Struggling with the lingo/terminology…would anyone who has been successful mind sharing the expired listings letter or portions therof?
Infowell, thats the american way.
Investors bash agents and agents do the same. Thats why agents are trying to adjust legislation. To make everyone agents.
Bashing is what politicians do. I love getting an edge over the competition by bashing. 
Infowell you make some very good points. You’re obviously not a crusader. 
THAT’s HILARIOUS…
…a kinda outside…inside joke!!! 
Trupah, your message is great. Love it, keep up the good work.
Some people are in the know :deal:, while others are blaming everyone else for not getting their desired results :eyecrazy:.
Smart Investors and Smart Agents work together…there’s no benefit derived from bashing…none.
Maybe you have a point, agents can help investors pull up accurate comps and also deliver expired listings.
:fingersx:
I purchased IBuyHousesInc’s course which included 36 letters, 7 of them specific to expired listings plus post cards. They are designed to be sent in some sequence. I am planning on using them in my marketing campains.
Can you post your letter ,been trying differt letters.
As scary as it is to jump into this particular thread, I’m gonna offer my 2 cents anyway.
Instead of trying to copy what everyone else is writing, why not write your own letter? Incorporate all the reasons that a seller could benefit from calling you, rather than how great, big, or no ‘bs’ your company is.
When gurus get on stage and say, “Just use the direct mail letter in the manual. It worked for me.” I get so scared. I mean, if they’ve given it to 300 people in the room, and then to the other thousands of folks who’ve attended their events over the years, you’re looking at hundreds and thousands of the exact same letter going out to sellers. If a seller gets 3 of the exact same letters from investors and the only thing that’s changed is the name at the end of the letter, none of y’all are getting the lead.
Besides, you never know when the letter was written. It may be the result of ‘marketing incest’ where one guru copies from another who copies from another, and so on. By the time you get the letter, its 10 years old, hasn’t worked in years, and the wording used to get the seller motivated to call hasn’t been relevant for quite some time.
Insert your own personality and buying style into the letter. Don’t worry about messing up just yet. The key is to test in small batches, take action, and then tweak as you see fit.
Big Cheese
Big Cheese is right. The only way to come up with a perfect letter is to time test your own personality. If you have passed any english class, you were taught how to write a persuasive letter.
Just remember. come up with a good thesis sentence and use that sentence to build your introduction paragraph. Make sure your thesis has 3 benefits.
In your body paragraphs, break it down into three paragraphs, one for each of your benefits. Usually describe the benefits with two to three sentences.
Your last paragraph should be your conclusion. Sum up every thing that was talked about in the body briefly.
This post here will at least separate your from all the others, illiterate writers out there. Trust me, i have seen plenty of letters. And they all sucked. That is why i constantly get all the leads i can handle, by using the structure i just layed out.
Take it, use it, and prosper.
Most people I know would disregard anything resembling this and file it in the circular file (wastepaper basket). While you did catch their eye I doubt you gained their trust or respect. Would you let a foul mouthed person with poor grammar be involved with the biggest investment of your life? Doubt it.
As for the response rate: How many letters did you send vs how many calls did you receive? How many deals did you close?
I know some marketers like Dan Kennedy use language for shock value to let their customers know that they are real people, not some Johnny-Come-Lately investor. Rich is going after a certain type of people. That type of marketing isn’t for everyone.
Not to play ‘devil’s advocate’, but if he truly is getting 35% from his mailings, and that is people wanting to sell their house, not getting mad at the postcard he’s sending, then I think he outta keep doing what he’s doing. (And if he’s getting calls mostly from angry sellers who are offended - isn’t that more sellers for the rest of us?)
I would be more curious to know how you’ve fared using the term “guarantee” when talking about buying their house. You never know if the expired listing was the result of the price being marked up because the seller had unrealistic expectations, or maybe they refi’ed and are upside down against FMV, or even if they’re behind on payments and had hoped to list in order to avoid foreclosure - therefore driving up what’s owed on the house.
By guaranteeing to buy, I would think that you’ve hemmed yourself in when they call, especially if they’re upside down. Unless you’re going to give them some outrageous offer that they’d never accept but at least you offered to buy their house, then I don’t see how you can guarantee it.
I’m curious. Not advocating or putting down anything. Just looking for more information. Investor is a dirty word in the world right now and the more we as investors can promote buying with integrity, we all can profit from it.
Big Cheese
Why send a letter???
Send a contract to purchase.
Here is the deal on that if you send a letter then you have to go meet the seller make a deal.
Send a contract and if they like the price it is a deal if they don’t then that is one less house you need to see.
You know every market is different. In my market less than 5% of listings sell. Nationally according to the NAR only 14% of agents last more than 2 yrs in the biz. If you in a severe buyers market like I am the usual Realtor/MLS marketing progam is not effective because the buyers are not there. They can’t create a buyer out of smoke. I take advantage of that fact. It’s one of the reasons I relocated from a hot market to a market where I could actually get deals easily.
I’m not out to bash Realtors or anyone else. I just tell the truth. Anyone can sell a house in a hot market. That’s where you will see the % of MLS listings drop. In a cold market the % will be close to a 100%. That’s not any great reflection on the ability of Realtors, it’s an economical fact that many don’t want to pay for advertising for 6-12 months and put in the effort to sell on their own. It’s also a herd mentality. Everyone else uses a Realtor so should I.
More important than what’s in your letter is making personal face to face contact with the owner and offering your solution. This is a free country and no organization or trade group has a lock on buying or selling re. No one sells to an invisible buyer like one person suggested. Just send a contract. Right… You have to have some empathy and not come across like Scrooge. No one sells to someone they don’t know or like.
REI is a people business. If you don’t want to talk with people get a Reator to do it for you. They act as a buffer. They will be around for a long time. Their services are worthy if you need them.
EH
Thank you!!!
What are the statistics? Isn’t it something like 90% of sellers would never use the same agent again? With that in mind I think it makes perfect sense to bash agents, agents bash investors, they bash other agents… heck, agents even bash the FSBOs they’re trying to get business from!
Anyone you talk to who’s had their house listed for a long time with a non-performing agent, will tell you that they hate their agent. So you might as well target them in your marketing. You need to be careful not to be SO vicious that you actually push the seller to defend their agent.
But we all know that marketing is about bringing pain to the surface and then giving them your solution. Well, anyone with a house on the market for 90+ days has a severe pain, and it’s called a realtor!
I hear you. A lot of real estate agents make a ton of money working expired listings too.
I’m intrigued. Could you divulge more details? Also, what is your focus? Flipping? Cashflow? etc