At Linda Craft & Team, we strive to improve not just our community, but the real estate industry as a whole. And since we started helping buyers and sellers in the Triangle over three decades ago, we’ve been recognized globally for our unprecedented innovations and success.
Linda Craft, founder and CEO of Linda Craft & Team, is proud to be featured in a new book by Karen Galvin that highlights creative selling strategies. Give it a read and let us know what you think!
Move It!: A Closer Look at Linda Craft & Team’s Free Moving Truck Program
Linda Craft has been a residential and commercial real estate broker in the Raleigh, NC area since 1985, growing her team of agents, and serving their local communities.
In 2004, while at a convention, Linda saw a booth where the company leased (with a buyout at the end) real estate agencies a 15-foot box truck, and provided a vinyl wrap on the sides of the truck to advertise your company. The idea was for you to offer the use of the truck to your buyers and sellers for their local move. They promoted that when your clients used the truck to move, your pictures and your company information on the sides of the truck would give you 7,000 “impressions” per mile.
How Linda Craft took her moving truck to the next level
Linda loved the idea. She made sure that the truck had a pull-out ramp for easy loading and a hand truck as well. Linda’s company offers the use of this truck to all their clients. Oh, but the offer doesn’t end there. The truck is available for any buyer who purchases from one of her team’s listings. But wait, we’re not done yet. She found that most of her clients wanted to use the truck on the weekends, which is understandable. So Linda offered the truck’s use for local charities to use Monday through Thursdays.
Then, she extended the offer even further, so that if those same clients who had already bought or sold needed to pick up a big item, or their children were going off to college, they could call and reserve the use of the truck again.
The cost to her clients? Fuel they use for the day of their move.
A hassle for her clients? Nope. She has a video on her website that goes over all the details, and explains the forms that her clients will complete.
The cost to Linda? Nothing. She has four local companies that pay to advertise on the back panel of her truck, yielding her no payment to the company that has leased/sold her the truck.
This was all working so well, that she bought a second truck in 2006!
It’s about more than just moving trucks
What did that lead to? Linda needed to move her office, so that she could park the trucks on the lot, and so they were easily seen from the road. So she bought a building, of course on a corner lot, with each truck being seen from each road. She estimates that 30,000 cars pass her office each day.
Calculating the ROI is very hard to measure, as you can imagine. As Linda says, “It’s about building good will; it’s about building relationships. Buying or selling a home can be stressful, but if we can help relieve some of the anxiety of the move with a free moving truck, it’s our pleasure to do that.”
Does building good will stop there? Of course not. As a locally owned real estate company, Linda Craft & Team believes in supporting and giving back to their community. They engage in community events as a full team. They donate cruise vacations for charity auctions. They collect clothing for Wake County schools. They support pet adoption centers. They host a free shred event each year. They sponsor the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team. They give away pies at Thanksgiving (900 pies in 2019!). Santa Claus comes to their office during the holidays. The list of the 90 charities they proudly support are on their website.
So, what do you get when you buy or sell a home from Linda and her team? Yes, you can get a free moving truck, but you also become part of their incredible community.
Take Your Next Steps
If you’re ready to make a move in the Triangle, Linda Craft & Team would love to help streamline the entire process! Contact us at 919-235-0007 for all the buying and selling advice you could ever need. Our clients also have access to our free moving truck, as well as a variety of other perks. We look forward to putting our 350+ years of combined experience to work for you!