Typical Response To "we Buy Houses" Ads?
I am in the process of kicking off my marketing campain. I checked the major newspapers in my area(Chicago Sun-Times) and the cost for a month is $240. For those of you who use these ads in major metorpolitan areas, how many calls does your ad typically generate? The reason I am asking this is because one of the suggestions I keep hearing is to get an answering service to field your incomming calls. I found a local company to do this for $75 a month. If I can only expect to receive a few calls a month in the begininning I don't feel the expense for the answering service is really justified. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
I'm in a city of 800,00 and got 15 calls a week from the beginning. I don't recommend getting an answering service, as compared with answering the phone yourself. You can screen calls quickly, and get used to talking with motivated sellers. There's a lot of value to that. Most callers aren't going to have deals...but when one does, you want them to talk with a real person. Good luck!
Also, try to word your ad such that it does as much of the pre-screening as possible. In other words, try to attract only the HO's that you can help or make deals with. This will decrease the number of calls and increase your 'hit-rate.' This will make more efficient use of your time.