This session kicked off week three of our month long live series on aged expired listings. The question of the day: what do you do when an aged expired raises their hand, says yes, but tells you not yet? Maybe they're waiting for spring, the end of the school year, or a tenant's lease to run out.
My goal is simple. When their motivation and timing hit that tipping point, I want it to be me who gets the opportunity. "What do we do to make sure they don't forget to think of us when that timing and motivation hits the tipping point?" This plan works well beyond aged expireds, too. Anyone in your database who says "yes, but later" fits. In the second half I live prospected, and I've left out every homeowner name, address and number from the calls.
Who gets this follow up (and who doesn't)
A great clarifying question from chat: is this for everyone you call? No. This is only for the people I actually connect with, who are friendly and cooperative and still interested on some level. "You will end up wasting a great deal of money and effort and time if you do that with all of them."
Every day I've live prospected in this series, I've picked up at least one warm lead like that. Those are the people who go into this sequence.
Part one: the monthly market update postcard
First, I add them to my monthly market update postcard campaign. It goes out once a month to my whole sphere, my past clients, and the "not yet" sellers from this series.
The front of the card shows their property, or a map view if there's no street view. That makes it a pattern interrupt. A QR code takes them straight to a seller dashboard with no forced registration, where they can see values from four different sources and explore offer options. The back of the card is dynamic and changes based on the month and the town where they live.
"Personalized, relevant, and congruent to the recipient." That's why it works. People are getting less and less direct mail, so showing up in their mailbox creates a different kind of connection. The best part is that I set it up once. After that, all I do is add people to the campaign.
Part two: a monthly market report by email
Second, I set them up on a digital monthly market report. I use BoldTrail for this, and most full CRMs have a way to do it.
No CRM? Here's the simple workaround. Set them up as a client in your MLS and send them, once a month, the new actives, coming soons, pendings and recent closings in their zip code or neighborhood. Unless you don't have MLS access, you can do this.
I don't want anyone leaving this and saying they can't do it because they don't have this or that tool. "That is stinking thinking. Be resourceful."
Part three: the monthly home value play
Third, they go into my monthly home value update campaign. It has three steps.
- The email. An updated home value and offer options, linking back to the same seller dashboard as the postcard. Every click is a signal of some intent or interest.
- The bump text. If I have a cell number and they're subscribed to texts, I send a quick text saying we emailed them an updated computer generated value for their property, just making sure they got it.
- The money email. This goes to everyone who clicked over in step one. One version is a survey style email that asks which reason best describes why they were checking out their value. When they reply, that's an even stronger signal.
"All we're looking for in this business is signals to have more reasons to have more conversations with more people who are more likely to transact." That's exactly why we built LeadDeck.
For months I only sent steps one and two, and not much happened. When I added the money email, that's when engagements started turning into real contract opportunities. The very first time I sent it, it led to a listing I took and sold. I run this play the first week of every month.
There are three versions of the money email: the survey, the "what did you think," and the reverse psychology one. That last one opens with "You're probably not ready to sell right now," then asks whether they'll be staying in the area or relocating when the time is right to move on. I'm adding all of the email and text scripts to the free 1 Deal A Week In Real Estate Skool community, under the Classroom tab, in the new member bonuses section.
Live prospecting the end of the deck
Then I got back to working the deck of 39 aged expireds we pulled and scrubbed in week one. We weight the cards with the best contact info toward the top, so I was at the bottom of the deck with thinner data. Fewer answers, but "that is opportunity, not obstacle."
Here's how I worked those cards:
- Disconnected or wrong numbers: hide them so I never waste time on them again.
- DNC numbers: tap to search each one and see if it's publicly marketed online.
- Emails: send to every one that looks good. "They cost nothing," so I get the lines in the water.
- Enhance the skip trace: on one card that turned up even more emails to send to.
- Direct mail: check whether it's owner occupied, then add them to the right list. They get a letter, a note card and a postcard, all asking if they're still accepting offers.
I'm just tapping my way to more transactions. "Every tap is another line in the water." Sometimes the bite comes live. Sometimes it comes later, as a reply to an email or a text.
One card had a number that rang through to an automated business line. I asked for the owner by name anyway, because there's usually a reason a number is tied to a person. It turned out he didn't work there. I emailed, enhanced the skip trace and moved on. It was a non owner occupied property, which I love, because those owners usually aren't emotionally tied to the home.
Real estate is a long sales cycle
By the end I had worked every card in that deck on some level, and it had already turned into several warm leads. More will come from the direct mail and from the email and text nudges.
I love when it happens fast and we catch it live. But real estate is a long sales cycle. All we can control is getting lines in the water. When we do it with a better process and a better strategy, we get more bites, and the more we practice, the better we get at setting the hook.
Key takeaways
- Save this follow up for "not yet" sellers you actually connected with, not everyone on your list.
- Send a personalized monthly postcard with a QR code to a no registration seller dashboard.
- Set them up on a monthly market report, through your CRM or your MLS.
- Run a monthly home value email, a bump text, and a money email to everyone who clicks.
- At the bottom of a deck, hide dead numbers, search DNC numbers, email everything, and add direct mail.
Chapters
- 00:00 What to do when aged expireds say "not yet"
- 03:00 Part one: the monthly market update postcard
- 08:00 Part two: a monthly market report by email
- 10:00 Part three: the monthly home value play
- 12:30 The money email
- 15:30 Questions from chat
- 18:00 Who gets this follow up
- 19:30 Live prospecting starts
- 21:30 Emails, skip tracing and direct mail
- 26:30 Hard to reach owners are opportunity
- 29:00 Calling an automated business line
- 32:00 Why I love non owner occupied properties
- 37:30 Scripts built right into LeadDeck
- 41:00 Working the whole deck
- 42:30 Wrapping up and this week's schedule