Expired Listing Letter

[Big Cheese]

As scary as it is to jump into this particular thread, I'm gonna offer my 2 cents anyway.

Instead of trying to copy what everyone else is writing, why not write your own letter? Incorporate all the reasons that a seller could benefit from calling you, rather than how great, big, or no 'bs' your company is.

When gurus get on stage and say, "Just use the direct mail letter in the manual. It worked for me." I get so scared. I mean, if they've given it to 300 people in the room, and then to the other thousands of folks who've attended their events over the years, you're looking at hundreds and thousands of the exact same letter going out to sellers. If a seller gets 3 of the exact same letters from investors and the only thing that's changed is the name at the end of the letter, none of y'all are getting the lead.

Besides, you never know when the letter was written. It may be the result of 'marketing incest' where one guru copies from another who copies from another, and so on. By the time you get the letter, its 10 years old, hasn't worked in years, and the wording used to get the seller motivated to call hasn't been relevant for quite some time.

Insert your own personality and buying style into the letter. Don't worry about messing up just yet. The key is to test in small batches, take action, and then tweak as you see fit.

Big Cheese

[CharlottePlayer]

Big Cheese is right.  The only way to come up with a perfect letter is to time test your own personality.  If you have passed any english class, you were taught how to write a persuasive letter.  

Just remember. come up with a good thesis sentence and use that sentence to build your introduction paragraph.  Make sure your thesis has 3 benefits.  

In your body paragraphs, break it down into three paragraphs, one for each of your benefits.  Usually describe the benefits with two to three sentences.  

Your last paragraph should be your conclusion.  Sum up every thing that was talked about in the body briefly.  

This post here will at least separate your from all the others, illiterate writers out there.  Trust me, i have seen plenty of letters.  And they all sucked.  That is why i constantly get all the leads i can handle, by using the structure i just layed out.

Take it, use it, and prosper.

[Rich_in_CT]

try this one.. 35% response rate

...outside the box......


***start letter****
Dear (first name)

SO I see you listed with a realtor that didnt come through.
Are you pi--ed off? I dont blame you those agents care about nothing more than their precious little commissions.

Anyway I was writing to tell you I want to buy your house from you right now.

You dont have to pay to list it, you dont have to pay to get it ready for sale, you dont have to pay holding costs until it sells, you dont have to pay closing costs, you dont have to sit there wondering if your house is gonna sell and you dont have to pay a commission once it sells. Ill take care of all that.

You have a guaranteed sale just call me. That is unless you DO still want to list your house through another non performer.

Look I aint gonna bulls--t you. I am not an agent and I dont want to list your house. I have plenty of money I want to buy so sell me your house and be done with it.

Take care,
(your name)

P.S. oh and dont be suckered into listing with an agent again

Most people I know would disregard anything resembling this and file it in the circular file (wastepaper basket).  While you did catch their eye I doubt you gained their trust or respect.  Would you let a foul mouthed person with poor grammar be involved with the biggest investment of your life?  Doubt it.

As for the response rate:  How many letters did you send vs how many calls did you receive?  How many deals did you close?

[Big Cheese]

I know some marketers like Dan Kennedy use language for shock value to let their customers know that they are real people, not some Johnny-Come-Lately investor. Rich is going after a certain type of people. That type of marketing isn't for everyone.

Not to play 'devil's advocate', but if he truly is getting 35% from his mailings, and that is people wanting to sell their house, not getting mad at the postcard he's sending, then I think he outta keep doing what he's doing. (And if he's getting calls mostly from angry sellers who are offended - isn't that more sellers for the rest of us?)

I would be more curious to know how you've fared using the term "guarantee" when talking about buying their house. You never know if the expired listing was the result of the price being marked up because the seller had unrealistic expectations, or maybe they refi'ed and are upside down against FMV, or even if they're behind on payments and had hoped to list in order to avoid foreclosure - therefore driving up what's owed on the house.

By guaranteeing to buy, I would think that you've hemmed yourself in when they call, especially if they're upside down. Unless you're going to give them some outrageous offer that they'd never accept but at least you offered to buy their house, then I don't see how you can guarantee it.

I'm curious. Not advocating or putting down anything. Just looking for more information. Investor is a dirty word in the world right now and the more we as investors can promote buying with integrity, we all can profit from it.

Big Cheese

[reoconsultants]

Why send a letter???

Send a contract to purchase.

Here is the deal on that if you send a letter then you have to go meet the seller make a deal.

Send a contract and if they like the price it is a deal if they don't then that is one less house you need to see.

[EquityHunter]

You know every market is different. In my market less than 5% of listings sell. Nationally according to the NAR only 14% of agents last more than 2 yrs in the biz. If you in a severe buyers market like I am the usual Realtor/MLS marketing progam is not effective because the buyers are not there. They can't create a buyer out of smoke. I take advantage of that fact. It's one of the reasons I relocated from a hot market to a market where I could actually get deals easily.

I'm not out to bash Realtors or anyone else. I just tell the truth. Anyone can sell a house in a hot market. That's where you will see the % of MLS listings drop. In a cold market the % will be close to a 100%. That's not any great reflection on the ability of Realtors, it's an economical fact that many don't want to pay for advertising for 6-12 months and put in the effort to sell on their own. It's also a herd mentality. Everyone else uses a Realtor so should I.

More important than what's in your letter is making personal face to face contact with the owner and offering your solution. This is a free country and no organization or trade group has a lock on buying or selling re.  No one sells to an invisible buyer like one person suggested. Just send a contract. Right... You have to have some empathy and not come across like Scrooge. No one sells to someone they don't know or like.

REI is a people business. If you don't want to talk with people get a Reator to do it for you. They act as a buffer. They will be around for a long time. Their services are worthy if you need them.

EH

 

[cfcox]

Thank you!!!

"You are marketing to the frustrated, irritated, and agitated home owners that trusted all the garbage the realtor told them about how easy it would be to sell.

The realtor could care less.

I love expired listings!!!!!!"

Agent bashing...how original!

Listings expire for a reason...most of the time the seller has unrealistic expectations as to their asking price...otherwise their home would have sold (especially in these hot real estate markets over the past few years).

Of the last 7 homes I listed...5 sold within 3 days w/multiple offers slightly over list price (just like I told the sellers). The other two...both sellers wanted $20,000 higher than I recommended they list at.

"I'll list your home wherever you want, but you have it in writing & I'm telling you now...I think your asking price is too high." I let the market talk to them.

Of the remaining two...one lowered their asking price $10,000, and it still didn't sell (30 DOM). They then lowered the asking price another $10,000 & it sold in a matter of days...just like I told them it would.

The other party was continuously confrontational & accusatory w/no less than 7 other parties, and we cancelled their listing. Agents run into these types once...maybe twice a year.

Agents care, but I can assure you...not all sellers are sweet, innocent victims of the evil Real Estate Agent.

"BTW, the seller DOES pay the commission, otherwise the price would be lower and the house would sell!"

This is one of the dumbest Agent hating comments I tend to read here.

So let me get this straight...the seller's gonna lower the asking price of the house because, they don't have to pay Agent commissions?  :ibs:

How ridiculous!!!

So all FSBO's are predominately great deals cause, they're all priced lower than all the homes listed by Agents?  ???

So how come 90% of FSBO's eventually sell w/the assistance of a Real Estate Agent?  ???

"Just take the realtor out of the equation and the world will be a better place"

And finally...if non Agent investors were such better people than real estate agents...then why all the legislation & talk of legislation to limit their activities?

How come Builders/Developers are writing contingencies into their contracts to eliminate investors from buying in their projects?

The danger of continuously throwing cow pies @ the oscillator is...you might just get some on yourself...

...just some thoughts.

[DougON]

What are the statistics? Isn't it something like 90% of sellers would never use the same agent again? With that in mind I think it makes perfect sense to bash agents, agents bash investors, they bash other agents... heck, agents even bash the FSBOs they're trying to get business from!

Anyone you talk to who's had their house listed for a long time with a non-performing agent, will tell you that they hate their agent. So you might as well target them in your marketing. You need to be careful not to be SO vicious that you actually push the seller to defend their agent.

But we all know that marketing is about bringing pain to the surface and then giving them your solution. Well, anyone with a house on the market for 90+ days has a severe pain, and it's called a realtor!

[DeeinAustin]

Huh? You aren't marketing to real estate agents. You are marketing to the frustrated, irritated, and agitated home owners that trusted all the garbage the realtor told them about how easy it would be to sell.

The realtor could care less.

I love expired listings!!!!!!

BTW, the seller DOES pay the commission, otherwise the price would be lower and the house would sell!  Just take the realtor out of the equatiion and the world will be a better place.

I hear you. A lot of real estate agents make a ton of money working expired listings too. :-)

[Emperor_Earth]

Why send a letter???

Send a contract to purchase.

Here is the deal on that if you send a letter then you have to go meet the seller make a deal.

Send a contract and if they like the price it is a deal if they don't then that is one less house you need to see.

I'm intrigued. Could you divulge more details? Also, what is your focus? Flipping? Cashflow? etc

[LuckyBuysYuckyHouses]

Why send a letter???

Send a contract to purchase.

Here is the deal on that if you send a letter then you have to go meet the seller make a deal.

Send a contract and if they like the price it is a deal if they don't then that is one less house you need to see.

I'm curious on this one. What are you doing......looking up a value on each and every house you mail to? Seems like a heck of a lot of wasted time. 

[fadi]

Why is this being complicated? Expired or not, you are only interested in those motivated. The fact that it expired does not indicate motivation, it simply indicate that they want to sell so you are working with a narrowed down list.

From this narrowed down list, you are fishing for those truely motivated and need to sell. The seller needs to address their needs... what are they looking for?

- They no longer can make monthly payments
- Behind payments maybe
- Bought another house
- Relocating
- Divorcing
- House in bad shape and regular home owners are not interested
- list goes on

Now, the letter needs to answer these concerns. You should not bash agents and say they are not good. After all, investors do not have better reputation. You can explain to them why sometimes listing the house with agents is not in their best interest as they have experienced and how now they have a buyer who is willing to buy their house if they picked up the phone and called you.

The letter needs to be written as a regular conversation. Record yourself talking to them convincing them of how you can help them by addressing the points above then transcribe it into a letter and clean it up.

There is more to copywriting than just this, but this would be a good start.

Getting 100% response means nothing if none of them is really motivated. In fact, the higher the response rate with lower conversion rate may prove to be depressing. I rather have only the motivated call me.

[Tien]

I get 40% response from expireds with yellow letters.........