The surest ways to get more real estate leads and listings in the coming months

Like any real estate professional, you want more real estate leads that turn into more clients, more often. Nothing has changed there.

But what has changed, during this challenging period we’re in, is that everyone is craving more certainty. And, chances are, you are no exception! You want more predictability and assurance when it comes to your real estate marketing.

So, let’s explore how to get that.

Where most leads will come from

First of all, keep in mind that home buyers and sellers want more certainty, too. In fact, over the coming months, you can expect them to gravitate even more towards choosing an agent in the following ways:

• An agent they’ve come to know.
• An agent someone has recommended to them.
• An agent they’ve worked with before.

These are already the most common means in which buyers and sellers find agents. In fact, research by NAR indicates that 41-50% of buyers and sellers hired an agent who was recommend to them.

And here’s the important thing…

In the coming months and years, that number will likely increase as prospects increasingly go for the safe choice: an agent they know or has been recommended.

So, how do you take advantage of this trend?

Put your focus on these two groups

It comes down to building relationships, consistently and systematically. There are two groups you should be paying attention to.

The first group is your past clients. On average, homeowners have two or three opportunities each year to recommend an agent. That’s a lot of potential real estate referrals. The common scenario is a friend or neighbour who’s moving and asks, “We’re looking for a real estate agent. Do you know a good one?” If you’ve ever been the happy recipient of referrals, you know they have the highest likelihood of converting.

To ensure you get the majority of those potential real estate referrals, you need to keep in touch with your clients, regardless of how long ago you worked with them. The best way to do that is with a good real estate marketing system that utilizes a value-packed real estate newsletter and other real estate marketing tools. When you have the right real estate marketing system in place, you consistently build trust and loyalty with your clients, who increasingly see you as the agent to recommend to their friends and neighbors.

And don’t forget that clients move, at a rate of about once every five years (according to an article by relocation expert Joshua Green.) Getting those transactions is also a benefit of nurturing client relationships. In fact, when you consider the potential for repeat business and real estate referrals, one client ends up generating not just one or two but multiple transactions for you.

When you consider that many agents are doing much of their work from home these days, this is actually the ideal time to contact past clients and re-engage. Call or email and renew those relationships. If you haven’t done so already, you should also look at how you’re currently staying-in-touch with past clients and, if necessary, get a better real estate marketing system.

The “know, like, and trust” factor

The second group is the communities you target. Geographic farming is a proven tactic for getting homeowners in a targeted area to know, like and trust you — and when they know, like and trust you, they are much more likely to feel confident in calling you when they need an agent.

Real estate geographic farming is powerful because it not only makes it easier for you to reach and engage with residents, it also takes advantage of the fact that neighbors talk to each other. If you do the right things to build relationships with homeowners, you’ll become the agent everyone knows and trusts. When someone is ready the move, you’ll get the call. When someone asks a neighbor to recommend an agent, your name will come up in that conversation.

If you’re not currently targeting a farm, now is the perfect time to do so. These days more than ever, people are looking to work with professionals that are known and trusted. By farming an area using a good real estate lead generation system, you can be that professional in that community.

Can rookie agents use this strategy?

If you’re in your first year as a real estate agent, you might be wondering if this approach to generating leads will work for you. You might be thinking, “I don’t have many past clients, and I’m not currently targeting a farm.”

The fact is, getting the systems in place to build relationships with prospects and clients is crucial in your first year. The last thing you want is to be constantly chasing down leads — the same leads everyone else chasing. Eventually, and ideally sooner rather than later, you want an ever-increasing percentage of your business to come from real estate referrals and repeat clients. If you don’t start setting the stage to making that happen in your first year, you might find yourself struggling in your second.

Think of it this way. Where do you want to be spending your time three years from today? Struggling to chase and close prospects who don’t know you and are probably talking to many other agents? Or, working with prospects and clients that came your way through referrals, word-of-mouth, and being well-known in a community?

Get the right real estate marketing systems working for you today will make that happy future a reality for you.

Here’s the bottom line…

In increasing numbers, buyers and sellers are going to be choosing agents they know, or have been recommended to them. So, why not harness this trend to get more real estate leads and referrals in the coming months and years? Start now.