The best bang for your buck is internet marketing. I post listings all over the internet, every site related to real estate and Craigslist. Of course, the MLS is by far the #1 tool for getting a home sold.

Dear Paul,
I have also had some success from Craigs List and ActiveRain. I almost always post my open houses there as well.
Good Luck!
Betina

Signs are a great way to get some exposure, however they say 70% of home buyers start searching online 6 months before making a purchase.
;)

30 years ago Century 21 management school told me that no matter how much they spent on all their other marketing, they could trace back more sales to calls off a real estate sign than anything else by far!

I find that is still true for me. I believe that the internet has become much more important than print ads and may have gained on all forms of marketing, but the sign is still the "best bang for the buck".

I use an "information box" on each sign not designed to answer all the questions---designed instead to increase buyer phone calls. I use directional signs (with my name and number) whenever allowed, to direct more drivers into a quiet neighborhood.

I do not often hold an open house on an occupied home. Instead I want buyers to make an appointment- I want to establish a relationship with them.

Paul,

Telephone calls and door knocking, especially expireds and FSBO's. Most have been beaten up by the market and actually like the direct human approach.

I drive traffic to my sites through SEO. It's free, no bucks involved ;)

That's not to say I do not spend money on internet marketing. If all you do is SEO, you will live and die by the search engines. SERP's fluctuate so you must have many avenues to drive traffic to your sites. Example: Trulia.com.

Agree with all the answers, but I am going to say something a little different in terms of what means to market or tools to use. My response depends if you are an established agent or new to the game. You sometimes have to do something a little more different to get the ball moving if you are lighter on years of experience, but not lacking in drive, knowledge and working with people. I would say a nicely designed business card or design piece of value with a solid concept (to be repeated subtly) is the highest impact for marketing. Great design is a great tool to mirror what you will do for the client when marketing their home.

There are a number of great resources that can provide real return on your investment - including the time we spend. Some of the ones that I coach agents to use include; Point2 agent - their free stardard sites are hard to compare when you realized the exposure they provide for our clients listings; postlets has some of the same exposure that Point2 provides - if you use Point2 then I question the use of postlets unless you focus on rentals; Active Rain is a great real estate platform - using the active rain blogs you can get great exposure on Google in record time and it is also FREE!; Craigs List - another great online resource - if you are using Point2 then most of the work of adding your listings is already done.

It's all about the internet. That's where most people go first, so that's the place to be.

Postlets is great, free and downloads into 15 webs sites including Craigs List. 1-800#'s give us great return for the little it costs us.

You can e-mail me to get our marketing page which lists our stratergies , most of which are free or give you atomic bang for the buck. We have had to get a faster lead tracking system to keep up.

Invest in your website. Make sure it's professional, user friendly, and interactive. Other than that, plenty of free online resources to help you with your merketing.

I have not yet checked the traffic volume but my suspicion is Virtual Tours

I have gotten a lot of milage off of Craigslist and it's fee. In addition Point2Agent websites, vflyer and postlets ae great. Postlet and vflyer will syndicate to at least a half dozen other sites and it's free. The point2 website will create virtual tours and will syndicate to about 20 other sites and it's free. vflyer also creates widgets for your website at no cost.

E-mail notification to all agents within the KW network in my area (there are 4 offices with around 700 agents altogether). Post listings on Point2Agent and KW agent websites as well as KWLS (KW listing system). Craigslist, open houses, Realtor.com, flyers to major brokerages in town of listing, radio show advertising from time to time, agent tours (in house and outside agents). I get the best results from marketing to other agents.

Besides CL & BP
I use point2agent.com. ( superfree )

CraigsList gets consistently high ratings from agents across the country. We have not found it to be that effective, but continue to post there.

Although we post to many sites without a fee paid to that site, I do not consider it "free" as either staff who earn a salary do the work or I do. I place value on the time invested, even when a salary is not paid, to place lisitngs on mulitple sites and monitor them for accuracy and ensure their continued appearance. Sometimes, with some sites, listings simply disappear.

Best bang for the buck is the broad exposure provided across mulitple portals and sites.

Middle of the Road: We also maintain showcase listings and featured listings on Realtor.com. I still consider Realtor.com necessary, but have seen diminshing returns for the monies spent.

Worst investment for ROI is newspaper advertising.

Sorry, no bucks spent here. I rely upon Craig's List and Back Page & vFlyer - all elegant, effective and FREE!

Depends on the goal. My preference is stop the car at any house that has a construction dumpster and ask "Who's in charge here?". It surprisingly has excellent results for listings. If you want to sell, craigslist.