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

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During the first five months ofthis year, 8,863 homed were sold in the metrpo area, according to the . That was down more than 30 percenftfrom 12,792 sales in the same period two yearxs ago. Nevertheless, some professionals are bulking up sales through a combinatiojof high-tech and traditional marketing “Attitude is everything” in overcoming markeft challenges, said Kathy Koehler, a lead agentg with Realtors Inc.’s in Leawood. The 23-agent Koehler Bortnick Team ranked No. 1 on the ’s list of Top Area Residentialo Real EstateAgents & Teams, closint 405 sales totaling $148 million last That volume was down from $178 million in 2007.
But a positiv attitude and return to basics havethe team’sz sales trending back up in 2009, Koehler said. “We’re dressingt for success. We’re dialing for We’re going back to how we did it before we were fat and happ y and everyone was cominghto us,” she said. “Dressing for success” refersw to the “I Choose Not to Participate inthe Recession” buttons that Koehler Bortnick Team members have begun wearing. “Dialing for refers to new monthlycall nights. Agents eat pizzw and spend two to thred hours onthe phone.
Calls to present cliente often result in price adjustments that make homesd easierto sell, Koehler said, and callw to past clients often generate In addition, the agents call homeownere with for-sale-by-owner listings and listings with other agents that have Calls to homeowners the team hasn’tt done business with before may be subject to do-not-calpl restrictions. “So the first thing I say ... is, ‘Will you give me permission to give you greatt news about your your subdivision or the marke in 60 secondsor less?’” Koehler “That’s the way we overcomw the no-call list.
” Team members also work to overcoms every conceivable buyer or seller objection by memorizin g as many as five scriptw for each, she said. But such traditional marketing approaches have to be combinedwith cutting-edge training in everythintg from foreclosure marketing to search-engine optimization. Koehler said that aboutr 87 percent of buyers start their home searches So she constantly invests in strategiew that pushher team’s Web site up on the lists of sites that and other search engines produce for variousw key words and The result has been an averagwe of 500,000 hits a month on her site, Koehler That’s half of what the Reecwe & Nichols site averages.
Agents also have begunm using a variety of onlinwe social media tools suchas , LinkedIn and to increas e exposure while lowering costs. Lee McClelland, an associat broker with , said his sales team slashedf its marketing budget by sending out fewer mass mailings and spendinv more time communicating viathe phone, e-mail and “Probably 80 percent of our business comes from repeat customers or referrals,” he “So it made sense to spend most of our dollarzs staying in contact with past customers and referrakl sources. I have 320 to 330 friendss on Facebook, including many past customers, and I can post a message and get it in frongt ofthem daily.
” Tina Branine, an agent with , said she’as begun spending at least an hour a day on Face-book. “Facebookm is huge because a lot of the youngetrgeneration doesn’t even want to use traditionalk e-mail,” Branine said. “They want you to Facebookk e-mail them. Text messaging is also huge withyounge clients.”