As Managing Editor of The Close, I’ve interviewed hundreds of real estate agents. From wide-eyed newbies who just got their license to brokers with yearly gross commission income (GCI) in the billions—I’ve talked to pretty much every kind of agent that exists. After so many interviews, I’ve found that the one thing successful agents understand is that getting clients in real estate is a never-ending process.
To help you learn how to get clients without the stress we worked with top-producing agents at Compass, Warburg, and Real NY to tell us how they keep their phone ringing in 2022. In this update we also include links to eleven deep-dive articles to learn more about each strategy.
1. Get More Clients With Beverly Ruffner’s Long-term Lead Nurturing Scripts
One of the most satisfying parts of my job is watching new agents finally learn that the vast majority of their competition never bothers to follow up with their leads. That means if you want to convert leads to clients, you only need to be a little bit better than the competition.
Take it from Beverly Ruffner. As a consultant and coach, Beverly has called thousands of “cold” leads for other brokers. Her conversion ratio with these leads is so high that she earned the nickname “the conversion queen.” Her secret? Over the years, Beverly developed a series of easy scripts that she uses to follow up with leads that are just collecting dust in other brokers’ databases. She shares some of her best scripts here:
Long-term Lead Nurturing: Tips & Scripts to Avoid Overtasking
2. Use Sean Moudry’s Strategies to Find Hidden Listing Opportunities
Here’s a great tip for uncovering hidden listing opportunities to get seller clients from 27-year real estate veteran, coach, author, speaker, and Close contributor Sean Moudry:
“While other agents are chasing the same old FSBOs and Expireds, try something new. Real estate investors, preforeclosures, and vacant/abandoned homes are fantastic opportunities that other agents overlook.
“Sure it’s more difficult to source the data, and you may face stronger resistance from the homeowner, but you won’t be competing with 20 other agents for the same listing.
“Keep in mind when you are prospecting these leads that the quality is in quantity! Use systems like Freedomsoft to help find the properties, source the contact information, and manage the leads.”
9 Proven Strategies to Find Hidden Listing Inventory in 2022
3. Use a High Quality Website to Generate Exclusive Leads for you
If you’re going to spend money on leads, you should make sure they’re of the highest quality. Many agents spend money on non-exclusive leads, so it’s a matter of who gets to the prospect first. To get the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to paid leads, you need to own them. Partner with a lead generation platform, like Luxury Presence, that not only promises exclusivity, but that also presents you as the next level agent who dominates your market. Your award-winning, SEO-optimized IDX website designed by Luxury Presence puts you head and shoulders above your competition. Let Luxury Presence create a marketing strategy that boosts you to the top of your market with an all-in-one platform that leverages technology the right way.
Click below to schedule a demo to learn more about elevating your online presence and generating your own leads with Luxury Presence.
4. Host Open Houses for Listing Agents in Niches You Want to Be In
As any experienced agent will tell you, the riches are in the niches. The only problem is that breaking into niches like luxury homes can be very difficult for new agents. Here’s former luxury Broker Gill Chowdhury on how hosting open houses in niches you want to be in can help jump-start your career:
“If you’re a new agent, consider hosting open houses for someone more experienced. Working open houses is the obvious way to get exposure. Hosting an open house will let you experience firsthand the type of questions that people ask when pursuing a home in a niche you want to be in.
“Further, you’re giving yourself the opportunity to come in contact with a prospect of intent and means (hopefully) and for them to view you in some sort of authoritative position. You are associated with a property they are directly interested in.”
How to Become a Luxury Real Estate Agent—10 Easy Ways to Break Into the Luxury Market
5. Learn How to Build & Leverage Your Personal Brand Online
These days, the competition for leads online is fierce. Smart agents are beginning to realize that a mediocre personal brand just won’t cut it anymore. The only problem is that hiring a good graphic designer to help build your brand and keep it consistent is very expensive.
VistaCreate is one way to start building a great personal brand without the hit to your wallet. It’s an easy-to-use marketing platform with hundreds of gorgeous and easy-to-edit templates for everything from social media posts to business cards. They make building your personal brand easy and affordable.
By the way, a lot of agents think they’re too new to start building a brand. Well, guess what? If you’re not actively building a brand, then in the eyes of your potential clients, your brand is basically “I’m an agent who doesn’t care.” Is that how you want to be seen in your market?
6. Send Out Some Targeted Mail
There is nothing like a handwritten letter of introduction to break the ice in today’s hot market. Use your nicest stationary or branded letterhead and write to the homeowners in your farm area. Be polite and warm, but above all professional. We offer a variety of templates you can use.
If letters aren’t your thing, even sending out postcards can be the perfect first step before calls or knocking on doors. Postcards may seem old-fashioned, but with today’s fabulous graphic design options, you can create sleek, chic postcards that will get your future clients’ attention. This is a tried-and-true technique for building awareness of your brand and your expertise.
Top 19 Real Estate Postcard Templates That Actually Work
7. Master Social Media Advertising
If you’re tech-savvy or at least willing to learn through trial and error, then advertising on social media is a great way to generate clients in 2022. Facebook (now Meta) has some stellar tools to help agents directly market to their audience.
It’s not too difficult to manage it all on your own, but if you’d like a little help, consider Coffee & Contracts. These social media marketing experts have zeroed in on the art and science of using the various channels to build and enhance your brand.
8. Get a CRM That You Actually Want to Use Every Day
We all know agents who have free customer relationship managers (CRMs) from their brokers but still end up using the old “scraps of paper” system to stay organized. Sure, they might close a few deals, but they usually end up getting overwhelmed at the drop of a hat and have dismal conversion ratios.
The truth is that taking the time today to actually research CRMs to find one you actually want to use will have a massive return on investment (ROI) down the road.
The Best Real Estate CRM for 2023: In-depth Reviews & Pricing
9. Offer to Shoot Free Listing Videos for Your Clients or on Spec
Want to know a dirty little secret about shooting real estate videos? They’re actually not that hard to make, and if you live in a decent-sized city, you can probably hire someone to make one for less than you spend at Starbucks every month with Fiverr.
Most agents don’t realize that they don’t need your own listings to shoot and show off real estate videos that prove you’re a property marketing pro. Here’s a strategy to position yourself as a marketing expert even if you’ve never pitched a homeowner in your life:
Approach a senior listing agent in your brokerage and tell them you want to help them market their listing—FOR FREE. Then, either shoot the video yourself or work with a local video producer.
Once you have it finished, you can then show it off on your website and social media as an example of your marketing skills. Even better, once you do nab that first listing presentation, you’ll have professional-looking property videos to show off. Not bad for a few hundred bucks, right?
10. Leverage Existing Relationships to Get More Referrals
Advice on how to get clients from Louis Adler, Principal and Co-founder of REAL New York:
“The best way to get and nurture clients is to build strong relationships with your current clients because they can help you to expand your network even more. Leveraging existing relationships is the best way to get clients who already trust you.
“A referral is way more valuable than any other marketing technique. By using your relationships and their referrals, you can snowball your business to the max. In the end, referrals will get you a higher closing ratio compared to cold leads.”
7 Savvy Ways to Generate More Real Estate Referrals
11. Educate Your Social Media Audience With Insider Knowledge
Advice on how to get clients from luxury Broker Rebecca Blacker of Warburg Realty Manhattan:
“I like to educate potential and existing clients. I do some of this through my Instagram account so I can reach more people at once. I will point out a feature in an apartment or something about a building that a client wouldn’t know by looking at the listing online.
“I think people appreciate learning something from their real estate broker. I find that it helps to build trust and a feeling for them that you are adding real value to the buying or selling experience.”
40 Weird & Wacky Real Estate Facts That Are Actually True
12. Get Yourself Some Press
To get real estate clients to reach out to you in 2022—get some press. Getting your name on a real estate website or local newspaper is a great way to position yourself locally as a real estate expert.
Even better, if you can write insightful quotes and develop relationships with journalists, you can get them to link to your website and refer to you as, say, “San Diego’s Luxury Real Estate Expert” rather than just “Real Estate Agent.” Believe me, your clients are going to be impressed!
Stack up enough mentions and you can create a press page on your website to show off all the places you’ve been quoted. To start getting quoted, sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out) or, if you want to get quoted or even write a guest post or video for The Close, email us. Don’t have a website yet? Don’t worry, we have you covered. We have in-depth reviews of everything from $40 per month sites like Incom to high-end team websites from Propertybase.
5 PR Strategies Any Agent Can Use to Get Free Press in 2022
13. Show Off Your Press Mentions on Social Media
Once you have some press mentions under your belt, you should start showing them off on social media. One great way to show off your mentions is to head to Canva and create a template like the one above.
It’s attractive, easy to read, and shows off both your expertise and the site you were quoted in. Trust me, the sites you get quoted on will appreciate you promoting their articles! That’s a win/win in anyone’s book.
147 Real Estate Social Media Post Ideas for 2022 (+ Viral Examples)
14. Humanize Your Personal Brand Online
Another great way to get clients is to try to integrate your hobbies into your personal branding. Appeal to your audience’s fun side by highlighting hobbies or interests you might have in common.
For example, if you’re a dog lover, you might want to consider making a cute Instagram post with your dog at your new listing, or maybe go out and rate the local dog runs and post the videos on YouTube.
Then you won’t just be another real estate agent. Instead, you’re the dog-loving real estate agent. Clients who are also dog lovers will be far more likely to choose you over someone with similar skills who isn’t a dog lover. Ryan Serhant reinforces this tactic in his course, Sell It Like Serhant. He argues that you should brand yourself Realtor AND whatever it is that makes you special or interesting. Choose your favorite a hobby or interest.
15. Join a Luxury Real Estate Team
After buying exclusive leads from BoldLeads, the second easiest way to get clients to work with is joining a luxury real estate team. Even though you may get a smaller split, most luxury teams get more buyers and sellers than they can handle. That means your odds of just getting handed a great lead will go through the roof. Even better, since your team will have a great reputation, those clients will be far less skeptical of working with you.
16. Start a Boutique Brokerage
If you’ve got some experience under your belt but feel like you’ve hit the wall with your real estate career, it might be time to hang your shingle and start a boutique brokerage. While running a brokerage isn’t easy, if you create a great brand and have a strong business plan, you’ll attract hungry agents and inside sales agents (ISAs) who will constantly generate leads.
Of course, instead of working them, you’ll be running the show and collecting checks. Don’t worry, though. If you get the itch to start showing again or want a few listings to stay sharp, small local real estate offices are like catnip for local homeowners and buyers. You’ll soon start getting plenty of walk-ins.
How to Start a Real Estate Brokerage in 2023 (Without Going Broke)
17. Know When to Leave a Brokerage That Isn’t Working for You
Sometimes it’s not how lucky you are, how hard you work, or how skilled you are that keeps you from landing clients. Instead, the brokerage you sign up with might be the thing keeping you from landing new clients.
If you find yourself defending your brokerage’s bad reputation, or worse, making excuses for it, then chances are it’s time to move on.
17 Signs It’s Time to Find a New Brokerage
18. Fake It Until You Make It
Since you’re reading this, you know very well how much luck can change your real estate career. We’ve all heard stories about agents who stumble their way into seven-figure listings their first week on the job. For the most part, those stories are true. I’ve personally worked with agents who made well over six figures their first year as an agent, mostly due to good luck.
But luck isn’t everything. Even if a local millionaire takes a shine to you, you still have to prove to them that the risk of hiring you is worth their time. Since you likely don’t have many accomplishments to point to, your personality is going to have to work overtime to seal the deal.
Now don’t get me wrong—we’re not advocating for you to lie! In fact, starting your career off on lies is a surefire way to end it before it really starts to work for you. Instead, work on yourself and develop the confidence and knowledge that every good agent needs. Study your MLS. Read everything you can about real estate and business, and face your fears BEFORE you get lucky enough to book that listing presentation.
Over to You
Have any thoughts on how to get real estate clients that we haven’t covered in the article? Let us know in the comments!
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