8 Ways on How to Get Real Estate Listings for Every Budget
This article is part of a larger series on Real Estate Lead Generation and Marketing.
Getting real estate listings is essential to your success as an agent, both in getting name recognition in your community and producing the income you need. Learn how to get real estate listings, from automating your social media posts and creating effective listing presentations to sending personalized emails, targeting preforeclosures, and buying leads. In this article, we explore the best accessible and affordable ways to grow your business.
One way to get listings is to buy qualified leads. Offrs is software that uses analytical data to assess the readiness of homeowners in your area who are close to listing their homes. Its prices range from 10 cents per lead to $800 a month for exclusive leads in your ZIP code or surrounding area.
1. Attend Networking Events
Cost: Free to $600
Real estate is a people business. Therefore networking is critical to your success. Networking helps you build relationships, meet professionals, and generate leads. You can do this online, in-person, and through free, fee-based associations and organizations.
Some examples of networking groups include the following:
- Local chapter of Business Networking International (BNI)
- Chamber of Commerce
- Local Facebook groups
- Local Rotary Club
- Personal interest groups on Meetup.com
- Small business networking events
- Local chapter of the Master Builders Association
At networking events, have a short elevator pitch on what you do as a real estate professional. This pitch should be no more than 30 seconds to a minute. It’s a best practice to collect business cards instead of handing them out and make an effort to reach out within a few days. You’ll want to build a sphere of influence as you grow your network and schedule time in your calendar to keep in touch with a brief call, email, or casual meeting.
2. Buy Qualified Real Estate Leads
Cost: Under $1 to $600 per month
Another way to get more listings is to buy qualified leads from a real estate lead generation service. These platforms use data to gather prospect information and then deliver buyers and sellers to you who are interested in your real estate agent services. Here are some types of lead generation software and who they are best for:
Providers | |||
---|---|---|---|
Best For | Agents who want lead conversion with artificial intelligence insights | Identifying For Sale By Owner (FSBO) and expired listings | Established agents wanting repeat business |
Key Features |
|
|
|
Starting Price | 5 cents per lead, per month and 10 cents per exclusive lead, per month | $39.99 to $199.98 per month | Varies by target area |
Learn More |
To learn more about these providers as well as other places you can purchase leads, visit our article, 8 Best Places to Buy Real Estate Leads.
3. Create an Effective Real Estate Listing Presentation
Cost: Free to $100-plus
An effective listing presentation helps build a seller’s confidence in your ability to sell their home. This presentation will differentiate you from other agents and prepares you to get the information you need to list and sell a homeowner’s property.
There are specific elements of effective listing presentations you’ll want to include:
- Prelisting package: So sellers know what to expect when you come to their home
- Brief bio and information about your brokerage: To introduce yourself professionally
- Market data: To show sellers what’s happening with similar houses in their neighborhood
- Marketing strategy: For advertising the home and showing it to potential buyers
- Comparative market analysis (CMA): To help determine the price
- Listing checklist: To keep you on track
Create listing presentations for free by using a template like ours from the article The Ultimate Real Estate Listing Presentation (+ Free Template). However, if you’re less design-inclined, outsource your materials with a service like Fiverr. Fiverr has thousands of freelancers available to assist you with producing branded marketing materials for your real estate business. Plus, it is budget-friendly, with prices starting at $5.
4. Work With a Mentor or Coach
Cost: Free to $15,000-plus
Mentoring and coaching can come in the form of working with an experienced agent to learn how to get listings as a new agent or paying for private coaching. Both can help you learn how to get listings and keep you accountable for your goals. In addition to personal mentorship, there are many books, blogs, and articles written by successful agents whom you can turn to for guidance. Here are some coaching and mentoring programs to get you started:
- Inman list of top coaches
- Lee Davenport
- Floyd Wickman
- Candy Miles Crocker
- Tom Ferry
- Zig Ziglar
- Tony Robbins
You can also find mentors by talking to successful local real estate agents and asking them if they’d be willing to mentor you. Take them out for lunch or coffee to incentivize them to work with you. Take diligent notes on their suggestions and ask them questions about their experience in the industry.
Pro tip: Confidence is critical when learning to get listings in real estate. One of the main reasons many real estate agents fail is due to fear. If you’re willing to step out of your comfort zone and ask for listings or referrals, you may hear “no” more often than “yes.” If you hear “no,” don’t take it personally. The “no” may mean they’re not ready to sell. Remember to be persistent, and you will eventually get a “yes.”
5. Focus on a Specific Niche
Cost: Free to $80 a month
Choosing a real estate niche positions you as a specialist in a specific area of real estate. It makes it easier for sellers to find you. It doesn’t mean you can’t list other properties, but your main focus, marketing materials, and expertise will lie in one particular facet of the industry.
For example, choose to target a precise location or neighborhood near you, homeowners with expired listings, or first-time sellers. By narrowing your scope, you can be more specific about your clientele and attract more listing opportunities from those individuals.
Some examples of real estate niches that are great for gaining listings are:
Focus your expertise on a specific type of property, such as residential luxury real estate, starter homes, condos, or commercial properties. Once you’ve chosen a property type, create marketing materials that speak directly to these property owners and why you are the best person to sell their home. This can be in the form of digital or traditional marketing like brochures, flyers, or even digital storybooks.
Showcase your knowledge of selling a specific property type by highlighting the features, statistics, and past experience in your digital storybooks. This will make you stand out as an agent by displaying value and uniqueness to potential seller leads.
A situational real estate niche is about people instead of types of properties. For example, empty-nesters might be ready to sell their large family home and move into something smaller, like a condo or two-bedroom, because their family members have moved out. Families needing bigger homes are also excellent opportunities to list homes for sale.
Relocation is another situation where homeowners move out of or into new territory. If they’re moving out, you can list and sell their home and refer them to a real estate agent who works in the area where they are moving to earn two commissions.
Situational marketing materials differ from property niches in that it’s about people instead of specific properties. Your print and online materials should feature the people in your niche so it captures their interest. For example, if you want to list and sell homes in over-50 communities, your materials should showcase people in that niche enjoying amenities in these communities and the over-50 lifestyle.
Relocation marketing materials would show how you can make the process flow. Marketing to a specific niche helps sellers see that you understand their unique needs, so you’ll be their first call when getting ready to sell their homes.
Another strategy for how to get listings is targeting expired listings. These are a little easier than prospecting for new sellers because the house has already been on the market, so you know they want to sell. It doesn’t cost anything to call them and ask why they think their home didn’t sell. Most of the time, it’s because they had an unrealistic price and an inexperienced agent had the listing. Use an expired listing script to work with sellers of expired listings and get the appointment.
You don’t need to create marketing materials about expired listings. Instead, this would be a good opportunity to showcase how you get homes sold faster and for more money. You can feature happy homeowners who just sold with you and use your regular marketing materials that sell your other listings to sell their homes.
For other ways to generate expired listings, read our article How to Get Expired Listings: Strategies + 10 Conversion Tips.
Find preforeclosures through the county recorder’s office for free or through real estate listing sites like Zillow and Realtor.com. It’s free to search these sites and get addresses in your area. You will need to go to the public records section and look for a notice of default, Lis Pendens, or Notice for Sale. It will include the property owner’s name and address, the lender’s name and address, the amount of the default, and the date it was recorded. Once you gather the information about these properties, you can call or write a letter to the homeowner and offer to help sell their home. It is also a good opportunity to reach out to the lender.
It might feel awkward to contact a homeowner who is about to lose their home and ask for a listing appointment. However, you may be exactly what they need. Help them sell their home, save their credit, and plan their future. Create a script for these phone calls so you can think ahead of time about how you will broach this sensitive topic.
Foreclosure leads are usually extremely motivated to sell their home quickly. To find these homes, you can choose to purchase paid leads from a lead generation company or manually find foreclosures on your own.
One way is to call lenders directly and ask to speak to someone in the REO department. This can take a lot of time and effort, and you’re not guaranteed to get connected to the right people, but it’s still worth it if it leads to even one new listing. You can also build relationships with asset management companies to procure foreclosure listings.
If specializing in a real estate niche sounds like the right strategy for generating listing leads, consider looking at REDX. REDX is a lead generation company focusing on expired, foreclosure, preforeclosure, for sale by owner (FSBO), and for rent by owner (FRBO) leads. Its built-in client relationship management (CRM) system, phone dialer, and brand builder features help organize and prioritize your listing leads.
6. Automate Your Real Estate Social Media Pages
Cost: Free to $499 per month
Social media should be a part of every real estate agent’s marketing plan. Creating a business profile on popular social media sites is free and is an effective way to build your brand and network. Plus, you may already have many of these platforms set up. Posting regular content is critical to attracting an audience. Show available listings, sold properties, testimonials, and give tips that appeal to sellers. This will help you cultivate a targeted audience and bring listing leads to you.
Here is a rundown of some of the most popular social media sites and ways for them to build your business and generate listing leads:
- Facebook: Make business pages and post updates, live videos, memes, and ads. Use your profile to let friends and others know what you’re doing with short posts and photos. Create a Facebook group around a real estate topic (e.g., Homeowner’s Tips).
- LinkedIn: Upload your professional resume and expand your network. Post industry articles and ask for listing referrals with something like, “I just sold [property address] and have buyers looking for similar properties who missed out on this one. Please reach out if you’re thinking of selling.”
- YouTube: Create videos to showcase listings, demonstrate something, and give expert advice on home staging.
- Instagram: Post photos and videos of listings and fun things you do. This helps potential sellers get to know, like, and trust you when they can experience who you are.
- TikTok: Use hashtags to attract viewers and partner with real estate-related influencers.
- Twitter: Share news, open houses, and engage with others in the industry.
At some point, you’ll want to upgrade to paid advertising to expand your reach. Targeting ads toward sellers will make it easier for these leads to find you and will build your brand awareness as the go-to seller’s agent. Make sure it’s location-specific and the content appeals to things a seller would want to know, like home values, current market statistics, and neighborhood sales in the area. While this will not be free, you can customize your spend starting at $1 to $300 or more.
You can also schedule and boost posts for a target audience on your Facebook business page. Scheduling is free whether you pay to boost a post or not. Managing multiple social media pages is a lot, so automate when you can. Some subscription sites post content for you on your chosen schedule, Hootsuite.
Sprout Social is a subscription platform that allows unlimited social posting and optimal scheduling. Its pricing ranges from $249 to $499 per month. It can manage your social media and email posting schedule and provides analytics to ensure you are consistently sending the right messages to the right audience. This tool saves you time for prospecting and meeting with sellers. It also helps to target your niche with your social media content.
Pro tip: A reasonable total budget for how to get listings as a real estate agent using social media is about 30% of your annual real estate income.
7. Tap Into Your Sphere of Influence
Cost: Free to $60
Friends, family, acquaintances, former clients, and past colleagues, also known as your sphere of influence (SOI), are another excellent resource for how to get real estate listings. Don’t assume you’re top of mind for your SOI. They may know other agents or have previously worked with specific agents. It’s essential to nurture these relationships and occasionally ask them if they or anyone they know might be thinking of selling their home.
Ways to keep your services in front of your sphere of influence include inviting them to subscribe to your newsletter or blog, sharing information about the current real estate market at family gatherings, and sending pop-by gifts. You’ll be surprised by how often you will get asked about real estate-related topics before you bring them up.
Another way to stay top of mind with your SOI is to send out postcards when you list or sell a home. They may be thinking about selling soon, and when they receive the postcard, it shows them how you can market their home. Prospective clients are always watching what you do and how you do it. Therefore, it’s essential to have unique and attractive postcards and other marketing materials, so they want what you have to offer as a listing agent.
Your postcards and mailings need to be slightly different from most agents’ typical ones. They can be larger and contain a QR code or links to a digital storybook, video, or listing information. VistaPrint is an excellent resource to help you design, print, and send customized postcards to your SOI. Upload your images or use a template to easily create materials. You can also save time by using their in-house mailing service.
Visit VistaPrint
Use Promo Code: FSB15 to take $15 off a purchase of $50
8. Provide Valuable Content to Your Audience
Cost: Free to $250 a month
Delivering valuable content to prospective clients is a great way to be considered a homeselling expert and generate seller leads. By providing content that informs, educates, and assists your clients, you will, in turn, be showcasing your expertise as a real estate professional. Content can be provided online or physically through a website, email marketing campaign, direct mail, or in person. Regardless of how it’s delivered, your content should provide takeaways for homesellers that prompt them to reach out about your services.
Here are a few to start:
- A custom website to build your brand presence online
- Personalized email newsletters
- Live social media events
- Landing pages with expert advice videos
- Downloadable checklists
- A free market analysis or market data report
- Free e-books, case studies, or white pages
This content is typically designed for buyers, investors, sellers, or renters. However, you should focus your intentions on topics in which sellers would be interested. For example, you can create a case study about the homeowners of a recently sold home to showcase your efforts, a downloadable checklist of closing tips for sellers, or offer a free comparative market analysis for someone’s home. All of these will provide tangible evidence to a lead that they are in capable hands with your real estate services.
Bottom Line
Getting listings involves strategy, staying on budget, and hard work. Use a combination of the strategies above to get started and evolve these methods as your budget grows. The most important thing, however, is to step out of your comfort zone and build your confidence. Don’t take it personally if a homeowner says no to you. Sometimes it takes many “nos” before getting a “yes” and a new listing.