What has worked best for you to locate motivated sellers? I’m thinking of doing post card mailings, but I’d like to hear the collective wisdom - thanks!
Depending on what they say they might work! Generally you can plan on a response rate of about 1-2% if they are written well enough. Personally I get 700-800 leads a week so I wish I was more help… If I remember anything I will add it to the post.
You get 700-800 leads every week? Wow - mind sharing how?
ts
You need to know what some people call a lead. In my world the is getting that many suspects not that many prospects. A suspect is someone with a situation that might cause them to sell, a lead is someone that has indicated they maybe will sell. A prospect is someone that will sell but I need to find out if we have a seller that will sell at my price. Example: A FSBO is a prospect, they have already left the suspect, lead category to me. but I need to find out if there are a motivated seller.
Real estate agents they have expired listings etc, Professionals that are around motivated sellers like attorneys, insurance agents, etc These ways cost no money. Direct mailings work great also flyers, business cards, bandits signs, other investors and wholesalers.
If the listing is expired are they really motivated? If they are motivated wouldn’t they be taking all offers.
I work directly with a larger Lender. I have for 4 1/2 years now. We get about a 50-60% response rate and all we get paid no matter what we do. If we contact them we get paid. That is the simple answer tspencer.
Sometimes, motivation is a matter of timing. The idea is that the day that seller goes from being semi-motivated to being highly motivated is the day they get your yellow letter/postcard/phone call/knock on the door with the solution to their problem.
Some people have to go through the experience of having their house not sell and having the listing expire before they will begin to accept the reality of what their house is worth.
Thanks everyone. Figureditout: Thank you - I’m a bit confused - you get a 50-60% response rate to mailings you do to who/what?
Thanks-
Suspect vs Prospect :biggrin
I love that.
This is why continuous/consistent marketing is the secret. It’s not a one-off marketing campaign. Otherwise, we lose the motivated sellers to the next hack that happens to mail that month while we sit on our thumbs wondering why nobody is calling us, or going to our website.
Instead we capture the motivated sellers as they occur over time. With this approach we are more likely to catch the evolving suspect at the right moment when he turns into a prospect. What’s more, fewer competitors will know this prospect exists at the point of conversion. And …perhaps we’re the only marketer that the seller still remembers when he becomes a prospect.
Continuous marketing, is not only to catch the suddenly-motivated in the course of time, but it’s also needed to embed our message/solution in the minds of our suspects. So, by the time the “suspect” turns into a “prospect,” he thinks of us first.
All that said, I’ve done exactly the ‘wrong’ thing by sending only one postcard to a farm area (to check the temperature of my farm) and falsely determined that it was cold and stopped mailing. As a result, I couldn’t embed my message in my farm’s consciousness. However, surprisingly, one suspect kept my card for a year, and then decided to call me; turning from suspect to prospect. Yes, he saved my card for a year!!!
Well, imagine if I were depending on a one-off mailing, and then had to wait a year for a solid prospects to call me. That would be pretty discouraging strategy.
However, I think that happens to people who don’t understand how marketing should actually work.
Good post.
What about simple checking your MLS to see the history of a listing? I would think reaching out to sellers who’ve had a home on the market for a long period of time, and then withdrawn it would be good candidates.
Finding motivated sellers ain’t easy though. Some do give up on their work, some still go on. I guess it will depend on how will you view your agent then.
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What about simple checking your MLS to see the history of a listing? I would think reaching out to sellers who’ve had a home on the market for a long period of time, and then withdrawn it would be good candidates.
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Thats just what I do and have better luck than with Expired. FOR SALE BY OWNERS, is another great way to find sellers. Your building a relationship not trying to get a listing. Take a look at their homes. How can you best help them. Don’t talk listen, to their needs. Know its not about YOU, its about wanting to help them more.
Finding motivated home sellers isn’t really all that difficult - it’s a matter of either time and effort or money. It’s really hard if someone isn’t willing to invest one or the other.
Effort: Bandit signs, building relationships with professionals (lawyers, CPAs, etc), driving neighborhoods looking for vacant homes, scanning NOD lists, regular craigslist/backpage posts, SEO/linkbuilding/writing articles, etc.
Cost: TV, Radio, Billboards, direct mail, yellow pages, buying motivated seller leads, PPC advertising, display advertising, using bird dogs, etc.
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You said “work directly with a large lender”. In what capacity are you working with the lender? What sort of lender is this? Hard money, consumer credit, mortgage originator, etc?
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50% to 60% response rate implies that everyone will tend to reply after two mailings. If you were offering to mail people $100 with no strings I would expect a high take up. Just what sort of offer are you making and how are the lists complied? The response rate is off the chart based on any normal standard for direct response advertising. Assuming your percentages are accurate, there must be something very non-traditional about the marketing.
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Who is getting paid no matter what you do? That tends to imply you get paid for showing up rather than closing sales with the people who respond. Tell us how that works.
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If you contact them you get paid? Are you saying you are doing follow up and you are being paid to make calls? Like a call center where the people on the phone are paid to make calls?
Maybe it is just me. The response to tspencer just does not make sense without more context and information.
BTW - I tried your website. It is not working very well at present. That includes the HTML version. Just what does your company do (the one at the website)?
I agree with Javipa on continuous and consistent marketing. The level of the Seller’s motivation varies, depending on the depth of his situation at the time you get a hold of them. There are really those sellers that have to experience what it is like to sell their properties through listing and at their price before they can even begin to understand the option of doing business with us. I guess the most important thing really is you build rapport with all your leads and be nice regardless if you end up doing a deal with them or not, cause you never know, they might change their minds in the future or they could spread word about you to others they know. :smile
Of course every motivated seller checks the prices indices on similar properties to get the idea of what to expect. Once he knows the cost of the current and his would-be flat, he is ready to organize negotiations and get benefits! I sold my house online and I think I have read plenty of information before doing it. Every seller is motivated! Because everything depends on him and his agent.
The best way to find motivated sellers are to constantly stay in front of their faces. Also, using landing pages to automatically capture contact data and “flag” them based on how many “hoops” they jump thru. For instance, if they fill out 2 landing pages in a row, now you know they are “HOT LEADS”.
Also, reaching out to pre-foreclosure leads can help. They will be in a “distressed” situation and may take a better “deal” than most sellers.
All of this can be done, as well as analyzation of the properties, using REI BlackBook. If you have not heard of it, check it out. They have free training on the tools and can help you from start to finish of a deal flow. Go request a FREE demo and see what they have to offer.
Time: Direct mail, post cards, bandit signs, yellow letters, t-shirt, website
Product Type: Single Family Residences
Money:: Realtors who bring me leads before the property hits the MLS
Product Type: Multi-Families
Along with any marketing method, keeping tracking of where your leads are
coming from allows you stretch your dollars.
:biggrin Good Luck!!! :biggrin