Top 5 Ways to Maximize the Value of Your Motivated Seller Leads

Top 5 Ways to Maximize the Value of Your Motivated Seller Leads

As a company dedicated to helping real estate investors nationwide generate quality leads, we know how difficult it can be to get the most value out of your marketing strategy. If you’re having trouble converting leads, you aren’t alone. That’s why we’re bringing you our top five tips to maximize your motivated seller leads and start increasing your revenue today.

But first, you may be asking yourself, “what does ‘motivated seller’ mean?” and why should you focus your marketing efforts on them?

What is a Motivated Seller?

In real estate, a motivated seller is a person who is eager to sell their property quickly. While you may be able to convert an unmotivated seller, it can take a lot of extra time and effort. On the other hand, Motivated sellers are a key demographic for real estate investors since they already have the motivation to sell their property, and they’re ready to sell it fast.

Identifying a motivated seller is a great way for investors to snag a deal. These sellers typically don’t have time to negotiate the best price for themselves, so they may agree to let the property go for far below market price. This discount is often substantial, sometimes between 30 and 50 percent off the current market value.

Types of Motivated Sellers

There are many reasons for someone to become a motivated home seller, but the necessity to sell quickly usually arises from sudden personal life changes or unexpected financial distress. Some events that may lead to a property owner becoming a motivated seller are:

• Relocation due to a job transfer
• Financial distress from sudden job loss or a death in the family
• Heirs who do not want or need the inherited property
• Risk of damaged credit due to foreclosure
• Couples who are divorcing and wish to get rid of their assets

Whatever the reason, investors can help motivated sellers by purchasing the property quickly, without any repairs, in all-cash deals. When a motivated seller reaches out to you, your team should follow up with them immediately. The sooner you start building a relationship with a potential seller, the greater your opportunity to snag a good deal.

Maximize Your Motivated Seller Leads

Whether you’re new to real estate investing or a seasoned pro, there’s always room for improvement when it comes to maximizing your motivated seller leads.

Struggling investors may be unsuccessful because they haven’t learned how to create an effective marketing strategy. If you’re letting any of your leads slip through the cracks, you’re missing out on potential revenue. In addition, holes in your marketing strategy can cause potential sellers to lose faith in your team and result in wasted money, time, and effort on your part.

Once you identify and fix these problems, you can start increasing your profit without spending more on marketing. But, of course, marketing is a pricey expense for every business owner, so who wouldn’t want to get the most out of their existing leads?

Consider this post your motivated sellers checklist and bookmark it to use when you need a refresher.

Your Motivated Sellers Checklist:

1. Follow up fast – within five minutes or less
2. Make the most of your first contact
3. Get into the mind of a potential seller
4. Never give up on your lead – even if they don’t sell right away
5. Make sure your CRM is working effectively

Follow Up Fast

Speedy communication is your greatest asset for converting leads. According to several studies, your chances of converting a lead drop significantly if you don’t follow up with them within the first five minutes. Motivated home sellers want to turn their property into profit quickly, so if you don’t give them the answers they need, they’ll move on.

Of course, you have plenty of options when it comes to following up with your leads. Text, email, or call within five minutes to ensure you don’t lose your investment opportunity. Remember: for every investor who doesn’t reach out to a lead right away, there will be plenty more who do.

Make the Most of Your First Contact

When you follow up with a potential seller, make sure you make the most of your first contact with them. This may sound counter-intuitive, but the main goal of your first contact with a motivated property seller shouldn’t be to convince them to sell their home.

When an investor puts too much pressure on a seller right away, they may end up looking elsewhere for a buyer. So instead, make your first contact about setting up your next step with them. By scheduling an appointment, you give your lead a chance to breathe while securing your next opportunity with them.

You can also use your first contact to discuss your process and what you’re looking for in an investment property. This gives you the chance to disqualify sellers who don’t quite meet what you’re looking for, saving both you and the seller valuable time.

No matter what, the most important part of your first contact is to listen to the seller’s questions. Every potential seller, even a highly motivated one, has questions about the selling process. Use your first contact with each lead to gain insight into the potential seller’s reservations, which then leads us to our next tip.

Get into the Mind of Potential Sellers

There are many reasons why potential sellers choose to sell, and being aware of these reasons will drastically increase your chances of converting a lead. Motivated property sellers typically deal with hardships like job loss, relocation, divorce, or a death in the family. More often than not, they’re going to have fears and insecurities about selling. Luckily, you’re there to reassure them and set up the expectations for the process.

Starting a conversation with a new lead about who you are, what you do, and how you do it can go a long way in terms of making motivated home sellers feel heard. But more importantly, establishing a firm understanding of the reason behind each sale helps build trust with your lead. No matter their situation, most potential sellers want to work with an investor they like and trust, so start building a positive rapport with them right away.

Never Give Up on Your Leads

It can be easy to focus on immediate conversion, so many investors mistake neglecting leads who don’t sell during initial conversations. However, adding a long-term nurture sequence for these “missed” leads can actually add another 30% to your revenue with very little effort on your part.

If you want to create a sustainable investment business, ensuring your leads keep you at the forefront of their minds as they get closer to selling is an absolute must. Many investors are already doing a form of long-term nurture by sending emails or texts to their leads, and while this is a great first step, you may be setting yourself up for failure if your process isn’t automated.

When your long-term nurture sequence isn’t automated from the get-go, you’re likely to come across as inconsistent or irrelevant. By setting up an automated sequence, you can provide more value for your potential buyers, which helps you maintain a positive relationship and build trust.

Setting Up Your Automated Email Sequence

While setting up an effective long-term nurture sequence may seem like a lot of extra work, most CRM software makes automating email, text, and voicemail sequences incredibly easy. What it comes down to is simply creating a 13- to 15-month automated email sequence and scheduling your emails to go out every few days.

Easy enough, right? To increase the response rate even further, you can also send automated text messages or voicemails along with the emails. Just taking a few minutes to set up your sequences can ensure you stay on your leads’ minds so that when they’re finally ready to sell, you’ll be the one they end up calling instead of your competition.

Make Sure Your CRM is Effective

A CRM should be your number one tool for maximizing your motivated seller leads. Whenever a potential seller calls or fills out a web form, your CRM system should integrate them automatically. This allows you to follow up on leads right away (remember tip #1) and generate automated messages, both of which are crucial for converting your motivated home seller leads.

Handling Phone Call Leads

Phone call leads tend to be easier to convert than web form leads. However, it takes more commitment from the seller to pick up a phone than to fill out a web form online, so following up with these leads should be your top priority.

While the best method for converting leads is to live-answer your phone calls, you can make this process even more effective by tracking your incoming calls via a Callrail-type system. This way, no matter how many team members you have answering calls, you can ensure a follow-up is being conducted.

If you push your calls to a third-party call center instead, make sure the call center pushes all leads into your CRM. Regardless of which method you’re using to handle your phone call leads, your team should receive an email or text any time a lead comes in to ensure follow-ups are conducted right away.

Handling Web Form Leads

If you don’t have a web form set up on your site, you’re missing out on a huge demographic of sellers who shy away from the phone. By filling out a quick, convenient web form, potential sellers can give you information about themselves and the property they’re selling. However, since you aren’t speaking with them directly, it is essential to have an automated notification process when a web form lead comes in.

The Bottom Line

A fast follow-up time is one of the most important factors for converting leads, so you should set up your CRM to notify your team every time a phone or web form lead comes in. The sooner you follow up with a motivated property seller, the less likely they’ll be to reach out to another investor.

Closing Thoughts

Generating leads can be costly and time-consuming, but maximizing their value doesn’t have to be a hassle. By learning how to properly maximize your motivated seller leads, you can increase your revenue up to 60% from your existing leads alone.

Remember our motivated sellers checklist:

1. Follow up fast – within five minutes or less
2. Make the most of your first contact
3. Get into the mind of a potential seller
4. Never give up on your lead – even if they don’t sell right away
5. Make sure your CRM is working effectively

Now that you have developed a motivated sellers checklist to automate and systematize how your company will cultivate relationships, it is time to populate that system with leads. By simply identifying the problems in your marketing strategy, you can start getting the most value from your leads today.