Wondering how to get real estate listings in today’s market? Don’t have enough seller leads? Don’t sweat it. Some of the most successful luxury real estate agents in the country struggled just as hard. Learning their secrets to getting real estate listings can be a game-changer for your career.
To get you started, here are my top strategies for Realtors looking to move from being buyers agents to listings agents to use to get real estate listings in 2022.
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Talk to Your Neighbors About Real Estate
When most agents start their careers, they tend to be a buyers agent, almost by default. I think it’s because when you start telling people in your sphere of influence that you are in real estate, the tendency is for them to approach you about finding a home. It just was a natural fit.
You will; however, figure out very quickly that in order to have long-term success in real estate, you must have listings. The most successful agents in the country are listing agents.
At first, this can be a challenging transition, as you don’t have the track record. Working with buyers can feel less like selling – you’re just showing them listings. However, in order to gain listings you really have to sell YOU, and YOUR marketing plan for the sellers property – You have to sell YOU to the seller.
In order to make the transition from buyers agent to listing agent, you need a solid real estate listing presentation!
Send Out Just Sold Postcards
My best advice is to always be real and know your stuff. Ask your buyers where they reside upfront and offer to help them sell their property or work on it with another agent who specializes in their area. Show them you know your stuff and want to help them make the transition possible.
‘Skip the Line’ for Exclusive Seller Leads
If you’re just starting out or need more leads, you need to find a way to “skip the line” and get yourself in front of homeowners. One easy way to do it is to buy exclusive seller leads and training from CHEM.digtial. One flat monthly rate gets you a guaranteed number of leads to work every month.
Show Off Your Real Estate Knowledge in Social Situations
I give the same advice to all of the newer agents that I mentor and assist. Be as knowledgeable as you can be about the NYC market, let your passion for the business always shine bright, and you never know where business is going to come from.
Put everything into every single detail of a transaction with your client—showings, open houses, and so on. Attention to detail and caring more than any other agent will always produce referrals, which will then roll into more business. I attribute much of my success in my career to making my business quality-oriented, not quantity-oriented.”
Distribute Your Cards in Your Farm Area
If you want to be a listing agent, invest in yourself more than you invest in your career, become the most knowledgeable agent, and be prepared with facts to know more than any experienced agent. The number of years in the business will never equal current knowledge of how real estate is handled. LEARN, LEARN, LEARN–READ, READ, READ.”
Focus on Your Mission, Vision & Values First
I would advise new agents to take a step back and really think through how they are uniquely positioned to help sellers, before trying to become a listing agent. Matching with buyers is relatively easy—they just want someone they like to open doors and walk them through the transaction. Working with homeowners is much more complicated.
A homeowner’s choice of agent is driven more by what you offer and how it benefits them. But be careful not to try to offer everything to everyone, which is why focusing on your own mission, vision, and values is a crucial first step to getting the right sellers to resonate with you and hire you.
Join a Team as a Junior Agent or Broker Assistant
For new agents trying to get listings, the absolute best thing you can do is partner with a team, or a well-known listing agent, to make sure you get a listing in the first place. Too many agents don’t want to give up any of their commission to a team leader, but at the end of the day, it’s better to get something and build your career than get 100% of nothing.
The other thing that you must do is go on as many listing appointments as possible. You should also shadow a top agent if at all possible, and take the time to build your property marketing plan. It should be a four- to five-page document with 50 bullet points that cover your marketing plan and what you bring to the table as a listing agent.
When you’re actually on a listing appointment, you need to be able to explain why your brokerage is the best for their needs, and, more importantly, why your marketing plan is the best marketing plan to get their home sold quickly and for top dollar.
It takes a lot of practice, but if you really work on it, role play, practice, and prepare for it, you’ll be ready to crush any listing appointment that you land. Once you get on a roll, closing sellers becomes second nature. All it takes are those first few yeses and the willingness to commit to becoming a better agent.
For seasoned buyer’s agents, I would offer the same advice, perhaps with the caveat of being more selective with the buyers that you choose to work with so you can spend more time focusing on your listing business, marketing plan, and listing systems that will support your business. At the end of the day, you have to build it. If you build it, they will come.
Talk Up How Many Eager Buyers You Have
The old saying, ‘Agents that list, last’ is so true. Agents with listings have a better chance of gauging the growth of their business and also have the ability to forecast their income.”
Find a Great Listing Agent & Ask Them to Mentor You
Don’t settle. Find a mentor who is passionate about teaching and guiding you. Don’t give up. Most people give up right before they hit gold.
Master the Art of Cold Calling
Remember that you’re talking to people, and treat your sellers and landlords the way you’d want them to treat you. If you see leads as a source of a commission check—you’ll fail. It’s a fairly easy thing to do, if you’re a seller or landlord … spotting an agent disinterested in your needs, and only interested in your property.
Offer Broker Price Opinions to Neighbors
Ask yourself why anyone would list with you? Identifying valid reasons that can resonate with both a seller and your authentic self is incredibly important. Once that’s done, make contact with motivated sellers and ask for a listing appointment. The secret to receiving is asking!
Be Persistent
Work on bolstering your social platform! Establish a strong social link to your circle and spread it out with Google, Instagram, Facebook, and so forth. With seasoned buyer’s agents looking to establish as a listing agent, simply reach out to your client sphere that you have built on the buy-side and see who’s looking to sell, and ask for referrals from your clients that had confidence in you to help secure a purchase. It’s all about relationships and confidence in yourself!
Hone Your Elevator Pitch
There are a million avenues one can travel in real estate. There’s no one way to be successful—some agents build entire careers out of specializing in one sliver of the market—whether it be new dev, condo resales, co-ops, commercial, multi-families, or even rentals. Focus on going in the direction you’re most interested in—then finding the people in positions you want to get to and ask for their help.
Don’t be too proud to ask for help. Check your ego at the door. Anytime you get an opportunity to pitch a seller, recruit the best agent you can to go with you and offer to split 50/50. Don’t choose the agent with 50 glittery sales listings that are all in one new development—choose the agent who has 50 different property listings. Those are the agents who can teach you how to pitch to anyone, anytime, anyplace.
Learn to Promote Yourself
Self-promote, either by traditional advertising such as mailers (postcards, letters) or even print ads in local newspapers. However, you really must become fluent in social media. That’s the only way you will let the planet know who you are! I am constantly posting something that has to do with real estate at least once a week on my LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Nurture Your Buyers After Closing
Get in front of buyers any way you can. Help seasoned agents with their open houses and follow up relentlessly with the buyers you meet.
Use Handwritten Flyers, Postcards, or Letters
Know how to feel at ease with yourself—and your knowledge. There will be pitches you go on where your insecurity will be translated to you losing the listing.
Create Case Studies on Improving Deals
Learn from your mistakes! Analyze each deal and listing appointment and work on rebuttals, and reasons you lost a deal, a deal started to unravel, a client complained or became frustrated. Also, things that worked!
Work Your Sphere of Influence
Keep in very regular contact and really work the people you know for their business, and l referrals. Referrals/warm introductions are the easiest business to earn.
How to Get Listings—FAST
Now that you’ve learned how to get listings using the secret strategies of some of the most successful agents in the country, here are a few proven methods from our own real estate coaches to help you get listings in today’s low-inventory housing market.
Convert Open House Visitors
While the odds of someone making an offer on the spot at your open house are slim to none, a huge percentage of them are looking to move, which means they’re going to need to sell the home they live in now. In order to convert them, have some icebreaker scripts ready to go, and make sure your website has tons of advice for sellers and shows off your marketing chops. A drip campaign promising off-market listings or market reports can be a compelling offer.
Buy More Leads
There’s no way to put this delicately, so I’m just going to say it: The more leads you buy, the more opportunities you have to convert them and get listings. It’s basic math. So get your listing presentation and lead nurturing campaigns ready to go, and up your spend on buyer and seller leads.
Buy More Pay-per-Click (PPC) Ads Targeting Homeowners
Homeowners today spend far more time researching the market online, so if you want to get listings fast, target their searches and social media and give them what they’re looking for.
Learn to Cold Call Expired Listings
Expired listings are a great way to get real estate listings quickly because you already know they want to sell. Half the work is done for you already. That said, cold calling expireds isn’t easy, and you’re going to have to devote at least an hour per day to it if you want to actually get listings. Having great scripts and practicing them is also essential.
Convert Rental Customers
If you’re working rentals, you may not realize that converting them to buyers might be easier than you think. After all, many renters have excellent credit and cash on hand but might not have done the math on how homeownership can save them money, or the benefits of buying in your farm area. You already know they need to move, right?
Prospect Relocation Sellers on LinkedIn
While most agents already use LinkedIn to get buyer leads, most don’t do the opposite and try to find sellers. Here’s how to do it: Look for large companies that are relocating from your city and then connect with HR or individual employees on LinkedIn.
Pitch Real Estate Investors
I know what you’re thinking: Why would investors need you in a slowing economy? Aren’t you expensive? Well, yes, but even if they have a license, flipping their properties for a decent profit in a down market is going to be a lot more work for them. Make their lives easier by offering your services.
Leverage Technology to Lower Your Cost Per Lead by 20%
When they learn how expensive seller leads are, many new listing agents get cold feet. Who could blame them? The competition for listings is fiercer than ever so every penny spent chasing leads counts. That’s why it’s crucial to use a lead generation platform that has the team and experience to bring your cost per lead back down to earth.
We have managed to lower our clients’ cost per lead by 20% year-over-year. No small feat when you learn. If you want to get serious about getting listings, you need to get serious about your technology.
Schedule a free consultation to n lean more about lowering your cost per lead with CHEM.agency
Get A Free Consultation
See How We Get You REAL Results.
SEM – Unlock massive amounts of traffic with Search Engine Marketing (SEM) using a combined SEO/PPC strategies with clear ROI. See REAL Results
SOCIAL / EMAIL – our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic back to your website for lead generation.
CRM – Tie all of your marketing efforts together, track your contacts across all channels, automate follow-up, and measure REAL results.
Conclusion
Have a great story about landing your first listing or have some great advice for new agents trying to learn how to get listings? Let me know in the comments!
