Homeowners with expired listings often feel frustrated because of previous disappointment, but still, most maintain a belief in working with a trustworthy agent. 

If you’re ready to grow your business and acquire new clients, you may want to consider calling expired listings. Expired listings are properties that were listed for sale but did not sell within the designated timeframe. While this can be frustrating for homeowners, it presents an opportunity for real estate agents to offer a fresh perspective and competitive services and turn a disappointment into a success story.  

What’s Your Prospecting Strategy? 

Whether you cold-call your farm area or send out letters and mailings to your farm areas, or better still – both – the goal is to attract new business. The reason we call it real estate “farming” is because our marketing touchpoints are the equivalent of planting “seeds,” nurturing relationships, and cultivating a solid “crop” of new business and referrals. It’s about staying top of mind and being the agent in front of them the moment they DO commit to buying or selling. 

Expired listing leads, on the other hand, are more urgently in need of your services, so you may be losing valuable time mailing them flyers or sending information before you pick up the phone because their need and interest in selling are already high, as is what is likely to be their level of frustration with their previous listing agent.  

Related reading: Lab Coat Agents – 7 Things You Should Know About Expired and FSBO Listings 

What I Learned from My Mentors 

I worked for two amazing brokers during my time in real estate; one of them was named Anne Dickter. She was a friend of my mom’s and was one of the people who really got me into real estate. My second broker was Mac Levitt, who completely revolutionized the way I did real estate. 

When I started, I used to do a two-step listing appointment. (Sound familiar?) I would go to the house and drop something off because that’s what I was taught to do. Then I would go back to do the Comparative Market Analysis, and then I would go back to do the full listing appointment. However, by the time I got there for the listing presentation, Mac’s sign was already in the yard. He would end up winning the seller over because he did everything in one stop, which left me in the dust!   

We met face-to-face years later, which was a story for another day, but here’s my point: every day that you aren’t calling a FSBO or expired is a lost opportunity that you are willingly giving other agents to get the listing out from under you.  

Related reading – Mashvisor – 8 Ways To Get Real Estate Expired Listings 

The Banana Analogy  

When I made the move to Mac’s brokerage, he taught me the power of using metaphors and analogies to drive my point home. He told me that Expired listings are like fruit. When you call them to see how you can help them, they are already ripe. They already see the value in using a real estate agent, and they are ready and committed to getting their home sold.  

Anyone who has ever eaten a banana knows the very short lifespan of its perfect ripeness. You buy them a little green and wait because they aren’t quite ripe. Those are FSBOs, which are in the banana bunch but not quite ready. They are committed to selling, but they haven’t quite reached the point where they realize that going it on their own is a bad idea. It’s a learning process for them.   

Expireds, however, are ripe and approaching the over-ripe stage. This is why taking the time to mail them value pieces can hurt you because you are letting them get TOO ripe by waiting to call. This is why I recommend calling Expireds first; then, you can start sending mailings to them and then follow up at a later date. 

Related reading: The F.O.R.M. Acronym: How to Create Analogies On The Spot  

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