Soliciting Work Idea

mosawdust

I don't know how many of you do this or have tried it but it looks like it may be favorable for me. I went to all the local Real Estate Offices in town today (small town) with flyers and business cards. Introduced myself and explained all my services and what I did. All were very receptive and explained that many of their clients ask for this kind of information, both buyers & sellers, and they would be glad to start passing out my Cards and give a recommendation. Keeping fingers crossed.

We have several other contractors in town here but seems they only want the big jobs. So be it. I'm not to proud to take all the little ones.

Lefty H

Hi,

You will get work if you take the intiative. I did that got some work. Built some relationships.

Just watch for the ones that will use you to get prices to bargin with the selling price. We have to charge for giving prices when the house is on the market. Most of the time both sides just negotiate the price down. Then the work does not get done.

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jcalvin

most guys around here snub their nose at that kind of work. it usually ends up being small piddly work. unstick windows, rebuilt steep basement steps, trim the bottom off of a dragging door... hardly ever a single job that costs more than 50 bucks, but they usually give you a days worth of the small jobs. it adds up quickly. i would personally rather get in, get done, collect a couple bills, and go on rather than have a long drawn out job. always leave on a good note because the new ho is just overly excited about the new home.

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Cal


You hired WHO

Bob Kovacs

Good luck. Hope you like doing free estimates, since the realtors you just handed your cards to are going to have you running all over creation to give them prices. These prices will then be used for one of the following things:

- To help the buyer negotiate $$ off the sales price, though they never intend to actually do the work, or will DIY it later
- To help the realtor's out-of-work brother-in-law know what to charge to make the repairs for the seller (usually about 1/2 of your estimate)
- To offer to have you do the job, provided that you're willing to wait until the deal closes to get paid, since the seller can't afford to pay you now

Been there, done that.......

jcalvin

I actually don't do estimates on the majority of them. Give them my hourly rate up front and go to work. Seller doesn't care about the $. It is pocket change compard to selling their house and they don't actually write me a check. Buyer doesn't care how much $ since they just make the wishlist and the Buyer takes care of it. After it is all over, I get a check from the lawyer's escrow account and move on.

I have quoted some work for realtors. i am able to close as many of those as regular public. sure i loose some, sure it may be helping out their bro-in-law with a price, sure it may just be a bargaining tool. i still get work from them so i can't complain too much.

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Cal


You hired WHO

mosawdust

This is along the lines of what I was thinking. Have a 4 hour minium weather it takes 10 minutes or 4 hours. Alot of little jobs can add up. My thought was to get in and make a good impression so when the home owner moves in their new home and wants changes made I would be in their mind already.

If it turns out to be spending all day doing quotes and getting no work then I'll have to reconsider this and move on.



jcalvin: Hourly rate is also something I was considering.

scuba

Some of what you say is true. A lot of realtors will take advantage of you if you let them.

BUT

It's all about the relationship. You will not be used if you have a relationship that is built on honesty and the long term.

We have no less than 10 high performing realtors that call us to solve their problems. All of them are long term relationships and they do not use us for ulterior motives. When they have the 'brother-in-law' situation, we will help them with that scenario, etc. They have problems and issues to deal with just like we do. When you are their problem solver for little things, big things, inbetween things - you will get all their calls.

Realtors are their own breed and have their own idiosyncrasies. To out of hand say that you won't deal with them is not a good business practice. They are always meeting new people and are a great source of contacts. You want to be the guy who they recommend to whatever client, associate or acquaintances they may have for a multitude of projects.

You just have to work hard to understand them.

Greg

mosawdust

I agree with what you say Greg.

It is all about the relationship. Work hard to understand them, work with them and not let them work you. Anyone will take advantage of you if you allow them to. I intend on making my business practices known right up front.

Brian

contract223

Don't forget about getting business from the internet. More and more people are making Google/Yahoo their first step when they are looking for construction needs of any kinds. Often, even if they have a reference, they will search for others that may have used the referenced company. If they don't like what they find the start calling those companies that come up in their searches.

You don't need a $10k Web site to drive business. A simple 5 to 10 page site that has your phone number and email address will suffice - as long as you had someone (that knows what they are doing) optimize your site for Google.

I can provide anyone with the search volume of Google/Yahoo for your industry and location. Just post or message me where you're located and what your industry is and I can let you know a good estimate of how much traffic you could expect.

Scott

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Construction Methods

Divine Tile

Hey contract223. can u send me the search volume. I am a tile contractor out of Sacramento,CA
Thanks brother

contract223

Hey Divine Tile,

Sorry it took me so long... this post slipped my mind. Anyhow, the keywords below are broad matched across all search engines. This is the monthly search volume across all major search engines.

Keywords LOW AVERAGE HIGH AVERAGE
sacramento tile 4,500 7,998
tile sacramento ca 1,088 1,936
tile in sacramento 645 1,175
tile in sacramento ca 332 645
ceramic tile sacramento 326 581
tiles sacramento 326 581
floor tile sacramento 131 243
tile stores sacramento 118 229
tile store sacramento 105 195
sacramento pool tile 41 80
tile contractors sacramento 41 80
tile stores in sacramento 41 80
cortopassi tile sacramento 33 63
tile stores sacramento ca 33 63
tile company sacramento 20 39
travertine tile sacramento 22 41
tile companies in sacramento 7 13
tile store in sacramento 7 13

Good luck!

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Thewoodman

Good for you getting yourself out there to drum up business. If you can get yourself out in front of people you will land jobs.

From my experience with the Realtor crowd I have found the a large majority have the attitude of "what is in it for me". What is in it for them if the find you work. If you keep talking to more of them you start to find the ones that "get it". The ones that realize what networking and having people that take care of them and the customers is all about. They are the ones that work on building long term relationships with their clients.

When you run into these ones the work will start to flow. Just keep talking to people. Get yourself out there.

mark

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mosawdust

Well just to update, no response from any of the realtor offices yet. That's ok though. Nothing gained nothing lost.

kubie

ive tried this. sent out letter on what i do. called them. some had no idea what i was talking about. like they saw the letter and just tossed it away without opening the letter. ive tried face to face meetings......not a single job from them. some realtors around here have their own flunkies working for $7/hr. guess ya get what ya pay for.....saw one of the take a sawzall along the cabinet styles to remove them instead of unsrewing them. lol

fez-head

I marketed the same thing but with a twist www.midmohandyman.com/jefferson_city_reep.html - I had brochures, pens, took donoughts to Realtor meetings, did some "at cost" work at their homes, etc...etc... it is still on my website but I get ZERO calls for it.

Big waste of time and most all the comments that you have heard here about them using you are dead on........unless your dirt cheap. As soon as you raise your rates to a living wage most forget your name and move on to the next low baller who thinks he has just stumbled upon a great soliciting work idea and the whole process continues...... .

It never hurts to give it a shot though.

silvertree

Jesse, I have to agree with you, although I wish it were different.

Another issue not raised here is that if a realtor gave your name out and someone were not happy with the work done the realtor would now have a problem and be drawn into providing a solution, most likely at your cost.

I did a job for a realtor to help with the closing, the seller and buyer split the cost and everyone was happy, then after the closing the buyer talked to someone who said they would do the same job for less than half what I charged. No mention of license or even if they were a contractor.
End of story was they wanted half the money back based on a verbal quote from someone who had not even seen the job before I started it. I did not refund and have not talked to any of the parties since.

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fez-head

Thats crazy..... but not surprising

Tom R

Mosawdust,

Just an aside, - - but try contacting a few local private inspectors. They get asked all the time who they'd recommend to do work.

mosawdust

Took the words right out of my mouth! I'm getting the feeling the realtors here are no different than anywhere else. What a surprise!

It was at least worth a good try!



Tom R - Just an aside, - - but try contacting a few local private inspectors. They get asked all the time who they'd recommend to do work.


This is exactly what I'm doing now along with the pest control companies (termite repair).

rbsremodeling

I do work for 2 high end realtors. They referred work to me no problems at all.

I also do 203k rehabs and get realtor referrals for those as well. It depends on the realtor and what you have to offer them.


If you do not have anything to offer them, you are of no benefit to them.

My two benefits where knowing about the 203k loans way before anyone else had a clue.

Second was they could also refer high end work to us and know it got done timely and neatly. We did everything, from remodeling the house to cutting the grass to having the fridge stocked before the owners arrived.

Sometimes never meeting the customers just emails and phone conversations where the realtors act as the middle man.

How can you benefit them and most importantly yourself??

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