During the 2020 shutdown, the market went so quiet even the crickets stopped chirping. Most agents went dark. We went the other way. Instead of “just sold” postcards, my team mailed word searches and kids’ coloring contests. Families texted us photos of their little artists’ masterpieces, and I drove around Naples dropping goodie baskets on their doorsteps.
Silly? Absolutely. And those silly mailers started more real conversations than any market report I’ve ever sent. When things picked back up, guess whose phone rang.
That season taught me everything I know about farming. The agents who win January listings are the ones who show up in October and November, when everyone else has disappeared into a corn maze.
The gap nobody talks about
Ask a past client if they’d use their agent again, and almost all of them say yes. Then the next transaction rolls around, and they hire somebody else. Not because we did a bad job but because we disappeared. We hand over the keys, snap the photo and vanish like we entered witness protection.
Your past clients love you. They just forgot you exist. And most sellers talk to exactly one agent before they list, so whoever they remember in January wins. There’s no runner-up prize.
January sellers make their decision over the holidays. The bonus lands, the in-laws visit, the house suddenly feels too small. So your job this fall isn’t to sell anything. It’s to be unforgettable. Here’s how I’d do it, month by month.
Your fall marketing calendar
October: Get playful (and go big, literally)
Make your mailer impossible to miss
We made ours as big as the post office allows, 12 by 15 inches. Here’s the bonus nobody thinks about: The mail carrier wraps the rest of the mail around it, so my smiling face was the first thing people saw when they opened the mailbox.
Barbara Corcoran taught me that one. She had me put my face on everything, including the side of a van, because people want to know there’s a real human behind the name. It made me squirm. It also worked.
Send fun, not farming
Skip the pumpkin spice market update. Mail:
- A word search built from your neighborhood’s street names.
- A Halloween coloring contest for the kids.
- A fall scavenger hunt around town.
Post the answer key on your social pages so the mailer drives people there, and when someone texts you an entry, show up with a goodie basket. Now a piece of paper has turned into a doorstep conversation. That’s the whole game.
Write actual notes with an actual pen
In today’s techno world, a handwritten note is radically innovative. So is picking up the phone. So is coffee. Send five handwritten “thinking of you” notes a week through October and you’ll out-touch every agent blasting automated emails into the void.
It helps that physical mail sits in a home for about 17.5 days. Nobody leaves an email on the kitchen counter for two and a half weeks.
November: Give from the heart (with a little flair)
Partner with a local business on gratitude
During lockdown, we teamed up with Naples florists on “Brighten Your Day” bouquets and fun boxes filled with games, treats and flowerpot kits for the kids. Clients just had to message us their address. We delivered more than a hundred gifts for under $2,000, with zero sales pitch attached.
When the clouds lifted, the business followed. This November, call your favorite florist, bakery or coffee shop and build a gratitude drop together. You support a local business, they introduce you to their customers, and your clients feel genuinely loved. Everybody wins.
Presentation is the secret ingredient
Anyone can hand over a plastic tub of cookies. Wrap them in tissue, tuck them in a beautiful bag, add a handwritten tag. The gift is the same. The feeling is completely different, and the feeling is what they remember in January.
Do your pop-bys before Thanksgiving
A small seasonal gift on the doorstep: cocoa, hand warmers, an ice scraper if your market has actual weather (down here in Naples, we hand out sunscreen and call it winter). Text a heads-up first, keep the visit short, and if no one’s home, leave the gift with a note and follow up by text. One touch just became two.
Mail a Thanksgiving card that sells nothing
No listing pitch, no market stats stapled to it. Just thank them for their trust. Get it in the mail by mid-month so it beats the holiday crunch. Gratitude with no strings is so rare it practically glows.
December: Set the table for January
As the year winds down, offer a quick home value check-in: “Curious what your home’s worth heading into the new year? Takes me 10 minutes.” Every seller doing holiday math will take you up on it.
Then close the year with a New Year’s bubbly pop-by, a mini bottle of champagne or sparkling cider to toast what’s ahead. You’ll be the last agent they see before decision season, and the first one they call when it starts.
Wild ideas get wild attention
None of this requires a big budget. It requires ingenuity and heart. The word searches, the giant mailers, the butterfly gift bags: every one of them came from asking a simple question. What am I giving, not selling?
Most agents wait for opportunity to knock. Fall is when you build a bigger door and install a doorbell that plays Rachmaninoff.
Plant in October. Water in November. Harvest in January.
