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10/27/2005: "Real Estate Business People Often Don't Know How to Market Themselves."

I was inking a deal for a fairly large real estate investment yesterday and was in the room with a number of real estate professionals. I couldn't help but notice that many of them had that hungry look about them and I wondered how they could stand to work so hard for such a small commission.

Yet it seems to me that I might have a solution for these people. Learn to market themselves. Most real estate people who contact me have limited resources. They talk a big game. But in reality they really have no major money.

Many don't know how to market themselves and they're lothe to take the advice of a professional creative. Like so many people, they think they know more than the people who make a living promoting people and businesses and making dreams come true. Yeah, the dream makers, the spin masters.

When they do spend a lot of money on marketing they tend to buy the wrong things. Lots of radio spots and no direct mail. They go at things backacswords, as my mother would say.

Real estate is in a rather lame position right now. It's a critical time in real estate. Yet there's always money to be made in real estate. I've done quite well in it myself. I like real estate.

If real estate people would turn their marketing over to a pro who understands real estate, they'd soon find themselves on the top of the heap. It's easy to lose in real estate. Even Donald Trump has lost his shirt many times and had to borrow from family members. And it's questionable if he even has the money he claims to have. The Forbes 400 only takes the word of people included in its pages.

But The Donald does one thing really well . . . he markets himself. He knows how. He has pros help him do it.

That's the way to make it in real estate.