Ronald Rowley, a REALTOR® at Exit Real Estate North in Spokane, aimed to build a client base of buyers and gain exposure by working open houses. He was new to helping clients and was one of the REALTORS® who was looking for the fastest and most economical way to meet buyers by holding open houses.

“I’ve learned that 99 percent of the time, the person visiting the open house is not going to buy the house I am showing,” he said.

“After I determine that open house visitors are not working with an agent, I give them a packet including at least 16 other homes in the area in the same price range as the open house.”

“I hand them this information with a cover sheet that tells them who I am and reiterates that ‘My Services Are Free’ for a buyer. Under the cover sheet is a one-page guide of the buying process with a chart showing ‘How Much You Can Afford’ with information about our company’s mortgage loan expert.

“The expense is minimal. Preparing the information is just the cost of copying the packets and the time assembling them,” Rowley said.

Does his system of working for the client work?

At one open house he gave this packet to a prospective buyer and 10 minutes later the buyer called and asked if Rowley could show him one of the homes. The REALTOR® met the caller at the home listed on the handout and he made an offer on the home the same day.

At another open house, a visitor called to say thank you for giving her a list of homes and asked to be entered into his e-mail notification distribution list to learn about new listings.

The NAR chose Rowley’s idea as an example of REALTOR® innovation of a service that is free as well as very helpful for persons looking for a home to purchase.