How to Prospect Gated “No Soliciting Allowed” Communities
Summary
Doorknocking “No Soliciting” neighborhoods can be complicated. Here are four alternative strategies:
1. Direct mail with a compelling Offer on your website (this is stuff I train in depth in the Real Estate Vortex).
2. If you have a listing, hold Open House Events with “Neighbors Only Preview” for the first hour and invite with direct mail.
3. If you live there, walk your dog and have a Block Party a couple of times a year.
4. Attend HOA meetings and be positive and helpful, not salesy.
Full transcript
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. If you live in large cities, urban areas, it can be 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. 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?” This is a really great question because we are seeing, in major market places 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. If you live in large cities, urban areas, it can be condominium complexes and it’s like, I can’t go door knock door-to-door. How do I make this happen? It’s a great question and it makes it a challenge. 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 dealing with no soliciting and/or gated communities.
I’m gonna 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. The first one is that if you can’t door knock them, you have to get to them some other way, if it’s a neighborhood that you’re targeting. The first, and obviously the simplest, is direct mail. There’s so many great systems out there that you can use direct mail, it’s just a little bit different. Here’s how you make direct mail work. Number one, you gotta be consistent with it and you gotta 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 gonna get an appointment if you knock at any random hundred doors or two hundred doors. It’s not that likely you’re gonna get a listing appointment that day.
Now, it happens. Every single door that you knock you should have the expectation, “I’m about to get an appointment. You’re gonna 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. When you send out something in the mail it happens even less rarely because most people, when they get it, they perceive it as junk mail. So how do you make it work? 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 gotta commit to 12 months to be able to really expect a predictable return. 12 months just to get started. In other words, if you’re not in it for two, three, four, five years, that’s the plan, then don’t start. Go to some other community where you can knock on the doors, you can make phone calls. Go after expireds, go after cell banners 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 market or a community, you gotta have the long game in mind, especially when you can’t door knock. So, direct mail. Here’s the thing to do with direct mail. 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 the mail that says, “Hey, I’m Kevin. For all your real estate needs call me.” Or, “If you’re looking to buy or sell or no anybody looking to buy or sell, give me a call, I’m awesome.” They can get that from anybody. Every realtor’s sending them out stuff like that. There must be something about your message 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.” Especially if they are actually interested in buying or selling, or no somebody interested in buying or selling, you want the card to scream at them, “You’re looking to move?” They’re going like, “Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I gotta call this guy.”
It’s not gonna be because you go, “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. Is it cool? That’s cool. Is it great? It’s great. But it’s not compelling. So what I gotta have? I gotta have a promise. I gotta 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 gonna matter to somebody who doesn’t want to move? No. But I’m not looking for somebody who doesn’t want to move. I’m looking for somebody that’s interested in moving. That makes them say hey, go to my website, 28daysale.com or whatever. It can be your website. It can be kevinwardrealestate.com\guarantee. They go there and it’s gonna give them something powerful. 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, “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? 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 process and the platforms and everything to put all this together. On this video all I can give you is, basically, a framework to say this is something that you have to do. You gotta 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. If you want to break into a community, you gotta have a way to do it that’s a little more stealthy. There’s way to do it slow and painful and there’s ways to do it that are a little more fast that turbo charge it, they get you the result.
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 where you give your compelling message. Again, it’s gotta be compelling. It can’t be BS and it can’t be something that any other agent can say. It’s gotta be powerful. You gotta 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, “I didn’t know that. Oh, well, that’s interesting. That’s good. I need that.” And when you do that, that 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, “I need more. 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.
Strategy number two, we’re in gated communities. If you have a listing … okay, so this is a strategy that only works 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 help. They want to move. If the community makes it too difficult, then it becomes a negative for homeowners in the area so they have a process for that. 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. If you’re doing an open house on Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00, have a pre-open house, neighbors only preview, from 12:00 to 1:00. Let them know, hey, there’s gonna 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. 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. It’s also an invitation to a kind of party, which means you want to maybe have some refreshments, maybe you have something cold.
Maybe you 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 Spacio and you can have them register and so forth and you you’ll get some great connections that way and 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. If you actually live in the neighborhood … even in a lot of neighborhoods where, even if you live there, it’s still no soliciting. if you go door-to-door, you’re gonna get a letter from the HOA that says, “Stop harassing people.” Right? So how do you do it? I had a friend in Keller, Texas where I … Dallas, Fort Worth where I started selling real estate … that he broke into a market in Hidden Lakes in Keller, which is 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. 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 go to work or take their kids to school, where the most things were happening. He would just walk the neighborhood every morning with his dog, every single day and he would be friendly to people. He would say hi to people, how’s it going? He’d greet them and he would just really be super friendly. He also combined that with his direct mail campaign that had his picture on everything and so people got used to seeing his face. 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 are gonna start up a conversation. And when he sees somebody out mowing their lawn, he’s gonna wave at them. Sometimes you get a strike up conversation with people.
So he’s just kind of out on the street every morning with his dog and then you combine that with his direct mail marketing so people were seeing his face. Now they see his face in the neighborhood and then they get this mail from him and go, “Oh, 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. If you live in the neighborhood, or if you have a cute dog and you want to go sneak into the neighborhood that’s cool, too. 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. If they have an HOA community, if they have a beautification, 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 respect who you are and what you do, 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 gonna find out, “Oh, you’re a real estate agent? Really? Cool.” Whenever you’re in a homeowner’s association 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 opportunity to SPAM people with your business cards and all that. Look for organic relationships, because people are gonna be drawn to you by who your are and how you show up. The more professional you are, the more helpful you are the more people are gonna like it.
Make sure that the word’s out and the way you can do that is, 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 also from seeing you out in the neighborhood and the community at the HOA meetings and so forth. Now you’re not some stranger, you’re not some guy sending them a bunch of junk mail. You’re actually a neighbor and they go, “Ah, I recognize Kevin. I like him, he’s cool. I’m gonna keep his card.” Really, really just 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 that work, make sure you post those in the comments to 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. 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 gonna help you to get more yes.