Real Estate Expired Listings

Expired listings leads represent both a tremendous opportunity and a significant challenge for real estate agents. The opportunity, of course, is to be the white knight who swoops in to turn disappointment into profit for frustrated homeowners. On the flip side, those same homeowners may now be cautious of any real estate agent who claims to have the golden key to sales success.

REAL ESTATE EXPIRED LEADS: THE FACTS

Source: Vulcan 7

When it comes to Expired Listing Leads, always remember:

You can assume they are motivated because they’ve already made the decision to sell their home.

They are likely not adverse to working with a real estate agent.

They have a property to sell without having an assigned agent.

Here are a few noteworthy statistics to keep in mind about Expired Leads:

1. Over half of Expired's re-list and sell with another agent

2. Many Expired's are opportunities for immediate, urgent business.

3. 40% list within one month

4. Nearly 4 in 10 will list with a new agent within 30 days

5. 60% of Expireds wait before signing with a new agent

6. Fewer than 3 in 10 Expireds will re-list with their current agent

7. 35% will have their home off the market for a month or more

BENEFITS OF PROSPECTING EXPIREDS LEADS

Here are two of the many benefits of prospecting Expired Listings Leads:

Typically, a homeowner who did not sell the first time has an increased urgency to sell the second time around. If you stick to your expired listing scripts, that urgency gives you an excellent chance to convert the lead to a listing.

Working with expired listings allows you to make significant (Gross commission income) GCI (over a shorter period, especially when compared to working as a buyer’s agent.

WORKING WITH EXPIRED LEADS, REAL ESTATE

As we said above, whether you’ve been in the business for years or are relatively new, you probably know that Expireds are a significant revenue opportunity.

Here are a few of the fundamentals when it comes to working with Expireds:

Call early and be persistent in your follow-up with new expireds. Prove that you are dedicated to selling their property; they will appreciate that dedication.

MORE ON THE VALUE OF OLDER EXPIRED LEADS

OK, so we get the value of the new expireds. But what about those older expireds? Some might dismiss older expireds as yesterday’s news.

Well, we’re here to say: don’t be too quick to judge older expired listings as anything less than an opportunity worth pursuing with vigor.

For the record, older Expireds could be homes that came off the MLS a month ago, or a year ago, or even longer. It would be best if you define “old” based on the dynamics in your market. For example, in a large market, with many expired listings, you might want to focus on those listings that came off the MLS one or two months ago. In smaller markets, you might want to expand your pool with older expireds.

Two things make older expireds particularly interesting.

First, calls to older expireds are warmer, friendlier calls to make. And because many agents dismiss older expireds, you are likely to find less competition when trying to build a relationship with these homeowners.

And, related, compared to new expired listings, those older expired homeowners are likely not being inundated with calls. This gives you a unique opportunity to forge a relationship.

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PROSPECTING OLDER EXPIREDS

Confirm that their home was previously listed and came off the MLS at a certain date. This information tells them you’ve done your homework.

Determine their continued interest in selling. A key question: if you sold, what would you do next/where would you go? Their future plans will give you a hint of their urgency concerning selling their current property.

If they are interested, try to determine if they have an existing relationship with an agent. Likely they don't have a current relationship. But if they say "yes," you can politely probe about the nature of the connection to determine if you have a chance to get in the game.

Try to get a meeting to examine the property and begin to build a relationship.

Once you’ve gotten to this point in the process, you can use the other tools you have for working with expired listings. Again, understanding how to maximize the value of expired listings leads is critical to success in real estate. Just don’t forget: there is gold in those older expireds.

Real Estate Expired Listings Serve As The Foundation For Many Of The Top-Producing Real Estate Professionals

D. Voight Thornton, MBA is an Certified Debt Consultant?Mr. Thornton was born in Incirlik Turkey (Adana AFB Base), and grew up in the Southwest (New Mexico). He earned his M.B.A. in Business Administration, Technology Management, while working as an Licensed Mortgage Loan Officer. His interest in the finance lead him to relocate to Arizona, to further his career,?Since graduating, Mr. Thornton? has worked in multiple compliance domains including his FinTech background. Mr. Thornton is licensed in Mortgage and as a certified Debt Consultant in the United States.