HOW TO PROSPECT GATED "NO SOLICITING ALLOWED" COMMUNITIES - KEVIN WARD

Not only do people put signs on their doors, now they put it on the entire neighborhood or they have ordinances or they're gated communities, you can't get into them. Or if you live in large cities, urban areas, it can be condo condominium complexes. And it's like, I can't go door knock door to door. How do I make this happen? Hey there, it's Kevin Ward and I just got a great question from one of my online course members that is talking about prospecting. And he says, I live in an area with a large number of gated communities. All are marked for no solicitors, and they tend to be fairly rigidly enforced by the folks in the neighborhood and the community and community security. Any ideas on how to get around this or any alternative method to door knocking? So this is a really great question because we are seeing in major marketplaces, in major cities, you are seeing an increasing number of no soliciting. Not only do people put signs on their doors, now they put it on the entire neighborhood or they have ordinances or they're gated communities, you can't get into them. Or if you live in large cities, urban areas, it can be condominium complexes. And it's like, I can't go door knock, do door to door. How do I make this happen? So it's a great question and it makes it a challenge. So I wanted just to shoot this quick video to answer the question of what are some alternatives of how do you do it when you're in a no soliciting, dealing with no soliciting and or gated communities? So I'm going to give you four different ideas that will depend on the scenario and depend on your circumstances and so forth. The first one is generic and then they get a little more specific. So the first one is that if you can't door knock them, you got to get to them some other way if it's a neighborhood that you're targeting. And so the first and obviously the simplest is direct mail. And there's so many great systems out there that you can use direct mail. It's just a little bit different. So here's how you make direct mail work. Number one, you got to be consistent with it and you got to be in it for the long game. One round of direct mail is about as effective as one round of door knocking. In terms of the fact you're probably not going to get an appointment. If you knock out any random hundred doors or 200 doors, it's not that likely you're going to get A listing appointment that day. Now, it happens. And every single door that you knock, you should have the expectation, I'm about to get an appointment, you're going to be my next seller. That's the expectation you want to have. But you just also know that the numbers and the reality is it happens rarely. Well, when you send out something in the mail, that happens even less rarely because most people, when they get it, they perceive it as junk mail. So how do you make it work? Well, number one, be in it for the long game, which means you need to consistently do it over and over and over again. So if you're targeting a neighborhood, if you're targeting a subdivision or a gated community or whatever, you got to commit to 12 months to be able to really expect a predictable return. And 12 months just to get started. In other words, if you're not in it for two, three, four, five years, then that's the plan. Then don't start. It's just go some other community where you can knock on the doors, you can make phone calls, go after expireds, go out to for sale by owners, where you get a quicker return on investment. But when you're looking at building a relationship or building a presence in a neighborhood or a market or community, you gotta have the long game in mind, especially when you can't door knock. So direct mail. Now, here's the thing to do with direct mail is beyond consistency, is it must have a compelling offer that takes them into a relationship with you. It needs a compelling offer that helps them establish a relationship with you. If they just get a postcard in your mail and says, hey, I'm Kevin, for all your real estate needs, call me. Or if you're looking to buy or sell or know anybody looking to buy or sell, give me a call. I'm awesome. They can get that from anybody. Every Realtor sending them out, stuff like that. There must be something about your message that. That is audacious. There must be something about the message that makes them go like, oh, I need to check this out. I need to learn more about this. And especially if they are actually interested in buying or selling or knows somebody looking to buy or sell. You want the card to scream at them you're looking to move. They're going like, yeah, oh my gosh, I got to call this guy. And it's not going to be because you go like, hey, I'm awesome. I can help you. I've got a bunch of Zillow reviews. So what? So do a lot of other agents. It's just like, is that cool? That's cool. Is it great? It's great, but it's not compelling. So what I got to have, I got to have a promise. I got to have something that says, hey, you looking to sell your home? I will have your home sold for top dollar in 28 days guaranteed or I'll pay you. Now that's kind of audacious right now. Is that going to matter to somebody who doesn't want to move? No, but I'm not looking for people who don't want to move. I'm looking for somebody that's interested in moving that makes them say, hey, go to my website, 28dayssale.com or whatever. It can be your website, it can be Kevin wardrealestate.com guarantee. And they go there and it's going to give them something powerful. Now you can do that also offer a free report that is powerful. Not just a market update report, but something that educates them and informs them of something they didn't know before, like how to get more money for your house. Or something to that effect that makes them go like, oh, I think I should check that out. You must get them to take action. It's called a CTA or a call to action in direct mail, in direct response marketing, I am looking for a call to action that actually inspires them to take action. Does that make sense? Now, this is stuff that I teach in depth in my real estate vortex training, where we actually break down strategies and the steps and the processes and the platforms and everything to put all this together just on this video. All I can give you is basically a framework to say this is something that you have to do. You got to get serious about this because it is getting harder and harder in today's world to connect with people that you do not know when it comes to real estate. And if you want to break into a community, you got to have a way to do it that's a little more stealthy. And there's ways to do it slow and painful, and there's ways to do it that are a little more fast, that turbocharge it, that gets you the result. So because what I'm wanting to do is not only get them to come to my website, number one, but number two, when they get to my website, it must have something compelling and it must have something that's personal enough from me that it makes them feel like they get to know me. Best way to do that is with a video. With a video that you. Where you give your compelling message. And again, it's got to be compelling. It can't be BS and it can't be something that any other agent can say. It's got to be powerful. So you got to figure out what is there that I can offer that most agents aren't willing to offer or that I know how to communicate it better in a way that people go like, I didn't know that. Oh, wow, that's interesting. That's good. I need that. And when you do that, that's is powerful. So number one, direct mail with a compelling offer that brings them to your website and your website that brings them into a relationship with you, that makes them go like, I need more. Here, here's my, here's my email, here's my phone number, here's my name. Or they're calling you or texting you. That's the kind of call to action that you want to create. Now strategy number two, where in gated communities if you have a listing, okay, so this is a strategy that only works if there, if you have a listing or you have an agent in your office that has a listing that you can do an open house for, and that is hold an open house event in that neighborhood, in the gated neighborhood. Because almost every gated neighborhoods, condominiums, they have procedures for holding open houses because when people want to move, they need to help, they want to move. And so if the community makes it too difficult, then it becomes a negative for homeowners in the area. So they, they have a process for that. So here's how you do it. When you can't door knock, you can't do it. And that is you set up an open house event for this Sunday. You market it, you market it on social media, you market it to your peeps and so forth. And you send out direct mail to every other homeowner, every other home in the neighborhood and you invite them to a neighbors only preview, which is the first hour of your open house event. So if you're doing open house on Sunday from 1 to 4, have a pre neighbor, a pre open house neighbors only preview from 12 to 1 and let them know, hey, there's going to be refreshments. Come check out the Smith's house and see what they've done to it. It looks great, it's fabulous. Come take a look at it. And if you know anybody who's looking to move into the area, into the neighborhood, please invite them as well. And you send that as a direct mail, as an invitation, but it's kind of not Only an invitation to an open house. And it's not a solicitation as much as it's an invitation. And it's also an invitation to a kind of party, which means you want to maybe have some refreshments, maybe have something cool, maybe have the owners there for the first 30 minutes so that when neighbors come, they can say hi to the owners and so forth. You create the buzz and then you're there. And as they get there, when they come to the preview, then you use your iPad and Open Home Pro or SpaceEO and you can have them register and so forth. And you'll get some great connections that way, great contact information from people that way. Really, really powerful. Now, these last two strategies are if it's a neighborhood that you live in, okay, if you actually live in the neighborhood, even in a lot of neighborhoods where even if you live there, it's still no soliciting. And if you go door to door, they're going to. You're going to get a letter from the HOA that says, stop harassing people. Right. So how do you do it? Well, I had a friend in Keller, Texas, where I Dallas, Fort Worth, where I first started selling real estate, that he broke into a market in Hidden Lakes in Keller, which was a golf course community. And here's how he did it. He had a dog and he walked his dog in the neighborhood every morning and he just kind of tested around and he figured out the times of the day when he would see the most people were leaving the house to take go to work or take their kids to school, where the most things were happening. And he would just walk the neighborhood. He would just walk the neighborhood and every morning with his dog, every single day. And he would be friendly to people and he would say hi to people. How's it going? He'd greet them and he would just really be super friendly. And then he also combined that with his direct mail campaign that had his picture on everything. And so people got used to seeing his face, and when they see his face in the neighborhood every day with his cute little dog, and as he's walking along with his cute little dog, people that love dogs, they're going to start up a conversation and when he sees somebody out mowing their lawn, he's going to wave at them. And sometimes you're going to strike up conversations with people and. And so he's just kind of out on the street every morning with his dog. And then he combined that with his direct mail marketing. So people were seeing his face and now they See his face in the neighborhood and then they get the smell from him and go like, ah, I recognize him. He's my neighbor that walks the dog all the time. So they get to feeling that sense of familiarity, like they really know him. So if you live in the neighborhood or if you have a dog, a cute dog, and you want to go sneak into the neighborhood, that's cool too. But anyway, that's a little bit maybe off the wall, do that. And then the final strategy number four is if you live in the neighborhood, is make sure you get involved in the hoa. Make sure you're involved in the neighborhood stuff. So if they have an HOA community, if they have a beautification like a garden club that takes care of the medians on the streets or anything like that, make sure you're involved in those and that you are positive and you are helpful to the cause. Not being salesy if people, people respect who you are, what you do, and if they, if you're in the community, you're in the neighborhood, you're engaged in it and you're adding value to it. People like that and they like you. When they like you, they're going to find out, oh, you're a real estate agent, really cool. And you, whenever you're in a homeowners association meeting and they're having questions about stuff and there's something legit that your expertise and your knowledge about the real estate market or whatever can add to the conversation, then you just bring it up, you just share it. Just don't use those meetings as an opportunity to spam people with your business cards and all that. Look for organic relationships because people are going to be drawn to you by who you are and how you show up. And the more professional you are, the more helpful you are, the more people are going to like it. Make sure that the word's out. And the way you can do that is then when you combine that with direct mail and they're getting your postcards now in their mailbox and they recognize your face not just from the mail, but, but also from seeing you out in the neighborhood, in the community, at the HOA meetings and so forth. Now you're not some stranger, you're not some guy sending a bunch of junk mail. You're actually a neighbor. And they go like, ah, I recognize Kevin. I like him, he's cool. I'm going to keep his card. Really, really just kind of elevates the effectiveness of all of that. Listen, if you have some ideas and you're in this situation and you got some great ideas at work, make sure you post those in the comments. Just share if you got some questions, ask those questions down below so I can come in and answer those. Want to help you any way I can. And if you like this video, it really helps me if you give it a thumbs up. Share it with other agents that may know it. And of course, if you have not yet subscribed to my channel, make sure you click on the button to subscribe right now so that you can get my next great video where I'm simply going to help you to get more. Yes.