16 Proven Strategies to Get More Real Estate Seller Leads

1. Learn How to Find Hidden Listing Inventory

In my years as a broker and coach, I have heard agents give every excuse in the book for why they can’t get real estate seller leads. You can probably guess what the most common excuse was: “But Diamond, there’s just no inventory out there!” Sound familiar? With interest rates rising and properties continuing to be snapped up in 2023, inventory is still at historic lows in many hot markets. But do you think that stopped me from getting leads and closing deals well above asking? Of course not. I just worked a little harder and leaned into other sources of listings. Here are three sources that I think will be especially promising this year:

1. Homebuilders and Landscapers: The fact is, builders can’t turn on a dime with buyer demand, so they’re going to need help offloading inventory in a cooler market. A lot of villas in places like Arabian ranches, Meadows and Palm Jumeirah are currently undergoing landscaping, upgrading etc. You can connect with the homeowners through them.
2. Homeowners turned landlords: With the downturn in asking prices, there are bound to be owners who are renting out their properties, waiting for prices to rise again.   
3. Preforeclosures: There are struggling homeowners out there who could benefit from your expertise.

You can learn how to convert these three potential customers (and learn about six more inventory sources) when you talk to me physically.

2. Drive Traffic to Home Valuation Landing Pages

Every owner wants to know how much their investment is worth, and that’s even more true in a volatile market. In 2023, driving traffic to home valuation landing pages is still one of the best ways to generate top-of-funnel seller leads online. The only problem is that getting a low cost on pay-per-click ads and designing landing pages that actually convert is very difficult. Most agents don’t have the time or tech skills to do it. Luckily, there is a much easier way to get seller leads from home valuation landing pages: talk to me about it!

3. Learn How to Work Expired Listings

The best advice I ever got about success in real estate—and maybe in life—was also the simplest: “It’s better to be their first love, second spouse, and third real estate agent. "While we don’t give relationship advice (yet), we can tell you from experience that this is true. First-time buyers and sellers almost always choose the wrong agent. That makes expired listings—properties that a real estate agent couldn’t sell in time—an excellent source of seller leads. Of course, like all cold outreach, winging it is probably not a good idea. You likely won’t be the only agent trying to contact these owners, and they’ll have objections lined up for you. That’s why you’ll need a lead source and auto-dialer like REDX or Vortex, and you need to practice tried-and-true scripts and objection handlers if you want a shot at actually converting them. I have a team of Telesales who can actually assist you in handling all the objections a seller might have.

4. Join a Team with Well-known Listing Agents

When you started out in real estate, you may have thought of yourself as a lone wolf, enjoying working without a boss telling you what to do when. But joining a team led by experienced listing agents will give you insights and the direct experience to start working seller leads faster. Sure, you could figure it out on your own, and working under someone else might not live up to your expectations, but if you want a head start becoming a listing agent, joining a team is one of the best ways to get your foot in the door.

5. Use Predictive Analytics to Target Homeowners BEFORE They’re Ready to Sell

If you want to get a taste of what the future of generating seller leads will look like, you need to integrate predictive analytics into your lead generation strategy. Property Monitor is a good tool for you, filter for active listings and transferred sales, remove the transferred units from your database, the rest of the data are all likely looking to sell. For rentals, you can know how many properties will be vacant in the coming month by filtering. 

6. Help Distressed Homeowners

No matter how good the market is, there are always homeowners who fall behind on payments. Whether someone struggling to pay the developer on an off-plan property or someone struggling to pay their mortgage. With the recent rate hikes and markets softening in many cities, there is a good chance we will see more homeowners falling behind this year. In some cases, they are able to recover from their situation by getting caught up on payments or negotiating a loan modification, but in most cases, they will have to sell the home to avoid foreclosure. That’s why working distressed properties can be a great way to get listings in any market. While we don’t have a crystal ball to tell us where the housing market is heading this year, the Federal Reserve’s options are limited. They have signaled that quantitative tightening—raising interest rates to lower demand—will likely continue for the foreseeable future. But whatever happens in the market, learning how to help distressed homeowners is a crucial skill for every Realtor to learn. You never know when it will come in handy. Learn more about how to find and work with distressed homeowners, talk to me! (We can work with banks and developers)

7. Work Your Sphere to Find Real Estate Seller Leads in Your CRM

If you’re not working your sphere, you are leaving seller leads on the table. Period. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 63% of all sellers find their agent through their sphere. Since you’ve already got some sort of relationship with these people, you can skip the cold outreach tactics and start straight in on strengthening your existing relationship and nudging people toward becoming clients. Eva Bogotlieva, director at Savoir Properties in Dubai, gets most of her seller leads from her network:

Eva Bogotlieva“ My seller leads come from my network, from being on the scene, and from always being at the most happening events. My tips and tricks to keeping them as a full-time client is by being at their call even when it’s not related to real estate. “ I go to their personal events, support their causes, invite them to dinner parties, and so on. I become a part of their daily life and offer a superior level of service to make sure they don’t think of anyone else for their referrals or their personal real estate needs. 

8. Create an Action Plan for Lead Nurturing & Automate It

Since even the hottest seller leads can take months to convert, successful listing agents create action plans to nurture them for the long haul. Once they have a plan that works, they automate as much as they can. This makes your leads feel like you are devoting time, energy, and interest to their needs even when you’re busy drumming up new business. Here’s a quick example of a nurturing action plan;

• Text message: Once per week
• Market update call: Every two weeks
• Coffee meetup: Once per month

Using an affordable customer relationship management (CRM) system like LionDesk, Goyzer you can easily automate market analysis drips, birthday and holiday texts, meeting invites, and more. LionDesk also has an AI assistant, auto-dialer, and click-to-call features, so you won’t get bogged down with busy work. Visit LionDesk

9. Convert Rental Leads Into Seller Leads

While traditionally a seller lead generation strategy that only really worked in big cities, converting rental leads has become a viable plan for agents all over the country. Once you look at demographic shifts, it’s easy to see why. First, more people are renting now than ever before, and second, developers are building more and more high-end rentals outside of larger cities. Here’s Manhattan luxury agent Adrian Radomski on just how lucrative converting rental leads can be:

Diamond Ilori“ - Treat every rental showing as if it were a large sale—you never know who you’re showing to. I’ve converted a $9,000 rental showing into a $2.2 million sale. That person then referred me to another family member, whose apartment we sold for $1.3 million.”

10. Get Over Your Fear of Cold Calling Expired & FSBOs

While many people tend to avoid phone calls as if they were actually allergic to them, I still believe that the personal connection made on the phone is equal to 10 postcards or emails. It’s simple really—human beings are conditioned to both remember and react to interpersonal communication. So when you’re planning out your lead generation and nurturing campaigns to convert seller leads, make sure you add regular phone calls to your plan. That means setting aside a few hours each day to cold call, as well as regularly picking up the phone and calling former clients just to check in and remind them you exist.

“Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and talk. This is so important and goes such a long way. It’s a work day? Text them! At the end of the day, we are all in the same world and evolving with technology. Not everyone checks emails, answers calls, or listens to voicemail.”

Mia Caesar, an agent on Long Island, swears by cold calling expired listings to generate seller leads:

“Definitely tackle expired listings! It’s a free source of warm leads and it doesn’t cost anything to pick up the phone or knock on their door and introduce yourself. It’s a great way to get listings, learn your market, and get your name out there as a trusted resource. I also love that working with expired listings tests your problem-solving skills, since you have to market the home in a fresh, new way that wasn’t already done by the previous listing agent.”

11. Build a Library of Local Service Providers to Drive More Referrals

Another great way to drive seller leads is to build a library of local service providers. The idea is to be known as something of a local fixer. So if someone in your sphere needs something, they know you have connections.

"For everyone I come in contact with, I position myself constantly as a helpful resource, and not as focused on the immediate listing. If they are confident, I know the most cost-effective painter, the easiest place for window treatments, or best slice in the neighborhood, I know I’m going to be on their list when it’s time to sell. Especially in a time when there is a ‘concierge’ or an Angie’s List-style referral source for everything, people want to trust a ‘Brian’s List’ that’s actually handpicked and tested. Money and time matter⁠—if you can prove you’re a helpful resource, the sellers will remember.”

12. Nurture Relationships with Local Business Owners

One underappreciated way to get real estate seller leads is to develop relationships with local influencers who will then become evangelists for your business. No, I am not suggesting you go out for drinks with the local equivalent of Kim Kardashian. Instead, you can work to develop relationships with local business owners. Why local business owners? Simple. They know everyone, and new people moving to your area want to know them. You can always go out and talk to and interview local business owners for your blog or social media posts to build tons of local content for your leads.

13. Work Open Houses to Find Seller Leads

Although many agents tend to ignore them, open houses can be an excellent place to find seller leads. Yes, you’ll get the inevitable parade of tire kickers and curious neighbors, but you’ll also get serious would-be sellers checking out the competition to see what their home might sell for. After all, every consumer thinks they’re the real estate expert these days, and what better way to get a lay of the land than checking out listings in person? Open houses can be an especially fertile source for seller leads in affluent neighborhoods, as most residents never even see their neighbors’ driveways—let alone their living rooms.

“Open houses are hands-down the best way to generate seller leads. I typically do two to three every weekend and find that it’s not only buyers who attend, but also homeowners scoping out the competition and subconsciously interviewing the agents they meet. Nothing beats a face-to-face, personal experience and making a great first impression. When they call me to list, they say, ‘Do you remember me? We met at your open house!’”

14. Work with Real Estate Investors & House Flippers

If you’re working in a reasonably sized city, chances are there are dozens of investors and house flippers buying, renovating, and selling houses every day. What most people don’t realize is that investors weren’t born yesterday. They know that their best chance to get top dollar when it comes time to sell their listing is to hire an agent to aggressively market the property. Why shouldn’t that listing agent be you? If you have local expertise, marketing chops, and enough experience to get them great prices, then you can set yourself up with a steady supply of listings to close every month.

15. Find a New Niche to Work Seller Leads

If you’ve tried all the other ways to get seller leads here and you’re still not getting any, you might be working the wrong niche. Markets change, and staying ahead of the curve and working niches that are growing rather than shrinking just might be your ticket to getting more leads. Just make sure you do your research here. Transitioning to a new niche is a risk and might not pay off if you choose the wrong one. And, of course, every market is different. Understanding the cycle that your particular area is in could be key to making the right choice.

16. Pitch Homeowners With a Highly Detailed Listing Marketing Plan

Where and how you market a home for sale is at the very core of your fiduciary duty as a listing agent. After all, your plan for marketing a property is one of the key pieces of information homeowners use to make the decision to hire you or move on to the next agent. Unless you’re working in the middle of nowhere, there will always be another agent. So take the time to put as much work into your listing marketing plan as you would into your comparative market analysis (CMA). While you should tailor your marketing plan for every new listing you pitch, you shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Instead, create a marketing plan that will work for any listing and modify it to appeal to the owners of each listing. While you might think your CMA is more relevant to the homeowner’s pain points, chances are it’s not going to be very different from your competitor’s. You probably used the same software to produce it!

Over to You

You have a great strategy for getting seller leads that I missed? Let me know in the comments. I update my articles frequently to always give you the latest information, but technology and the markets are changing faster than ever these days. So, if you have questions, pain points, or just want to share a cool tip, my digital door is always open. If you’re really struggling and want some support from fellow agents, join my community of agents. Or check out our special report on the best real estate coaches to find someone who can help today. Text me on WhatsApp at +971544540465