My brother is home on leave from Afghanistan and father is up from Florida so we snuck away for a quick grouse hunting trip.

I’ve been hunting grouse for 30 years and tried something different this time…something that is a valuable lesson for everyone in the housing industry…

~Rick

It was this very quote I was thinking about on my last grouse hunting trip. For years I’ve pretty much hunted grouse the same way- get into the woods and WALK.

I’d spend 5-6 hours a day walking trails for grouse with many times not even a “flush,” hearing or seeing a bird.

This year, I tried something different…

Instead of focusing on the amount of time I would spend in the woods WALKING, I would spend time before the trip RESEARCHING the type of cover where grouse like to “hang out.”

This led me to the red lanterns (see the photo above).

Red lanterns, to an avid grouse hunter, are dogwood tree berries. In the early to mid season, grouse love to feed on these berries. The theory is, find the berries and you will find the birds.

My research focused on finding these trees even if it led me off the “beaten trail.”

My first afternoon hunt I got into the woods around 4:00. The first trail I walked had some nice young aspen trees (another grouse favorite) but lacked the “red lanterns” I was looking for.

I tried a different trail and soon began to see red lanterns. My young and incredibly inexperienced Red Setter Bentley and I began to move off the trail and into the areas of these dogwood trees.

A wind storm and ice storm this year made the walking incredibly difficult. There were down trees all over the place in addition to the thick cover already present.

About 30 minutes of walking through the thick forest I heard a series of incredibly fast wing beats…Bentley and I had our first flush!

The same thing happened a few minutes later- another flush but no opportunity for a shot.

We continued to walk around the dogwoods until the lack of daylight encouraged me to turn around and head back to the car. I was silently congratulating myself for the 2 flushes when I heard another bird flush over my right shoulder…

This time I not only had a visual, the bird had flown into a small clearing where I had a shot. I got lucky and downed the bird. Bentley found the bird in the forest and he had officially retrieved his first grouse.

This bird flushed right out of a tree- a dogwood tree that is…

Your Challenge

Thinking about this experience I couldn’t help but look at the similarities of what has happened to the housing market over the last 5 years…

• Walking the same trails gave me a great workout but wasn’t leading me to birds. Are you taking the same path in your business and are you finding the buyers you’re looking for?

• Sitting in front of the computer and researching grouse cover wasn’t much fun- but it made all the difference when I went into the woods. Are you taking time each week to work ON your business and find new avenues for attracting buyers?
  

• Moving off the trail and into the woods was tough. It would of been a lot easier to stay on the trail for an easy walk but that’s not where the birds were. Changing how you attract buyers is tough at first too…you’re not used to it and it’s much easier to go back to what you know.

• I spent 2.5 hours walking through and over some of the thickest cover you can imagine to bag one bird. Today, you have to not only arm yourself with the knowledge, strategies and techniques to find buyers- you have to remain persistent to find those few buyers out there.

I wrote the Ultimate System for Attracting Home Buyers to give you all the tools you need to find today’s home buyers.

My client’s are consistently using these strategies to find buyers today, in every type of market, from entry level to luxury.

Get your copy of the Ultimate System for Attracting Home Buyers by clicking here>>

Happy Hunting AND Happy Selling!

P.S. If you don’t want to start changing the way you attract buyers today, no problem.

Just remember, the time will pass anyway…

You can spend your time implementing proven strategies to get more buyers or spend your time “walking down the beaten path.” It’s your choice…

Make a difference and start today>>