It is the end of winter and a lot of home buyers are completely over the holiday season. They are getting ready to make their home search. The same goes for home sellers—with the cold season gone, many are more motivated and very much prepared to get their homes in the market in anticipation of a robust number of buyers looking for homes. Indeed, the real estate market begins to heat up during this season and, yes, for real estate professionals, there are a lot of home buyers and sellers out there who will need your services. But, given these circumstances, can agents really afford to be lax with their prospecting efforts? For a true real estate leads prospector, absolutely not!
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Although the volume of leads start to increase during this season, there are several reasons why agents should beef up their prospecting. Here’s why.
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Does this line sound familiar? (yes, it was derived from a friendly-neighborhood super-hero flick) Never is this truer than in the spring market. With the sheer volume of prospects out in the open, your competitors are also out there ready to pluck away the next prospective buyer or seller that comes their way. For this reason, it is important for you to be ahead in the game by pro-actively reaching out to your leads to let them know that you exist and that you can help them with their real estate needs.
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Yes, in the spring, there is a vast sea of home buyers and sellers but the question is how many of them are truly motivated to buy or sell a home? During this season, many “supposed” buyer leads may just be curious to see what homes are available out there but are not exactly intent on purchasing. The last thing you want is to set an appointment with a lead only to end up becoming a tour guide, driving a bunch of people around town showing them homes that they won’t buy. 

The same goes for non-motivated sellers. With the confidence that there is a rise in demand, there may be homeowners out there who are just curious to know how much their home is worth but not really intending to sell.

It is because of these reasons why real estate leads prospectors should take extra effort not only to reach out to as many leads as they can, but also to understand their prospects’ motivation. Better prospecting will prevent you from getting stuck with leads with shallow motivation. The more motivated prospects you get in touch with, the more “real business” you can expect for you and your team.

Over the past few decades, the exponential advances in information technology has given many home buyers and sellers access to the real estate market by simply going online and tapping into any of the many real estate resources available in the internet. Although, the world wide web has become a powerful tool for real estate professionals for generating and harvesting leads, it has also become a potential source of disinformation for the very leads they are reaching out to.
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As the spring market begins, many of these “misinformed” real estate prospects may be out there. Don’t be surprised if you encounter a someone insisting to get their home sold for an amount based on certain websites that supposedly does market analysis for homes in their area. You, being a real estate professional, having access to the actual data, know that this may not be the case; and that the price being demanded may not actually be supported by the market. 

That said, it is almost a disservice not to do all we can to find these leads, get them in the know, and help them fulfil their real estate needs. They may not know it know, but these people certainly need you as much as you may need them.

Springtime is definitely an exciting time in real estate, so real estate professionals should enhance their prospecting efforts and not miss out the many opportunities for them to help their prospects find the home of their dreams. 

For more information and tips on real estate leads prospecting, visit http://www.RealEstateLeadsProspector.com or call us at 407-401-9225.

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How convenient would it be for any real estate professional if every prospect that came your way was referred to you by someone who says, “Hey, hire <your name here>. That agent is super awesome!” Reality, however, is quite different; and for the most part, agents should allocate a good amount of time and energy in prospecting for real estate leads. With that, it is crucial to make every call count; and understanding a prospect’s motivation will greatly help real estate leads prospectors make the most out of their calls and get that appointment set with the right kind of leads.
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​Motivation is the key driver for anyone to do… well… just about anything. So, understanding a prospect’s motivation is one of the best practices that agents should do since it serves as a barometer to gauge whether or not a home buyer is ready to take the next steps in the home buying process. Often, when an agent gets push-back from a lead, it is because there is something about the prospect’s motivation that the agent did not fully understand.

Here are 5 questions that leads prospectors should ask their real estate leads to help understand their level of motivation:

This is the very first thing that agents should understand. Often, there is an important reason driving the home search—a job transfer, someone who wants to be nearer to family, an elderly couple downsizing, et cetera. Buyers with a real need to buy have a sense of urgency to get things going. Keeping your lead focused on their motivation during your conversation will help make your prospecting calls as meaningful as it is as personal. The last thing you want is to waste your time setting an appointment with a lead who just wants you to bring them around town to view a couple of homes without any real intention of purchasing.
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The amount of time and effort that a prospect goes through in their home search will give you a good idea on how motivated they are. Those who would take the effort to go to open houses on top of performing multiple home searches—whether through the internet portals or other whatever means are available—are most likely more motivated to buy. 

How soon do you need to be in your new home?

Timing is another important aspect that agents should know and appreciate. Leads who need to be in their new home within the next 30 days are definitely more motivated to go to the next step in the buying process than those who are 6 months out and beyond. Of course, just because a lead is a few months out does not mean that they are not ready to buy. A follow up question you can ask is if they found a home that perfectly fits their criteria, will they be ready to write an offer. If the answer to that is yes, then you are talking to a very motivated lead.
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The home ownership situation of a buyer is another huge factor that real estate leads prospectors should consider. Renting, for instance, can be double-edge. On one end, renters would have a monthly budget set to pay for their rent, ergo, if an agent can find a home and setup a mortgage plan that equals the buyer’s monthly rent, then we have a lead that has the capacity to pay for a home. On the other hand, a renter can be on a long-term lease and may be unable to buy until the lease expires (unless there’s a clause in the contract that can allow the renter to get off the lease sooner).

For homeowners, there are a number of things that a leads prospector should take into consideration as well. Do they need to sell before they buy? How much do they still owe on their home? These questions will determine how ready your prospect is to make that home purchase. 
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When you go out shopping, it is almost instinctive for you to check if you have your wallet with you—when you find what you want to buy, you got to have enough to pay for it. The same goes for real estate, a truly motivated buyer make sure to get pre-approved by a lender to know how much he/she can afford. If a lead is not yet pre-approved, if they are willing to talk to a lending a professional and get that pre-approval, that is another good sign of a motivated buyer.
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Here is a question that not every agent asks—what budget is realistic for you? Even if a buyer lead got pre-approved, the pre-approval is usually based on the numbers that the lender is privy to. However, this does not take into consideration the lifestyle that the prospect may want to maintain. Although the numbers might say a lead can “ideally” afford x-amount for their home, it may entail them to make sacrifices to their current lifestyle—sacrifices that they may not be willing to make in the long run.

Every agent should dedicate enough time and effort in understanding the motivation of your real estate leads. The level of motivation of a prospect will determine what kind of service we can provide to our leads: whether to give them the most updated listings to aid them in their home search or set that appointment now to help them fulfill their real estate needs.
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As we trudge along the first few weeks of 2017, any serious real estate professional should now be going full speed ahead towards the goals they have set for their respective teams at the end of last year. With this in mind, agents should be strictly monitoring their numbers to make sure they do not lose steam mid-year and end up short of their intended goals. This may sound like a cliché, but in the business of buying and selling homes, nothing is more true than this saying: knowledge is power. Knowing this year’s real estate trends will give you an edge in your leads prospecting efforts and help you achieve the goals you have set for your team.

Here are 5 trends in real estate that you should consider aligning your business efforts towards.

Although home prices are still on the rise, the appreciation in home values will slow down this year as the housing market continues to normalize. When you are prospecting for sellers, letting them know this piece of information should give them the sense of urgency to act now. For those talking to FSBO’s, if their main goal is to net the most amount of money in their pocket, let them know that it may to their best interest to hire an experienced real estate agent who has access to more motivated buyers and get their homes sold for top dollar especially since home values won’t get any better.

Just as the appreciation of home values slow down due to the market normalizing, an increase in mortgage rates is also expected. This is another piece of crucial information that agents should put forward when they prospect for real estate leads. There is no better time to buy a home than right now as mortgage rates will increase as the year progresses.

By now, a significant number of millennials will be on their mid-30’s and may be considering to buy a home. This is especially true for those who are now thinking of settling down and having children. Focusing your prospecting efforts on this age group will be an advantage as many of them may be first time home-buyers and will need the help of a real estate professional to help them find a home for their growing families. As far as communications go, incorporating text messaging and social media into your real estate leads prospecting efforts will be an advantage since these modes of communication greatly resonate with this generation. Especially if you are using a CRM with these features built in like Commissions Inc., you should utilize these functions as they will greatly bolster your prospecting.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, we will also see a lot of people in their sixties and beyond in the market. Many baby boomers are now considering retirement, have no more children around, and are thinking about downsizing to cut down on costs. On the flip side, others might be thinking of getting a bigger home to accommodate their grandchildren especially when they come to visit. Also, unlike millennials, many in this age bracket may also have a property they first need to sell before buying a home to fit their needs. This set of real estate leads is certainly a gold mine, and aligning your prospecting efforts towards this age group is an advantage.

It wasn’t very long ago when drones were stuff of movies like in The Terminator or The Matrix. Today, we see them not shooting down fellow human beings with searing laser beams or crushing flesh and bones with cold, steel tentacles but rather buzzing in the air taking amazing aerial photography shots of a property for sale! Yes, the use of drones and other pieces of technology find more use in real estate marketing today, especially if your target market are the younger generations like the millennials of generation-y or to prepare yourself for the upcoming generation-z (still in their late teens now, but are on their way to finding work soon).

Knowing these trends and incorporating this knowledge into your business strategy will help you and your real estate team stay competitive and reach your goals by the end of the year. Need more tips to bolster your real estate leads prospecting? Visit www.RealEstateLeadsProspector.com for more information.