We all know that we should be farming a geographic area. But…we don’t like to spend the money. It can take years to start to see a consistent return on your farming investment and most agents stop before the results come in. For best results you should be farming every 21 days so it can really add up.

To farm 1000 homes you will spend about .25 on bulk postage (use the bulk stamp) each and .10 on printing and envelopes. So you need to spend $350 per mailing, lets round it to $400 to be safe.

So how can we farm 1000 homes for free?

1 - Create a simple newsletter style mailer
- Use a trifold design and only put content on one side (Microsoft Publisher works great)
- One column should be market stats as people love to know what is happening in their neighborhood.

2 - The back side that was blank is now 4 advertising spaces, each 1/4 page.

3 - Sell the advertising space at $100 per 1/4 page spot with a 6 month commitment.

So how do you sell the advertising space and to who? How about a lender, insurance agent, title company, real estate attorney, dry cleaner, local pizza place, any business that counts on business from the residents that you are farming. Your lender is easy and you could actually get him to buy a 1/2 page to make your life easier then you only have to sell 2 spots. If you go with a local food place ask them to place a coupon style ad so they can track the response. This will also help make people want to read your newsletter…or at least clip the coupon from the back of it.

Would love to hear about your farming ideas and what has worked.