What do you do if you have $300 per year?

Especially when they are starting out, agents don’t have a big budget to spend on real estate websites. But there are still some things you can do if you don’t have a lot of money.

If you have a budget of $300 per year, Borden recommends doing something hyper local, that will get your name out in the community. “You’re not going to have enough money to compete, so you can spend the money on a way to promote yourself on a very low level, where the people you work with and your audience can see you and touch you,” she said. “That is money better spent.”

Dollinger agrees that $300 is not a lot to work with, and if that’s what your budget is, it is not worth spending it on real estate websites.

“Don’t do it,” he said. “You’re probably not a listing agent and you’d be better off  spending this $300 a year on mailers to your SOI, thank you gifts, or taking past clients out for coffee.  You can still take advantage of the portal’s free services like ‘Trulia Voices’ or ‘Zillow Advice’ to interact with consumers and build your online brand, but for $25 a month, none of the portals provide a service worth paying for.”

McNitt agrees and says $300 would probably be enough for one chronicle ad for one weekend. However, for $500, he recommends spending the money on a personal website and a blog to promote yourself and help you come up in online searches.

“It doesn’t have to be fancy, but people should be able to do a Google search and find you,” he said.