FOMO -- “Fear of Missing Out;” defined as a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences where you are absent.
“You missed out.” How many times have those words hurt homebuyers and sellers in your market? It’s gut-wrenching to see a home you want get sold to another person. It’s annoying to sell a property only to see the market shift away from your favor, forcing you to negotiate and make concessions.
Regrets are commonplace in real estate, and as the agent, you regularly have to coach clients into finding the best opportunity. Sometimes they listen. Other times, they’re like stubborn mules. And in each case, they’re looking to reward themselves with the best outcome.
But what about those who haven’t become your clients yet? Leads!
We often let advertisements detailing our service do the selling. Or we let our websites do the converting. Rarely do you see people making a good pitch why now is a good time to act. Most agents have that conversation after they’ve registered and make the first call.
So, let’s talk about using emotions, particularly FOMO, to generate seller leads.
Gathering Data to Create Seller FOMO
Before we begin, have you selected an area (or neighborhood) to farm? Good. Now, let’s start with the strategy. Research the area/neighborhood you’re going to farm and jot down some notes, like:
Average selling and listing price
Comps to homes that haven’t sold in the last 5 years
Time it takes to sell in the area
Amount of buyer interest
To get a lot more data, you can use Realtors Property Resource (RPR) to find plenty of information on the homes you’re going to farm.
Start connecting the dots. Any average home seller can go to Zillow and look up past property details. They can even get a zestimate, but it’s your job to translate the information into meaningful advice they can act on. So … what opportunities do you see? This is where you invoke FOMO.
How BoomTown Helps Agents Generate Seller Leads
Making the Pitch to Create FOMO
The strategy to implement this depends on your taste. There is a dozen ways to do this, but the underlying theme is: Make them fear missing out on an opportunity to sell now.
My suggestion would be to create postcards and mail them out. It’s easy. It’s quick. And it doesn’t take much effort. However, you do need to customize the content for each property. This isn’t a “mass snail mail” strategy.
You’re delivering customized, personalized messages to these homeowners. For example, you notice John at 123 Apple Street bought his home 7 years ago for $200k. At current market values, it’s worth $275.
Just down the street, there was an open house for a property, but they sold it before that date. Now you can send your target homeowners a postcard saying:
Open House Cancelled!
The homeowners at 134 Orange St. sold it faster than average market time.
Buyers are looking to make the move before winter. Do you want to grab their attention before it fades?
Contact me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx.
For those who are on the fence about selling will instantly be motivated to act. They don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to get their home sold … before buyers stop buying.
Here’s another example:
Send the homeowner a letter with a home valuation -- something like:
“I ran a check on your home value. It’s worth up to $275k right now. If you’re interested in selling, I have a couple of interested buyers, but as you know, they’re ready to move now. Would you like me to help you sell your home and show them your property?”
Even the simplest content ideas can be super effective. Just make them fear missing out on what they could earn (or achieve). For those who have been contemplating selling their house, they’ll most certainly act. Those who aren’t interested won’t respond. Mark down which homeowners do and don’t. That way, you can try new tactics on the “don’ts” later.
Other ways you can invoke FOMO is by door knocking. Have your research at hand and inquire if they’d like to know more about their neighborhood. Then transition the conversation into a sales pitch and ask.
Research Behind FOMO
Are you still not sold on FOMO? Think about this. Agents that use this technique will generate 2x the amount of seller leads than those who don’t. Do you see what I did there? I just used FOMO, and if I made you worry a bit, then you know it works now.
Social media has escalated our feelings of missing out. Communication travels at the speed of light and we certainly don’t want to be left behind. What other seller lead generating strategies have you seen success with? Please tell -- I’m afraid of being left out!
If you’d like to see how BoomTown helps real estate agents generate seller leads, check out our latest tools by visiting this page.
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