Temecula, Murrieta, French Valley, Winchester Real Estate

FEET!

I'd never knocked on doors before and decided it was time to give it a go. (I need some listings!) I figured I'd print up some door hangers and go meet some people. Here's a look at the door hangers. With as many NODs as there are in my area, I dedicated the entire back panel to an "Avoid Foreclosure" message.  I'm sure there is a lot of (constructive) criticism you could give me on the design but I was pretty happy with what I was able to come up with on my own (w/ out having to pay for the design).

My plan was coming along nicely. The door hangers arrived about 2 weeks after ordering. Then it happened. I was sitting there looking at 5,000 door hangers and quickly realized that NOW I NEEDED TO ACTUALLY GO OUT AND KNOCK ON THE DOORS OF COMPLETE STRANGERS.

I'll admit it. There was a moment of paralyzing fear before I finally put on my shoes headed out the door. I didn't know what to expect.  Were people going to tell me to piss off (or worse). What sort of armor should I wear? What was I going to say? What was my pitch going to be? Would it be hard to tame these scary home owners?

I finally settled on a smiling "Hello, my name is David and I'm a local real estate broker. I'm trying to pick up more business in this area. Do you (or anyone you know) need to buy or sell a home?" (And then I just wait for a response.)

After the first 20 doors it became easier and easier. I did stumble on my words a couple of times but it got easier and easier for sure.

Before I started out I mapped out an area I wanted to cover and now that Google Maps has the lots drawn on the map it was pretty easy to figure out a plan for hitting 100+ doors.

In all, I'd say I spoke with about 8 or 9 people who answered the door. Turns out that most of the people that answer their door are pretty nice! Who knew! I met several really nice people (none of which needed to sell their home) and the usual smile on my face - got just a little wider.

By the end I was really having a lot of fun with it. The fear was completely gone.

The only casualty on the day was my pair of aching feet. I'd been to 116 doors and after going to http://www.mapmyrun.com and retracing the path I took through the neighborhood I found out the straight mileage was 1.86 miles. Then I started thinking about the trips from the street to the front door and wondered if it really added that much to it. I did a test at my own home to see the difference. It turns out that walking past the front of my home (from property line to property line) takes about 22 paces. To go from the property line to the front door and then to the other property line takes 73 paces.  My front door is maybe just a little longer than most so I used 60 for my calculations instead. Since the straight walk is only 36% of the actual distance I figure I'd walked 5.1 miles in dress shoes. OUCH!

Has anyone dressed up for door-knocking and slipped on a pair of running shoes? I think I've got to do that next time.

. . . or maybe a pair of roller blades?

Looking forward to my next time out, which is going to be right now! I'll get to read your responses when I get back.

PS. Don't forget the sun screen!

- Temecula Real Estate