Posts Tagged ‘real estate prospecting letters’

Writing Real Estate Letters – Remember That Not All Distressed Homeowners Are Upside Down

January 5th, 2011


Today so many people are upside down in their mortgages that it would be easy to assume that all are in the same boat. But that’s not necessarily true.

Job layoffs and salary cuts aren’t exclusive to homeowners who purchased their homes during the years when prices had skyrocketed. Even homeowners who have been paying for ten or fifteen years can be in trouble in this market.

So, if you’re following your newspaper and contacting homeowners who have received a notice of default, do so carefully. Pay attention to the numbers and separate the homeowners who are upside down from those who are not.

These two very different homeowners need different real estate prospecting letters.

Those who will need to sell with a short sale are interested in salvaging a bit of their credit rating, but they don’t really care how much you can get for their house. They aren’t going to see any of that money. If they qualify under the new regulations, what they might see is the $3,000 “gift” they’ll get to help with moving expenses.

Those who still have some equity in their homes may need you even more than the homeowners with no equity.

If you can list their homes and sell them before the foreclosure is final, you’ll not only save them from a foreclosure on their credit report, you’ll put some money in their pockets.

Some of these homeowners may have already tried to sell – and listed with an agent who went along with an unrealistic price or who allowed them to offer the house without preparing it for sale. They’ll need some “tough love” from you in order to salvage something of their equity.

But, unless you have seen their home listed for sale, you won’t know which homeowners have tried to sell. So, you can’t send a “why didn’t it sell?” letter.

Instead, your letters to them should first offer hope, and then explain what is necessary to sell a home in today’s market.

You’ll need to emphasize the importance of the right price and the proper presentation. If they’ve listed before, they might recognize where they went wrong. Let them know that you’ll tell them the truth, and back it up with facts in the form of a current market analysis.

Then you need to assure them that you are the agent who will market their home to the “nth degree” – so it will be sold before the foreclosure date.

So often we hear of people who didn’t even try to salvage something of their equity. They’ve read so much about the state of the market that they don’t believe there is help available.

You can help them – you know you can – but first you have to show them that there’s hope.

By: Marte Cliff

About the Author:
Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in writing for real estate and related industries.

She’ll help you with one letter, or an entire marketing plan. For Real Estate agents and brokers who are ready to get full value from their websites, she’ll be happy to put together an entire package – from the web copy to the lead generation packages that make an agent’s phone ring.

For busy agents on a budget, Marte offers pre-written letter sets for use in postal mail or in e-mail continuity campaigns. The current selection includes letters for FSBO’s, Expired Listings, Short Sale sellers, First Time Buyers, and a set for new agents to send to buyers. Read what’s included in these sets by visiting http://www.copybymarte.com/pro/prospecting.html

Marte’s weekly ezine for real estate professionals offers tips and hints for building a successful business. To subscribe, and to see other resources available for real estate sales professionals, visit her at http://www.copybymarte.com



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Why Most Real Estate Prospecting Letters Fail

December 23rd, 2010


Have you paid attention to the real estate prospecting letters you get in the mail?

Most of those real estate letters begin by breaking the #1 rule in copywriting: It isn’t about you.

Because those agents think the letters are about them, they begin the very first sentence with the word “I” or “We.”

As a result, a huge percentage of people begin reading the letter with a thought or feeling of “Why should I care about you?” or maybe “Yeah, so what? Who are you to me?”

The truth is, your prospects don’t give a hoot about you. They want to hear about themselves. The only reason they’ll read your letter is to see what benefit it holds for them.

You could say “My doctor says I’ll be dead by Tuesday unless you list your house with me,” and it wouldn’t budge them a bit. They’d think “Sorry, that’s not my problem.”

That’s a little extreme. But you get what I mean.

So there’s the first big mistake. And most of the time, from there it doesn’t get any better.

Those letters might go on to say how many listings an agent has or how many dollars worth of real estate he or she has sold. It might even mention their “alphabet soup” designations – which don’t mean a thing to most homeowners.

It’s all just more of the “me, me, me” message that doesn’t interest prospects in the least.

So what can you do instead?

You can write about their concerns and worries. You can show them that you recognize their problems, and then explain what you’ll do to help solve those problems.

Your approach will naturally be different if you’re writing to a “cold” group of homeowners in a specific neighborhood as opposed to say, a group of people with expired listings or a list of homeowners who have received a notice of default.

When you know what specific problems those homeowners have, it’s easier to show how you’ll solve them.

But even if you’re writing to a mixed farming area and don’t know what problems they need to solve, you can appeal to their curiosity and interest.

For instance, you can offer information about what’s been happening in that neighborhood. You can let them know how many homes are for sale or have sold in the past month or so. You can share average prices. You can tell them if prices are up or down from last month, or last quarter. And then you can offer to put them on your list for periodic updates.

Almost as an afterthought, you can let them know that you’d be happy to prepare a market analysis if they’re considering selling their home.

Today, successful marketing is all about giving something before you ask for anything. You have knowledge and advice. Give them freely.

By: Marte Cliff

About the Author:
Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in writing for real estate and related industries.

She’ll help you with one letter, or an entire marketing plan. For Real Estate agents and brokers who are ready to get full value from their websites, she’ll be happy to put together an entire package – from the web copy to the lead generation packages that make an agent’s phone ring.

For busy agents on a budget, Marte offers pre-written letter sets for use in postal mail or in e-mail continuity campaigns. The current selection includes letters for FSBO’s, Expired Listings, Short Sale sellers, First Time Buyers, and a set for new agents to send to buyers. Read what’s included in these sets by visiting http://www.copybymarte.com/pro/prospecting.html

Marte’s weekly ezine for real estate professionals offers tips and hints for building a successful business. To subscribe, and to see other resources available for real estate sales professionals, visit her at http://www.copybymarte.com



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Real Estate Prospecting Letters – Be Concise

August 10th, 2010

When you start writing to a real estate prospect you probably have a lot to tell them about why you’re the best choice in your marketplace. But resist the urge to tell them everything in just one letter!

It is a very good idea to begin your writing project by getting all of your ideas down on paper, but once you’ve done that, don’t use all of them in one letter. Instead, take your “everything” document and break it down into categories. Then arrange those categories in order of importance to your clients – or prospective clients.

You may well find that you have the root material for 3 or 4 letters if you’ve done a good job of writing down the reasons why you’re the agent of choice. And that’s a good thing. Contacting those prospects more than once will help build both trust and top of mind awareness with them – and keeping your messages concise will help ensure that they are actually read.

Now remember that the letter is not about you… it’s about your prospect and what they need from you.

If you’re writing to buyers you might begin with something like “Do you want to find the home of your dreams without having to view every house in the neighborhood?”

Then you can go on to say that you’ll use your listening skills together with your knowledge of the market to help them focus in on only those homes which will appeal to them.

Your next letter might outline your experience with construction – and your ability to prevent them from purchasing a “money pit” by noticing and pointing out problems in the offing.

After that you might talk about communication and your willingness to stay in touch in the manner that suits them best. Some people like e-mail, some like telephones or FAX messages, and others like texting… and you will can and will use whatever pleases them.

Next you might talk about financing or negotiations.

The same holds true for sellers – begin by talking about them and what they want or need. Then show them how you’re able to solve that problem.

When you begin to write your first draft, start the first sentence in every paragraph with the word “you.” It will probably be necessary to change it a little during the editng process, and you might end up starting with some other word. But by beginning with that word in your first draft, you’ll automatically focus your thoughts and words on the reader instead of yourself.

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