| Expired listings are the hottest "cold lead" you can | | | | own handwriting, even multi-card campaigns for |
| find. These people tried to sell their home, and the | | | | roughly $.52 per postcard. This is especially |
| market unapologetically told them it didn't want it, | | | | effective for postcard campaigns, where doing it |
| which creates a more motivated seller with a | | | | oneself would get horribly complicated and |
| dose of realism. If you're in a reasonably busy | | | | time-consuming. This card automation system |
| market, you could probably make a healthy living | | | | allows for pre-created campaigns and typically |
| from just expired listing marketing alone. | | | | includes scanning of your handwriting to turn it |
| There are several people representing their | | | | into a font. One upside to this is if you subscribe |
| system as the magic bullet for this booming | | | | to a 3rd-party data source, you can even, with a |
| market. In this article, I'll show you how to | | | | bit of work, make this 100% hands-free. |
| leverage some off the shelf parts and very | | | | Third, you'll need your message. This can be a bit |
| quickly, and efficiently create your own expired | | | | tricky, because it's easy to fall into being the |
| listings marketing system. Our goal for you is | | | | bearer of bad news. Personally, I'm a big believer |
| creating a very turn-key system that simply | | | | in using video, because people are busy, and |
| delivers leads to you with minimal to no work. | | | | sometimes lazy. If they need to read a lot, you'll |
| Any expired listings system will require several | | | | need to catch them with a killer headline, or your |
| parts: | | | | postcard will go straight to the trash. Two proven |
| First, you'll need source data of expired listings. | | | | techniques I've seen work are to first, tell them |
| Typically this coms from your MLS, but there are | | | | it's more than just about the price, and second to |
| 3rd-party providers of this as well, which will | | | | make it clear "the Market" has told you the house |
| attempt to run a name-match on the address, | | | | isn't worth that. Using a video, phrased as a 3rd |
| and will send you data in a format easier to deal | | | | party, can also deliver news the seller doesn't |
| with. One such company is TheRedX (no | | | | want to hear - which is that the house was |
| affiliation), though you can certainly get this data | | | | probably overpriced. |
| free from your MLS. What one pays for is | | | | Only 1.5% of all agents follow up over 5 times, |
| ease-of-use, as they will email you a CSV file. My | | | | yet 60% of sales happen after the 5th contact. |
| opinion is this service is definitely worth the cost, | | | | See the pattern? Now you know the reason for |
| but for those concerned more about money than | | | | the 80/20 rule, about 20% of the real estate |
| time, you can certainly pull this data yourself, then | | | | agents outselling the other 80%. The trick: |
| key it into a reverse-address-lookup to try and | | | | automated followup, via email sequential |
| get a resident's name. | | | | autoresponders and card campaign automation. |
| Second, you'll need a way to get in front of these | | | | Your expired listing marketing system should let |
| potential listings, which will require using postcards. | | | | the potential seller know it's about pricing, |
| In most cases, a phone number is not available or | | | | promotion, and presentation. They may be able to |
| the resident is on the do-not-call list. It's not | | | | leave the price as-is, provided they increase how |
| enough. | | | | the home is presented (read: add staging, re-paint, |
| Here you have a few choices:a. You can wait until | | | | cosmetic repairs, etc.), and promotion (read: reach |
| the listings stack up to 100 or more, then use a | | | | a wider audience). If you are the one to tell them |
| postcard service to print and send them all at | | | | their house is overpriced, they'll shoot the |
| once. This is inferior because expired leads | | | | messenger. Don't be that casualty. Instead, try |
| depreciate in a matter of hours, and within a few | | | | "the market of supply and demand has told us in |
| days are pretty much worthless. You need to | | | | it's current condition, the price requires |
| reach the potential seller very quickly. You need | | | | adjustment." I like to remind people I'm like the |
| the right information seen by the right people at | | | | weatherman - I don't make the weather, I just |
| the right time.b. You can deliver them to the | | | | let you know how to prepare. Expired listing |
| house, or have someone else do it. This is the | | | | sellers are probably frustrated, so use caution in |
| best for timeliness, as if you're first in line, you | | | | your language. |
| can "lay a bear trap" for other real estate agents, | | | | Our company, has produced a customizable video |
| as I'll show you in a bit. This helps you get the | | | | called "Help! My Home Won't Sell" or "Why Didn't |
| listing, but is time-consuming, or costly if you hire | | | | My Home Sell?". If you decide to produce your |
| someone else to deliver these for you.c. You can | | | | own video, be sure to have a crystal-clear "call to |
| pre-print the postcards, then hand-address them | | | | action" for them to call you at the end, and |
| as you get the data. This is a bit of work to set | | | | illustrate the value by doing so. |
| up, but low cost overall. The biggest drawback to | | | | Whatever course you choose, I hope this helps |
| this is that it will require your time every day, and | | | | you get more business. Real estate marketing is |
| most people quickly fall off doing this as soon as | | | | competitive, but can lead to many closed |
| they get busy. Also, if you use multiple cards, this | | | | transactions and millions in income. Investing just a |
| can get complicated quickly, as you'll have certain | | | | few hours to set up your turn-key expired listings |
| people on day 1, others on day 2, others on day | | | | marketing can provide a pillar of business for |
| 3.d. You can purchase a postcard automation | | | | years to come. |
| system which will print, stamp, and mail, in your | | | | |