Expert: Hans Weber, Licensed Broker Associate - 1/3/2006

Question
My wife and I are thinking about starting a small business.  Our idea came about when we remembered the tedious search for homes.   We have bought and sold two homes in the last few years.  One of the primary reasons we purchased the homes we did was because of the flyers in the front yard.  We were able to have a reference to that home and something to compare with that was tangible.  We noticed many homes in our area do not have flyers.  We decided to start a small business that creates, produces, prints and delivers real estate flyers.  During our initial research I made some cold calls and made inquiries as to why many realtors did not use flyers.  Almost every single response I got said they do not use flyers any more.  It seems that realtors are missing a huge market of customers who drive by and get flyers from homes.  My questions are as follows:  
1.   Why aren't flyers being used much any more?  
2.   What other services could realtors use to make their job easier and focus on their primary duties?
3.   What would be the best way to approach realtors with this kind of service?  

Answer
Hello Steve,

Sorry about the delay, I was unable to access the link to your question.

Paper fliers are still used in marketing as well as newsletters and postcards.  Personally I am an advocate of mail paper messages and the use of photo fliers for in house displays.

Modern marketing seminar speakers are all expounding the benefits and greatness of the internet over paper and this has led to the demise of paper marketing.  To some extent the major companies only advertise sellers homes in the newspapers to stroke their egos believing that the internet is the place of the future.

Real estate agents are bombarded with marketing schemes and promotions from pens to calendars to websites, moving vans and park benches.

The best way to approach realtors about this would be in association seminars or personal visits to offices.

Hope this helps you.

Hans