Russell Shaw of The Russell Shaw Group with John & Hall Associates once said, “To really grow your business, become a listing agent”.

If the great Captain Russell said so, that was all I needed to refine my old expired program with a 2% mailing to listing conversion, and revamp my entire expired program with adrenaline, steroids, and total domination in mind. Simply put, I was willing to accept nothing less than being the king of listings, no matter what it took.

First, let’s touch on what I was doing to understand why I thought I was doing OK when really, I was just another expired real estate chump.

This was me in a nutshell:  Print the letter, stuff it in an envelope with a business card and pray!  My conversion ratio was 2% mailing to home listing.

Now let’s fast forward to the Russell Shaw way of 2010; stomp the competition so low they fear your name.

First, let me share my current statistics for 2010, and then I will mention what I am doing to achieve those numbers.  Since January 1, 2010 I have selectively sent 80 mailings.  I have received 7 call backs, in which 5 of the 7 call backs have resulted in listings.  One of the 5 home listings is in the pipeline.

• 80 mailings / 7 call backs = 11.43% of mailings are calling back to setup appointments!  This is looking great already!
• 7 call backs / 5 listings = 71.43% of appointments I am getting the listings Priced To Sell fast.  I personally turned down 1 listing due to price, and 1 listings wanted old school marketing, not for this broker, no thanks.
• 80 mailings / 1 closing in the pipeline = 1.25% closing rate, now all of my expired listings are only 3 to 7 weeks mature, so the closing rate data in not totally accurate.

What I found is amazing…

I am literally sending a drip snail mail campaign to expired listings!  In 2010 I found that customers need multiple mailings before calling to list their home.  2010 has so far marked the year for a quality expired mailing.  My initial mailing cost me $1.52.  I then send postcards after that for a period of 12 weeks, each postcard costing $0.55.

My success to far in the last 7 weeks has resulted in more listings, more phone calls because of the listings, and more buyers because of the phone calls, etc.

In a future post in June I will re-post all of the data I have collected to share with you and grow your business to become a listing machine. I’ve taken Russell’s advice, you might want to as well!

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Russell Shaw was a speaker at HomeGain Nation in San Francisco on March 1, 2010. Videos of his sessions will be posted on the HomeGain Blog in the HomeGain Nation category, and in the Videos section of the HomeGain Media Center.