Are you finding yourself spending all your time with buyers, but missing out on listing leads?
Listings are critical for most real estate businesses since they take less time than working with buyers and they give you an opportunity to promote your real estate services, which brings in even more new clients.
So let’s ignore the buyers for today and focus on new listing leads.
Here are 10 clever ways to get new listing leads.
10 Clever Ways to Get New Listing Leads
Let’s count them down…
10. Ask Your Buyers the Magic Question
I know, I just said we were going to ignore the buyers for today, but this first trick to getting new listing leads actually involves your buyer leads.
I want you to contact all your buyer leads (even if they said they won’t be looking for several months), and ask them this magic question:
Do you need to sell your home before you buy a new one?
Many buyers will need to sell their current homes before buying the next one. So it’s your job to make sure they understand the timing. Depending on your local market conditions, your buyers might want to list their current home sooner than they thought if they want to stick to their timeline.
Offer some information about the selling process to all your clients who will need to sell first, even if they aren’t ready to list. Then continue sending friendly follow-ups and market updates. You want to be front-and-center when they are ready to list.
If you’re already asking the magic question, this idea won’t seem clever at all to you. But most agents don’t know about the magic question. And it’s costing them listing leads!
9. Teach a Real Estate Investing Seminar
Plenty of agents offer first-time homebuyer seminars. But how many offer real estate investing seminars?
Investing seminars can land you both buyer and seller leads. You will likely have many first-time investors in your group who will need your assistance buying their first buy-and-hold income property. Which is great! But make sure you also discuss the fix-and-flip strategy. Not only can you help your students buy their first property, but you can also refer them to local contractors (for some added goodwill in the local business community). And then…you earn the listing when the rehab is complete and they’re ready to sell!
So much upside!
8. Find Pre-Foreclosures
For anyone new to real estate, pre-foreclosures are exactly what they sound like. They’re homeowners who are behind on mortgage payments and are under threat of foreclosure.
This is obviously a sensitive situation for these homeowners. Rather than rush in to list their home, see if you can help them keep it first.
Some homeowners don’t know they can try to work with their lender. Maybe they can apply for loan forbearance. Or maybe they can refinance to get more affordable monthly payments. Offer to help the homeowners understand their options.
If you’re able to help them keep their house, you’re a hero, and they will tell all their friends and family about you. If you’re not able to make that happen, you will have at least earned their trust, so if they need to sell the home to avoid foreclosure, they will likely list with you.
You can find pre-foreclosures at Foreclosure.com.
7. Use Your Open House to Land More Sellers
Open houses are an opportunity for you to meet the neighbors. And these neighbors could be your next seller clients!
I don’t typically recommend door-knocking, but open houses are a good use of this old-school prospecting method. Knock on the neighbors’ doors to personally invite them to the open house.
Visit 5-10 neighbors on each side of your listing, 10-20 neighbors across the street, and another 10-20 neighbors on the road behind your listing. Here’s a simple script:
Knock, knock, knock
Hi, I’m Michelle with Key Real Estate. I just wanted to drop by to invite you to an open house for the Sanders over at 145 Maple Dr. We’ll be there from 3-6 this Sunday with the best homemade cookie bars you’ve ever tasted! *hand them the flyer with the details*.
Also, I wondered if you might know of someone looking to move into this neighborhood?
And how about you? When do you think you might be looking to make a move?
It’s been a pleasure chatting with you! We’re expecting a big turnout at this open house and would love to see you there!
Make sure your flyer also includes information about your listing services. Note the neighborhood median home value on your flyer, as well as a note about Zillow’s inaccurate Zestimates. Then offer a custom CMA free of charge.
6. Poll Your Social Followers
This method for getting new listing leads is as simple as it is clever. Just publish a poll on your social accounts that says:
“Are you planning to buy a new home this year?”
Of course most respondents will say “no”. But those who say “yes” get added to your CRM for immediate follow-up and on-going nurturing.
By the way, if your long-term social media strategy is in sad shape, check out How to Create a Lead Generating Social Media Calendar.
5. Use Zillow (But Don’t Pay to Play)
Rather than paying Zillow for leads, use their system to find people who are obviously interested in selling. Then you can contact those owners directly. There are two perfect filters for this: FSBOs and “Make Me Move” homeowners.
FSBOs
You may already have a FSBO script and/or marketing plan in place. Simply contact each of these owners and work your magic.
If you don’t already have a FSBO marketing plan, invite your FBSO contacts to a free FBSO guide or workshop (more on that later in our list!).
Make-Me-Movers
Here’s a simple plan for working with Make-Me-Movers:
- Contact the homeowner and let them know you’re working with buyers looking for an x-bed/x-bath home in their neighborhood. (If you don’t have a buyer in the pipeline looking for those basic specs, what are you even doing?)
- Ask if you can preview the house to see if it’s a good fit for any of your buyers.
- Ask questions to learn more about these homeowners and gauge their level of interest in selling.
- If they seem open to listing, start pitching your services. If they’re simply looking to make a certain amount on the sale, and the market supports that sales price, you may have an easy listing!
- Now, if they’re not interested, don’t push. But before you leave, say, “I know you’re not looking to list with a real estate agent right now, and I respect that. But if you ever need assistance or direction, I’m always happy to help where I can.” Then hand them your card or brochure and leave.
You may find that the house is actually a good fit for your buyer, and end up with a quick commission! If not, add the homeowner to your CRM and provide them with valuable market insights periodically.
***UPDATE As of April 2021, Zillow no longer supports the Make-Me-Move Feature.***
4. Create a Killer Offer
A killer offer is something no other agent in your market is offering. Typically, it’s an offer to pay for a service other agents don’t offer or to pay for an expense that sellers usually have to pay for themselves.
For example, if agents don’t usually pay for professional listing photos in your market, start promoting the fact that you include professional listing photos for every one of your listings. Not only will your listings sell faster and for more money, but you’ll also gain a serious competitive advantage in the listing presentation.
If professional photos are already standard in your market, try covering the cost of:
- Drone photos
- Virtual tours
- Staging
- Moving
You could use your killer offer as a limited-time offer or as the full-time differentiator in your marketing plan.
How to Market Your Killer Offer
As soon as you decide on your killer offer, promote it like crazy through:
- Social media posts (free!)
- Social media ads (affordable)
- Add an eye-catching banner to your website (free!)
- Door hangers or fliers on parked cars (affordable)
- Direct mailer postcards (affordable)
- TV or radio ad slots (pricey)
- An email or text campaign to the homeowners in your sphere (free!)
Make sure your promotions include a referral reminder. Something like,
“Not ready to sell? No problem! Pass my contact information along to someone who is looking to sell. Not only will I give them this special offer, but as a referral gift to you, I’ll honor this offer for you whenever you’re ready to move.”
3. Blog
Only 11% of Realtors® blog. And as a professional real estate blogger who’s reviewed hundreds (maybe thousands?) of real estate agent blogs, I can tell you, most of those are worthless. In my estimation, only about 2% of real estate agents have a blog with original content published regularly. That means you can edge out 98% of agents simply by publishing one custom blog post per week. Now, imagine if your content was actually well-written and useful! You’d be in the Top 1%!
The problem is, most agents don’t understand how a blog generates leads.
Basically, blogging on your website gives search engines (like Google) content to index. This indexing makes it possible for Google to direct traffic to your website.
For example, if someone Googles “home values in LA”, Google will present results of websites that cover this specific topic. An LA-based real estate agent should absolutely have a blog post on this topic so Google can index it and recommend it to searchers.
Of course there is a strategy to what you should blog about. Make sure you read our post on Mastering Blogging for Real Estate Leads for a complete blogging strategy. Oh, and if you’re not a writer, don’t worry, you can still create a quality real estate blog that generates new listing leads. Check out How to Blog When You Suck at Writing.
2. Social Media Advertising (Strategically!)
I know there’s nothing clever about social media advertising. Anyone can do it, and most agents do. But what makes online advertising clever is the specific strategy for generating listing leads.
The great thing about social media is:
- Ads are inexpensive, and
- You can target your unique audience.
Here are a few strategic social media ad ideas:
A. Promote Your Killer Offer from Idea #4.
Here’s an example of the text you could use in your ad:
Let me pay your moving expenses!
For a limited time only, I’m offering up to $1,500 in moving expense reimbursement for sellers who list their homes with me!
Is this just a gimmick to get your listing? Nope! This is a gimmick to get a meeting with you. Once you see my marketing plan for your home, you’ll know I’m the best agent for the job.
DM me for more details or schedule an appointment online today!
B. Show How Inaccurate Zestimates® are.
Run an ad demonstrating how inaccurate Zillow’s estimates are and offering to do a “real” valuation free of charge.
C. Help the Recently-Divorced
In many cases, divorced couples will sell the house they owned together. Promote yourself as the agent who specializes in quick sales so each party can move on to the next chapter of their lives.
D. Promote Your Seminars and Workshops
Get more people to sign up for your Real Estate Investor Seminar by promoting it through local social media ads.
1. Hold a FSBO Workshop (or at Least Offer a FSBO Guide)
For-Sale-By-Owners are inundated with real estate agents trying to get the listing. Instead of trying to land the listing, offer to genuinely help the homeowner sell their home by hosting a FBSO workshop or at least offering a FSBO guide.
Your workshop will offer real strategies and tactics you use every day to sell homes:
- Show the FSBOs how to reach a wider audience through signage, social media, syndication to sites like Zillow, and even print ads.
- Help them understand how to budget for the marketing costs.
- Give them insights for effective showings so they know how to prepare the house for prospective buyers.
- Teach them how to overcome buyer objections.
- Demonstrate negotiation tactics.
- Explain the escrow process.
Don’t even try to promote your listing services. This is not a sales pitch. It’s a genuine training workshop. But let your FBSOs know that you’re available to answer their questions and that you’d be happy to help if they do decide to list with an agent.
Once your workshop attendees see how much time, effort, knowledge, skill, and money are involved in selling a house, there’s a good chance they’ll list with you!
Nail Your Listing Presentation to Convert More Leads to Listings
Once you have the listing leads, you need to wow them with your listing presentation. Check out How to Create a Killer Listing Presentation for step-by-step instructions.
