by Chett Coombs, on January 30, 2025
It's no secret that most real estate agents need to improve their lead generation. Chances are if you are reading this post, you fall into that group of agents.
Here is what most real estate agents do: try every new tactic, often without fully committing to it, and quickly change to something else when they don't find immediate results.
But this is a mistake.
According to NAR, the gross income for the average agent was only $42k in 2016.
$42k! That's the gross income, meaning before all their expenses and taxes. Their actual take home? Let's not even discuss it.
So what should an agent do to generate better leads? Well, that's up for debate. Real estate coaches are often the ones touting these new strategies and pushing agents to learn new skills. After all, why would a real estate agent pay a coach to teach them something old school?
One fact is certain: some lead generation practices are more profitable (and reliable) than others.
Finding Your Best Bet
Take a look at these three leads and pick which lead you think is best.
- Interrupting a 35 yr. old homeowner that's online checking out their high school bestie's wedding they missed
- Trying to grab the attention of homeowner that is ending his 10 hour work day by sorting through the brain-numbing amount of mail he got today
- Contacting someone that is already trying sell their house unsuccessfully and is willing to pay a commission
Obviously, we could create a list of 20-30 more.
Here is a closer look at their lead sources:
- Facebook ad traffic
- Direct mail campaign
- Expired listing leads
For whatever reason, most real estate agents these days see Facebook ads and direct mail campaigns as a better lead source than expireds. Seriously?! Not only can these lead generation campaigns come at a high cost, but a "successful conversion" rate is 1-3% (and that's if you have the skills or expertise to target the right message to the right person).
Sheesh, talk about a terrible ROI.
It's no wonder Jim hung his hat on expireds for his 15 year career:
[testimonial]
So why expireds? It actually comes down to a simple math formula.
1 motivated home seller + 1 skilled real estate agent = success
You see, expired listing leads are homeowners that tried to selling their home but didn’t find success. This is often due to market conditions, over or under pricing their home, or not having the right real estate agent.
As you can imagine, expired leads are often eager to get back on the market. In fact, most homeowners end up finding a new agent.
Keep this in mind, expired listings leads:
- Tried selling their home already but were unsuccessful
- Are eager to get back on the market
- Are open to a new, better solution
However, calling expired listing leads isn't a cake walk. In fact, many agents quit after a few days.
Why? Because high conversion rates and an extremely high ROI make calling expireds extremely competitive.
If you don't like high competition, you may want to leave this blog post now. Expired listing leads are one of the most competitive lead sources in real estate. But it's for a reason.
Michael Jordan didn't become the Michael Jordan we know today because he decided to try out for the curling team.
A niche with competition means there is money to be made. And there is big money to be made with expired listing leads.
We Can Help
We've been helping top producing agents find massive amounts of success by working with expired listing leads. In fact, we've been doing it since 1991.
Our sole purpose is to empower achievers like you to create abundance, however you define it. If you aren't successful, we aren't successful.
We've put together this guide to help you maximize your effectiveness as you grow your business using expired listing leads.
Rules and regulations
Before you do anything with expired listing leads, it's very important to check with your local MLS (Multiple Listing Service) to make sure you know all the rules and regulations regarding contacting your expired lists.
Contacting a listing that is not actually expired or that recently became active again can bring a hefty fine or penalty.
Many agents will pull their data out of their MLS and manually import that data into their CRM or dialer software. Without some sort of API integration to a service like Landvoice, that data will not be updated in your CRM or dialer if the listing becomes active again.
A Successful Expired Strategy
Most agents in real estate experiment calling expired listings at one point in their career. The difference between those that are successful and those agents that are not successful can be tied back to one thing: their strategy.
Commitment
Calling expired listings can be difficult.
Put yourself in a homeowner's shoes.
After months of keeping your home in tip-top shape, multiple open houses, and multiple offers falling through, your listing expires and you need to start all over again. To make matters worse, the day your contract expires, you are bombarded with calls from real estate agents trying to list your home.
It's a perfect recipe for getting an angry homeowner on the phone. Because of this, many agents will call leads for a week or two and give up on growing their business with expired leads.
Successful agents know that it takes commitment. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is your business. In the beginning, focus on activity, not results. Too many agents give up after not seeing immediate results.
Here is an example of the activities you should commit to each day and week:
- Find, filter, and audit your expired listing leads
- Call new, qualified expired listing leads
- Record which expired leads should be tossed and which should stay in your sales pipeline
- Follow up with expired leads you have not been able to contact
- Follow up with expired leads that are interested in working with you
This is just a small list of daily activities. Start by measuring your activity level, then your results.
Schedule and Productivity
One of the first steps to committing to calling expired leads is scheduling it into your day. If you leave your schedule open, "life" will fill it up for you (looking at you Candy Crush gamers).
If you are manually finding the phone numbers instead of using a service like Landvoice to get them automatically for a few bucks a day, you are going to need to schedule even more time.
So what does an effective schedule look like? Hoss Pratt, the #1 “lead and prospect" coach in the country, has an awesome schedule in his book Listing Boss (which we totally recommend!).
Following a schedule like this will be your first step to success with expired leads.
A word about productivity...
It's important to note there is a difference between being busy and being productive. Just because you fill up your daily schedule from 6 AM to 11 PM, that doesn't mean you are being productive.
Ask yourself this question: "What did I just accomplish for my business?" If your answer isn't something directly relation to lead generation, setting appointments, closing listings, or helping a client sell a home, you may want to consider removing it from your schedule.
The definition of productivity is "producing readily or abundantly." What are you doing right now to "produce readily or abundantly?" Grand Cardone, in the book 10X, says that "success is not something that happens to you, it's something that happens because of you." Make sure that your efforts, specifically those related to prospecting expireds, are making something happen." Success is not something that happens to you, it's something that happens because of you." – Grant Cardone
Make success happen because of you.
Multiple Touchpoints
Most homeowners will be contacted by hundreds of agents, yet few homeowners will be contacted by the same agent more than once.
And even fewer homeowners will be contacted by the same agent more than once over more than one medium.
What does that mean? A medium is the type or way you will contact them. For example, cold calling and sending an email are two different mediums to contact expired listing leads.
Here are some examples of different mediums you can use to contact your expired leads:
- Send a message on Facebook Messenger, Twitter, or Instagram DM
- Stop by "when you were just passing through the area"
- Give them a call
- Send a personal text message and ask for a good time to call
- Send an email with a recent testimonial or success story
- Send a handwritten letter in the mail that explains the personal touch you give to clients
If you are marketing to clients on only one medium (a.k.a. cold calling, which by the way is the exact same as every other agent) how do you expect a homeowner to believe that you will market their home differently than other agents?
Go the extra mile and show your expired leads that you can market their house effectively by marketing to your expired leads effectively.
Provide Value
When was the last time you made a large purchase without actually knowing what you were getting?
Have you purchased a car without test driving it?
Did you marry your spouse without going on a date?
Of course not. You want to know it's the right thing to do. Yet so many agents refuse to provide value to a homeowner before they get a signed contract.
I saw a conversation in a Facebook Group about whether or not agents should provide value prior to getting a listing agreement. One agent commented on Facebook, "Why should I?"
Because they are giving you between 3% - 6% of their home, that's why.
Because the internet makes data (like the value of their home) readily available to anyone, that's why.
Because discount brokers like Homie or Redfin are disrupting your business, that's why.
It's now more important than ever to show how much value you can provide, instead of just telling them.
Here are a few ways to show homeowners how much value you provide them.
Present a Marketing Plan Believe it or not, "I'll put your house on the MLS and a sign in your yard" is not a convincing marketing plan. A marketing plan is a documented, step-by-step success formula that you follow to help the homeowner sell their house for the most profit and in the shortest amount of time.
Remember, these are expired listings. They were just on the market with a real estate agent that didn't produce results.
Expired leads don't want to make a mistake again. They need to see value in order to have confidence in the next agent.
So show them value.
Here are a few points of the marketing plan Hoss Pratt used to explode his business with expired leads:
[Hoss marketing plan]
If you want to get the rest of his 89 point marketing plan, click here.
Use Technology It's 2018 (as of the posting date of this article) and people expect the use of technology.
The MLS is no longer in a 3 ring binder and your strategy shouldn't be either. You should walk into the listing appointment ready to wow the expired listing with a killer presentation that uses modern technology.
Here are a few tools that agents are using to win over expired leads:
- Call Capture
- Aerial photography
- 360 degree tours
- Marketing automation
Landvoice agents use a Call Capture tool to not only get listing appointments with expired leads, but to win them as well. Let me explain.
One of the biggest hurdles you will have when prospecting expired leads is getting a listing appointment. As soon as the listing expires, agents across the county will be calling that lead. The problem (or in Landvoice's customers' situation, the opportunity) is that most of the agents say the same thing. You need to be different.
Landvoice customers that use Call Capture simply send a video to them over text.
That's right, you don't even need to call! Here is the text you'll send:
Hey there, I just saw that your listing expired. I'm really sorry for all the calls you are probably getting. Look, I don't want to bug you, but I have a tool that might help you. It's called Call Capture and it's free. Watch this quick video and it will explain it. [link to video]
That's it. Did you know that 98% of text messages are read? You can't say that about cold calling. Heck, I doubt you can't claim your spouse answers 95% of your calls, let alone a cold call.
Using a text and Call Capture technology could be a game changer for your business.
Want to watch the video you'll be sending to your expired leads?
[Video]
If you're a "cold call kind of gal" (or guy), that's fine too.
The script is very similar. You need to acknowledge that the expired lead is probably frustrated with the number of calls, express some empathy, and then offer to send them a quick video of a free tool that may help them.
Follow Up
Persistence & Consistence
Social Media Tips
Using Scripts
How To Get Expireds Leads
DIY Expired Leads
Expired Lead Gen Partner
What's Next? Your Plan Of Action
BONUS! Here are the scripts.