Special offer

A letter worth...$6500?

By
Education & Training with Consistent Clients

The old statistic is that the average family moves and changes homes about every 7 years. But I would guess that with the cooler real estate market we’ve had the last few years, that’s gone down quite a bit. If you’ve been in business longer than that, have you noticed less repeat customers coming back to you to upgrade or change homes during the “recession”?

If so, this means that there’s a large group that would probably like to change homes, but have held back because they’re concerned about not getting a price for their home that is high enough to pay off their mortgage, or because they dread the idea of their home languishing on the market for months and months.

But with the new $6500 repeat buyers credit, you have a great reason to contact past clients and see how things have been for them. Since the law requires that they’ve been in their home for at least 5 years, this will be a group that you might not have spoken with much. (Hopefully you have been keeping in touch with them – you’re trying to build a referral based business!) But even if you haven’t, but have been wanting to catch back up with past clients, this is a great “in”.

Be creative, and come up with a catchy brochure or simple letter asking if they’ve been waiting for good news before they start their next home search, then give info on the new tax credit, and have them contact you to receive a Current market analysis of their home, and to learn more about the very affordable homes in their area.

real estate marketing tip: postcardsIf you don’t have past clients that fit the criteria of 5 years in their home, then talk to current and recent past clients. They can tell their friends about the new tax credit, and mention that you as their Realtor are keeping up to date, and can tell them all about it. Great way to generate referrals!

 

 

 

 

 

Rich Rogala - real estate marketing coach on Twitter

Rich Rogala - real estate marketing coach on Facebook

Comments (4)

Lisa Schmitt
Coldwell Banker Honig-Bell - Plainfield, IL

When the credit was extended & expanded back in November I sent something to all of my leads that fit this criteria. It's helped a lot of move up buyers get off the fence. Yay!

Jan 14, 2010 01:19 PM
Rich Rogala
Consistent Clients - Chicago, IL
Real Estate Marketing Coach

That's great to hear! You never know what will prompt someone to take action, so regular contact is the way to go :)

Jan 15, 2010 07:15 AM
Lynn Johnson
Coldwell Banker Home Connection - Owatonna, MN
Owatonna, MN Real Estate

Rich - good info.  We've been doing the same thing and have been getting the word out to past clients through a targeted e-mail campaign.  I like the postcard idea and may follow up with something like that.  I know there's a lot of pent up demand out there.

Jan 16, 2010 06:30 AM
Vince Sadler
Dream Town - Chicago, IL

This is a great idea, I would like to try it and see my results!

Jan 28, 2011 02:14 PM