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Properties that were on the market but did not sell before the listing’s expiry date are known as expired listings. Agents may get expired listing leads by locating or acquiring them and then contacting them personally or through lead nurturing programs and advertising via email, SMS, and direct mail. Expired listings may be a great source of leads for agents looking to target a certain niche or secondary market to increase sales.
REDX makes it simple to contact and nurture expired listing leads before they are discovered by other agents. It’s a real estate prospecting software that searches for expired MLS listings based on your criteria, saving you time and effort by removing the need to manually search for leads. For follow-up, your new leads are added to the platform’s Vortex client relationship management (CRM).
4 Ways to Find Leads from Expired Listings
To turn expired listings into active listing chances, you must first discover expired listing leads strategically. These sorts of leads may be found in a variety of ways, each with its own set of time and cost constraints. You may get leads for free by scanning listing sites and networking, or you can pay for them by buying them from lead-generating services.
Here are four methods for generating leads from expired listings:
1. Use the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
Many agents use the multiple listing service (MLS) to manually search for expired listings, copying and pasting each one into a contact list or CRM. Go to your MLS dashboard and choose the regions you wish to search by city or town to see leads that are due to expire. Set your search’s expiry date to within two to four weeks to identify postings that are about to expire. This will aid in the creation of a contact list.
Then, using the lead nurturing strategies outlined in the following section, you’ll need to contact sellers on your contact list on a regular basis to see if they’d want to relist their property with a new agent. While this strategy requires laborious data mining from the MLS and double-checking that the listing hasn’t expired, the leads you create are completely free, except for your time.
Example of an MLS service with a filter for expired listings (Source: Begin to Win)
Manually searching for expired MLS listings, although free, has a lot of moving pieces. You must build a follow-up plan for nurturing these leads in addition to executing these searches on a frequent basis.
Remember that expired listing leads take longer to convert since they most likely previously dealt with a listing agent and went through an emotional and stressful experience. You must earn their confidence and offer them hope that you may get a different outcome in order for them to try again.
This is why a CRM like Pipedrive may be transformative. Pipedrive is a cost-efficient and successful solution that automates emails, texts, and direct mailers while also using artificial intelligence (AI) to provide you with additional information about each individual contact. Pipedrive allows you to categorize your leads and decide which messages and campaigns to deliver in order to nurture and convert prospects via targeted marketing.
2. Consult with other real estate professionals
Through networking, email, and social media, cultivate connections with real estate brokers who are willing to exchange their expired listings for your own leads. Some real estate agents may disclose their expired listings for a fee or commission in addition to sharing leads. Because no two agents advertise a house, in the same manner, you may be able to effectively sell their listing(s) utilizing a different marketing approach.
You can easily identify and join national networking organizations like Referral Exchange or Agent’s Referral Network, or you may network with other real estate agents in local groups via Meetup. Consider joining one of the numerous local chapters of real estate organizations, such as:
- NAR; National Association of Realtors (National Association of Realtors
- NAHREP; National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals
- IREM; Institute of Real Estate Management
- NREIA; National Real Estate Investors Association
- NAREB; National Association of Real Estate Brokers
- WCR; Women’s Council of Realtors
3. Purchase Expired Ads
If you want to target expired listing leads but don’t have time to look for them, you may purchase them instead. While some real estate brokers may be hesitant to purchase leads, it does away with the necessity to scrape what is effectively the same information from public databases and the MLS on their own. Buy from a respected online lead platform and use search criteria based on your location, property type, and real estate agent objectives to get a quality list of expired leads.
The REDX lead generating platform is a cost-effective and efficient way to get leads. It scours the MLS for accurate contact info based on your criteria using automation. You can examine lead contact information, tax information, and listing data with a single click by delivering For Sale By Owner (FSBO) and expired leads into the platform’s Vortex CRM.
4. Perform a public records search
Another free approach to getting real estate leads is to search public records for expired listings, albeit this is the most time-consuming. To do so, go to your local public records archive, which is usually located in a city hall or county courthouse, and request access to your area’s listed records. The purchase price history, divorce proceedings, estate references, and time on the market are all things that these data might reveal about a property and its owner.
It’s worth noting that real estate brokers often spend hours sifting through paperwork or searching web databases for proper contact information for an expired listing. Despite the fact that this strategy is free, you should examine if the time spent discovering one or two leads is costing you too many hours that could be spent on active sales and lead nurturing.
7 Ways to Nurture & Convert Expired Listings Leads
Now that you’ve discovered fresh leads among expired listings that need your help, it’s time to employ tools to convert these leads into customers or nurture them until they’re ready to hire you. Automating marketing communications, posting targeted advertising, and personally contacting expired listing customers may all provide excellent results.
Here are seven suggestions for converting and nurturing expired listing clients:
1. Send a Letter of Expired Listing
While phone calls and emails are quicker and more direct ways to contact expired listing leads, you could have trouble reaching the owner. Sending an expired listing letter is another approach to interacting with sellers on a human level. Make sure you use the professional letterhead and sign each one individually. Personalize your message, but keep the attention on the seller rather than on yourself.
Close the letter with an offer to schedule a meeting to explore your sales alternatives in further detail. If you’ve tried numerous times to contact a seller, your letter must grab their attention by laying out a clear sales route and offering new marketing ideas. Here are professional suggestions for writing the greatest expired listings letter if you want to brush up on your abilities and receive advice for effectively employing letters for lead creation.
Excerpt of an example expired listing letter (Source: Finger Lakes Realtor & Copywriter Don Stevens)
2. Create Drip Marketing Programs
Drip marketing campaigns are a series of automated emails delivered at regular intervals to your contact list. They want to help homeowners with expired listings go through the sales funnel and relist their house with you as their agent. Drip campaigns are a tried-and-true approach to nurturing leads on a regular basis, which is crucial for obtaining new listings.
However, sending emails too often might make your communications seem spammy. While sending an email shortly after meeting or being introduced to a new lead is a good idea, follow-up emails should be spread out between two days and two weeks to avoid annoying a prospective contact. Successful real estate agents employ testing and analytics to fine-tune their marketing strategies until they discover the optimal moment.
Make sure the emails in your drip campaign provide value rather than merely a sales pitch. Include information such as area and market data, seasonal greetings, useful hints, and property announcements that have “just sold.” You may provide information on what causes listings to expire, simple improvements that can avoid it, or case studies on how you’ve sold previously expired listings to your expired listings leads.
The following is an example of a drip email marketing process (Source: Placester)
To get started with email drip campaigns, choose an email marketing solution that has the features you need, as well as suggestions and instructions on how to create the most effective drip emails. Real estate agents will benefit from Placester’s capabilities. They provide a website builder and access to expert marketing services in addition to email marketing. The best part is that you may get started at no cost.
3. Use social media to promote your business.
These platforms offer some of the most extensive targeting tools accessible online, and social media real estate advertising is shown on social feeds. Although there is a learning curve, using social media advertisements to get your name and offer in front of owners of expired or soon-to-expire listings may be a very efficient approach to get your name and offer in front of them.
Your real estate marketing must be precise and address the issues that expired listing owners are experiencing. Demonstrate to them that you are a knowledgeable, competent real estate agent who can sell their home and that you really care about them. In an ideal world, your ad would direct potential sellers to a dedicated real estate landing page where you can provide them with something of value in return for their contact information, such as a list of frequent reasons properties fail to sell.
An example of a Facebook ad that targets expired listings (Source: Facebook)
Work with Artur’in’s digital marketing professionals if you don’t have time to learn how to build and run your own real estate advertisements. Artur’in specializes in Google, Facebook, and other ad management services for real estate agents, so they can deliver you greater results in less time.
Alternatively, if you want a tool to assist you to build your advertising without totally outsourcing the process, consider Real Geeks’ Facebook ad tool. This tool can help you produce real estate advertising in minutes and give you the advice you need to get them in front of the appropriate people.
4. Plan and carry out SMS marketing campaigns
SMS stands for “short messaging service,” and it is a text-based means of interacting and engaging with prospects. Text marketing, with a 98 percent open rate, has by far the best chance of reaching your connections. This is a great method to stay in contact with prospective sellers regarding open houses or interested buyers, and it also tells the homeowner that you’re accessible and eager to work with them.
Due to spam rules and the personal nature of a text, an SMS campaign for expired listings should only be utilized after first contact. You must have the authorization to send marketing communications through text, just as you must have permission to send marketing messages via email. Texting someone who has not given their consent to receive text messages might be deemed an invasion of their privacy and a legal infraction. Your phone number may also be put on blacklists and internet complaint databases if receivers report your messages as spam.
Marketing text example (Source: Dial My Calls)
To keep on top of your real estate lead creation and follow-up, consider employing automation technologies from a CRM like LionDesk. LionDesk can help you build a powerful website, send out physical mailers automatically, and keep track of all of your connections. You may also use the texting platform to plan marketing campaigns and keep track of all of your chats.
5. Send eye-catching mailers to lapsed listing leads
Direct mailers, such as brochures and real estate postcards, may help a seller go through the contemplation stage of relisting an expired property with you. Send an eye-catching postcard to expired listing leads, urging them to contact you and schedule a meeting to see how your marketing plan may assist them in achieving their objective of selling.
(Source: ProspectsPLUS!) An example of direct mail marketing to expired listing leads.
Use a service that caters to real estate agents and gives significant time savings over creating mailers yourself if you want to send mailers that regularly garner replies. ProspectsPLUS! has templates for expired listings that are ready to use. Start with one of their pre-made templates, then fill in the blanks with information on previous homes you’ve sold in challenging areas or during periods of low demand. Make sure your mailer includes a clear call to action (CTA) encouraging the recipient to contact you to explore their own alternatives.
6. Call & Email Expired Listing Owners Directly
Contacting leads directly is the most tried-and-true approach to converting them into new customers. Create scripts for expired listing marketing calls and emails, and bear in mind that expired listing owners are not the same as other sorts of leads. Before attempting to educate them about their unsuccessful effort to sell their house, it’s extremely crucial to create rapport with sellers who have just had a poor experience.
Using expired listing scripts, like any other kind of cold calling or emailing, lets you connect with prospects more quickly and effectively. Your expired listing script should be brief, give the next step, and provide a solution for the homeowner while also building rapport and furthering the dialogue.
Here are a few of the most important things to remember while writing an expired listing script:
- Introduce yourself briefly.
- Keep it short and sweet; go right to the point.
- Make your intentions and offer crystal clear.
- Concentrate on the vendor.
- Demonstrate why you’re the best person for the job when it comes to selling their house.
- Address typical stumbling blocks and annoyances.
- Request a meeting time (if sending by email, include a link to your appointment booking software, such as Calendly)
Chime’s communication toolset may be the most powerful and efficient tool for calls, emails, and even texts. Its power dialer and click-to-call features instantly dial the lead’s phone number, leave a message that you prerecord, schedule follow-up calls, and add comments. Chime also provides a number of email connectors and templates for different real estate lead kinds.
7. Give a presentation about marketing strategy
When a homeowner puts in all of the effort to sell their house and then discovers that their listing has expired, they are often dissatisfied and burned out. Providing them with a presentation of your marketing plan will help them understand what went wrong during their last effort and demonstrate how you can do the task effectively.
Important marketing methods, house attributes, or parts of the property that were overlooked during the initial effort, as well as a few sales approaches, should be highlighted. When feasible, add exact data on prior successful sales and highlight the marketing tools or methods you’ve effectively employed in the past. Finally, your marketing presentation demonstrates your commitment to selling the expired listing, which may prompt the homeowner to relist their house.
Your marketing presentation must seem professional in order to win over reluctant customers. You may hire graphic designers and marketing experts on Fiverr to assist you in creating well-designed, captivating presentations that will wow your prospects. Find a freelance expert and design that fits your company goals and brand style by selecting from a range of pricing ranges and experience levels.
5 Ways to Improve Your Chances of Getting Expired Listings
Owners are hesitant to go through the selling procedure again after a failed effort, making expired listings difficult to obtain. They may get disappointed, overwhelmed, and hesitant to work with another real estate agent. As a consequence, keep the following points in mind while addressing expired listing leads:
- Do your homework: It’s crucial to question the seller why they think their house didn’t sell, but it’s also an opportunity to show off your knowledge. Examine comparable sales in the region and search for any price or marketing faults made by the prior agent.
- Differentiate yourself: Explain how your brokerage and marketing strategy differs from the competition and how your approach will be superior to the prior attempt.
- Offer client testimonials and social evidence: Social proof, such as favorable reviews and testimonials from previous clients, helps to build trust and increases the seller’s confidence in your ability to sell their house.
- Be patient: Sellers who were unsuccessful the first time around may take a long time, maybe months, before agreeing to work with another agency.
- Be persistent: While targeting sellers with recently expired listings is a smart idea, don’t forget to also target sellers whose leads expired six to 36 months ago, as they may be more inclined to give a new agent a try.
Most Commonly Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the costs of expiring listings?
Expired postings have two forms of costs: time and money. Scraping the MLS and combing through a mountain of public documents might take a long time.
When it comes to expired listings, why do I need a CRM?
A customer relationship management system (CRM) allows real estate brokers to follow the status of leads throughout the sales cycle. You must keep track of where each lead is in the sales funnel, whether you purchase expired listing leads or explore through the MLS.
How long does it take to receive a listing that has expired?
An expired listing lead might take anything from days to months to turn into a customer. Finding a new method for the seller via marketing, real estate agent connections, or house placement is the most crucial component of dealing with expired listing leads. Obtaining an expired real estate listing is highly dependent on your ability to establish trust with the owner and persuade them of the benefits of hiring a new real estate agent.
Conclusion
Real estate agents often relist expired properties with success, providing them with a fantastic chance to increase their company and revenue. Agents seeking a specialty emphasis or a supplemental source of real estate revenue could pursue expired listings. Obtaining expired listings takes time, but agents who have a strong marketing plan, a well-organized CRM, and well-crafted phone, email, and letter outreach may boost the chances of selling these properties.
