BiggerPockets

You really need to try different things in your market. If you are testing 1 paper change the ad and measure the results. If you are using multiple papers consider the same ad or an ad that is tailored for the audience likely to use the specific papers.

Figure that you need 6 to 12 months of results before you can really spot trends. Hence take your budget and divide it up over that length of time.

If you drive people to a website then you might get more traffic from certain types of home owners. Some prefer not talking on the phone while others might not have web access compared to picking up the phone. Expect that your results will vary so test different options.

John Corey

If you are looking to budget, there are many online ads you can post for free , possibly in addition to your local ads. I personally have had great luck with craigslist.

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but it truly does all come down to experimenting and recording your results. Another thing to consider is to not just think of offline advertising, online ads can also provide a good lead source as well. I noticed someone mentioned craigslist, which is also a good source.

If you're willing to put in the time, Google may be a good ad source for you as well. You can also think about using banner ads and getting them placed on websites that you think will drive quality leads...

I guess what I am trying to say is there are a ton of options you can pursue with advertising. Just test them out and see what happens. If they provide quality leads, you'll know to stick with it (as well as use it in the future) and if they're bad, then move on to another test / source.

I'm jumping on the bandwagon too. Definitely doesn't hurt to test things. I would recommend Craigslist also. It's free and if you are going to throw out an ad where there's a whole bunch of other people doing the same thing, at least do it where it's free. That's the problem I have found with classified (as you mentioned).....every investor in town uses them. I have tried them with pretty poor results. A lot of the Guru's pitch running cheap classifieds so maybe thats why so many people do it??

Best wishes!!

Newspaper ads are inexpensive tools and they give you a wider scope of audience. We give both phone and site address, it has always helped us to get a good number of positive leads.

I've tried in the past the larger paper in our area, but it really didn't worked well for me. I also tried flyers and I was able to get one deal with them, paid for the advertising. I would say free online sites like craig's list would be your best bet.

Good Luck,

Brian

I have had some luck with Craigslist. The key to any marketing progran is to be consistent in your efforts. The number one thing is to run your ad for a length of time that will give you a good idea as to its effectiveness. Dily or weekly publications I go at least 3 months, quarterlys may take a year. Experiment with maybe a Sunday ad in the real estate section.

As everyone else said record results. I use a lead sheet that helps me to get all the information I need. You can taylor one to meet your exact needs. I think I will post it on the forms section. If you run mulitple ads or ads in different publications recording the results will help difine what works. I like to purchase pre paid phones for $20 each. I will run ads with different wording and see which one pulls better. The phones last a while because I call everyone back from my main phone.