Generate Listings – The Close

If All Real Estate Leads Are Created Equal, Why Do Some Convert Better Than Others?

Chris Linsell — Sun, 27 Mar 2022 23:30:11 +0000

According to Redfin CEO Glen Kelman, the volume of real estate leads generated in 2021 was more than six times the number of leads generated in 2015. Most of us in the industry have experienced this growth—there are a LOT of leads being generated right now. But, it’s not all good news. Conversion rates have fallen sharply, hovering at an average of 2%.

Why do some Realtors dominate lead conversion while others flounder? Do they know something the rest of us don’t? The answer may surprise you.

Are All Real Estate Leads Created Equal?

Technically, no. There are a lot of different ways to measure the quality of real estate leads, but the one that makes the most sense to us is conversion rate, or the number of leads that convert to active clients relative to the number of total leads.

A lead’s conversion rate can usually be tied to where they fall in the lead funnel—a popular marketing term for the journey a lead takes from acquisition to activation. The closer a lead is to activating as a buyer or seller, the higher the conversion rate.

But, that’s just a short-term measurement. If you zoom out and look at your sales funnel as a whole, nearly all of the real estate leads agents get are part of the same funnel—they’re just at different stages in their buying or selling journey.

This means that if you’ve got an effective strategy for moving your leads down the funnel and toward activation (and building a relationship along the way), it matters much less where they start. In fact, you might classify them as short-, medium-, and long-term leads and consider the explosion in lead volume as an opportunity to nurture relationships for years to come.

How Do Successful Real Estate Agents Move Leads Down Their Funnel?

The process of moving real estate leads down your sales funnel toward activation is known as lead nurturing. Effective lead nurturing strategies are what separate top-performing, high-converting agents and teams from those who just barely break even.

A solid lead nurturing strategy has lots of moving parts (something we’ll talk about in a moment), but at its core, it is:

Repeatable: Real estate agents get a lot of leads—at least the successful ones do. Your nurturing strategy can’t be recreated with every lead; you need to create a process that you can replicate and scale.
Measurable: An effective nurture strategy allows you to measure your results, both in terms of your overall conversion rate as well as the performance of each individual component.
Adjustable: As you learn about what your leads need and want from you, you need a strategy that you can easily adjust to accommodate those needs.
Dependable: Effective lead nurturing has to be done consistently in order to be effective. The systems you use for lead nurturing must be dependable, and when possible, autonomous.

The 4 Basic Real Estate Lead Nurturing Strategies Every Real Estate Agent Should Use

Now that you know what real estate lead nurturing is and why it’s important, it’s time to outline the basic nurturing strategy all agents should use (or at least start with).

1. Connect With New Leads Immediately

In the age of live chat customer service, real estate leads expect real-time connections and follow-up from Realtors. You can do this by creating automated, immediate responses to any new lead inquiry. We recommend a two-pronged approach: sending an email and a text message the moment a new lead is added to your customer relationship manager (CRM).

Why two messages? Because they each provide unique value.

Email: With an automated email response, you can give your new lead all the resources they need to connect with you on social platforms, check out your website, start property searches, or take in a digital listing presentation. Think of this introductory email as a chance to answer all your new leads’ most frequently asked questions before they ask them.
Text message: Using an automated text message response, you satisfy your new leads’ expectation for immediate contact. You give them a direct line to ask questions and start a dialogue—something less likely to happen with email.

2. Begin Delivering Value Immediately & Consistently

After you’ve made initial contact with your leads (an act that shows you’re engaged and active), you need to continue to deliver value consistently. This means creating a communication strategy with them that will offer them your knowledge, experience, and expertise pursuant to their goals.

Some great examples of consistent value delivery include:

For Buyers:	For Sellers:
Custom property search alerts	An initial and then periodically updated CMA
Drip campaigns delivering buyer best-practice blog content	Drip campaigns delivering seller best-practice blog content
Strategy guides for effectively preparing financially to purchase a home	Market updates for property sales similar to the seller’s property

Often, the best way to deliver this type of value is via email. Email can be easily automated, with messages that are rich in information and links to further resources. Plus, it’s easy to track a recipient’s interaction with the value you’re providing using basic email marketing tools.

3. Spark Regular, Relevant Conversations

The passive delivery of value to the leads you’re nurturing is a great starting point, but it’s often more active, relevant conversations that will move your leads more dramatically down the sales funnel.

These conversations typically take place via text message (or other instant messaging apps) and phone calls. However, take this step with caution. A text message or phone call that feels forced, inauthentic, and irrelevant to your lead will actually drive them away from activation, and in some cases, out of your funnel completely.

To help avoid this pitfall, here are a couple of pointers:

Start Phone Calls With “I was thinking about you this morning because …”

Leads love to hear that you were thinking about them, their needs, and doing so first thing in the morning. Make notes about the things that are important to your leads; spark conversation specific to those needs using this opening line.

Try the “Quick Question / Open Question” Text Message Strategy

This two-question approach to text messages is very effective. Start by asking a quick, easy-to-answer question that’s relevant to your lead. Something like, “Quick question: How do you feel about mid-century modern homes? Is that a style you’d consider?” This will trigger a response from your lead and spark a conversation.

Once you’ve engaged them, you can then ask an open-ended question to trigger their lead response. “I see a lot of homes get listed every day. Are there any specific styles you want me to keep my eyes open for on your behalf?”

The closer your leads are to activation, the more frequent these conversations should be.

4. Include Your Leads in the Community You’re Building

Another key component of lead nurturing is solidifying your reputation as someone who is active, knowledgeable, and experienced in the real estate space. Invite your leads to take part in your client appreciation events.

Offer “coffee shop happy hours” where you supply the coffee and snacks at a local community spot. Invite them to check out open houses you’re hosting, if only to get inspiration for when they’re ready to buy or sell.

Well-nurtured leads don’t only connect with you through their devices—they see your face and feel like they’re a part of your business, making you a part of their real estate success.

Want to Supercharge Your Lead Nurturing? Try Market Leader

Applying these four strategies would be challenging to tackle on your own if it weren’t for customized tools designed specifically for real estate lead nurturing and conversion. We recommend Market Leader as your home base to manage these four lead conversion strategies and so much more.

Market Leader, recently named The Close’s top pick for real estate lead generation, has rolled out a comprehensive real estate business platform that takes lead nurturing to the next level. Here’s what they have to offer:

Fantastic paid lead generation: In order to nurture your paid real estate leads, you have to get them in the first place. Using an industry-leading, guaranteed lead volume approach, Market Leader agents know exactly how many paid leads they can expect every month, and in what geographic areas they’ll be coming from. Also, these leads are exclusive, so you know you’ll be the only agent advancing a relationship with them.

An MLS-connected CRM: All your Market Leader-generated leads (plus the option to connect directly with other lead sources) are automatically integrated into your Market Leader customer relationship manager (CRM), a place where you can track all your lead activity, including their responses to your lead nurturing communication and value. Best of all, this CRM connects directly to your Market Leader website, natively logging your prospect’s website activity, including properties viewed, saved searches, and preferred communities.

A lead-generating website: The Market Leader website search functionality feels a lot like the sort of Zillow experience many of your prospects are used to, except with Market Leader, you can set up custom pop-ups to prompt your website visitors to enter their lead information in order to unlock more searches, save favorites, and access buyer and seller strategy guides.

A full-featured Marketing Center: Practically a standalone product of its own, the Market Leader Marketing Center is the launchpad for all your automated marketing, including sophisticated automated email marketing campaigns as well as automated or on-demand print marketing through a partnership with Shutterfly, allowing Market Leader users to bring mailbox marketing into their lead nurturing strategies in ways their competitors can’t.

Pro Tip

Market Leader’s automated listing alerts are the #1 driver of website traffic from new leads. Partnered with 500+ organizations, Market Leader has one of the largest networks of MLS relationships in the U.S. Use it to drive more interaction and convert more leads into active clients.

Final Thoughts

The real estate industry has largely solved the lead generation problem; there are dozens of options for all sorts of leads available. Now, it’s time to figure out the best way to nurture these leads to activation.

Following the four-pronged approach of speed to lead, consistent value provision, regular and relevant conversation, and community inclusion are a great start. You can improve the delivery of these strategies and better evaluate their effectiveness by using a platform like Market Leader to automate more of your work, adjust course where needed, and prioritize more effectively.

Visit Market Leader today to learn more about how they can help solve your real estate lead nurturing challenges.

Visit Market Leader

The post If All Real Estate Leads Are Created Equal, Why Do Some Convert Better Than Others? appeared first on The Close.

Market Leader Review + Video Walk-through

Chris Linsell — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 21:32:20 +0000

Companies offering real estate leads have an accountability problem. They promise qualified leads and big opportunity but may not provide adequate tools or a platform to effectively deliver on that promise. Market Leader is different (or at least they claim to be). In this Market Leader review, we’ll do a deep dive and video walk-through to show you why they’re our #1 pick for real estate lead generation in 2022.

Market Leader delivers on its unique value proposition, providing agents with a guaranteed monthly volume of leads or your money back. With the rollout of their updated customer relationship manager (CRM) and new, beautifully designed websites, plus a marketing platform so advanced that it could be its own standalone product, Market Leader is making strides toward the goal of being THE operating solution for real estate agents. Learn why.

Why Should You Trust This Market Leader Review?

This deep-dive review of Market Leader isn’t like other reviews you’ll find online. For starters, we at The Close are seasoned real estate professionals with real experience finding, vetting, and using technology tools to successfully operate our business. We’ve got practical experience and know what works.

Also, we have used Market Leader extensively. We’ve put this review together using our firsthand experience with the actual tool, not second and thirdhand accounts of other reviewers.

You can trust The Close to provide an unbiased, firsthand account of Market Leader, its resources and usefulness, and to offer objective analysis as well as subjective impressions.

Market Leader: Pros, Cons & The Close Recommendation

We’re going to go deep into each of the features of Market Leader, plus do an extensive video walk-through of the entire platform, but if you’re just looking for our top-line observations + our recommendation, this section is for you.

Market Leader Pros	Market Leader Cons
An industry-leading lead generation product with guaranteed leads each month	Very limited analytics and tracking for single agents
A strong website with direct integration into your CRM, offering advanced lead behavior tracking	No built-in phone dialer or SMS texting
A marketing suite with direct mail marketing tools that can be automated and integrated into your other automated digital marketing efforts	No social media integrations in the marketing suite

The Close Recommendation

Market Leader is arguably the most complete solution available for agents, teams, and brokers seeking a tool that will acquire, engage, nurture, and convert real estate leads. The platform isn’t without fault. For example, it’s likely not the best solution if your business is built on prospecting and other outbound marketing efforts, or for agents who heavily rely on data and analytics.

However, if you’re paying for inbound leads, you should seriously consider the Market Leader platform as a comprehensive platform for powering up your real estate business.

Visit Market Leader

What Services Does Market Leader Offer?

Market Leader offers solutions for nearly every step of the real estate lead journey, with a primary focus on lead acquisition, nurturing, and conversion. These tools include:

Paid lead generation: As mentioned above, Market Leader is The Close’s top pick for lead generation companies in 2022. Their unique lead guarantee makes them a clear pick for any agent who is watching their return on investment (ROI) for paid lead gen closely (hint: that should be all of us).
Real estate websites: The public-facing, IDX-enabled real estate websites offered by Market Leader have gotten markedly better in the last year. They are attractive, customizable, and offer some really solid lead capture options. Since their websites are critical to the Market Leader nurture strategy, their upgrades are very important.
Real estate CRM: Real estate leads are just missed opportunities without a system and a strategy to convert them into clients. The Market Leader customer relationship manager (CRM) provides just that with a number of intriguing features, including a complete MLS integration, a move that offers some very unique marketing power-ups (more on these later).
Real estate marketing tools: Most CRMs will give you tools and templates for email marketing and not much else. The Market Leader CRM offers options to do email, paid social, and even print marketing, straight from their marketing suite within the CRM.
Dedicated mobile app: The Market Leader mobile app is a bona fide professional tool. This standalone app is not just a mobile browser-accessed, watered-down version of the desktop experience. It’s a standalone app with its own integrations and features that will prove very valuable to agents on the go and who work from their phone a lot (meaning, all of us).

How Much Does Market Leader Cost?

Market Leader pricing is straightforward and easy to understand. For $139 per month, users get all-inclusive access to a website, CRM, and marketing center. A la carte pricing for individual tools is not available. A six- or 12-month contract is required.

For real estate leads, the cost is $25 or more per lead, depending on your market.

Market Leader Video Walk-through

Go Deeper: A Closer Look at Market Leader’s Tools & Features

Now that we know the basics of what Market Leader has to offer and how much it costs, let’s dive into each of their tools to get more detail about how they work and how they plug into the overall Market Leader strategy.

We’ll also provide you with our recommendation on how to get the most out of each piece of the Market Leader puzzle.

Real Estate Lead Generation

The Market Leader lead gen approach is simple: run ads on platforms where your prospects are already spending their time (e.g., Facebook, Google) and direct them to sites like HouseValues.com (for sellers) or your Market Leader IDX website (for buyers).

Sound familiar? You’ve heard this strategy before, but Market Leader does things a little differently.

Before selling you a contract with leads, they calculate, based on search volume, the number of leads they can consistently deliver on a monthly basis. Market Leader clients only pay for the lead volume they can support, as opposed to providers who use the same approach but have no estimate (or accountability) for the number of leads they actually deliver.

How to Get the Most From This Tool: The Market Leader paid lead model is, in our opinion, the best and most effective tool available for getting a positive return on your ad spend. Get the most from this tool by carefully measuring your conversion rates, forecasting your closings relative to your lead volume, and scaling up the number of leads you buy as your success grows.

Real Estate Website

Real estate websites offered by Market Leader used to be a bit of an afterthought (at least in our opinion at The Close), but they’ve recently become a very important part of the success agents can find on the platform.

Their website designs have gotten a facelift, and they’ve got a really solid IDX-enabled search functionality that will give visitors to your site an experience akin to the one they’ll find on Zillow. They also offer excellent lead capture options that will convert more of your paid (and organic) leads than the average, brokerage-provided website.

How to Get the Most From This Tool: The Market Leader websites are attractive, but their true value comes from their lead capture options. If you want to get the most out of this, make sure you turn on (and fine-tune) the “activity wall pop-up.”

This is a pop-up that will fire on the website after a prospect has viewed a certain number of pages, done a certain amount of searching, and so forth. The trigger for this pop-up is customizable, so you can make it as aggressive or relaxed as you like. Most websites only offer casual, optional pop-ups.

Market Leader’s lead capture approach will get more leads into your CRM, giving you more chances to convert site visitors to clients.

Real Estate CRM

The newly revamped CRM is the sun around which all the other parts of the Market Leader solar system revolve. Your website leads (paid or organic) will populate in Market Leader’s CRM, and it connects directly with your website to record any user activity (including properties viewed, searches saved, and so forth). You can access the Market Leader Marketing Center through their CRM.

How to Get the Most From This Tool: Getting the most from the Market Leader CRM is easy—simply lean into its connection to your Market Leader website. The best part about this CRM is, hands-down, the organic integration between your leads’ website activity and their lead profiles. Using this feature will allow you to see what your leads are really searching for, and give you insight into how you can better provide value for them.

Without this connection (or the use of a Market Leader website), this CRM is still valuable, but relatively ordinary compared to its peers.

Real Estate Marketing

Market Leader’s Marketing Center focuses on three pillars: email marketing, print marketing, and automated campaigns that combine these two options.

Their email marketing includes a ton of templates for typical lead nurturing for buyers and sellers, plus tons of customizable templates for special holiday greetings, birthdays, home anniversaries, and more.

Partnered with Shutterfly, their print marketing options allow direct mail postcard and flyer marketing that can make your real estate farming and circle prospecting efforts a lot easier.

How to Get the Most From This Tool: You’ll get the most from these marketing tools by optimizing the third pillar—automated campaigns. With Market Leader automation, you can choose from dozens of preconstructed email drip campaigns for prospects at virtually any stage of your sales funnel.

Plus, you can use their automated direct mail marketing, which is great for new listings, price reductions, open houses, and more. And as a bonus, Market Leader writes an original newsletter each month that you can repurpose as your own and blast to your email audience.

Additional Market Leader Resources

Market Leader offers a surprisingly robust set of tools for agents, teams, and brokers who want to level up their use of the platform, but also grow their business in general. These include collections of scripts, templates, long-form strategy guides, and more with titles like these:

“Email Marketing & Automation”
“Guide to Maximizing Your ROI on Old Leads”
“Paid Online Lead Follow-Up Scripts”

Where Market Leader Could Improve

If you’ve made it this far in this review, you know by now that we’re feeling pretty good about Market Leader and what they have to offer, but the platform isn’t perfect. There are a few things we wish were better:

Analytics: Market Leader doesn’t offer analytics on par with the rest of their platform. This seems like an odd omission, given how important it is to measure your marketing efforts. There are some tracking options available in the team and brokerage products, but not much for solo agents.
Built-in dialer: Without a dialer built in to the CRM, agents are forced to log calls they have with their contacts manually. If you’re like most agents, you’re on the phone A LOT, so it’s inevitable that some of your calls won’t get logged. Not even the mobile app offers this functionality, which again, is a swing and a miss.
Automated SMS texting: Though SMS texting is a limited option for Realtors through the Market Leader mobile app, scheduling text messages as a part of automated campaigns is not. This feels like an oversight. With scheduled SMS, agents could add an entirely new dimension to their drip and nurture campaigns.

Is Market Leader Right for You?

In our view, Market Leader is officially the front-runner when it comes to an all-in-one real estate operating system. To be clear, they aren’t there just yet (nobody is), but they are leading the pack. Between their lead gen, website, CRM, and marketing options, Market Leader is offering agents nearly everything they need to operate and grow their business. But is it right for you?

Market Leader is right for you if:

You’ve got a growing business that already has or is ready to integrate paid lead generation into your strategy
You are dedicated to using a CRM every day to improve the consistency of your contact management and nurturing
You’ve got the budget to commit to at least 12 months of using their system

Market Leader isn’t right for you if:

You’re just getting started in the real estate business and don’t have the budget or bandwidth to start paying for leads
You won’t use the Market Leader website as your primary marketing hub
You’re a part-time agent and don’t have time to use all of Market Leader’s offerings

Visit Market Leader

The post Market Leader Review + Video Walk-through appeared first on The Close.

How to Create a Custom Real Estate Lead Generation Plan (+ Template)

Sean Moudry — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 00:45:09 +0000

When I’m coaching, one of the most common mistakes I see agents make is never taking the time to create a real estate lead generation plan that really works for them. They jump from strategy to strategy, never finding the right mix that generates enough leads.

The solution is to create a lead generation plan that leverages your unique personality. Today, we’re going to help you create a custom plan that fits your personality and fills your pipeline with leads and referral opportunities.

Assessment: Determine Your Unique Sales Personality

Your unique personality should be the key consideration when selecting strategies for your lead generation plan. Have you ever considered that there may be a lead generation strategy that aligns with your goals, past experiences, and personality? You don’t have to like or enjoy every lead generation strategy—some are going to be better for you than others.

How to Determine Your Unique Sales Personality

Using the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator and the DiSC Assessment, I created the 16 Strategies for Sales Personality Assessment. This assessment is designed to help you learn about your unique sales personality, which will help you become a more effective, successful, and happier salesperson.

Take the free 16 Strategies Sales Assessment on my website, 16 Strategies.com. It should only take five minutes.

Now that you have a better understanding of your unique personality, let’s go through my five-step formula to create a plan that is just right for you.

My 5-Step Lead Generation Selection Formula

With this 5-Step Lead Generation Selection Formula, you’ll create a lead generation plan that you’ll actually stick to. If you’re ready to start creating your plan today, download the Lead Generation Plan Worksheet.

Download the Lead Generation Plan Worksheet

1. Begin With Your Goal

When it comes to getting leads, a goal is simply a destination with a deadline. It defines where you want to go and when you want to get there. All of the decisions you make about your real estate business must align with your goals.

As a coach, I’ve found that when agents aren’t achieving the results they want, it’s usually because they are out of alignment with their goals, or even worse, they haven’t set concrete goals. They then find themselves jumping from idea to idea and strategy to strategy with no real plan.

How to Set Concrete Goals & Actually Get Results

Setting concrete goals is as simple as asking yourself three questions. Don’t skip this step! The answers to these questions will form the blueprint for creating your lead generation strategies.

What do you want to achieve? (Be specific!)
When do you want to achieve it?
How long do you have before you must produce income?

Now that you have set or refined your goals, we can take a closer look at your sales personality, which will help you select the best mix of strategies to deploy.

2. Match Your Strategies to Your Personality Type

You have your results from my 16 Strategies Sales Assessment. If you don’t, go back and take it! This information will help you select lead generation activities that align with your strengths and reconsider the ones you might find challenging or emotionally draining.

The Success Cycle

We all can “flex” out of our personality for a period of time. However, when we stay out of our preferred strategies for too long, we become stressed and irritable. This is one of the main reasons new agents fail so often—they spend too much time working outside their comfort zone and burn out.

The secret is finding lead generation strategies that align with your personality and don’t require you to flex out too often. When you do, you may find that you actually enjoy lead generation. Your positivity will lead to more appointments, and more appointments lead to more contracts—which generates inspiration, excitement, and passion.

It really is that simple. I call this the Success Cycle.

The key to remaining in the Success Cycle is engaging in lead generation that you naturally enjoy—activities that are in sync with your unique personality.

3. Identify Your Available Resources

Putting together the right lead generation plan means taking a serious look at your resources. Every agent has unique experiences and opportunities that will help create success in sales. You just have to figure out what they are and how to benefit from them.

How to Identify & Assess Available Resources

Ask yourself the following questions:

Who do I know who can help me reach my goal faster?
Specifically, what can they provide or teach me?

Next, consider your education and work experience. School and work provide both skills and knowledge to help you achieve your goal. Ask yourself:

What advantage do I have from my education to help me reach my goals?
What knowledge from my work experience can help me achieve my goals?
What skills have I already developed from my previous experiences?
What other experiences benefit my real estate goals?

Lastly, identify what lead generation opportunities you have: tools, systems, and resources in your company or association. To identify these resources, ask yourself:

What lead generation systems does my company provide?
What lead generation education is available to me?
What other resources can provide lead generation systems, tools, and education?

Define Your Budget & Brokerage Resources

You’ll need to consider your budget in your lead generation plan. Some lead generation strategies are more expensive than others, so be sure you’re adhering to a careful budget.

Research and utilize resources that are offered by your brokerage, like lead management systems, FSBO (For Sale By Owner) and expired leads, advertising, and consumer apps.

Now that you have identified your unique resources, we can discover the lead generation options available to you—and how they work with your budget.

4. Explore Lead Generation Options & Costs

It’s simply impossible to cover every lead generation strategy available to agents, but we’ve compiled 37 Underrated Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas for 2022 to get your wheels turning.

Choosing the right mix of strategies can be overwhelming. To make it easier, I categorized the strategies by active and passive, cost, time commitment, and lead quality.

Active vs Passive Lead Generation Methods

Active lead generation methods are strategies where you control the result. For example, calling FSBOs (For Sale By Owner) to get listing appointments is active because you can continue to call FSBOs until you find a seller willing to meet with you. You control your lead-generating actions.

With passive lead generation strategies, you can’t control the result. For example, marketing is passive because you can’t control how many people contact you on a given day.

ACTIVITY	ACTIVE/PASSIVE	Cost	Term	Lead
Community Events	Active	$$$	Long	Cold
Client Events	Active	$$$	Short	Warm
Trade Shows	Active	$$$	Long	Cold
Private Dinners	Active	$$	Short	Hot
Lunch & Learns	Active	$$	Short	Warm
Coffee/Lunches	Active	$$	Short	Hot
Telemarketing	Active	$$	Long	Cold
BNI Group	Active	$	Long	Cold
Pop-by	Active	$	Short	Warm
Door-to-Door	Active	$	Long	Cold
Open Houses	Active	$	Long	Hot
Call Network	Active	0	Long	Warm
Billboards	Passive	$$$$	Long	Cold
Radio/TV	Passive	$$$$	Long	Cold
Newspaper	Passive	$$$	Long	Cold
Internet Ads	Passive	$$$	Long	Warm
Farming	Passive	$$$	Long	Cold
Podcast	Passive	$$	Long	Warm
Blog/Vlog	Passive	$	Long	Cold
Networking	Passive	$	Long	Cold
Volunteering	Passive	0	Long	Cold
Social Media	Passive	0	Long	Warm

Some strategies can be both active or passive, depending on the activity. For example, having a booth at a local bridal show is considered active if the agent engages with prospects. But, if the agent just stands behind the booth, waiting for the prospects to engage, it’s considered a passive strategy.

Prioritize Your Optimal Lead Generation Strategies

Begin by reviewing and ranking the lead generation strategies that fit your personality. Next, create a list of them organized by cost and lead conversion time. Ask yourself these probing questions:

What are lead generation strategies already available to me?
Do I have access to free or discounted lead generation strategies?
What is my budget to spend on lead generation systems?

Let’s put it all together and create a blended lead generation plan that includes everything we just discussed.

5. Create Your Custom Lead Generation Plan

Now that you have reviewed your goals, deepened your understanding of your personality, uncovered resources, and analyzed options, it’s time to select the best strategies for your lead generation plan.

You should choose at least three strategies—but no more than four. Like the legs of a table, your business can’t stand on just one or two strategies—a table is stable with three legs but stronger with four.

Pinpoint Your Pillar Strategy

At least one of the strategies you select should be active, which ensures that you will have the ability to generate leads even when times are slow. We call this your Pillar Strategy. You will need to hold yourself accountable to your Pillar Strategy on a weekly or monthly basis.

Choose Your Support Strategies

Your Support Strategies work to enhance your Pillar Strategy, and they can be a mix of active and passive ones. Remember to take into consideration your resources, budget, and the time your overall plan will take to convert leads.

As part of your overall plan, you should manage your sphere of influence (SOI) database by contacting leads, following a marketing plan, and holding small events. Managing your SOI database will ensure a consistent stream of repeat and referral clientele.

Use this list of questions to guide you in designing your own unique lead generation plan.

Which lead generation strategies are available at low or no cost to me?
Which lead generation strategies do I already have experience with?
Which lead generation strategies excite me?
Which lead generation strategy is in alignment with my personality?
Which lead generation strategies have I already tried?
Which lead generation strategies did I enjoy or dislike?

Real Estate Lead Generation Plan Worksheet

Now that you know my step-by-step formula, it’s time to put it into action! Download the lead generation plan worksheet and create your own custom real estate lead generation plan.

Download the Lead Generation Plan Worksheet

How I Developed the Lead Generation Plan That Transformed My Career

I have had several different lead generation plans in my real estate career. My unique strength is educating people, and my preferred method is speaking to groups. Writing and public speaking allow me to work within my strengths and achieve my goals.

A few years ago, I ran a real estate investment group and was often a guest speaker at other groups. Offering education was my Pillar Strategy. My other three strategies were managing my SOI database, advertising investment properties, and seeking out business-to-business opportunities.

The advertising generated leads who were then invited to hear me speak about real estate investing. The customers generated through the speaking and advertising were presented as potential buyers to homebuilders and banks with foreclosed properties. In the four years I ran this lead generation plan, my team and I closed on more than 2,000 homes!

Over to You

Now that you have completed your custom lead generation plan based on your personality, resources, options, and most importantly, your goals, you’re set up to accomplish something great! If you want to deepen your understanding of how the strengths of your personality can help you be successful in sales, I invite you to read my book on sales personalities.

Do you have a lead generation tactic we didn’t mention here? We invite you to share your success stories in the comments. If you’re an active agent, join our Facebook Mastermind Group to learn and share with other agents nationwide.

The post How to Create a Custom Real Estate Lead Generation Plan (+ Template) appeared first on The Close.

24 Best Expired Listing Scripts & Objection Handlers 2022

Emile L'Eplattenier — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 21:59:37 +0000

Let’s face it. Most newer real estate agents still balk at the idea of cold calling expired listings to earn their supper. However, as any experienced real estate agent will tell you, great expired listing scripts and well-practiced objection handlers are worth their weight in gold.

As with most real estate wisdom, there’s even a oft-used quote that sums it up: “It’s better to be someone’s first love, second spouse, or third real estate agent.” Why? People never forget their first love, but they make a ton of mistakes with their first spouse and first two real estate agents.

That third real estate agent? Your clients may end up having a relationship with you for the rest of their lives. To help you lock in your position as their third (and final) real estate agent, check out these expired listing scripts and objection handlers from some of the best in the industry:

Download Expired Listing Scripts

1. Sean Moudry’s Expired Listing Introduction Script

AGENT: Hi, this is [your name] and I was wondering if your home is still for sale?

[First Scenario]

HOMEOWNER: Yes, still for sale. Why do you ask?

AGENT: The reason I ask is because your home has shown up on the Multiple Listing Service as an expired listing. This means that it is showing that it is no longer for sale.

I am a real estate agent in the area. I specialize in working with homes that didn’t sell the first time. Even some of the best homes don’t sell the first time.

The reason I am calling is to set a meeting with you to show you my unique approach to get houses SOLD!

Are you available for 20 minutes for today at ________?

[Second Scenario]

HOMEOWNER: No, it’s not for sale.

AGENT: Did you sell the house?

HOMEOWNER: Yes, I already sold my house.

AGENT: Congratulations! Did you find a replacement home?

[Third Scenario]

HOMEOWNER: We decided not to sell [or to rent it…to wait…and so forth].

AGENT:If you were to have sold, where were you moving? If we brought you an offer today for a price acceptable to you, would you look at it?

HOMEOWNER: Yes.

AGENT: That’s why you need to meet me. So there is still a desire to sell?

The reason I am calling is to set a meeting with you to show you my unique approach to get houses SOLD!

Are you available for 20 minutes, today at ________?

Why This Script Works

First of all, Sean gets right to the point in this script. Most people, myself included, can instantly tell when they’re being sold to over the phone. That means waffling around with phony small talk will probably ruin your chances—and fast. You’re a salesperson. OWN IT!

[First Scenario]

HOMEOWNER: I am going to use the same agent.

AGENT: Great! Can I ask, didn’t they give it 100% the first time? What are they going to do this time that they didn’t do the last time?

I respect that you are loyal and you want to give them another chance.

Let’s do this … I will come to visit the property and meet you. I will show you what I do to get homes sold, and I may share with you something you can use even if you decide to stay with the same agent.

[Second Scenario]

HOMEOWNER: We have already selected another agent. OR: I am going to use a friend/family member.

AGENT: Great! Have you signed the listing contract yet?

If you were to get surgery, you would get a second opinion, right? Well, this isn’t surgery, but it could be financial surgery on your wallet!

Let’s do this … I will come to visit the property and meet you. I will show you what I do to get homes sold, and I may share with you something you can use even if you decide to work with the other agent.

[Third Scenario]

HOMEOWNER: We are going to wait. OR: We are going to rent.

AGENT: I understand. If I brought you an offer today, would you look at it?

[Fourth Scenario]

HOMEOWNER: No. [They may instinctually respond with “No,” so you may need to restate the question.]

AGENT: If I brought you a full-price offer today, you wouldn’t even look at it?

[Fifth Scenario]

HOMEOWNER: Yes, we would look at it. Do you have a buyer?

AGENT: So there’s some interest in getting the property sold now! My marketing is always driving buyers. In fact, we have a database of active buyers looking for homes.

Let’s do this … I will come visit the property to see if the features of the property match the criteria of any of our buyers.

THE CLOSE INSIDER TIP: If you need a great source for expired, FSBO, preforeclosure leads, and more that’s been providing real estate agents leads since 2003, you need to check out REDX. Not only is REDX a great source for leads, they also have an auto-dialer called VORTEX that will up your call efficiency and help you talk to more leads (up to 400% more) per hour.

Visit REDX

2. April Hunter’s Ice Breaker Script

April Hunter, Atlanta Realtor

AGENT: Hey, I’m not sure if you can help me, I’m actually calling about [property address].

HOMEOWNER: Uh, yeah how can I help you?

AGENT: I was calling to see if that was still listed by Ashley.

HOMEOWNER:: No, we took it off the market

AGENT: Great, I am a local real estate agent and I was calling about the house for sale and I just saw you took it off the market. I was wondering, when are you going to interview agents again for the job of actually getting it sold?

HOMEOWNER: It’s been hard for us with so many people coming to see it so we’re probably going to keep it off the market for another few months.

AGENT: Let me just ask you, if the property had sold, where would you have moved next.

Why This Script Works

Asking for help right at the start instantly disarms the homeowner and puts them in the driver’s seat of the conversation. While that might seem counterproductive, it’s actually a clever way to build rapport with a stranger quickly. In psychology, this is known as the Ben Franklin Effect. Asking a stranger for a favor, no matter how small, generally tends to make them like you more.

3. Kevin Ward’s Best Expired Listing Script Ever

Kevin Ward, Founder, Yesmasters.com

Why This Script Works

An old classic, Kevin Ward’s expired script forms the backbone of most scripts you’ll come across. Once you hear it, it’s clear why it’s so popular. It’s very conversational, it focuses on asking questions rather than selling while still controlling the conversation, and it slowly leads the seller into accepting an appointment.

4. Kimberly Olbrich’s Ice Breaker Script

AGENT: Hi, I noticed your home shows on my computer as an expired listing. I was just curious, when are you planning on interviewing for the right agent to sell your home?

[Wait for a response.]

Why This Script Works

It may not sound like it, but this is actually an open-ended question to get them to open up and talk about their home. Did you miss it? Read the script again. Note how she asks when they are planning on interviewing the right agent for their home.

5. Eric Jon Melnikoff, Keller Williams: Expired Listing Script Live Call

Why This Script Works

What I love most here is that although he’s clearly using a script, he’s able to adapt and change it depending on the lead’s responses. You can also tell that he not only did his research for the listing, but figured out a core issue with the marketing (the lack of pictures) to start his call with. Note how this question kind of threw the lead off guard.

He also manages to repeatedly mention how he markets properties better without sounding like he was bragging. He also doesn’t just lay his cards on the table, but continually says that he does things differently. This is a great example of building intrigue in order to get an appointment.

This is crucial to getting appointments. If your voice sounds deflated or nervous, getting that appointment can be an uphill battle. Standing up helps reduce pressure on your diaphragm to project your voice better. Movement also helps some people think better, literally “on their feet.”

Expired Voicemail Scripts

Since the homeowners you call will inevitably have lives, chances are you won’t get a live person on the phone every time you call an expired listing. Some agents panic and hang up when they get sent to voicemail, but smart agents recognize the opportunity a voicemail offers them. So the next time you get voicemail, here are seven quick and easy expired voicemail scripts to try:

Hi, this is [your name] and I’m calling about the house you had for sale at [listing address]. You can reach me at [your cell phone number].
Hi, this is [your name] from [your brokerage]. I noticed something unusual about the listing you had for sale on the MLS at [listing address]. Can you call me back at [your cell phone number] to talk about it?
Hi [their first name], this is [your name] from [your brokerage]. I’m just calling to offer you a few free ideas to get your listing sold for a great price. The market has changed a lot since [when the listing first went up] and I have a strategy to take advantage of it. You can reach me at [your cell phone number].
Hi [their name]. I know you’re probably getting a ton of these calls, but I just wanted to let you know I’ve been watching your listing at [their address] for [how long the listing was active] and I wanted to tell you about five missed opportunities to sell your previous agent missed. You can reach me at [your phone number].
Hi, I’m calling about your listing in the MLS that was just taken off the market. I’d love to walk you through my seven-point home marketing plan that has led to [number] of my listings just like yours selling for over ask this year. You can reach me at [your cell number].
Hi [their name]. This is [your name] from [your brokerage] and I wanted to offer you a chance to ask my team any questions you might have about getting your home sold over ask this year. You can reach me at [your cell phone number].
Hi, this is [your name] and I am really surprised your listing at [their address] didn’t sell for over ask in this market. If you have five minutes I’d love to walk you through my seven-point marketing plan that I know can get your home sold quickly and for top dollar. You can reach me at [your cell phone number].

General Expired Strategies & Objection Handlers

Now that you’ve seen some great examples of how to guide the conversation and get those listings, let’s take a deeper dive into the hardest part of cold calling: dealing with the inevitable objections your leads will have.

Before we get started, let’s look at Kevin’s general objection strategies for expired listings:

Learn to Break the Ice With Tough Expired Listings

Understand where they’re coming from: Listen to what they say and pay attention to their feelings
Repeat and affirm: Let them know you’re hearing them, which also gives you time to think
Ask questions about what they want, and offer solutions: Direct the conversation to how you can help them solve their problem
Don’t give up: You’re a problem-solver

Check out the full video below:

Getting to Yes: 12 Expired Objection Handlers From the Pros

1. ‘We aren’t quite ready yet, we need to finish a couple of projects around the house before we put it on the market.’

From real estate coaching legend Tom Ferry:

AGENT: I agree that making sure the house is up to par is important, and you probably didn’t realize how little effect it will have on securing a buyer.

Let’s get your home listed for sale, get some of the top brokers inside to show the house, and get their feedback. The good news is you’ll find out exactly what projects you don’t have to do and the ones you need to do while we’re in the escrow period.

It sure would be nice to not have to spend a dime to get your home sold, wouldn’t it?

Great, which would be better for you, tonight at 6 or 7:30?

2. ‘We’re Not Putting It Back on the Market’

From real estate coaches Tim & Julie Harris

AGENT: Ms. Seller, I appreciate the fact that you decided to put your house back on the market, but let me ask you a very quick question. If there was a buyer for your home, the perfect, non-contingent, pre-approved, great buyer, and this buyer would pay your asking price and close in 30 days or less, Mr. Seller, this is the buyer you had been hoping for. You would at least consider selling the home to this buyer, wouldn’t you?

3. ‘I think we’re going to sell to Zillow (or any other iBuyer)’

From Kimberly Olbrich

AGENT: I’m not sure, but what I’m hearing when you say that is that you are willing to pay a commission, but you’re looking to save some money. Is that what I’m understanding?

Wait for the homeowner to agree.

You just want to sell your home. Exactly! My concern for you, though, is that you’re still going to limit the exposure that’s going to get you in front of the right buyer that’s going to pay you the most, in the shortest time possible, with the least amount of headaches.

4. ‘I Need to Talk to My Spouse First’

AGENT: Of course, I would do the same thing. Why don’t we do this: Let’s pencil in an appointment for Thursday at 6:00 or 4:00 on Saturday, and if your spouse nixes the idea, we can regroup.

Here’s a live example from REDX:

5. ‘We’re Going to Re-list With the Same Agent’

Stay positive, then ask if they’ve signed a contract yet. If they have, wish them luck and offer your services in the future for advice or for referrals. If they haven’t, then go into objection handler:

AGENT: OK, I totally understand that. Can I ask you a question, though? Why do you think you’ll get a different result doing the same thing? What is your agent planning on doing differently this time?

OR:

I get it. He seems like a really nice guy. Here’s an idea—if you have 15 minutes, would you be interested in getting a second opinion if it would mean selling your home for more money and fewer headaches?

6. ‘We’re Going to Wait Until Spring/Summer/Fall to List Again’

Most scripts have you go over the seller’s motivations for moving near the beginning, so reminding them of that can help overcome this objection. Still, it’s a common objection, so here are a few ideas for handling it:

We Are Only Looking for Low-fee Agents. Can You Discount Your Commission?

AGENT: I understand that commissions can seem daunting to your bottom line. I know I freaked out when I found out how much my contractor wanted to charge me to refinish my floors, but you have to remember that discount agents discount their services for a reason.

OR:

No. I’m worth the full price, and frankly, I would be concerned with a cut-rate broker. Why are they offering discounts?

OR:

If I could get you XX more for your home—would that change your mind?

8. ‘I’ve Never Heard of / Don’t Like Your Brokerage’

If they’ve never heard of you: I hear you. We’re a relatively new startup, but our founder launched several successful businesses before this one. She was also the agent who sold the clock tower listing in Brooklyn. If you’d like, I’d love for you to come by our new office for a coffee.

OR:

Well, we’re a brand-new company dedicated to treating our customers with the respect they deserve. While we’ve only been around for four years, we closed more than XX transactions per year and have hundreds of glowing reviews on Yelp and Zillow, which I would be happy to send you.

If they don’t like your brokerage: I’m sorry you had a bad experience with one of our agents, but rest assured, that agent no longer works with us. More to the point, you need to realize that all real estate agents are independent contractors. My managing broker has almost no involvement in how I market or sell your home. It’s entirely on me. I would be happy to personally go over some testimonials from previous clients when we meet on Thursday.

9. ‘The Last Agent Said They Could Sell It for XXX More’

AGENT: I understand you’re looking to get the best price possible here, but you should understand that valuing a home is not a simple process, and some agents offer the world in order to get their foot in the door.

OR:

Hey, I hear you. You want the best price possible for your home since you put so much love into rebuilding it. That said, pricing your home too high will mean more time on the market, which will mean the home will look off to every new buyer who sees it the longer it sits on the market.

Also, you may be cutting out an entire price range of buyers; for example, most people search within a range. If your home is over XXXXXX, then people may never even see it even if you would take XXXX. Instead of alienating potential buyers and keeping the home on the market forever, if we price it properly, to begin with, we’ll get more offers, and ideally better offers.

10. ‘Why Didn’t You Sell My House Before?’

Kevin Ward, Founder, YesMasters.com

Get all of Kevin’s free scripts here

11. ‘What Are You Going to Do That My Last Agent/Other Agents Couldn’t?’

AGENT: How about get the house sold, for starters? I have a XX-step marketing plan that we will tailor to your property. My team spends xxx per month for leads and we get more leads than … We have an in-depth plan that might take me 15 minutes to go over in detail, and some of it will depend on your house and what you want as a client. Are you free Thursday at 3:00 or would you prefer Friday at 2:30 for a walk-through?

12. ‘You’re the 50th Agent Who Called Today!!’

Kevin Ward, Founder, YesMasters.com

Here’s Kevin again on how to reply to what will inevitably be a common complaint from your expired leads.

What’s Your Favorite Expired Listing Script?

Have a great expired listing script or objection handler? Let us know in the comments.

The post 24 Best Expired Listing Scripts & Objection Handlers 2022 appeared first on The Close.

4 Real Estate Cold Calling Scripts + Tips to Conquer Your Fears

Chris Linsell — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 21:21:15 +0000

We know firsthand how intimidating dialing up strangers can be—so we put together this step-by-step guide using tried-and-tested real estate cold calling scripts that will boost your confidence, plus some tips and advice from experts who have done it successfully.

Real estate cold calling is one of the most polarizing lead generation strategies in our industry. Experienced agents will tell you it’s an essential part of lead generation, while others argue it isn’t worth the anxiety or frustration because it doesn’t yield immediate results. But with the right preparation and tools, we know that cold calling can help build your business.

If you’re short on time, check out REDX for lead generation. REDX provides you with the leads and helps you make calls faster with an auto-dialer.

Visit REDX

4 Must-have Real Estate Cold Calling Scripts

Every real estate professional needs to have these four real estate cold calling scripts in their arsenal: the Expired Listing Script, the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) Script, the Circle Prospecting Script, and the Voicemail Script.

Download Our Real Estate Cold Calling Scripts

1. Expired Listing Script

Cold calling expired listings can be tricky because you know that the homeowner is going to talk to multiple real estate agents, maybe even on the same day you’re calling. Stand out from the competition with a great script from REDX called The Neighborhood Expert:

AGENT: Hi, is this the homeowner? I’m [your name] with [your company].

You know, I work in [neighborhood], and I noticed that your home was no longer for sale. Are you planning to put it back on the market?

[Listen—they will sometimes say “maybe later” or “not for a while.”]

AGENT: I can understand why you might feel pretty discouraged—it’s a great house. Any idea why it didn’t sell? Any offers?

[Listen to what they have to say.]

AGENT: I was just surprised to see it on the market for [how many] days. I assumed it would be gone in a few weeks. What made you all decide to sell? Where are you moving to?

I know you’ve likely had a few people calling you, but as I said, I’ve worked in the neighborhood for [#] years, I know this neighborhood, I’ve sold homes in this neighborhood, and I’d love a chance to sell your home or at least take a tour and see what might be holding it back.

Would you mind if I came by this Saturday at [specific time]? I’m happy to give you some feedback.

2. FSBO Script

Many real estate agents consider the FSBO prospect to be a perfect lead for cold calling. The sellers have announced to the world that they want to sell and they want to sell now—all you have to do is convince them they need help and that you’re the right person to provide it.

Most sellers try to sell their home themselves to save money. With this in mind, David Hill’s script will help you deal with this common objection. We’ve even put some mock responses in the script so you can practice hearing “no” and learn how to use those initial rejections to get a listing appointment.

AGENT: Hello, this is [name] calling from [brokerage]. I noticed you have a house for sale in my coverage area. Is it still available?”

LEAD: Yes.

AGENT: Great, are you working with real estate agents?

LEAD: No.

AGENT: OK, I know the area well, and I’m wondering how much you’re asking for the house?

LEAD: $264,900.

AGENT: If I had a buyer who would be a fit, would that be helpful for you?

LEAD: Yes.

AGENT: Great. What I’d like to do is schedule a time to come by and look at the house to see if it would work for any of our clients. I’d also like to share some of the things we do to help FSBOs like yourself. Do you have time this afternoon, or would tomorrow work better for you?

LEAD: You know, I really don’t want to work with an agent. If you have someone who’s serious, you can send them by, but I’m not looking to sit down for a sales pitch with an agent.

AGENT: Sure, I can appreciate that. Let me ask you this: Why did you decide to sell your house without hiring a professional agent?

LEAD: Well, I wanted to save money. A 5 or 6% commission would be a lot.

AGENT: Yeah, I can understand that completely. Interestingly enough, 90% of the FSBOs I speak with tell me the exact same thing. If I could show you a way that I could net you the same or possibly even more money by using our services, would that be something you’d be open to?

LEAD: Well, basically what we’re trying to do is break-even. We bought the house two years ago, and the value hasn’t really gone up.

AGENT: So, what is the main reason for your sale?

LEAD: I’ve been transferred. We’re moving to Arkansas.

AGENT: Oh, congratulations. And when will you need to be in Arkansas?

LEAD: We need to be in Little Rock in 90 days.

AGENT: Gotcha. So the clock’s ticking for you. And if the house doesn’t sell in 90 days, what’s your plan B?

LEAD: Well, we’re going to have to go — the house will just be empty.

AGENT: Oh, yeah, I’d hate to have that happen to you. If I could sell the house, have you break-even, and get it done before you get to Arkansas, would that be a win for you?

LEAD: Yeah.

AGENT: OK, perfect. Why don’t we meet? I’d love to see if I can do that for you. I’ll be 100% honest with you. If I can do it, I’ll let you know. If I can’t, I’ll let you know that as well. How does that sound?

LEAD: Yeah, that’s fine. If you want to give it a shot, you can come on over.

AGENT: Awesome, thank you. I’ll see you this afternoon at four. Will that work?

LEAD: Sure, see you then.

Note that in the script, there’s no haggling over the commission. Try to refrain from making any commitments regarding numbers, but be sure that the prospect’s wishes and concerns are heard. You can always say, “I’m making a note of that…,” which shows that you’re listening but you’re not making any promises.

If you want to dive deeper and expand your FSBO prospecting skills, check out The 7 Best FSBO Scripts & Why They Work to learn how to get more listings in 2022.

3. Circle Prospecting Script

Circle prospecting is a great way to increase your exposure in neighborhoods where you’re already active. Remember, though, you don’t have to limit your prospecting to only areas where you’ve already listed or sold property.

Deploy this circle prospecting script from the indelible Ricky Carruth’s Zero to Diamond real estate coaching program to go after homes in neighborhoods where you’re the nearby listing agent or not.

AGENT: Hello, is this [Mr./Mrs. Name]? Hey, [Mr./Mrs. Name], this is [your name] with [your company].

[Pause]

AGENT: How are you today? That’s good. Me too. Just enjoying this good weather outside. Isn’t it gorgeous today?

[Pause and let them talk. Listen to what they say. Chances are high that you get into a conversation about the weather, back and forth. This will set the comfort level of the call. If it’s raining, talk about how nasty it is today. Adjust your opening to what the current weather is doing. When this part of the conversation is over, transition into the reason for your call.]

AGENT: Well look, I don’t want to take up too much of your time today, but [market information, e.g., “a house/condo was just listed in your neighborhood/complex” or “a house/condo just sold in your neighborhood/complex”], and I didn’t know if there was anything I could do for you regarding buying or selling real estate at this time.

[Pause and listen. If they say YES, follow up and make a deal happen. If they say NO, continue below.]

AGENT: I gotcha. Well, is there an agent in the area that you would work with if you did buy or sell in the area?

[If the answer is no…]

AGENT: OK, well one day you will want to buy or sell, and I would like the opportunity to work with you when that day comes. Would it be OK if we stayed in touch?

[If they say yes…]

AGENT: Great! What is your email address?

AGENT: Awesome. Thanks so much. I look forward to speaking again soon!

Learn more about the power of circle prospecting in this profile of Christina Griffin, a Tampa Realtor, who generated 200 leads in a single day. You can also access our collection of actionable tips and scripts for knocking-on-doors prospecting by clicking here.

Download Your Cold Calling Scripts

4. Voicemail Script

According to Pipedrive, 80% of calls go to voicemail, which means leaving the right message needs to be an important part of your real estate cold calling strategy.

What does the right message sound like? For starters, it’s between eight and 14 seconds long, but definitely less than 30 seconds. The optimal voicemail establishes who you are and why you’re calling in a warm and friendly tone. But don’t include your pitch—the goal should be securing that next conversation when they call back or you make a follow-up call.

AGENT: Hi [first name], this is [your name] with [your brokerage].

I’m calling because [your reason for calling] and I would love to hear your thoughts. I will follow up with you [how and when] or you can give me a call back at [your number]. I look forward to connecting with you soon!

Or, if it’s a second call:

AGENT: Hi [first name], this is [your name]. When we spoke last week, you mentioned [fill in the blank]. I just wanted to follow up with you and see how things went [OR I gave you a call last week and wanted to follow up OR fill in the blank, make it personal].

Some real estate cold calling strategists argue that a voicemail is a great way to turn a completely cold call into a lukewarm call. If you want to skip the (sometimes chilly) cold call altogether and dial straight into a warm voicemail, there are companies that help you do that.

The absolute leader in the field is Slydial, which allows you to dial directly into a phone number’s voicemail. These Ringless Voicemails (RVMs) are becoming more common and socially acceptable, so don’t shy away from using them. You can even acknowledge it by saying something like, “I know you’re busy, so I wanted to drop a quick voicemail and be respectful of your time.”

7 Steps in Real Estate Cold Calling

Real estate cold calling is so much more than picking up the phone and dialing a random number. Now that you have these real estate cold calling scripts in hand, use these tips to be more organized and confident in your approach.

1. Set Goals

Most real estate agents think the goal of every cold call is a listing appointment, but even meeting someone for a handshake can turn into a real lead. When your prospect isn’t ready to set a listing appointment, find any excuse to stop by and introduce yourself in person, even if it’s just for a minute or two. A good goal may be to cold call for an hour each day and meet with one new prospect in-person each week.

2. Be Professional

People will always respond best to warmth, enthusiasm, and empathy. The more time you spend listening to your prospects, the better you can address their pain points. Respect people (and their time) and show them that you are the Realtor who will solve their problems.

3. Provide a Service

Yes, cold calling is about building your business, but remember, you’re serving your community with your experience, education, and knowledge. The reason cold calling works is that there are people out there who need your help.

4. Prepare

Get comfortable with your cold calling scripts by practicing them out loud with a friend or colleague. You want to be prepared enough so that you’re not focused on what you’re saying but what they’re saying. Do your research and comb through MLS data. Be sure that you’re zeroing in on prospects who can really benefit from your services.

5. Start Calling

Make sure you are focused, have space to walk around, and maybe do some stretches to be limber and keep that mind sharp. It’s helpful to have an auto-dialer, like REDX (more about this below). It’s important to keep track of your calls and responses. You also might want to look into a customer relationship manager (CRM) to help you keep track of your outreach and take notes on your conversations.

6. Get Past the ‘No’s’

Let’s be clear: If you’re cold calling, you are going to hear a lot of “no” (and maybe even worse). If you’re afraid of this word, you aren’t going to get very far. Watch how cold calling expert Beverly Ruffner overcomes common objections like “I’m just looking—I’m good,” and “I already have an agent.”

7. Follow Up

Be ready to take the next steps with leads to keep the conversation going. Here’s Beverly again with her tried-and-true scripts for the follow-up call.

6 Tips for Leveling Up Your Real Estate Cold Calling

Now that you’re armed with these pro-level scripts and have a step-by-step plan, let’s dive into some more specific advice if you want to go beyond the basics and master the art of cold calling.

1. Spend Less Time Talking & More Time Listening

We know we mentioned this one already, but it is so important, we wanted to reiterate. It’s a common cold calling myth that success comes in the form of a pitch. In reality, success comes from listening to your prospect and responding to their needs.

Tom Ferry is fond of saying that successful cold callers spend upward of 75% of their time on the phone NOT talking.

So, instead of asking yes or no questions like “Would you be interested in selling your home for XXX dollars?” ask “If you were to sell your home, where would you go? What is your dream location?”

As you refine your script, build in these sorts of conversation starters. People are more likely to stay on the phone when they’re talking about themselves because, well, people like to talk about themselves.

If you see real estate cold calling as a platform for people to talk about themselves and share their stories, your fear can subside. If you’re doing it right, the pressure to speak is not on you—all you need to do is ask thoughtful questions, listen, and respond.

2. Let the Math Motivate You

The Keller Center for Research at Baylor University conducted a U.S. study about real estate cold calling, wherein 50 real estate agents made 6,264 cold calls to areas that hadn’t been recently prospected. The study showed that for every 209 calls made, an average of one listing appointment or referral was made.

While this might sound daunting, take heart. A real estate professional committed to making 100 calls per day, five days a week will yield two listing appointments or referrals a week. If you can maintain this clip for, say, 50 weeks a year, you’ll be going on 100 listing appointments every year.

Would your business benefit from 100 listing appointments every year? Of course it would. Instead of focusing on rejections, wrong numbers, and hang-ups, focus instead on the fact that the math is on your side. If you keep working hard, you will get listings.

3. Memorize Your Scripts & Rebuttals

If you want consistent returns from your cold calling, you need to get consistent with your delivery. Using a script allows you to stop worrying about what you’re going to say and focus on how you’re going to say it.

Depending on what kind of cold calling you’re doing (expired listings, FSBOs, circle prospecting, and so on), your script is going to change. Review the cold calling scripts above and find more great expired listing scripts and FSBO scripts to rely on.

4. Use an Auto-dialer Like Power Dialer From REDX

Using an auto-dialer does two things for you: It keeps you in the zone and gets you through your call list faster. Most agents we’ve talked to who’ve given up cold calling say that actually dialing the phone is their most anxious moment. With an auto-dialer, the moment one call disconnects, another is ringing, keeping you out of that anxious moment and into the converting mindset.

Also, making 100 calls a day can be a time-consuming commitment, especially when you’re trying to dial all the numbers by hand. An auto-dialer can cut down your time on the phone by more than half, and a great one like Power Dialer from REDX can increase your call volume by more than 400%.

If you aren’t familiar with REDX, they’re a cold caller’s best friend. Their platform gathers all your expired, FSBO, FRBO (For Rent by Owner), and preforeclosure leads in one place, and uses data aggregation techniques to gather contact info from across the web, compiling it all in a single dashboard. Then, you can use their built-in auto-dialer (Power Dialer) to knock down the list quickly and efficiently every morning.

Right now, REDX is offering The Close readers $149 off the setup price, automatically deducted when you click over to their site from this article.

Check out REDX

5. Strategize Your Call Times

One of the most common questions new agents ask about cold calling is what time of day will yield the best results.

While there’s some debate, data from the Keller Center study shows that the most productive time to make cold calls is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Just over 31% of calls in the study were made during this time frame, and yielded 53% of all the appointments set.

In contrast, the worst time of the day to make calls was in the evening, after 5 p.m. During this time frame, 42% of the total calls were made, but these yielded only 21% of the total number of appointments set.

That being said, we know all markets are different. Start with the best practices learned from studies like the one above and adjust based on your own experience. Regardless of when you’re calling, pick an hour and stick to it.

6. Track Your Results

Cold calling is a marathon, not a sprint. Getting discouraged from a single hour’s results or even a couple of days’ worth of calls will slow your progress and keep you from securing appointments. This fatigue factor is real, and the best way to combat it is to track your results and look at your long-term gains.

We suggest a spreadsheet, but really you’ll probably need a good CRM tool where you can record the days you called, the time of day, the number of calls you’ve made, the number of conversations, the number of rejections, and of course, the number of appointments set.

When you’re halfway through a calling session and have had no appointments set, look at your data, and remind yourself that success is inevitable—and that you’re due for a win any time.

Watch the Experts Reveal Their Real Estate Cold Calling Secrets

YouTube is chock-full of videos from real estate agents who are crushing the cold calling game. Whether you’re looking to learn how to interact with prospects or just need to get hyped up for your next calling session, these videos are a great source of inspiration. Here are five of our favorites.

Bryan Casella is an expert at dealing with objections. He is clearly using a script and is crushing it every step of the way.

Chastin J. Miles shows us how it’s done with a FSBO prospect. We love how Chastin takes the act of LISTENING to the next level rather than doing all the talking. You can see how effective his approach is with his soon-to-be client.

Our own Real Estate Coach, Beverly Ruffner, has put together several live examples of cold calls and offers her best cold calling tip: Treat everyone you’re calling like they’re your best friend.

Here’s one where Ricky Carruth coaches agent Emily Wood as she attempts cold calling for the first time. This one is a 50-minute commitment, but it’s super-valuable to watch someone starting out to see how she improves and gains confidence.

Loida Velasquez speaks honestly about how nerve-wracking it is to get started and offers her tips for first-time real estate cold calling. She has several additional videos on calling expired listings and FSBOs, including one where she critiques her first FSBO cold call.

Bringing It All Together

If you’ve questioned if cold calling is right for you, start with the right mindset and tools to conquer your fears. With some proven real estate cold calling scripts and lots of determination, you have the power to make cold calling a crucial part of your lead generation strategy.

Have any cold calling questions or tips you’d like to share? Anything we missed? Leave us a comment below!

The post 4 Real Estate Cold Calling Scripts + Tips to Conquer Your Fears appeared first on The Close.

The Top 6 Real Estate Lead Generation Companies for 2022

Chris Linsell — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 14:00:54 +0000

Real estate lead generation companies give agents, teams, and brokers a shortcut to the closing table by doing all the lead capture and organization work for you—so you can focus your efforts on working with bona fide real estate leads who are motivated buyers and sellers.

Since choosing a real estate lead generation company can be tough, we’ve done a deep dive into the top six real estate lead generation companies and reviewed them side-by-side so you can make the best choice for your business. Let us help you determine where to spend your paid lead generation dollars most effectively in 2022.

Best Real Estate Lead Generation Companies for 2022

Company	Prices Starting At	Best For
Market Leader (Best Overall)	$139 /month, plus $25+ or per lead (varies by market)	A guaranteed number of leads each month
BoldLeads	$399 / month, plus $250 minimum ad spend	Exclusive, unique leads you won’t have to share with other real estate agents
REDX	$40 /month	Real estate agents who are great at phone or direct mail prospecting
Real Geeks	$299 / month	Leads you can easily share with your team or brokerage and track the progress of
Zillow	$250 / month	A high volume of mostly buyer leads
SmartZip	$400 - $500 per month, depending on market	Predictive analytics-generated leads focusing on sellers likely to list within a year

The Close Recommendation: Market Leader

Based on all the lead gen systems we’ve reviewed in this guide, if we had $1,000 a month to spend, we’d choose Market Leader. A guaranteed number of leads every month paired with a surprisingly robust customer relationship management system (CRM) makes their product our top choice.

Visit Market Leader

Best Lead Generation Company for Guaranteed Leads: Market Leader

Prices starting at $139 / month

Market Leader Pros	Market Leader Cons
Guaranteed number of leads every month	Missing some key analytics features
Great mobile app	Public-facing websites are a little dated
Easily scalable for teams and offices	Leads tend to be higher funnel than other providers

How Market Leader Generates Real Estate Leads

Market Leader pricing starts at $139 per month, plus $25 or more per lead, depending on your market.

To generate real estate leads, Market Leader takes the ad agency approach (similar to BoldLeads), placing targeted ads in places your prospects are already spending their time (Facebook, Google, and so on). These ads direct prospects to Market Leader’s landing page HouseValues.com (for seller leads) or a personally branded, IDX search-enabled site (for buyer leads).

Once a lead gives their information, it’s automatically populated in the Market Leader customer relationship management (CRM) system (or wherever you’d like it to go), and then you take over with nurturing and conversion.

[Related resource: Lead Nurturing: Tips & Scripts to Avoid Overtasking]

Market Leader: Is it right for you? Unlike any other provider on our list, Market Leader guarantees a certain number of leads every month. Once you’ve got enough data to be able to accurately predict your conversion rates, Market Leader uniquely allows realtors to forecast their return on paid lead generation investment, making them a compelling option.

Get Started With Market Leader

Best Lead Generation Company for Exclusive Leads: BoldLeads

Prices starting at $399 / month

BoldLeads Pros	BoldLeads Cons
Exclusive leads	No low-cost options
Fully functional CRM included	Limited control over the ads run on your behalf
40+ landing page templates available	BoldLeads territories are no longer exclusive to a single agent

How BoldLeads Generates Real Estate Leads

BoldLeads pricing starts at $399 per month, plus a $250 minimum ad spend.

Like Market Leader, BoldLeads generates leads by creating and placing ads on platforms like Facebook and Google to draw prospects to customized landing pages. There, your leads are enticed to provide their contact info, and BAM—you have another lead in the hopper.

However, they differ from Market Leader by providing more landing page and lead magnet customization, as well as providing specialized follow-up tools like their automated text concierge to help you better convert your leads to clients.

Since BoldLeads ads are created specifically for you and your business, the leads you get are yours and yours alone, unlike other lead gen companies that will create generic ads and then divvy up the leads among subscribed agents.

[Related resource: The Close Deep Dive BoldLeads Review]

BoldLeads: Is it right for you? Unlike Zillow Premier Agent, where prospects can choose between all the agents marketing in a particular area, the BoldLeads media and lead magnets are created only for you. If you want a personalized, exclusive lead set, BoldLeads is a great choice.

Get Started With BoldLeads

Best Real Estate Lead Generation Company for Prospecting Leads: REDX

Prices starting at $40 / month

REDX Pros	REDX Cons
Affordable, a la carte pricing	Relies heavily on cold calling
Different types of leads are available	A time-intensive strategy
Dialer is available for phone prospecting	Little or no performance analytics

How REDX Generates Real Estate Leads

Rather than creating a system where you wait for leads to come to you (like all the other providers on our list), REDX flips the script with an outbound real estate lead generation system. REDX users choose from lead types like Expired Listings, FSBOs, and Preforeclosures (just to name a few), and REDX provides contact information for you to reach out and start real estate conversations.

With a constantly updated system, you’ve always got an up-to-date list of the leads in your area, and you decide how much time you want to spend reaching out, following up, and converting them to clients.

[Related resource: The Close Deep Dive REDX Review]

REDX: Is it right for you? Unlike inbound real estate lead generation companies, you can’t just wait for the REDX system to deliver phone calls to you from interested buyers and sellers—you have to pick up the phone and make it ring for them. Though you’ve got more work to do with REDX, you’re also completely in control of your own success. Motivated go-getters will do great with this tool.

Get Started With REDX

Best Lead Generation Company for Team-distributed Leads: Real Geeks

Prices starting at $299 / month

Real Geeks Pros	Real Geeks Cons
Great for teams and brokerages	Websites could use a facelift
More control over the ads run on your behalf (if you want it)	Limited CRM functionality
Lead capture widgets for your personal website to extend your reach	Limited customization options for your lead magnets

How Real Geeks Generates Real Estate Leads

Real Geeks follows the well-trodden path of BoldLeads and Market Leader on their initial lead generation approach: they strategically place your ads on sites like Google, Facebook, and Instagram that drive traffic to landing pages designed to convert your prospects into leads.

However, Real Geeks is different in that the landing pages that your prospects arrive at are ultra-personalized and customizable for you and your business. And once you actually capture leads, Real Geeks gives you some pretty sophisticated tools to distribute them across your organization, making it a great option for teams and brokerages.

[Related resource: The Close Deep Dive Real Geeks Review]

Real Geeks: Is it right for you? Solo agents will get a lot out of this platform, but they don’t have any standout features that teams of one will cheer for (other than the fact that they consistently produce high-quality leads). However, teams and brokers will love the endless lead assignment and progress monitoring options that make Real Geeks a fantastic option for anyone passing leads across an organization.

Get Started With Real Geeks

Best Lead Generation Company for Buyer Leads: Zillow Premier Agent

Prices starting at $250 / month

Zillow Premier Agent Pros	Zillow Premier Agent Cons
Ads run on the largest real estate website in the world	Customer service track record is not strong
Proven track record of success	Almost entirely buyer leads
Zillow Live Connections connects you directly with leads over the phone	Leads aren’t exclusive

How Zillow Premier Agent Generates Real Estate Leads

Zillow harnesses its 229 million unique monthly visitors to put real estate agents directly in front of active home shoppers in their market. Zillow sells display advertising for Premier Agents next to listings in specific ZIP codes, the price of which varies depending on the number of agents competing for space and the median sold price of a home in that market.

Zillow leads are either transferred to the Zillow CRM or into whatever CRM you’re using (they are famously collaborative and can connect to just about any platform). Then, you take over with outreach, nurturing, and eventual conversion. Pricing starts at $250 per month for most markets.

Zillow’s lead generation approach is unique in that they rely only on ads on their platform, which is great because you know that buyer intent on Zillow is high compared to places like Facebook and Google. On the other hand, Zillow’s system doesn’t prevent leads from clicking on multiple agents, so your leads aren’t necessarily exclusive to you.

[Related resource: The Close Deep Dive Zillow Premier Agent Review]

Zillow: Is it right for you? There is literally nobody in the consumer real estate market as big as Zillow—not by a long shot. If you’re looking for buyer leads at volume, it’s hard to argue with Zillow.

Get Started With Zillow Premier Agent

Best Lead Generation Company for Seller Leads: SmartZip

Prices starting at $400-$500 / month

SmartZip Pros	SmartZip Cons
A focus on seller leads	No month-to-month payment option
Predictive analytics makes your marketing more targeted	Leads are likely to take longer to convert than the average
Customizable landing pages	No onboard CRM

How SmartZip Generates Real Estate Leads

SmartZip uses sophisticated algorithms that take into account hundreds of demographic, geographic, and consumer behavior data points to predict which homeowners in a particular market are the most likely to consider selling their home in the next 12 to 18 months. SmartZip then gathers contact information for these potential sellers and packages it for real estate professionals.

Their predictive analytics approach is an outbound marketing strategy (similar to REDX’s), since it’s up to you to make the calls, send the direct mail, and connect with the leads on your SmartZip list. This format makes SmartZip more labor-intensive than the inbound strategies of Market Leader, BoldLeads, Real Geeks, and Zillow.

But, unlike REDX, SmartZip allows you to focus your marketing efforts (and budget) on only the most likely sellers in your market, making the bang for your buck much bigger. Pricing depends on your market, but starts at about $400 to $500 per month.

[Related resource: The Close Deep Dive SmartZip Review]

SmartZip: Is it right for you? Predictive analytics technology is still relatively new in the real estate space, but the early results from SmartZip are very compelling. To succeed with this tool, you’ll need a prospecting mentality. Remember, your leads from SmartZip haven’t yet raised their hand to say they’re interested in buying or selling, so you need to be prepared for longer nurture times and more touches before converting them to leads.

Get Started With SmartZip

Real Estate Lead Generation Companies FAQs

Before diving into paid real estate lead generation, take a look at some of our readers’ most frequently asked questions. If there’s something we haven’t covered here, please leave your question in the comments section.

Do any real estate brokerages provide leads?

Yes, there are some brokerages that will provide you with leads, but that is a decision made on an office-by-office basis. Remember though, those leads aren’t free (even if you don’t pay anything upfront for them). Offices that provide real estate leads for agents often require higher splits and caps, as well as monthly desk fees. Check out our article about the Best Real Estate Companies to Work For to learn more.

How do most real estate agents get leads?

From lots of different places. Most (successful) real estate agents diversify their lead generation so that their business doesn’t live or die by a single source. Paid lead generation, referrals and repeat business, and organic social marketing are some great examples of where real estate agents get leads.

Is there a lead generation source with no upfront cost?

Yes, there are lead generation companies that offer the option to pay only for the leads that close, but they aren’t what we call traditional lead gen options. These are more akin to referral companies, since the leads they offer usually cost a percentage of your commission instead of a flat fee. Zillow actually offers leads like this to limited markets using their program called Zillow Flex, but other options include OpCity, Referral Exchange, and Agent Harvest.

Are paid lead generation companies worth it?

If you can get a high enough return on your investment, real estate lead generation companies are absolutely worth it. Think about it: if someone told you that you could earn $15,000 in commission by writing a $5,000 check, you’d do it, right? Assuming the number of hours you’d need to work wouldn’t be worth more than $10,000, that would be a great exchange.

What’s a good price per real estate lead?

In most markets, the max price a real estate agent should be comfortable spending per lead is $200. I know, that seems high, but do a little mental math with me, and I’ll show you it’s not. Let’s say you get 10 leads a week from Market Leader, and one of them turns into a client. Now, let’s assume you’re converting 75% of those clients into sales. This means that you’re closing three transactions every month as a result of 40 total leads.

For 40 leads a month, you’re paying $8,000 (40 x $200), which seems like too much, until you remember that the typical home is selling for over $300,000. At a 3% commission, those three sales are grossing you $27,000 in commission income, netting you $19,000 before splits and taxes.

Of course, this price changes based on your conversion rates, based on the typical sale price of a home in your market, and based on your typical commission, but for most realtors, $200 per lead is a great place to start.

A Note on Methodology

As a part of this buyer’s guide, I reviewed dozens of paid real estate lead generation companies and pinpointed the very best options for our readers based on each company’s strategy and approach, price, usability, scalability, service, support, and more.

As lead generation companies continue to improve their processes and increase their efficiency, I’ll continue to update this guide and review new and existing lead gen companies to reflect the best available options for realtors.

Your Turn

Did we miss a real estate lead generation company you want more information on? Comment below to suggest new additions to this list.

The post The Top 6 Real Estate Lead Generation Companies for 2022 appeared first on The Close.

15 Proven Strategies to Get More Seller Leads in 2022

Emile L'Eplattenier — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 13:30:32 +0000

Looking to get more real estate seller leads in 2022? If you’ve worked in real estate for more than 30 seconds, you’ve probably come to the (painful) realization that 1. You NEED seller leads to become a top producer, and 2. Finding and converting seller leads is hard work.

In order to make the process a little easier, we put together a list of 15 proven strategies to get real estate seller leads in 2022 and beyond. There are tons of great tips here from our friends at Douglas Elliman, so make sure to bookmark this page.

1. Learn How to Find Hidden Listing Inventory

In his 27 years as a broker and coach, Sean Moudry has heard agents give every excuse in the book for why they can’t get seller leads. You can probably guess what the most common excuse was: “But Sean, there’s just no inventory out there!” Sound familiar?

In 2021, we saw historically low inventory pretty much everywhere. Do you think that stopped Sean from getting leads and closing deals well above ask? Of course not. He just worked a little harder and leaned into other sources of listings. You can learn his best strategies to find hidden listing inventory here: 9 Proven Strategies to Find Hidden Listing Inventory in 2022.

2. Drive Traffic to Home Valuation Landing Pages

In 2022, the best way to generate top-of-the-funnel seller leads online is to drive traffic to home valuation landing pages. Of course, the learning curve here can be steep. Getting a low cost-per-click from social media ads and designing landing pages that actually convert isn’t easy.

Instead of banging your head against the wall trying to keep up with the constant changes to Facebook’s ad manager, you can sign up for BoldLeads and get exclusive top-of-funnel seller leads from A/B tested landing pages without the headaches. Even better, everything they offer seamlessly integrates with the Propertybase customer relationship manager (CRM) and IDX websites.

Visit BoldLeads

3. Learn How to Work Expired Listings

The best advice I ever got about success in real estate and maybe in life was also the simplest: “It’s better to be their first love, second spouse, and third real estate agent.” While we don’t give relationship advice (yet), we can tell you from experience that this is true. First-time buyers and sellers almost always choose the wrong agent. That makes expired listings—when a real estate agent couldn’t sell their home—an excellent source of seller leads.

Of course, like all cold outreach, winging it is probably not a good idea. You’ll need a lead source and auto-dialer like REDX and Vortex, and you need to practice tried-and-true scripts and objection handlers if you want a shot at actually converting them.

4. Join a Team With Well-known Listing Agents

If you work in or near a reasonably sized city, chances are there are a handful of listing agents who are literally making millions of dollars doing exactly what you do. Helping people buy and sell houses. This is why joining a top team is a great way to get seller leads. It will take time, but the experience and connections you make will be worth it.

Sure, you might be working buyers for a while, but if you hang in there, you’ll learn invaluable secrets from the best of the best in your farm area.

5. Nurture Relationships With Local Business Owners

One underappreciated way to get real estate seller leads is to develop relationships with local influencers who will then become evangelists for your business. No, we’re not suggesting you go out for drinks with the local equivalent of Kim Kardashian. Instead, you can work to develop relationships with local business owners. Why local business owners? Simple. They know everyone and new people moving to your farm want to know them.

You can always go out and talk to and interview local business owners for your blog or social media to build tons of local content for your leads. Or, you can use the system that Parkbench already perfected to help automate the process and give you a head start.

Visit Parkbench

6. Help Distressed Homeowners

No matter how good the market is, there are always homeowners who fall behind on payments. In some cases, they are able to recover from their situation by getting caught up on payments or negotiating a loan modification, but in most cases, they will have to sell the home to avoid foreclosure. That’s why working distressed properties can be a great way to get listings in any market.

Learn more about how to find and work with distressed homeowners in Sean’s course, “Survive and Thrive,” in The Close Pro.

7. Work Your Sphere to Find Seller Leads in Your CRM

If you’re not working your sphere, you are leaving seller leads on the table. Period. According to the National Association of Research (NAR), 68% of all sellers find their agent through their sphere. Since you’ve already got some sort of relationship with these people, you can skip the cold outreach tactics and start straight in on strengthening your existing relationship and nudging people toward becoming clients.

Miltiadis Kastanis, Director of Luxury Sales, Miami Beach for Douglas Elliman, gets most of his seller leads from his network:

“My seller leads come from my network, from being on the scene, and from always being at the most happening events. My tips and tricks to keeping them as a full-time client is by being at their call even when it’s not related to real estate.
“I go to their personal events, support their causes, invite them to dinner parties, and so on. I become a part of their daily life and offer a superior level of service to make sure they don’t think of anyone else for their referrals or their personal real estate needs. I come from a hospitality background, so it’s really simple for me.”

8. Create an Action Plan for Lead Nurturing & Automate It

Since even the hottest seller leads can take months to convert, successful listing agents create action plans to nurture them for the long haul. Once they have a plan that works, they automate as much as they can. This makes your leads feel like you are devoting time, energy, and interest to their needs even when you’re busy drumming up new business.

Here’s a quick example of a nurturing action plan from Dina Goldentayer, a Douglas Elliman agent in Miami:

Text message: Once per week
Market update call: Every two weeks
Coffee meetup: Once per month

Using an affordable CRM like LionDesk, you can easily automate market analysis drips, birthday and holiday texts, meeting invites, and more. LionDesk also has an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, auto-dialer, and click-to-call features, so you won’t get bogged down with busy work.

Visit LionDesk

9. Convert Rental Leads Into Seller Leads

While traditionally a seller lead generation strategy that only really works in big cities, converting rental leads has become a viable strategy for agents all over the country. Once you look at demographic shifts, it’s easy to see why. First, more people are renting now than ever before, and second, developers are building more and more high-end rentals outside of larger cities.

Here’s Douglas Elliman Manhattan agent Adrian Radomski on just how lucrative converting rental leads can be:

“Treat every rental showing as if it were a large sale—you never know who you’re showing to. I’ve converted a $9,000 rental showing into a $4.2 million sale. That person then referred me to another family member, whose apartment we sold for $1.3 million.”

More than 100 miles outside of Manhattan, Martha Gunderson, an Elliman agent in the Hamptons, agrees:

“I would say that rentals are a good lead for potential sales. Provide information to the homeowner regarding the true value of their house in the current market and advise them how to get the most for their home.”

10. Get Over Your Fear of Cold Calling Expireds & FSBOs

While many people tend to avoid phone calls as if they were actually allergic to them, the fact remains that the personal connection made on the phone is equal to 10 postcards or emails. It’s simple really—human beings are conditioned to both remember and have a reaction to interpersonal communication.

So when you’re planning out your lead generation and nurturing campaigns to get and convert seller leads, make sure you plan in regular phone calls. That means setting aside a few hours each day to cold call, as well as regularly picking up the phone and calling former clients just to check in and remind them you exist.

Jennifer Alese, Ryan Serhant’s head of new development, didn’t mince words when we asked her how important calling leads was to getting listings:

“Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and TALK. This is so important and goes such a long way. It’s a work day? Text them! At the end of the day, we are all in the same world and evolving with technology. Not everyone checks emails, answers calls, or listens to voicemail.”

Mia Vissichelli, an agent with Douglas Elliman Long Island, swears by cold calling expired listings to generate seller leads:

“Definitely tackle expired listings! It’s a free source of warm leads and it doesn’t cost anything to pick up the phone or knock on their door and introduce yourself. It’s a great way to get listings, learn your market, and get your name out there as a trusted resource. I also love that working with expired listings tests your problem-solving skills, since you have to market the home in a fresh, new way that wasn’t already done by the previous listing agent.”

Dan Burz, a Douglas Elliman agent in Manhattan, agrees:

“I’ve generated a $650,000 listing in New Jersey from FSBO, which led me to a $14 million new development site in Flushing, and I am now the full-time agent taking care of the units. From expired, I’ve got two units at 540 West 49th Street, and I’m the seller’s exclusive agent for everything related to those units (rental and sales). The owners are law professors at Virginia University. In both, I was consistent and didn’t give up until I got their trust.”

11. Build a Library of Local Service Providers to Drive More Referrals

Another great way to drive seller leads is to build a library of local service providers to drive more referrals. The idea is to be known as something of a local fixer. So if someone in your sphere needs something, they know you have connections.

Compass agent, Brian Babst, agrees:

“For everyone I come in contact with, I position myself constantly as a helpful resource, and not as focused on the immediate listing. If they are confident I know the most cost-effective painter, the easiest place for window treatments, or best slice in the neighborhood, I know I’m going to be on their list when it’s time to sell. Especially in a time when there is a ‘Concierge’ or an Angie’s List-style referral source for everything, people want to trust a ‘Brian’s List’ that’s ACTUALLY handpicked and tested. Money and time matter⁠—if you can prove you’re a helpful resource, the sellers will remember.”

12. Work Open Houses to Find Seller Leads

Although many agents tend to ignore them, open houses can be an excellent place to find seller leads. Yes, you’ll get the inevitable parade of tire kickers and curious neighbors, but you’ll also get serious sellers checking out the competition to see what their home might sell for. This makes perfect sense as every buyer thinks they’re going to be a real estate expert these days, and what better way to become an expert than checking out listings in person?

Open houses can be an especially fertile source for seller leads in more affluent neighborhoods, as most residents never even see their neighbors’ driveway—let alone their living rooms.

Barbara Leogrande, an Associate Broker with Douglas Elliman Long Island, sees open houses as a perfect excuse to meet potential clients face to face instead of online:

“For me, open houses are hands-down the best way to generate seller leads. I typically do two to three every weekend, and find that it’s not only buyers who attend, but also homeowners scoping out the competition and subconsciously interviewing the agents they meet. Nothing beats a face-to-face personal experience and making a great first impression. When they call me to list, they say ‘Do you remember me? We met at your open house!’”

13. Create Postcard Campaigns for Your Sphere & Farm

Who doesn’t love getting something personal in their otherwise dreary pile of bills and coupons? I know I do. Well, chances are your former clients and the rest of your sphere do too. Why not incorporate postcards into your nurturing campaigns and give them what they want?

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. Just send out heartfelt messages wishing them a happy birthday, a Merry Christmas, or a postcard with a pretty picture just to say hello. After all, you never know when that postcard is going to end up on their refrigerator and stay there for months or even years.

Think about it: They have friends over relaxing in the kitchen and one of them spots your postcard on the fridge and asks about it. What will your former client say? If they liked you, why wouldn’t they recommend you? Congratulations. You might have just picked up a seller lead for 50 cents.

Pro tip: Take your real estate farming to the next level with a predictive analytics tool like Offrs. Offrs uses over 250 data points to identify homeowners who are most likely to list their home for sale in the next 12 months.

Check Out Offrs

14. Work With Real Estate Investors & House Flippers

If you’re working in a reasonably sized city, chances are there are dozens of investors and house flippers buying, renovating, and selling houses every day. What most people don’t realize is that investors weren’t born yesterday. They know that their best chance to get top dollar for their listing is to hire a listing agent to aggressively market the property.

Why shouldn’t that listing agent be you? If you have local expertise, marketing chops, and enough experience to get them great prices, then you can set yourself up with a steady supply of listings to close every month.

15. Find a New Niche to Work Seller Leads

If you’ve tried all the other ways to get seller leads here and you’re still not getting any leads, you might be working the wrong niche. Markets change, and staying ahead of the curve and working niches that are growing rather than shrinking just might be your ticket to getting more leads.

Just make sure you do your research here. Transitioning to a new niche is a risk and might not pay off if you choose the wrong one. Here are six niches that we think will grow in the future: 6 Red-hot Real Estate Niches That Can Double Your GCI.

Over to You

Have a great strategy for getting seller leads that we missed? Let us know in the comments. Still struggling and want some support? Join our Facebook Mastermind Group here.

The post 15 Proven Strategies to Get More Seller Leads in 2022 appeared first on The Close.

37 Underrated Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas for 2022

Emile L'Eplattenier — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 20:00:50 +0000

The state of real estate lead generation is constantly evolving. What brought in great leads at an affordable rate just a few months ago might not work today. That means many agents are constantly looking for new and innovative real estate lead generation strategies.

To help you think outside the box, we’ve compiled 37 underrated yet innovative real estate lead generation ideas and links to more than 30 deep-dive articles. This trove of lead gen strategies should keep your phone ringing off the hook through 2022 and beyond.

1. Learn How to Prospect on LinkedIn

Beverly Ruffner, Real Estate Coach

“Instead of trying to prospect for leads on Facebook or Instagram where you have to compete with cute kitten videos, why not use the platform that was specifically designed for professional networking? I am, of course, talking about LinkedIn. The one social media platform agents still seem to ignore.

“If you want to get better leads this year, then learning how to prospect on LinkedIn will help. It puts you in front of professionals when and where they actually expect to talk business instead of where they go to relax.”

2. Buy Exclusive Seller Leads From Market Leader

Susan Isaac, Agent at Houlihan Lawrence, Greenwich, Connecticut

“Market Leader owns one of the largest and best home valuation sites online: housevalues.com. Homeowners use the site to check the value of properties they’re interested in selling. Market Leader then sends those exclusive leads out to agents who claim their ZIP code. This is one of the best ways to generate seller leads at the beginning of their buyer journey before other agents have a chance to pitch them.

“If you want to check if Market Leader has exclusive seller leads for you, check availability in your ZIP code here.”

Visit Market Leader

3. Work Divorce Leads

Kelly Lise Murray, J.D., Co-founder & CEO, Divorcethishouse.com

“OK, let’s stop beating around the bush here. Competition for the low-hanging fruit leads in pretty much any farm area is usually fierce.

“If you want to get and close more leads, sometimes it can help to think outside the box. Do you want genuinely motivated leads? How about leads that have a court order to sell their home? How about leads who really, really, really want to move?

“If you’ve got reserves of patience and empathy, then working divorce leads might be the perfect lead generation strategy to close a few more deals this year. There’s even a designation—RCS-D (Real Estate Collaboration Specialist – Divorce)—that you can get to show potential divorce clients that you know your stuff and mean business.”

4. Use BoldLeads’ New Platform to Generate Exclusive Buyer & Seller Leads

The Close Editorial Team

As far as underrated real estate lead generation goes, BoldLeads’ advanced new platform is hiding in plain sight. Gone are the days of merely handing out leads. Today, BoldLeads offers a cutting-edge platform that generates exclusive buyer and seller leads, advanced targeting, marketing, nurturing tools, and expert training to help you close more of the leads you get.

BoldLeads’ platform is so powerful that they now offer agents 5x the return on investment (ROI) of direct mail. Click below for a free tour of BoldLeads’ game-changing new platform.

Visit BoldLeads

5. Build a Brand That Generates Leads While You Sleep

Kyle Scott, President of SERHANT. Ventures

“You should be generating leads while you sleep—and you do that by building a compelling and memorable personal brand. A personal brand is not just what people say about you when you’re not in the room; it’s how to get people to talk about you when you’re nowhere near that room!

“Your personal brand will generate compound interest on your investments and, over time, the daily deposits you make into your brand turn into a massive lead generation machine that gets prospective leads coming to you, even when you’re sleeping.”

Want to learn how to build a brand that can generate leads while you sleep? Check out Ryan Serhant’s Ultimate Personal Brand Course for Real Estate Agents.

6. Use Slydial Broadcast to Circle Prospect Just Sold & Open Houses

Christina Griffin, Tampa Bay Realtor & Team Leader

Circle prospecting is one of the best ways to stake out your claim in your farm area. If you want to become the real estate agent in a neighborhood, you’re going to have to get in front of the neighbors as often as possible.

The only problem is that some neighborhoods are already blanketed with door hangers, flyers, and postcards from your competition. With a little creativity, you can beat the competition to the chase before they get their flyers printed.

Working with real estate coach Tom Ferry, Tampa Bay Realtor Christina Griffin came up with an ingenious strategy to reach homeowners in her farm area.

She bought lists of homeowners’ cell numbers, then, after cross-checking with the DNC, used a clever app called Slydial Broadcast to leave them all voicemails advertising her next open house automatically.

The response was immediate and massive. She got 200 leads on her first day.

7. Learn to Scale Your Lead Generation With a Smart CRM

Sean Moudry, Real Estate Coach, Speaker & Author

“Most people think getting started is the hardest thing to do in real estate. But most people have never tried to scale a successful real estate business. Trust me, it’s much, much harder. I should know. Ten years ago, I scaled a brokerage to 100 people, but it didn’t last. The problem was that there were only so many hours in a day, and our leads and clients needed us ASAP, 24/7. Mere mortals couldn’t keep up … then the recession hit.

“Luckily, now it’s 2022, so we have apps like Zurple that use patent-pending software to analyze a lead’s behavior to figure out when they’re ready to transact, BEFORE they’re ready to transact. Even better, they generate those leads for you so you can actually focus on closing. It’s the software I wish I had 10 years ago.”

Learn More About Zurple

8. Pick Up the Phone & Make Outbound Phone Calls Without Even Using Slydial

Leigh Brown, Realtor, CEO, Author, Coach & Speaker, Leigh Brown

“Calls to whom? The contacts in your phone. The people you actually know. Statistics show that an estimated one-third of the public does something related to real estate annually―renovations, updates, repairs, refinancing, buying, or selling―and savvy realtors are there for all of those steps in the work of being the trusted realtor adviser over time.

“Costs nothing. How to make it happen? Set a doable goal of one call per day. It will get done—and once you do one, you’re likely to make two.”

9. Send Sales Letters to Absentee Owners

Jason Pantana, Tom Ferry Master Coach, Speaker

“Good old-fashioned sales letters. There’s a difference between direct mail and drip mail. Most of the time in real estate, we call drip mail ‘direct mail.’ For instance, sending postcards twice a month to a geographic farm isn’t direct mail—despite calling it that—because it usually isn’t angling for a ‘direct response.’

“To the contrary, it’s more about creating top-of-mind awareness and branding. Direct mail has more to do with organizing a vetted and scrubbed list of ideal recipients and then delivering a calibrated letter—or a few letters in a row—that are designed to get the recipients to take action within a relatively short time frame. Sending sales letters to absentee owners is an excellent way to do it.

10. Use Predictive Analytics to Get Leads & Farm Your Local Area

Chris Linsell, Real Estate Coach & Senior Staff Writer, The Close

“Predictive analytics has been waiting in the wings of real estate marketing for a couple of years now, but it stormed the stage and grabbed the spotlight with the emergence of SmartZip. SmartZip uses artificial intelligence (AI) to parse hundreds of data points from across the internet and from your local MLS to determine which property owners in your targeted geographic area are most likely to sell this year.

“That means rather than trying to market to an entire community, you can focus only on property owners who are most likely to sell and ensure you’re the first real estate agent they talk to. Lock down your territory with SmartZip here.”

Visit SmartZip

11. Meet Your Top 50 Contacts in Person Once per Quarter

Nate Martinez, Owner, RE/MAX Professionals

“Lead generation is about personal connection. At our office, we have created our ‘Top 50′ program, where we designate the top people in our network who have the greatest potential to bring in one piece of business. From there, we look to meet with our contacts once a quarter face-to-face to learn more about their lives and develop a deeper relationship with them. We also host exclusive parties and events, which we invite our ‘Top 50’ to, including movie nights, parties, and so on. Leveraging your network is a great way to generate leads and in order to get those, you need to build strong personal relationships with them.”

12. Build Local Connections That Lead to the Best Referrals

Any experienced agent will tell you that referrals are the best source of new leads. The only problem is that referrals can be hard to come by, especially for newer agents. That’s where Parkbench comes in.

Parkbench offers agents a way to generate referrals from local business owners and influencers. They build you a hyper-local website and offer expert training to help you use it to generate the referrals that lead to deals and MORE referrals.

The best part? Parkbench only allows a limited number of agents per local area. Click below to find out if your farm area is still available.

See if Your Farm Is Available

13. Sign Up to Do BPOs, Then Market to the Owners of Distressed Homes

Sebastian Frey, Broker & Owner, Realty World Virtuoso

“When a borrower starts to miss payments on a mortgage, a lender or loan servicer will often order a ‘broker price opinion’ (BPO) on a property in case they end up having to foreclose, do a loan modification, or short sale. They may do this before it is reported as a late payment to a credit agency, and well before they file a notice of default. This is an early indicator of a homeowner who may need to sell sooner rather than later.”

14. Host a First-time Buyer’s Seminar

Sean Moudry, Speaker, Author & Real Estate Coach, 16 Strategies

“Even though the information is freely available online, many new buyers still have questions about buying a home … lots and lots of questions. Offering them a low-pressure space to get their questions about buying answered can be a great way to generate some leads.

“The trick is to choose five or so common questions to answer in your seminar, and then include a few more not-so-common questions you can use in your marketing to draw people in. For example, you can talk about how to find hidden listing inventory or buy foreclosure listings to get people through the door.”

15. Pitch Your Listing (or Expertise) to News Outlets

Christian Petterson, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development & Realtor, iSella.com

“Most people do not think about pitching their listings to news outlets, but it has surprisingly proven to be one of the best strategies for getting a lot of leads extremely quickly. One of my listings was featured in a New York Times article last week, and I have been receiving at least five calls a day since publication—I had three showings just today. It’s amazing to see the response you get when backed by a reputable publication. Not only can I sell a property extremely quickly through the publicity, but I gain a lot of new clients for other listings as well. The response from media coverage has blown me away every time.”

16. Connect With Pet-loving Leads by Sponsoring a Local Adoption Event

Alisa Cunningham, Realtor, Douglas Elliman

“A great opportunity is to approach local animal shelters or rescue groups and offer to sponsor an adoption event. You give them money to pay for renting a space, tables, and canopy shelters, maybe hire food trucks to be there, do advertising for them, and then show up and work the event. People love their pets—most people consider them members of the family.

“Being of service and finding a home for those abandoned pets is critical work and usually appreciated, plus you get to talk to people. Pet lovers bond with other pet lovers. ‘Creating home for you and your pets’ or ‘Finding homes for you and your pets’ or something like that. But you have to be a pet lover yourself.”

17. Use Deep Insight From Zillow My Agent to Convert More Leads

Miranda Paquet, General Manager, The Close

“Did you know that even after a buyer contacts an agent, they go back to Zillow an average of 27 times and look at 77 more listing pages in 30 days? That means that even if you answered your phone right away and wowed them, there’s still a huge chance they’ll wind up working with someone else. Even worse, you’ll never even know it. They’ll just stop returning your calls.

“So if you want to 3x your lead conversion, then Zillow Premier Agent’s new feature, My Agent, is for you. It puts only your contact information on every single listing your lead looks at after they contact you.

“Even better, My Agent provides agents with deep insight on which properties they’re viewing, saving, and searching for on Zillow.”

Visit Zillow

18. Master Cold Calling

Beverly Ruffner, Real Estate Coach, BeverlyRuffner.com

“While your competition is sitting back waiting for leads to roll in from Instagram or Pinterest, take the bold route and pick up the phone.

“Sure, it’s a little intimidating to get hung up on, but there is no better way to build the thick skin you’ll need to become a top-producing real estate agent.”

19. Drive More Engagement With Instagram Stories

Eric Simon, aka The Broke Agent

Like every other social media platform, Instagram has been pushing users to create more videos. Why? They want to keep creators creating on their platform, and they want to keep their followers engaged. Video is the best way to do that.

Of course, creating engagement with Instagram Stories isn’t easy and doesn’t come naturally for many older agents. If you want to learn the ropes, check out Eric Simon’s (aka The Broke Agent) excellent article below. Eric built his Instagram account to 350,000 followers using these same lead generation strategies.

20. Hand Out Free Seasonal Treats With Your Business Card

Nelene Gibbs, Broker & Owner, Nelene Gibbs Real Estate

“One suggestion I offered my newer agents was to go to the mall or shopping center during the holiday shopping season and hand out business cards attached to a candy cane to everyone walking by. No need to wait in line to see Santa to get a candy cane. Spread a little Christmas cheer with the candy canes and, hopefully, pick up a new client or two for the new year. Everyone loves a candy cane at Christmas.

“One other suggestion I had was to print water bottle labels, go to the shopping areas where the crowds line up waiting for the big Black Friday sales events, and pass out water bottles with your brand—business card—on them to the crowds waiting in line.”

21. Get 97% Open Rates Using Automated Text Marketing

Jeff Manson, Founding Partner & CEO, Real Geeks

“Did you know that text messages have a whopping 97% open rate compared to 20% even for the best emails? The only problem is that tapping out individual texts to your leads takes up way too much time you could be spending cold calling.

“Using the advanced text messaging platform you get with Real Geeks CRM that comes bundled with its IDX websites, you can automate your text marketing and start filling your calendar with showings tomorrow.”

22. Use Seasonal Leave-behinds

Nick Slocum, Partner, Realtor, The Nick Slocum Team

“Far and away, our two best unique leave-behinds are when we had place an American flag on each lawn just prior to the Fourth of July and when we place a pumpkin on each doorstep around Halloween. The response is incredible and the connection to the community is even better. In fact, over the years, the neighbors have come to expect it and often refer to us as ‘The Pumpkin Guys’ or ‘The Flag Guys.’”

23. Make a Plan & Work the Holidays

Courtney Poulos, Broker & Owner, Acme Realty

Since most of your fellow agents will head for the hills during the holidays, staying in the office can mean easy real estate lead generation. Here are a few tips from Los Angeles’ Acme Realty founder Courtney Poulos on generating leads during the holidays.

“My advice to newer agents who are looking to work through the holidays would be to use the fact that you are present and available during the holiday season as the dominant messaging in your marketing. If you have listings that you are going to be showing during the holidays, have holiday-themed events, such as a holiday-themed broker’s open with spiced cider, or at your Sunday open house, have a jazz musician playing holiday music. You can also take new pictures of the property with some holiday decorations to use in your social media posts.”

24. Build an IDX WordPress Website to Capture Leads

Chris Linsell, Real Estate Coach & Senior Staff Writer, The Close

“While the current breed of real estate lead generation websites are great, you never actually own one. Instead, you pay a monthly fee and your site goes poof and vanishes if you stop paying. That’s why building your own IDX website with WordPress is an investment that is well worth trying this year.

“Building a website with WordPress that actually generates leads isn’t easy, but as they say, the best time to plant a tree was five years ago but the second best time is now. You can get started building your site using our ultimate guide here: How to Build an IDX Real Estate Website: The Ultimate Guide 2021.”

25. Pitch Older Expired Listings

Dan Prud’homme, Owner, Carolina Realty Group

“I don’t just reach out to listings that are newly expired like everyone does, but I dig deeper and pay special attention to the ones that expired a year or more ago that never relisted. I figure that at some point these potential clients wanted to sell, so why not reach out to them to see what their plans are, how they may have changed, and how I could help them meet their objective. If their plan is to sell sometime in the future, I offer to assist them with a strategy so they’re ready to hit the ground running when the timing is perfect.”

26. Become a ‘Coffee House Consultant’

Justin Potier, Broker, Carrington Real Estate Services

Since you’re going to spend a ton of time in coffee shops anyway, why not advertise your services for free? Justin Potier of Carrington Real Estate Services had an agent who set up their laptop to work, then put up a little sign that said “Free real estate advice.”

27. Network at More Non-Real Estate-related Events

Eseosa ‘Sosa’ Eke, Marketing Consultant & Brand Strategist

“If you’re going to events where everyone else is just like you, your odds of meeting quality leads are slim to none.

“Instead of going to the same old real estate mixers or networking events, think outside the box and join some non-real estate-related local events. Your next client can be found at a community yoga workshop, a sip-and-paint night, a book reading, or even at a concert.

“Just be careful of trying to ‘sell’ to people you meet. Instead, go to an event you’ll truly enjoy, engage in the flow of conversation, and when you get the ‘what do you do?’ question, give them an answer that truly makes your real estate services shine. Even if you don’t get any new leads, you’ll spend time doing things you love. How can you go wrong?”

28. Try Ranking Articles on Google for Luxury or Historic Listings

Tristan Roberts, Lake Tahoe Realtor

“Too many people believe that the time has passed to rank organically on Google successfully—specifically targeting ranking opinion articles for individual property addresses and then providing ‘the rest of the story’ so the potential buyers can read your opinions of the property’s strengths and weaknesses. This works extremely well with very high-end or historic properties. The buyer gets to hear your tone and gets a feel for your personality as well as some honest insight about the property they’re considering buying.”

29. Get Some Fresh Air: Start Door Knocking

Emile L’Eplattenier, Managing Editor, The Close

“While everyone else in your office is busy with the latest social media fad (TikTok, anyone?), why not head out into the fresh air and fill your customer relationship manager (CRM) the old-fashioned way? Go knock on some doors! It’s actually a lot easier than you might think, and is also a fantastic way to hone your elevator pitch and actually flex your sales muscles.”

30. Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce

Cynthia Emerling, Associate Broker, Finger Lakes Premier Properties

“If you join your local chamber of commerce, you can get your name and business listed in newsletters and websites and get referrals and make valuable connections who are well established in your area.

“You can become members of the town and county chambers that your office is in, as well as nearby areas or counties that you serve or have offices in. Similarly, you can look into becoming a member of a destination marketing organization (DMO) or convention and visitors bureau (CVB). Sometimes these are the same as the Chamber and other times they are a separate entity.”

31. Help Your Buyers Find an Investment, Not Just a Home

Rebecca Saenz, Realtor, RE/MAX Estate Properties Los Angeles

“I have found through the years that agents do not have enough knowledge of how to guide their clients through real estate investing from their primary residence. I work with business managers and accountants to share business and guide our clients together to gain wealth through real estate.

“Most people think you buy a house and live in it, sell it, and buy another one, but what if they kept that first house and bought another one, and gained passive income from the first? I have clients for life because they trust I’m guiding them on the right path of when and what to sell based on their needs and income desires in the future.”

32. Schedule Outreach With Your Sphere Every Day

Akos Straub, Top-producing Chicago Realtor

“In my opinion, the best underrated lead generating technique is accessing and utilizing your current network. After all, unlike cold internet leads, these are people who probably already know and trust you. So, carve out time every day to reach out to your sphere and just ask for business. Lead generation doesn’t get much simpler or more effective than this.”

33. Become a Reliable Source of Real Estate Expertise in Facebook Groups

Bryan Bowles, Founder & CEO, Transactly

“You don’t need to create one, but get involved. For example, create a survey to find out ‘What’s stopping you from buying a home?’ and then engage people individually in a very casual manner. The key is coming up with creative content that makes people want to participate, remaining consistent, and measuring the results. I see too many agents who let these things go if they don’t see immediate results or start getting busy.”

34. Create an Avatar of Your Ideal Client & Then Target Them on Social Media

Kyle Alfriend, REMAX Hall of Fame Agent

“Create an ‘avatar’ of your ideal client—their income, interests, personality, age, family size, and hobbies. Then, post a steady stream of videos and blogs on all social media outlets—all about those things. If they are active, start running and biking, and posting updates on your activities. If they have school-age children, attend school sporting events, concerts, and plays, and post about them.

“Restaurants, wine enthusiasts, religious events, sporting events, hiking, swimming, and charitable causes—identify your ideal client, then post yourself being involved in the things they do.”

35. Reward Your Referral Sources With a Handwritten Note & Gift Card

Heidi Sutter, Sutter-Smith Group, Coldwell Banker

Even if they already love you, everyone loves getting presents, even small ones. That’s why Coldwell Banker agent Heidi Sutter’s system of rewarding referral sources helps keep a steady stream of referrals in her inbox:

“For me, one of the best lead generating tools has been to reward my referrals with a handwritten note and gift card. Doing so has been key for my business and proven to be one of the best ways to connect with clients, friends, and family who are kind enough to refer my services. Here’s my formula:

$5 gift card and thank-you note at introduction to the referral
$10 gift card for gas, along with a handwritten note thanking them for the referral again and providing a quick update on the progress, once buyer or seller signs a contract or lists
Hand-delivered $50 gift card to a local restaurant once the client closes

“This helps make and maintain a personal connection.”

36. Call People in Your Sphere to Mark Milestones & Birthdays

Gina Guajardo, Sterling Johnson & Associates, a Leverage Global Partners’ Brokerage

“I do not cold call but I do call people in my sphere to congratulate them about their milestones—and that brings results, guaranteed. It’s a great way to stay connected and top of mind. Take birthdays, for example. Every day, Facebook will tell you whose birthday it is, so you just have to pick up the phone and call them.

“[Almost all] of the people you call will appreciate it, and guess who they will recommend or work with when the time is right? Same goes for milestones like a new job or pregnancy news. How awesome to get a call from your friend who happens to be a realtor?”

37. Find a New Niche & Work It Relentlessly

Emile L’Eplattenier, Managing Editor, The Close

“If you’re not getting enough high quality leads, you might be in the wrong niche or worse, not working a niche at all. Many agents just kind of fall into whatever niche seems easy during their first two or three years in real estate and never take the time to find one that works for their skill set and makes them money.

“So if you want to generate more (and better) leads in 2022, try working a new niche. Here are six ideas to get you started: 6 Red-hot Real Estate Niches That Can Double Your GCI in 2021 & Beyond.

Next Steps: How to Create a Real Estate Lead Generation Plan That Works for You

Now that you hopefully have some inspiration after reading our list of real estate lead generation ideas, let’s take a look at what the experts say about choosing which ones work for you. After all, not all lead generation strategies are created equal. Some work great for certain types of agents, while others fail miserably.

The trick is to choose which methods to spend your hard-earned time, money, and effort on strategically. Let’s take a look at a few general strategies that will help you choose a plan that works for you.

1. Understand How Pareto Distributions Work

Vilfredo Pareto was a 19th-century Italian civil engineer, economist, and sociologist who came up with a mathematical formula to explain power distributions in nature, society, and business. He discovered that in many cases, 20% of most systems produce 80% of the results. You might know this as the 80/20 rule.

You might notice this already in your business. For example, many agents find that roughly 20% of their customers might produce 80% of their gross commission income (GCI). When it comes to lead generation, you will likely find that 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. This is why choosing the real estate lead generation strategies that work for you is so important.

2. Make a Plan That Gets You a Mix of Top of Funnel & Bottom of Funnel Leads

While getting customers early on in their home search is important, very few agents have the time to nurture leads forever without generating any income. Quick wins that bring in revenue are crucial for any business. So make sure you have a healthy mix of strategies that get you customers who need to move yesterday and customers who might not move for a year or more.

For example, home valuation landing pages are more likely to attract sellers who are close to pulling the trigger, while cold calling landlords of distressed properties might get you leads that might sell six months from now.

So when choosing a new real estate lead generation strategy, make sure to ask yourself if it will generate more top of funnel or bottom of funnel leads. If you’re busy, then top of funnel leads are great. If you’re struggling to pay your mortgage, then you should focus on quick wins instead.

3. Create a Plan That Fits Your Unique Personality

One mistake that many agents make is trying to push themselves to generate leads using techniques that don’t fit their personality. For example, if you’re an introvert, cold calling FSBOs will probably only leave you frustrated and broke.

Close contributor and real estate coach Sean Moudry has developed a unique system that tests agents for their personality type using a variation of the Myers-Briggs test to help them find the perfect real estate lead generation strategy for them.

If you want to learn more about Sean’s system or sign up as a coaching client, check out his website: 16 Strategies.

More Useful Lead Generation Resources

Are you a new or experienced agent who is trying to shake things up a bit? If so, check out some of our deep-dive resources to learn more about filling your pipeline with qualified leads:

Over to You

What real estate lead generation ideas and strategies are you using to gin up new business in 2022? Still sticking with Zillow or have you discovered something new? Let us know in the comments.

The post 37 Underrated Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas for 2022 appeared first on The Close.

15 Clever Real Estate Prospecting Ideas to Boost Your GCI

Chris Linsell — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 09:00:48 +0000

Real estate prospecting is the act of generating new real estate clients through active outreach and outbound communication. Rather than waiting for the phone to ring, a real estate prospector picks up the phone (or emails or texts or knocks on the door) to initiate contact with potential clients.

Learning how to prospect in real estate can be one of the most rewarding pursuits, and without a doubt, it’s the best way to generate new leads. If your real estate prospecting needs to level up, here’s some expert prospecting advice from five top producers in the residential and commercial real estate game to help you generate more business.

1. Learn the Art (& Science) of Real Estate Prospecting Letters

The first tool in a real prospector’s toolkit is the prospecting letter. The real estate prospecting letter is a fantastic tool for prospectors because it serves several purposes:

It conveys a lot of information (like a neighborhood CMA)
It’s an easy way to introduce yourself and soften the ground before a phone call
It’s effective: Hand-addressed letters are read more than a cold postcard

Though prospecting letters are great, they’re not all created equal.

Download the 17 Best Prospecting Letter Templates

Make sure your prospecting letters are personalized, professional, and authentic. Nobody likes reading mail addressed to “Dear Sir or Madam.” Remember, your goal with your letter is to demonstrate your value and prompt someone to reach out for more information, so make sure you include a motivational call to action as well.

Get Started Today: Write a prospecting letter to 10 neighbors about the last home you sold. Share exactly what you did to get the job done, and how you are ready to help them too.

The Close Resource: 17 Best Real Estate Prospecting Letter Templates

2. Make Your Real Estate Prospecting Decisions Based on Data, Not Comfort

Marc Azfal, Real Estate Broker, Marc Azfal Homes

Realtors who use data to guide their decision-making are going to come out ahead when it comes to real estate prospecting. Here’s what California real estate broker and marketing guru, Marc Azfal, had to say on the topic:

“When you’re real estate prospecting, make sure you’re tracking your results very carefully. If there’s a particular strategy that connects with your prospects well, leverage that strategy and focus more on it, even if it’s relatively uncomfortable.
“For instance, a letter is easy to write and non-confrontational, but if it doesn’t advance your goals, why would you consider sending it?
“That neighborhood garage sale you sponsored was time-consuming and required a lot of face-to-face prospecting, but it netted you three new clients. Even though the garage sale took longer and was more difficult, it’s clearly the way to go.”

Get Started Today: Put big data to work for you in your prospecting. Check out how a predictive analytics platform like SmartZip or Offrs can help you narrow down the prospects in your community to only those most likely to buy or sell.

The Close Resource: Deep Dive Review – SmartZip, Deep Dive Review – Offrs

3. Remember: You’re Providing Value to Your Community

One of the biggest complaints we hear from new agents is that they don’t want to “bother” anyone with cold calls or door knocking. We get it—no one wants to be seen as the sleazy salesman.

Of course, the reality of the situation is that you’re actually providing value to your community.

When you reach out to potential buyers and sellers, letting them know about your services and expertise, you’re also making them aware of their options in the real estate community. I’m sure we’ve all heard the first-time homebuyer or seller say, “I had no idea I could do any of this!”

Get Started Today: One way to start to provide this value to your community is by creating a neighborhood website. These websites act as hubs for what’s going on week-to-week, provide valuable opportunities for spotlighting the best and brightest members of your hometown, and are a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your market. The Faces Of specializes in these sorts of websites, providing a unique platform for sharing your passion for your community and its members. They only allow one real estate agent per area, check to see if your town is available.

4. Make Your Weekly Goals About Work & Your Long-term Goals About Results

Since real estate prospecting is all about picking up the phone and making it ring for your soon-to-be clients rather than waiting for them to call you, it makes sense that you’re going to talk to a lot of people who are interested in what you have to say, but not quite ready to get active in a transaction. Don’t be discouraged by this.

Make your weekly prospecting goals about the work you’re doing: the number of calls you make, the number of texts you send, the number of doors you knock, and so on, and make your six-month goals about the amount of business you close.

The more seeds you plant now, the more you’ll harvest later!

Get Started Today: Start building your prospecting into an overall real estate lead generation strategy that will allow you to dedicate some time to the long-term nurture of prospects, some to the quicker turnaround of paid lead generation, and some to the care and keeping of your existing clients.

The Close Resource: Long-term Lead Nurturing: Tips & Scripts to Avoid Overtasking

5. Use REDX to Improve Your Real Estate Prospecting Efficiency

Just a few years ago, real estate prospecting involved a huge amount of grunt work. You’d have to gather addresses for mailers and scrounge through various less-than-reputable websites to try to find phone numbers. Don’t even get us started on trying to locate contact information for Expired Listings.

Luckily, these days we have amazing and affordable software that can do the heavy lifting, meaning all you need to do is polish those scripts.

REDX is a prospector’s best friend because they do all the hard work for you, giving you all the information you need to start reaching out on day one, and even tools to make that outreach more efficient. REDX gives you owner profiles on every single Expired Listing, FSBO seller, and more. Their built-in Power Dialer automates your calling, making your phone prospecting up to 400% more efficient.

Get Started Today: Right now, REDX is offering The Close readers $149 off the setup price, automatically deducted when you click over to their site from this article. Our favorite REDX lead categories are FSBOs, Expireds, and GeoLeads, so make sure to check all three out.

The Close Resource: Deep Dive Review – REDX

Visit REDX

There are few better ways to ingratiate yourself to a community than to give away fun stuff, and there are lots of chances throughout the year to sponsor giveaways—American flags on Memorial Day and 4th of July, pumpkins before Halloween, and Christmas trees in December, just to name a few.

Either go door-to-door offering these items, or set up a neighborhood pickup night where your potential clients can come to a particular location and meet you. However you choose to do it, each giveaway comes with a handshake, some exchange of contact information, and a call to action, helping to make you the neighborhood real estate expert.

Get Started Today: Neighborhood giveaways are a fantastic prospecting strategy when they’re a part of an overall real estate farming approach. Get started today by identifying a neighborhood in your market that is perfect for real estate farming and start planning your first touch.

The Close Resource: Real Estate Farming: How to Become the Go-to Agent in Your Neighborhood

7. Create a Lead Generating Website

Real estate prospecting is easier if people are already familiar with who you are and what you do. Create a website that provides visitors with information about selling a home in their community, an opportunity to search for properties currently listed for sale, and a way to contact you with questions.

You’ll be setting yourself up for easier conversations and higher conversion rates when you do actually get to speak to your prospects directly.

Get Started Today: Placester is offering a 30-day free trial for Close readers to check out their websites—no credit card required. Head to Placester right now to see which of their plans will best fit into your lead generation strategy.

The Close Resource: Read more about Placester in our deep dive review, as well as our round-up of the lead generation website builders.

Check out Placester

Claudine O’Rourke, Associate Real Estate Broker, Compass

Prospecting isn’t about cold calling and mass mailers—it’s about starting and then cultivating a relationship with people who you think will be great buyers and sellers, either now or in the future. One-to-one prospecting is a great way to build this relationship, as explained by Manhattan real estate expert, Claudine O’Rourke:

“When I see a baby bump or a stroller, I know there’s a potential client who needs more space! So, not only do I engage in any way I can in person, but I engage on Instagram with those in my sphere who are posting about being a new mom. As a mom myself, I can relate. Instead of offering mommy advice, I offer NYC real estate advice. #nycmoms.”

Claudine O’Rourke

9. Dedicate 90 Minutes a Day to Real Estate Prospecting

Your prospecting efforts will only be as successful as they are consistent. Prospecting is a lot of work (and has a lot of potential reward), so thinking that you’re going to get your prospecting done in just a couple minutes a day isn’t realistic.

Successful real estate agents set aside 90 minutes every day and dedicate them to prospecting. Those who can commit to a regular schedule will be amazed at the results that 7.5 hours of prospecting each week will get you.

Get Started Today: Head to your calendar and block off 90 minutes of protected time to prospect each day. We suggest making it the first thing you do every morning since you’re more likely to be using tools like your customer relationship manager (CRM) in the morning anyway.

The Close Resource: Still looking for a real estate CRM? Here are our favorites.

10. Call Expired Listings Every. Single. Day.

Expired Listings are golden opportunities for real estate prospectors (no pun intended). After all, the owners of these homes have raised their hand and said, “Yes, I want to sell my home.” For one reason or another, their home didn’t sell, but chances are, their desire to sell their home hasn’t changed.

The only question is whether you’re going to list the home or a more aggressive agent in your office will get to it first? Before you get an expired listing owner on the phone, have the background on each listing. What was it listed for? Was it priced right? Was it marketed correctly? Be ready to overcome objections and move quickly.

Get Started Today: Head to your MLS and set up a personal alert for any property that changes to an “expired” status. Remember, you’re not the only agent who is planning on prospecting these leads, so the sooner you get on the phone and start making these connections, the better.

The Close Resource: 15 Best Expired Listing Scripts & Objection Handlers

11. Call FSBO Sellers Every. Single. Day.

Just like Expired Listing sellers, FSBOs are fantastic prospects to nurture because the sellers have proven that they want to sell their home now.

However, the approach is different with FSBO owners than it is with Expired Listing sellers because these owners are convinced (or at least they claim to be) that they don’t need a real estate agent to sell their home. Either that, or they just don’t want to pay the commissions.

You’d think that these folks would be impossible to convince otherwise, but you’d be wrong.

We know that more than 91% of homes in the U.S. are sold using the services of a realtor. According to Realtor.com, the median home sale price for a FSBO home is close to $60,000 less than the median sale price of a realtor-listed home. Usually all it takes to win these listings is a savvy pitch and persistent follow-up.

Get Started Today: Head to Zillow and set up a new listing alert for FSBO homes. Don’t get us wrong—there’s nothing wrong with driving the neighborhood and looking for FSBO signs, but over 90% of FSBO homes are on Zillow, so it’s a great place to set up an alert for potential new leads.

The Close Resource: 7 Best FSBO Scripts & Why They Work

12. Stop Fearing the Word ‘No’

According to a study done at Baylor University on real estate cold calling, it takes an average of 209 calls from a real estate agent to a farm area to set an appointment or get a referral. For those of you with a fear of rejection, the takeaway here is that you’re going to have to endure 208 gut-wrenching “no’s” before you finally get a yes.

For those of you who have already gotten over your fear of “no,” this statement is music to your ears. It means that for every “no” you get, you are quantifiably closer to a “yes.” It means that if you can make 627 calls in a week, you’re going to get three appointments out of that hard work.

Get Started Today: Use a basic spreadsheet like Excel or Google Sheets to make a cold call tracking form and start tracking your results. When you start looking at rejection as data, it’s much easier to hear the word “no.”

The Close Resource: 24 Real Estate Cold Calling Scripts and Tips to Conquer Your Fears

13. Get Some Face-to-Face Time With Your Real Estate Prospects

Hans Hansson, Founding Partner, Starboard Commercial Real Estate

If real estate prospecting is about establishing a relationship with potential buyers and sellers, there’s no better way to take that relationship to the next level than a little face-to-face time.

Just shaking hands with someone you’d like to do business with is a powerful experience, as explained to us by one of California’s leading commercial real estate experts, Hans Hansson:

“Keeping your face in front of your current decision-makers, as well as getting it in front of any new decision-makers, is a must for real estate prospecting.
In the commercial world, I’ve learned the hard way that I could have worked miracles for a client, but the decision-maker had been replaced, and since I didn’t have any face-to-face time with a new decision-maker, they wouldn’t have a clue as to the great work I’ve done in the past. The same idea can be applied to residential real estate.
People need to see your face; they need to shake your hand in order to really establish a relationship so you become their go-to real estate resource.”

Get Started Today: Set up some “office hours” at a local coffee shop. Every time you speak to a cold-outreach prospect, mention that you’re going to be at a coffee shop on a certain morning, and they should drop by for a cup of coffee on you and to talk about real estate if they’d like. Creating a non-confrontational way to offer a face-to-face experience is an excellent way to mature relationships.

The Close Resource: [VIDEO] 7 Best Real Estate Prospecting Tips & Techniques for Success

14. Use Video Marketing to Soften Your Prospects

Evan Roberts, Real Estate Agent, Dependable Homebuyers

Prospecting letters aren’t the only way to soften a particular set of future clients. Social media advertising provides some very specific targeting options when it comes to who you want to see your content. Texas-based real estate expert, Evan Roberts, told us:

“YouTube Ads now allow real estate agents to run video advertisements within a specific geographic farm area. We found that recording testimony videos from past clients and running these videos as YouTube Ads to be a great way to build brand awareness within our farm area.
Using YouTube’s targeting features, we were able to reduce our audience size to only homeowners and those likely to buy a house in the near future. YouTube Ads have been cost effective for our marketing efforts since they cost 3 to 5 cents per view and are targeted to only be shown to qualified, potential clients.”

Get Started Today: If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to video content, start with property. Every time you are showing a home, grab your phone and shoot a quick, 30-second tour of the home and post it to wherever you’re active on social media. Even if the listing isn’t yours, it demonstrates that you’re active, you’re available, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t like looking inside someone else’s house?

The Close Resource: 11 Real Estate Videos Smart Agents Are Using + Examples

15. Create Facebook Groups Your Prospects Will Flock To

Will Friedner, Broker, Montana Life Realty Team

Social media is a popular place to prospect, but it’s not the easiest place to do it unless you know what you’re doing. In fact, a study done by Kuno Creative showed that for business pages with less than 500,000 followers, on average, only 6% of your organic following actually even sees your post, much less engages with it.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t prospect profitably on Facebook. Take, for instance, the strategy used by Will Friedner, broker with the Montana Life Realty Team:

“We’ve had great success using Facebook Groups to generate real estate leads. I now have four real estate Facebook Groups around the state of Montana with a total membership now over 30,000 people (almost 3% of this state’s population). These groups now account for over 50% of my business.”

Will Friedner

Get Started Today: Before you get started with your own Facebook Group, check out my presentation to the 2020 National Association of Realtors (NAR) Conference about creating lead-generating Facebook Groups. Don’t forget to check the presenter notes for my explanations of each slide!

The Close Resource: How to Set Up a Real Estate Agent Facebook Page to Get More Leads

Over to You

The Close has a ton of great real estate lead generation tips for real estate agents of all experience levels. Not sure where to get started? Check out 37 Underrated Lead Generation Ideas to get inspired.

Have a great real estate prospecting strategy that we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below—let’s keep the conversation going.

The post 15 Clever Real Estate Prospecting Ideas to Boost Your GCI appeared first on The Close.

5 Free Open House Sign-in Sheets to Try This Weekend (+ PDF Template)

Chris Linsell — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 09:00:20 +0000

Open houses are critical to most real estate agents’ lead generation strategy. They create the ideal opportunity to meet active buyers; people who are potentially selling their current homes while shopping for a new one. A win-win! There’s no better feeling than seeing your open house sign-in sheet chock-full of names, phone numbers, and email addresses at the end of a weekend afternoon.

If you want to walk away from your next open house with more leads than you can handle, you’re going to need the right open house sign-in sheet. We’ve got five free PDF templates that you can download, print, and use right away, as well as the option to customize each Close-exclusive template on Canva.

Download 5 Free Open House Sign-in Sheet Templates

5 Open House Sign-in Sheet Templates

1. Basic Open House Sign-in Sheet

Great for: Agents who don’t need customization or info beyond a name, email, and phone number.

Have some extras of this open house sign-in sheet in your bag at all times for impromptu events. Keep them as a back-up in case you’re unexpectedly missing your branded material.

Download Template #1

Customize This Template

2. The Customizable Open House Sign-in Sheet

Great for: Agents who want to customize their open house sign-in sheet with their own branding and a “conversation starter” question.

We suggest “Are you currently working with a Realtor?” but you can choose whatever you like.

Download Template #2

Customize This Template

3. Detailed Open House Sign-in Sheet Questionnaire

Great for: Realtors who want to capture more information about their attendees.

Remember to use this template strategically. Some open house guests are wary of sharing so much information on a publicly visible form and they may want to save the time it takes to complete a lot of fields.

If you’ve got open house guests with privacy concerns, consider using a digital open house sign-in sheet like the one offered from Spacio. Guests can input their information quickly and confidentially, and you’ll never have to worry about illegible handwriting again.

Download Template #3

Customize This Template

4. Open House Sign-in Sheet With Feedback

Great for: Agents who want to start a conversation about the property with visitors or, more importantly, with your seller client.

If you’ve got a seller who’s insisting on a particular price point (against your recommendation), sometimes an open house with feedback from attendees can be a great way to start a conversation about making a price improvement.

Download Template #4

Customize This Template

5. ‘Enter to Win’ Open House Sign-in Sheet Template

Great for: Anyone hosting an open house and also doing a promotional giveaway.

The strategy on this approach is pretty simple: Print up a handful of these pages and cut them into individual sign-in sheets. When your guests arrive, have them sign in and drop their sign-in into a fishbowl. This step is important; studies show guests are more likely to excitedly participate in drawing or contests if they can literally place their information somewhere physical. Also, seeing other slips of paper in the fishbowl encourages people to be a part of the fun.

After your event is over, call everyone! Let the winner know the happy news (and ask how you can help them with real estate). Let every attendee know about your next event and ask how you can help them in the future.

Download Template #5

Customize This Template

The Case for Digital Open House Sign-in Sheets

We know you like the ol’ paper and pen system, but hear us out. A digital open house sign-in sheet makes a whole lot of sense, and here’s why:

People are comfortable with the format: There are practically no sign-ups nowadays in a retail environment that are anything but digital, so your attendees are already in their comfort zone.
People type a lot more accurately than they write: We are a lot nimbler with our thumbs than we used to be. When you ask someone to sign in digitally, their accuracy is going to go through the roof, and your chances of a missed opportunity because someone misspelled an email address drops to near zero.
Your contacts are easily transferable to a CRM: Following up with your open house leads is crucial. A digital open house sign-in sheet enables you to link your sign-in directly with your customer relationship manager (CRM), allowing you to automate the follow-up process. If you need a suggestion on a solid CRM, check out LionDesk. They’re our #1 CRM pick of 2022.

LionDesk syncs with all the major digital open house sign-in platforms, including Block Party. This app offers a ton of functionality, easy sign-in for your guests from just about any device, and best of all, it’s FREE for realtors.

Visit Block Party

Common Open House Sign-in Mistakes & How to Fix Them

We want to help you avoid the pit-in-your-stomach feeling at the end of an open house when you look at your list of attendees and realize there isn’t much there to work with. Here are some common issues agents encounter with open house sign-in sheets and some solutions to help you address them.

1. Your Guests Have Illegible Handwriting

Let’s face it, not all of us have beautiful penmanship. Nowadays, most of us don’t.

The rise of the personal computer and mobile phone has caused our need to write longhand to diminish sharply. There are even medical diagnoses for consistently bad handwriting (dysgraphia and cacography). So, chances are, a standard form will turn up at least a couple of illegible names.

Solution: Be an active part of the process

The simple act of asking someone to sign in to your open house and then engaging them in conversation while they do so will solve many problems. Your guests will slow down and write a little more legibly since they are also talking to you at the same time. If you get someone with a doctor’s handwriting, you can immediately follow up with them to clarify their details.

When you go to the doctor’s office, is the sign-in sheet hanging on a nail on the door on a clipboard? Nope. It’s sitting on a desk with a human being behind it, waiting to greet you. If you place your open house sign-in sheet out of your line of sight and you’re passive about it, the majority of home shoppers aren’t going to use it.

Solution: Position your sign-in sheet next to the refreshments

Don’t set the sign-in sheet in the entryway when you are camped out in the kitchen. Whether they help themselves to food or drink, just about EVERYONE is going to at least cruise by the offerings and see what you have for them, creating a perfect opportunity to invite guests to sign in.

Pro tip: Rather than bake the cookies yourself, buy some from a favorite local bakery. While you are there, buy a gift certificate too. When you see your guests enjoying the cookies, remind them about your draw for a gift certificate to the very bakery that made those delicious cookies. How do they enter the drawing? All they have to do is sign in.

3. You’re Not Starting Conversations With Your Attendees

Your open house sign-in sheet creates an opening to start a conversation with every person who comes through the door at your next event—but only if you actively engage with them during the event or in a follow-up communication (or both!).

Solution: Capture one piece of information beyond the basics

Every sign-in sheet is going to ask for a name, phone number, and email address. All these are essential bits of information, but they only get you to the doorstep of your first conversation about real estate with that prospect—whether it’s during the open house or in your follow-up.

Gather one small fact that is going to spark a conversation. Our favorites: “What is a must-have feature of your next home?” or “How long have you been looking for a new home?” Later on, when you’re following up, you’ll be equipped to have a meaningful conversation right out of the gate.

Bringing It All Together

Open houses are an essential marketing tool for your business, giving you awesome opportunities to showcase your listings, show off your salesmanship skills for the neighbors and potential new listers, and, of course, meet and greet buyers. Now that you’re armed with some solid Open House Sign-in Sheet strategies and some templates you can use this weekend—get out there and get to work!

Tell us about your most successful open house ever in the comment! What made it stand out above the rest?

The post 5 Free Open House Sign-in Sheets to Try This Weekend (+ PDF Template) appeared first on The Close.

Generate Listings – The Close

If All Real Estate Leads Are Created Equal, Why Do Some Convert Better Than Others?

Are All Real Estate Leads Created Equal?

How Do Successful Real Estate Agents Move Leads Down Their Funnel?

Long-term Lead Nurturing: Tips & Scripts to Avoid Overtasking

The 4 Basic Real Estate Lead Nurturing Strategies Every Real Estate Agent Should Use

1. Connect With New Leads Immediately

My 6-Day New Lead Text Messaging Campaign + Agent Texting Scripts

2. Begin Delivering Value Immediately & Consistently

Long-term Lead Nurturing: Tips & Scripts to Avoid Overtasking

3. Spark Regular, Relevant Conversations

Start Phone Calls With “I was thinking about you this morning because …”

Try the “Quick Question / Open Question” Text Message Strategy

How to Master the Follow-up Phone Call in 2022 (+ Scripts)

4. Include Your Leads in the Community You’re Building

Real Estate Farming: How to Become the Go-to Agent in Your Neighborhood in 2022

Want to Supercharge Your Lead Nurturing? Try Market Leader

Pro Tip

Final Thoughts

Market Leader Review + Video Walk-through

Why Should You Trust This Market Leader Review?

Market Leader: Pros, Cons & The Close Recommendation

The Close Recommendation

What Services Does Market Leader Offer?

How Much Does Market Leader Cost?

Market Leader Video Walk-through

Go Deeper: A Closer Look at Market Leader’s Tools & Features

Real Estate Lead Generation

Real Estate Website

Real Estate CRM

Real Estate Marketing

Additional Market Leader Resources

Where Market Leader Could Improve

Is Market Leader Right for You?

How to Create a Custom Real Estate Lead Generation Plan (+ Template)

Assessment: Determine Your Unique Sales Personality

How to Determine Your Unique Sales Personality

My 5-Step Lead Generation Selection Formula

1. Begin With Your Goal

How to Set Concrete Goals & Actually Get Results

2. Match Your Strategies to Your Personality Type

The Success Cycle

Why So Many Real Estate Agents Fail After Just 2 Years (+ How Not To)

3. Identify Your Available Resources

How to Identify & Assess Available Resources

Define Your Budget & Brokerage Resources

4. Explore Lead Generation Options & Costs

Active vs Passive Lead Generation Methods

36 Clever Real Estate Marketing Ideas for 2022

Prioritize Your Optimal Lead Generation Strategies

5. Create Your Custom Lead Generation Plan

Pinpoint Your Pillar Strategy

Choose Your Support Strategies

Real Estate Lead Generation Plan Worksheet

How I Developed the Lead Generation Plan That Transformed My Career

Over to You

24 Best Expired Listing Scripts & Objection Handlers 2022

1. Sean Moudry’s Expired Listing Introduction Script

Why This Script Works

2. April Hunter’s Ice Breaker Script

Why This Script Works

3. Kevin Ward’s Best Expired Listing Script Ever

Why This Script Works

4. Kimberly Olbrich’s Ice Breaker Script

Why This Script Works

5. Eric Jon Melnikoff, Keller Williams: Expired Listing Script Live Call

Why This Script Works

Expired Voicemail Scripts

General Expired Strategies & Objection Handlers

Learn to Break the Ice With Tough Expired Listings

Getting to Yes: 12 Expired Objection Handlers From the Pros

1. ‘We aren’t quite ready yet, we need to finish a couple of projects around the house before we put it on the market.’

2. ‘We’re Not Putting It Back on the Market’

3. ‘I think we’re going to sell to Zillow (or any other iBuyer)’

4. ‘I Need to Talk to My Spouse First’

5. ‘We’re Going to Re-list With the Same Agent’

6. ‘We’re Going to Wait Until Spring/Summer/Fall to List Again’

We Are Only Looking for Low-fee Agents. Can You Discount Your Commission?

8. ‘I’ve Never Heard of / Don’t Like Your Brokerage’

9. ‘The Last Agent Said They Could Sell It for XXX More’