Do you work expired listings? This is a great niche to be in at this time. When I started out in Real Estate Jimmy Carter was President and interest rates were at 21%! People told me I was nuts to go into Real Estate then! How will you ever make it, they asked? I never doubted whether I could do this. The first company I worked for was Merrill Lynch Realty in Santa Rosa California. Back in those days you had to have a mentor to teach you the ins and outs of the business. My mentor taught me to be a listing agent and that the gold was in Expired Listings. She taught me how to use the law of averages to time when I needed to get the listing. Back then we had no email, no fax, no cell phones. We had to call the expired listings. Every night at midnight I would print my list of expired to call first thing in the morning. I was a huge success with her method.
Warp speed to now...
We no longer call the expired listings. When the do not call list came out we just decided we did not wish to bother with it. So we created an Expired Listing package that we sent out and still send out to this day. Expired listings is our niche market for getting listings. Now, there was a period of time when nothing expired around here but aside from that we have made a great living on expireds.
We send out the package, the seller calls us and Nestor ( most of the time) gets the listing right over the phone. The formalities are all that are left to be done. Of course we like to meet our sellers and get to know them as well as see the property before we put it on the market from our point of view. But that is not what this post is about. By the time the seller calls us he or she is already ready to list with us. By the way, our fee is not negotiable and this subject is rarely a point of discussion. You get what you pay for and they see what they are paying for.
First Nestor researches the listing history and decides which ones will be receptive based on their price, who their agent was, what the house looks like and how many times it has been listed before.
So what goes in our package that is so compelling that the sellers call us to list their properties?
- Our business Card
- A great copyrighted Brochure that I designed that explains what we do and who we are. This brochure brings many compliments from sellers. People have kept this brochure for over a year sometimes and then called us.
- A letter that we come up with that explains how we understand their frustration, how the market is right now and what part of our marketing plan is for their property.
- We include information from our home stager we work with and a mortgage broker in case they are planning to FSBO it.
- Our letterhead that we print on our laser printer with our logo and legal info on it. The paper we use is 25% cotton (white) along with matching envelopes.
I have done copywriting for our marketing as well as for other businesses we have owned and own. My strength is in writing compelling copy to get the phone to ring. You must figure out what words will make them pick up their phone to call you. Our package is so compelling to the seller that they do not even interview other agents. They do not waste their time doing that! A great subniche within the niche of expireds is absentee owners. We do those very well over the phone and email. They are not here so it saves a ton of time.
In fact, right this minute as I am writing this post, an expired listing just called us and Nestor is now handing me the expired listing paperwork so I can draw up a listing agreement and send it BY MAIL to the seller! The seller is going sign it and send it back to us in a return addressed stamped envelope. We sent this expired listing package out on Friday and he calls us today, Monday!
Now Nestor has been known on many occasions to say," No thank you, we do not want to take your listing, thank you and we wish you good luck." If it is overpriced and they are not willing to come down in price we are not going to take the listing.
Working the expired market also takes time to do it right. Nestor does this as one of his daily income producing activities. We mail out packages on a daily basis and of course on the last day of every month there are a lot more expireds. He has a system that he uses to check the MLS, research the tax rolls, confirm in MLS it was not relisted, look at the areal view of the property, study the photos the other agent has on the MLS. The great thing about expireds is that so much of the ground work has been laid by the last agent who listed the property. We can even copy the listing from MLS and re input in the copy saving lots of time from re entering all the information again. But we always double check the info and of course we take our own photos and I write our own remarks. The seller is also so receptive to us at this point. They are willing to listen to the market if they want to sell.
We love expired listings!
Copyright (c) 2007 Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved
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"There is gold in dem hills". I tell Realtors the importance of expired listings. Thanks for reinforcing it.