Reviews and Testimonials
$225,000 in Commissions from his Newsletters
David Kaseman
David Kaseman started in real estate in June 2010. In the country club area of
Lincoln, Nebraska, David was the new kid in town — going up against some agents
with 20-plus years of experience who were well-known in the area.
Within that first six months, David made only about six sales and earned about
$19,000. In that area, buyer agents make 30 to 40 percent less than listing agents.
David did not have any listings — he was a virtual unknown in the area and needed
to figure out a way to compete with those other agents.
After that first six months, David subscribed to Ready to Go Newsletters and started
distributing newsletters on a monthly basis. David makes his newsletter marketing
campaign a family affair by having his kids put in jokes. He also offers up gardening
tips, information on local businesses and places to shop locally in order to
personalize the letter and establish himself as a brand.
David and his wife print off and walk 325 newsletters each around their
neighborhood, thus creating a farm area and slowly becoming a well-known face in
his target area.
David’s personalized marketing campaign is paying off, as he is now viewed as an
authority around the neighborhood, and even gets information on listings before
they are listed. One seller told him that even though they did not know David
personally, they chose to list with him because he really works hard for his
business.
David began to see a steady increase in sales year after year, which he attributes to
his newsletter campaign. For example, in 2011, the first year he started handing
these out, he had three sales resulting from the newsletter, and earned $12,000. In
2013 he sold over $8 million in total and was in the top 5 percent in the Lincoln
market. For 2015 (up until April) he had two places under contract and has sold two
others for a total of $1 million in sales, has two more houses listed and has four
more on the way. David states that his return on investment (ROI) with newsletters
is a huge number: He incurs $10,000 in hard costs for printing and the annual fee
for Ready to Go Newsletters, and attributes approximately $225,000 of
commissions to those newsletters.
The biggest ROI for David is being able to finally relax a bit, knowing that the
newsletter and the farm area it created are like a savings account: they just keep
earning interest. David states that he would not be in real estate today if he had not
started newsletters and become an expert in his farm area.
Curtis Riley was starting a new career in real estate after 21 years of
working at USMC. He knew he needed a way to jump-start his business in
a big way. As part of his marketing plan, he was looking for something that he could get in front of people that would be nice and informative and that people would hold on to.
He decided newsletters were the solution he needed. Curtis signed up for Ready to Go Newsletters in April of 2014 and incorporated the newsletter into his marketing plan. He uses the four-page self-mailer and has consistently mailed them to his subdivision as well as to any past clients on a monthly basis.
Curtis credits his persistence with mailing and the quality of the newsletters for his success. Because of his newsletter marketing
campaign, he has six new listings in his subdivision. With such a large farm area, Curtis can now measure the impact of sending out newsletters and getting his name in front of people.
As a brand-new real estate agent in 2006, Joan Hillegas was as green as
green could be. She had zero clients, and knew that she needed to find a
low-cost method of promoting her business.
Ready to Go Newsletters provided a way for her to contact not only past
clients, but also prospects and leads. Joan faced, and still faces, a big
problem when it comes to the city of Fort Lauderdale: It is a heavily farmed
area of agents with 30-plus years of experience that also passes the baton to
the younger generation.
That is why the best tool for her has been the email newsletter — she is able
to send out just solds, area information and statistics on an ad hoc basis.
This information, plus keeping in consistent contact with leads, has been
very beneficial.
A great bottom line for a real estate agent is to be recognized, and be
recognized as an expert. Because of her newsletter, Joan often has people
say to her that she is the only one they know in Florida. Because she is a
recognized face, she often gets referrals.
Most recently, an early lead of hers that receives her newsletters referred
her and she was able to sell multiple properties to his friends, including a $2
million apartment building in an affluent area of Fort Lauderdale.
Sandra Caton is a real estate agent in Banning, California. Before she began using newsletters as a marketing campaign, Sandra was a sheep in a flock of many placing ads in a home community magazine. She had been doing a full-page color ad every month for approximately a year, but knew that in order to lead the pack she needed to send a newsletter to potential clients to take her business to the next level.
Sandra has been with Ready to Go Newsletters since 2013. Monthly, she prints and mails a four-page color newsletter to her clients and prospects. She sees the value of mailing to prospects as a way to keep her name and face front of mind — and as a way to gain referrals.
Every month Sandra brands her newsletter to suit her audience.
She often changes up the articles in the newsletter to better suit her specific
market of 55-plus active seniors. Once in a while she will include stories and
anecdotes that she feels would benefit her readers.
After two years of printing and mailing her newsletter to clients and prospects, she is now one of the most successful realtors in her niche.
She credits her newsletter campaign for helping her become a knowledgeable expert in her area, one whom people feel they know personally. A minor celebrity of sorts.
Sandra’s income has increased by 60 percent, and she credits this partly to her newsletters, which helped her break away from the rest of the herd.
