How To Generate Seller Leads in Real Estate: 25 FAST and Proven Methods
If you don’t know how to get seller leads in real estate, you’re not likely making as much money as you’d like. Seller leads are the bread and butter of the real estate business, but you need to know how to generate motivated seller leads more than anything. Here are 25 fast and effective ways to do so.
1. Build Partnerships
Having strong partnerships and networking with local businesses is one of the best ways to develop alliances. Host happy hours, send gifts out, and work with other business people in the area. Look towards insurance companies, personal bankers, lenders, landscapers, stagers, and title companies to learn how to get motivated seller leads.
2. Develop a Brand
Having your own personal brand is a great way to showcase your expertise, share reviews, display social proof, and keep the ball rolling even if you change brokers. Make sure you build your own website separate from the broker and upload unique content on there to help yourself stand out to prospective sellers.
3. Have a Niche
If you want to know how to generate motivated seller leads, one of the best ways is by specializing in something. Each real estate agent should have a particular interest that they focus on and become the local expert on. First-time sellers, downsizing, vacation homes, senior homes, industrial, FSBO, expired listings, and land are some examples.
4. Call Your Sphere of Influence
This tip will help you find value in every single person in your database. Home values continue to rise and you can use that statistic to help convince old clients to sell. Even if they sold with you once and weren’t interested last time you called, explain to them the reasoning behind your call. If you’re reaching out to someone in your sphere who hasn’t sold with you yet, continue to use this statistic to your advantage.
5. Start Building an Email List
You need an email list. This is no longer an option. If you haven’t started building an email list it’s the single most powerful way to generate real estate seller leads. Send an email talking about how Zillow got their home value wrong (because they always do) and explain that you can get it right. Send a picture of the happy seller you just closed on. Just do something! This is one of the keys to being a successful agent!
6. Post Instagram Stories
If you’re not on Instagram, you should be! One of the smartest things to do on there is post an Instagram story poll. You can literally ask your audience if they’re thinking about selling their house this year and they’ll answer the poll. Once you have the replies, go in and reach out to the people who said yes. How could it be any simpler than that?
7. Go Live on Social Media
If you don’t know how to get seller leads on Facebook, it’s probably because you’ve never gone live. You should be going live on Facebook at least once a week with whatever it is you’re doing. This is where your sellers are so show them what you’re up to. If you’re standing on the front porch with a happy seller, ask them if you can go live and have them give a short testimonial. You’ll create excitement in the people who are considering selling with you and anger in the ones who didn’t choose you and they’ve been sitting on a listing for months.
8. Cater Housewarming Parties
Have you ever thought of getting involved in the buyer side? If someone buys a home or someone you know buys one, offer to cater a party for them or just swing by and make it known that you’re a real estate agent. If they invited the neighbors or they have friends, make sure to converse because a new home purchase always generates interest.
9. Be in the Community
Get out in the community and do your part. Build clout with local business owners by frequenting certain restaurants and bars. This is how you plug into your community and start to make a serious name for yourself.
10. Paid Advertisements
Paid ads are never a bad idea and 44% of buyers looked online first, what do you think sellers are doing? They’re looking for realtors online so be sure to consider advertising on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and more.
11. Use Signs
Sometimes old school marketing is the way to go and having a “coming soon” or “sold” sign is a great way to generate attention. If you’re trying to learn how to get more seller leads in real estate, make sure you’re putting up plenty of signs for everything.
12. Attend Open Houses
You can generate leads on both sides of the coin at open houses. Just because they’re at an open house, doesn’t mean they don’t have a house, right? Chances are they’re searching for an upgrade or a downsize and they need someone to help sell the house they have now.
13. Turn to LinkedIn
You should be involved in the real estate investment community on LinkedIn. Back to the whole “niche” thing. You could be the person who specializes in working with flippers and rehabbers. Those people are living on LinkedIn and they need someone they can trust and who can turn houses quickly. That could be you!
14. Have a Prospecting Strategy
You need a prospecting strategy if you don't have an established list. One general rule of thumb is that you should be having conversations every day with people you don’t know. These are potential sellers. You should also be having conversations with your hot leads every single day.
15. Search Upcoming Expireds
Are you trying to learn how to find motivated seller leads online? Well, here’s the goldmine. Search expired listings or upcoming expireds on the MLS. Take a look at the listing and marvel in the glory of how crappy the pictures are and take a note of all the things you would do differently. When it expires, you know what to do.
16. Nurture Old Leads
Never forget to reach out to old leads and people who never committed to doing business with you. Perhaps they chose another real estate agent and that’s fine. We’re not in the business of hurt feelings so we can’t be afraid to reach out and just see where they’re at in the home selling process. Maybe they settled on another realtor but weren’t really happy with that person.
17. Go For FSBOs
You know you need to reach out to FSBOs and you can’t be afraid to do it. Cold outreach is tough, especially as a beginner but it’s how you get the ball rolling. You need to constantly have new leads coming through that pipeline and that can’t happen without cold outreach.
18. Freshen Up Your Listings
One of the best ways to make an impression on FBSOs and expired listings is to show them how different your approach is. Show these sellers that you’re going the extra mile for your clients by ensuring the listing has plenty of high-quality photos and a great property description.
19. ALWAYS Post Seller Success Stories
If you need to know how to get more seller leads, start showing off the ones you have. Post on social media everytime you close on a sale and have a process for how you do this every single time. Even when you think prospective sellers aren’t paying attention, they are, and they’ll come to you eventually.
20. Refer Back to Buyer Leads
I talked about this a little but I wanted to drive it home. Buyer leads are often seller leads as well so make sure you’re keeping track of all your buyers because they will eventually become sellers.
21. Hit The Pavement
Sometimes you need to do things the old fashioned way and if you’re following all the steps in this guide, you’ll easily be found by anyone and everyone. A little old school marketing never hurt. Take your business cards and plaster them everywhere. Put them in coffee shops, grocery stores, bakeries, and anywhere else you’re allowed.
22. Provide Incentives
Come up with an incentive program for doing business with you and referring other people to you. It could be something as simple as free movie tickets or a $10 off gift certificate for a local restaurant. Keep in mind how doing this can benefit you “two-fold.” Make sure to keep your incentives local because you’re helping local business as well.
23. Automate Outreach
Understanding how to generate seller leads in real estate is all about figuring out how to do a lot in a short amount of time with the least effort. There are CRMs and tools out there that will help automate email marketing and social media marketing. Use these to your advantage.
24. Convert Rental Leads
Do you do a lot of rentals? Are you keeping track of these leads as they close? More and more people are renting in big and small cities and this can be a great long-term strategy to generate a consistent flow of seller leads. Find people who have rented from you in the past and see if they’re interested in buying now or in the future.
25. Work With Investors and Flippers
There are tons of flippers buying, renovating, and selling homes each day. These people know that working with an aggressive realtor is the key to succeeding in their business. You need to partner with these people if you have the marketing chops to get them the right price and do so quickly and efficiently.