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It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Market.
In metro areas, suburban enclaves, and even rural hamlets all over North America, buyers are scrambling to make offers — some for the first time and others for the umpteenth. All too often, they subsequently find themselves in multiple offer situations against other buyers with seemingly unlimited resources. Meanwhile, pent-up seller demand is building, but uncertainty is
keeping many homeowners sitting on the fence, waiting to see just how high this unprecedented market is going to go.
If you’re looking to encourage sellers in your area that now is the time to move — and hoping to bring relief to some of your buyers in the process — here are ten ways to connect with sellers and encourage them to list their homes with you.
1. Reach out to your sphere of influence (SOI)
You have a ready-made resource of family, friends, former clients, and colleagues that you can tap into with an email, phone call, or socially distanced cup of coffee. Reach out to your SOI and let them know that there are buyers eager to connect with them or with anyone they know who is ready to sell. Keep them informed about their homes’ potential value in today’s market and the activity you’re seeing in their neighborhoods. Answer their questions and offer them reassurance and encouragement as needed.
2. Reach out to your professional network
Your best bet for finding the right home for your buyer is an off-market or pre-market listing from a real estate colleague or professional associate. Reach out on a regular basis both within your brokerage and outside it so that you’re always the first to know when something new is becoming available. While you may not be able to negotiate a pre-market sale, you will have a leg up on the competition if you have paved the way ahead of time and helped your buyers optimize their offer.
3. Connect with new home builders
For many buyers in today’s market, new home builders offer the best opportunity to find the home they want in their preferred location. Connect with the best custom builders and spec builders in your area and find out more about their upcoming projects and their purchase process. This is especially important if most of your experience is with resales as it offers you the chance to build your expertise and offer your buyers additional options.
4. Develop financing options for back-to-back buyer/sellers
In a low inventory market, it is almost impossible for a buyer to purchase a home with a home sale contingency. Work with your trusted lender to develop smart solutions that can allow your buyers to buy first, then sell after closing. Create content, including blog posts, videos, infographics, and social media content, to explain the options and the potential process without professional jargon or confusing terminology.
5. Create value-added, solution-oriented content
Similarly, this is a great time to create content for your real estate blog and/or social media for any aspect of the home sale or purchase process. Pre-approval, crafting a competitive offer, a Q&A about the local market — any of these offer you the opportunity to provide your expertise and connect with buyers and find listings in your area. Think beyond your existing content channels and offer personalized advice and insight through a video messaging service to leads at any point in your pipeline.
6. Focus on underserved markets or niches
While everyone else is focused on larger single-family homes in your suburban market, now might be the time to focus on land sales or in-town condos. Look to micro-markets, niches, and other types of homeowners whom no one else is talking to for your next listing. Consider upgrading your skills with a new certification or designation so that you are better able to serve any type of client.
7. Step up geographic farming
Now more than ever it is essential for you to be top-of-mind with sellers in your geographic farm or circle prospecting area. Create up-to-the-minute content that’s hosted online or on your video channel then use direct mail with a QR code or dedicated URL to share that content with homeowners in your favorite neighborhoods. Reach out consistently again and again to make an impression and then to reinforce your qualifications and desire to help with their home sale.
Learn more about how to farm a neighborhood.
8. Find new ways to market your services
Consider targeted advertising on a streaming service or local cable provider. As your community opens up and events are once more on the calendar, look for sponsorship opportunities. Look at expired listings from 3-12 months ago and reach out to those homeowners. If you’ve been reluctant to begin creating video content, now is the time to take the plunge.
There is a great deal of pent-up demand and unlimited opportunity — make sure you’re putting yourself out there so that you can take advantage of it.
9. Emphasize relocation services
With the increasing feasibility of permanent work-from-home (WFH) options for professionals throughout the country, many in-town residents are gearing up for a move to the country or making a geographic shift from more expensive northern metro areas to sunny southern resort towns. Look at the trends in your market and partner with colleagues in the most popular destination cities to create streamlined services for sellers hoping to relocate. Make this a prime differentiator and promote it in your marketing and messaging.
10. Look for media opportunities
Want to raise your profile and the authority your name conveys to buyers and sellers in your area? Connect with media figures like journalists, bloggers, and content creators who are covering the markets you serve. The upcoming end of COVID-related closures and the pandemonium in real estate markets across the country is a hot topic, and you can take advantage of media opportunities to add your voice and raise your profile. Check out resources like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to connect with journalists and become part of the story.
If you have any other ideas to find listings in this crazy real estate market, please we’d love to hear from you!
