Greetings Veteran! Because the operative word of your question seems
to be "inexpensive," you will need to perform your own data collection
for emails in order to keep costs down however I have found that with
realtor.com there is an easy way to gather contact information without
having to visit a zillion web sites independently.
In locating realtors in each state, I visited Realtor.com at
http://www.realtor.com/default.asp?hm=on&poe=realtor. On that page is
a "Find A Realtor" section where you may enter the city and state in
which you are looking. I conducted a search for Buffalo, New York and
received 104 realtor names that referenced their emails as well as
phone and addresses right on the page. To view the results, please
visit http://www.realtor.com/FindReal/RealListings.asp?frm=bymls&mls=Buffalo&st=ny&sbj=rlt&des=BUYER&neig=&ct=Buffalo&rltnm=&offnm=&key=&poe=realtor.
Of course, not every agent in each state will be listed but those
listed are the ones who definitely want business. Even in small
towns, there were hits. I once lived in a small NY town called
Wappinger's Falls. When I conducted a search for that small town, an
additional search page came up whereby I could check other towns
nearby. I checked all the boxes and the search returned 18 realtors.
(See the results at
http://www.realtor.com/FindReal/RealListings.asp?areaid=38133&areaid=3078&areaid=75427&areaid=80144&areaid=87644&areaid=14475&areaid=10150&areaid=46181&areaid=11967&areaid=6139&areaid=94378&frm=byctst&st=ny&sbj=rlt&neig=&ct=Wappingers+Falls&rltnm=&offnm=&key=&poe=realtor.)
If I were you, this is the primary manner in which I would gather my
contact information. You could first search the major cities of each
state and then, with the help of a map or a town listing, I'd wager
you could discover at least 70% of all the agents in each state. It
will take some time but the information at Realtor.com seems very well
put together and it's so easy because the contact information of
realtors is right up front. There is also a "scratch pad" function on
the site that keeps all the realtor info in a window. I tried it out
and found it to be very helpful.
Another thing I did was to search the real estate associations of each
state to see if there were member lists available. Figuring that very
large cities might have more extensive listings for offices, I did
sample searches for NYC, NY, and discovered a member list at
http://www.rebny.com/html/website_directory.html. Viewing this list
requires visiting each web site but it might provide additional leads
after you have checked on Realtor.com.
In addition, you may search Multiple Listings Services (MLS) for each
state. That would require a lot of clicking and viewing but it might
be a good tool for cross-referencing once you have a base list. For
instance:
MLS search California large cities and Florida large cities
http://www.homegain.com/homes_for_sale/index
MLS search California (the nationwide service is also available at
Realtor.com - just choose the state)
http://www1.realtor.com/california/nbselca.asp?gate=cln
MLS search Florida
http://real-estate-listings.cc/MLS/Florida/
MLS search New York
http://syracusehomes.com/syracuse_nysmls.html
To find specific areas, you would go to Google or another search
engine and enter the name of the town plus "MLS search" to retrieve
listings for specific towns.
As far as real estate trade magazines, a list is located at
http://msalliance.freeservers.com/trademags.htm#RE and in that list of
nationwide publications there are mentioned specific states. Many of
the links didn't work but the list provided names I could search
independently:
*California*
California real Estate (2 magazines mentioned on site)
http://car.org/index.php?id=MjU4NA==
Relocation Journal and Real Estate News
http://www.relojournal.com/
*General*
National Real Estate Investor
http://www.nreionline.com/
Real Estate Professional
http://www.therealestatepro.com/
Real Estate Intelligence Report
http://www.reintel.com/
Commercial Investment Real Estate Journal
http://www.ccim.com/magazine/
Housing Finance Magazine
http://www.housingfinance.com/
To these publications, send press releases regarding your
product/service with a sample or send a cover letter with a sample of
the newsletter stating the provision that you would like to share the
information monthly in their publication as a columnist. Or simple
compose a column and send it each month with a cover letter. In your
author bio or byline for the column, you would state you were
"John?Jane Doe, publisher XXX Real Estate Newsletter."
In addition, follow up with a phone call to the editor of the
magazine. You would need to view copies of each magazine for a few
months to see how to write for each publication and to see the topic
they present to their readers.
You may also pitch stories to reporters and editors. I answered a
similar question (Small Business PR Strategies
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=102224 )on
pitching story lines to the media and some of the links I provided for
that customer were:
Creating Working media Lists
http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:UwRjnopmMlgC:www.familiesusa.org/December%25201998%2520ImPRESSive.pdf+pitching+a+story+to+an+editor&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
(PDF link at http://www.familiesusa.org/December%201998%20ImPRESSive.pdf)
Interacting with media and pitching a story
http://www.4spe.org/trainingeducation/talk/action_guide/mediarelations.html
Tips on publicizing a speaking engagement
http://www.unc.edu/depts/uncspeak/level_2/publicity.html
Publicizing Your Programs: Using the Media Effectively
http://www.siu.edu/offices/iii/gs_pr.html
Increasing visibility by working with local media (tips apply to a
wider area)
http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:I4TkfupCMLAC:www.bikelink.com/Selling%2520Bike%2520to%2520Work%2520Day%2520to%2520the%2520Local%2520Media.pdf+pitching+a+story+to+an+editor&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Digital Editor pitching guidelines
"In addition to staff-written features, Digital Editor.com also
accepts by-line articles written by knowledgeable industry experts."
http://www.digitaleditor.com/pub_info.html
Successful media strategies
http://www.infocomgroup.com/webzine/media_strategies.html
Successful Media Relations - Ten things you should know
http://aboutpublicrelations.net/ucpotvinb.htm
I will pause here so that you will be able to examine the links and
suggestions I have provided. Should you need clarification before
rating, please request it and I will be happy to conduct further
research for you.
SEARCH TERMS:
New York real estate association
New York state real estate association
MLS search California
MLS search Florida
MLS search New York
new york real estate magazine
real estate professional
real estate intelligence report
commercial investment real estate journal |
Clarification of Answer by
journalist-ga
on
16 Dec 2002 16:49 PST
I dearly appreciate your interest in my PR services and I take it as a
great compliment that you made the request! However, we Google
Answers Researchers are prohibited by our Terms of Service agreement
to provide customers with any personal information or to make contact
with them outside this forum. Were I to contact you, I would be in
violation of my agreement with Google Answers.
However, if you wish to ask me additional questions regarding PR
suggestions or ask me to compose a press release(s) for you, that
could be accomplished at Google Answers. If you want me to answer a
specific question, simply place "for journalist only" in the title of
the question. If I don't spot it when it enters the system, another
researcher will alert me and all researchers honor a customer's
request for a specific researcher.
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