Get Real Estate Seller Leads for Success in Today's Market

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By R. Michael Brown

With record low inventory, real estate brokers and agents will have to be aggressive about finding and landing listings in this market. Listings are the #1 priority right now and competition for them is fierce. Time to step up your game.

Open Listings

Condos and apartments are perfect for Open Listings. GettyImages

"There are more people who need a place to live than there are places to live," said Dawn Pfaff, president and founder of My State MLS. "Open listings are a great option. To work in rentals and transfer those renters over to buyers is something that New York City agents have been doing for years. They make a fortune doing it because they get paid for the rental and then most of those renters turn into buyers a year later. Plus, some renters have to sell their property for many different reasons and you could get the listing. On top of that, when the agent manages a rental for the property owner, when that property owner is ready to buy and sell, they'll use you as the agent."  

Think condos and apartment buildings. That's low hanging fruit. My State MLS allows Open Listings unlike most local realtor board MLS's. Click here to see how Open Listings work.

New Home Sales

New construction homes in Arizona. GettyImages

"Make relationships with new home builders because there's a lot of local builders out there and they just build one or two houses," said Pfaff. "You can get a lot of business from those builders, and you can become their realtor if they're not a realtor themselves."

Approach master planned community new home builders too. The smart one's work with and compensate real estate agents. You can include there soon to be built homes as listings in My State MLS.

Divorce and Probate Lawyers

Divorces, family deaths, and liens against properties often result in property sales. Contact lawyers that specialize in these legal cases and offer your services as the real estate agent.  

Expired Listings

"Agents think they can just go after expired listings," said Pfaff. "You can't just go after expired listings because normally, agents go after the listings that just expired. That's a bad idea because generally the listings that just expired are either going to get renewed by the current real estate agent, or they have another agent already, or it's under contract. The best idea is to go after an old, expired listing, something that expired more than six months ago."

The reason that you want to do that is because the seller had wanted to sell their home at one point, and for some reason they either didn't sell it because it was priced wrong, or they changed their mind. But they really wanted to sell their home at that time. Now the market has gone way up and they might be ready to sell now.

And don't forget For Sale By Owner (FSBO) expired listings!

Older Tract or Master Planned Communities

The average homeowner stays in a house for about seven years. A popular and quality builder in Florida, DiVosta Homes, has loyal followers of repeat buyers. DiVosta homeowners average three to five years in their homes. They sell and move to another new DiVosta community and buy at pre-construction prices. After they do that cycle five to seven times, they have over a million dollars in liquid capital.  

"Prospect for seller leads in neighborhoods that are three to seven years old," recommends Pfaff. "Find homeowners who bought the home originally or are the first owner. You'll more than likely find a few homeowners who want to sell their home, but they haven't sold it yet." 

Social Media

Many agents try to find sellers on social media, but they aren't good at social media. They'll put up an occasional random post, treat it like publishing and just push content out. It won't be all that interesting or attention getting. And they don't engage with others on the platforms. It's called social for a reason. To be successful you must interact, make interesting or helpful comments, share, like posts, and more.

Tenisha Williams, CEO and Founder of Elite Realty Partners

"I had a really cool conversation with Tenisha Williams," said Pfaff. "She grew an entire company with 200 agents, a very successful business, using social media because she understands the algorithms on the platforms and knows what it takes to produce a lot of content, attract followers, and engage with the market," said Pfaff.

Look for our upcoming interview with Tenisha Williams on Go Home TV.  

You can out compete other agents for seller leads, but you have to be strategic and work really hard, especially in this tight market.

To see more ideas for generating seller leads, see 22 Ways to Generate Real Estate Listings in 2022 from Inman [Subscription may be required]