Real estate professionals who have been in business for a while understand that having more leads is essential for success. Of course, you also know that it can be difficult to find and convert these leads to buy or sell using you as their agent. Fortunately, there are some relatively simple strategies that you can use to help you find both buyer and seller leads.
Sometimes, property owners who want to sell their home decide that they will do it themselves. They do not always understand just how much work goes into this process, and it can become overwhelming before long. While it can work out okay in some cases, it often becomes too difficult.
As a real estate agent, you know that there’s a lot that goes into selling a home, and it takes more than just having a listing online. These types of listings do not sell as quickly as they would when they have a real estate agent working for them.
Therefore, you might want to look at some of the FSBO properties in your area and reach out to the sellers to help them. It’s better to call them than to send out a postcard or even an email. Calling them, despite it being a cold call, can be more effective.
Of course, you have to realize that people who are trying to sell their own home have their reasons for it. They might not want to pay a commission, or they might have had a bad experience with an agent in the past.
You want to approach them carefully and with compassion. Let them know that you respect their decision to sell on their own, but you can provide them with the help they need if they decide to change their mind later. Not all will come around, but some of these sellers will decide that they no longer want to handle the sale by themselves.
Along the same lines as FSBO properties, there are expired listings to consider. These types of listings are no longer on the market for one reason or another. They did not sell and the listing was removed.
These types of listing can be found in MLS, and you will want to reach out to the owner or the previous listing agent to see why the property did not sell. The reasons can be varied, of course, and sometimes, they will not be worth your time. However, there are other times when the agent or the owner did not do a good job of marketing the property. You may be able to do a better job.
However, you now have to approach the owner and talk with them about letting you list the property. This should be approached with the same respect and caution that you put into FSBO property calls.
You likely have clients that you are working with right now, as well as clients you’ve worked with over the years. These clients can be a great source of potential new leads for you for both buyers and sellers. They have family, friends, and coworkers who might be interested in engaging your services.
Therefore, you should reach out to those clients and touch base with them. See how they are doing and if they know anyone who might be interested in your services. Asking for a referral doesn’t hurt, and you can do it in an email or a quick phone call depending on your relationship with the client.
When a client closes on a home, for example, provide them with a small gift that shows your appreciation. Include some business cards and ask them to share them with their family and friends. Then, you can wait a couple of weeks after closing to connect with them again, thank them for using your services, and tell them that you’d appreciate any referrals.
While not all of your clients will know someone that wants to buy or sell right now, some might. Every six months or so, you can reach out again with a reminder.
Here’s another strategy that ties into your clients that could help you to generate some additional leads. Offer to throw a small party for the clients and their close family and friends once they get into the new home. While this might not always be possible for all agents, it is something to consider.
Of course, you will not only be throwing the party, but you will be there as well, where you can talk with all of the other guests. It’s a good way to get a sense of whether there could be other leads in the group, pass out your business card, and generate some quality leads.
When people are looking for a real estate agent today, their first stop tends to be the Internet. They will look up agents in the area whether they are buying or selling a property. Naturally, you want to rank high in the search engines, so they land on your website.
Of course, once they get to the site, you need to have content that impresses them. This simply means that you need a site that’s laid out well and is easy to navigate. It also needs to have information about who you are and why you are the right real estate agent for the job. A strong website that has plenty of great content can help you rank high and build trust with potential leads.
You need to have calls to action on your site, and you need to make it easy for people to get in touch. Let visitors have multiple methods of contacting you—phone, email, text. Giving them more choices increases the chance that people will contact you.
As for the content, you will want to have a blog that you update regularly. You should also have video content. The type of content should be related to the homes you are selling, general real estate information, pieces about the area where you are selling to make it seem more desirable, etc. This provides people with interesting things to read and watch, and it helps with your search engine rankings.
Just as you need to have a good website, you also need to be active on social media. You should have pages on all of the major social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and you should be active on them. Engage with the people who are following you, and make sure that you do more than just push out marketing messages. Add links to your blogs and videos. When people have questions, answer them and engage.
Social media is no longer just a good idea. It has become essential for all sorts of businesses, including real estate.
You need to know as much as possible about the communities where you will be selling if you hope to get and retain leads. When people speak with you about buying or selling their property, they may have questions about the community. They want to know what other homes are selling for in the neighborhood. Parents who are considering buying a home want to know more about the schools. People want to know whether it’s a safe neighborhood, or not.
They need to see you as an expert on the neighborhood. You’ll want to know more about the places to dine, the things to do, where to shop for groceries, etc. Having this knowledge will come in handy when people have questions. It can also help to strengthen their trust in you.
You could host an in-person or online seminar for buyers or sellers. Seminars for first-time buyers are popular. You can provide the buyers with all of the important information they need to know and the things they need to do to get ready to buy. Often, at least some of those who attend the seminar will want to do business with you.
One of the best and most reliable means of getting new leads is to work with a high-quality lead generation company. LeadOptix can provide you with real-time, high-quality leads. It’s a low-cost way to get more leads that can convert.
These are some of the many ways that you can start to get more leads for your real estate business. Consider the simple things you can do that other agents are doing, but don’t be afraid to think outside of the box to increase the number of leads you get. Becoming more involved in the community, sponsoring a Little League team, holding pet adoption events, etc. helps to get your brand out there. Even if someone might not be ready to buy or sell right now, they will remember you. They will also let their friends and family who are ready for a real estate agent know about you.
