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Part One: Are Expired Listings Really Worth It?
Expired listings have become a hot topic lately in the real estate community. Many real estate agents swear by expired listings and claim to earn big commissions of them. But for the majority of agents, expired listings remain an elusive target without any consistent results. Also, expired listings have a bad reputation of being difficult to reach, difficult to deal with, and difficult to list.
What is the truth? Are expired listings really worth your time, effort and money? Can they be a profitable source of business? The answers are ahead. But first, let’s talk about the sources of real estate business…
As a real estate agent, you have two options when it comes to generating commissions. First is to "buy" the business.
If you have a nice big budget, a few thousand dollars spent monthly on marketing, direct mail, advertising, and web promotions may generate plenty of good leads, listings, and income. Arguably, it is an easier way to earn a living in real estate this way, but obviously more expensive. The down side is when the money flow stops, so does the business flow.
Real estate veterans who combine advertising and marketing with a large pool of referrals from past clients can make a a good living this way without too much effort, or a need to prospect.
On the other hand, if you are a new agent, expensive advertising and marketing is out of the question. You could just hope and wait for the next deal to come to you from a sign call or the web, but a passive approach like that can be risky in today's market. You could go broke just waiting.
The only other option is to roll up your sleeves and do some old-fashioned active prospecting - going out there to look for clients: door knocking, cold calling, For Sale By Owners, open houses, and expired listings.
All those methods are easy to learn, inexpensive, and each can be profitable, when done consistently.
But only expired listings offer you three big advantages:
EXPIRED LISTINGS ARE EASY TO FIND
Even on a good day of door knocking you end up with just one or two hot leads. Seldom can you set up a listing appointment right then and there. It just doesn't happen that often.
For Sale By Owners can be rare in many areas. And they are not exactly easy to convert into listings. It can take plenty of time and patience.
On the other hand, every day your local Multiple Listing Service delivers you on a silver platter names, addresses, and often even phone numbers of folks that wanted to sell but didn't. No long searching is needed, since you already know who your prospects are and where they live.
EXPIRED LISTINGS ARE EASY TO CONTACT
The Do Not Call List has made cold calling not only uncomfortable, but a dangerous method of finding real estate leads. Yes, an expired listing can also be on the DNC list, true. If that's the case, you can simply hop in the car and pay them a visit them in person.
And if the seller is out of the area, start a direct mail campaign to them. The Expired Plus system for example has plenty of great expired listings letters and postcards.
Plus, consider a regular home owner that has lived in her house for the last twenty-five years and is very uncomfortable to even talk to a real estate agent. Expireds, on the other hand, are easier to deal with (most of them, anyway). They have been through the listing process before and for the most part understand the selling process.
EXPIRED LISTINGS ARE EASY TO LIST
Expired listings usually expire because of one thing: the price. But if they are motivated to sell - and many expireds have to sell - the reality often sets in which makes them easier to deal with than a regular home owner with plenty of time, low motivation, and little desire to move.
In the Part 2 of The Expired Listings article, I'll share with you some cool tips on how to make listing expired listings profitable and easy, even if you're a new agent with no experience with expired listings. Meanwhile you can visit http://www.ExpiredPlus.com and find out how even a rookie agent can list 1...2...3 or more expireds every single month.
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Borino is the author of Expired Plus - How to find and list expired listings. It's a complete real estate marketing system for expired listings. It includes the best expired listings letters, expired listings postcards, scripts, plus a step-by-step course on how to find, approach, and list expired listings, and much more. Visit http://www.ExpiredPlus.com for more info. |
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