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I got a phone call the other day, asking if I wanted to be advertised on an A4 Card, that a local Estate Agents gave out to Clients, and prospective Clients when they move home. They said the Card would have the numbers of various 'Services', that those moving home would need, and wondered if I wanted to be the only 'Locksmith' advertised.

Now, me being the old cynic I am, I phoned up the Company direct (on their Yellow Pages phone number a few days later), and found out it is in fact genuine.

Anyway, my question is, has anyone advertised with Estate Agents, and if so, was it worth it? On the face of it, it seems like a good opportunity, as one of the first things people do when they move home, is change the locks, and with a Locksmith advertised on the Card they're given, should bring in a decent amount of work. but I know from past experience, that theory is often very different from practice. Just wondering if anyone else has tried this.

I have experience of doing this form of advertising, i got approached by a company about 15 years ago (its usually an outside company who put these together and not the estate agents themselves) not knowing anything about it i was talked into signing up. Now luckily for me when i went into the estate agents to sign up i hit it off with the girl who organised all of the maintenance and after chatting to her for a while she said she would start to use my then new company to carry out a bit of maintenance for their lettings department. I say luckily for me because we did not even receive one phone call generated by the advert itself but we still do work for the agency to this day (we obviously don't do the advert anymore).

In my experience these give away leaflets usually end up in the bin, how much are they asking? i seem to remember it was about £150 at the time i was called.

Same experience here. Not one call generated from this type of advertising.

Simon, I to have been caught in this particular trap. I signed up (unfortunately0 just before the house sales crashed so property wasn't moving. I didn't receive a single call and I was advertising with Greens Estate Agents, and they have a few agencies around my area in Birmingham. BUYER BEWARE!!!!!

Many thanks Guys. Much appreciated.

My gut instinct was telling me to steer clear, but it's always good to get opinions of others. Will definitely be saving my money then. Thanks again.

No problem. Apart from doing these ads working for estate/letting agents is a brilliant source for repeat business and it is a really good idea to get in with them and then keep them on side. I always make a point of dropping off a few decent bottles of wine to the staff at the ones i work for at christmas. Things like this are appreciated and remembered. I then tend to get landlords, buyers and tenants being referred to me directly by the agents when extra work is required bypassing the need to pay to go on these advertising handouts completely. 

Remember the agent will want to appear in the know and efficient to all of their clients and will want to recommend tradesmen that they know they can trust and who do a good job, not just someone who has paid £150 for an advert. 

I havent used this type of advertising as I use the old method of chatting to Estate agents.

I`m in a rural area so tried everyone in my area, including small villages. From this I received a phone call from one office, later I got another phone call from a different office who had my name from the 1st job. Since then i have had several jobs, even phone calls from the owner and his son. These jobs have mainly been for lock changes due to NO keys and the odd lock out. They even passed my name onto other companys, (cost to me petrol and time).

 The personal method sometimes pays off.

Done it both ways and just dropping in and having a chat and leaving cards works best, plus its free and only costs time. never got a job out of the advertising cards which they give out for you and it usually costs quite a bit.

Always better to go in directly  and leave your own cards/leaflets and have a chat with the people.I have done this with the local letting agents and get work referalls from them.

The face to face works better as stated above, but found more work with the letting agents!

The estate side always seem in a rush, but when a tenant has a jammed door they will report it to the letting side.  Most estate agents now have a letting side.

I have picked one of the largest and oldest in the area and stuck with them, now on their BACS run..!

Regards

Andy

I just had over 1500 colour A5 leaflets printed for £75. I ordered 500, and Solopress sent me a whole stack more!

Currently doing the rounds with the estate agents and letting agents to introduce myself. Positive reactions all round so far.