10 Ways to Get More Real Estate Listings in 2024

How to Get Real Estate Listings in 2024: 10 Proven Strategies & Examples

Are you ready to land more real estate listings this year and close more deals? Here are ten strategies to help you reach your goals.

1. Get Referrals From Former Clients

We know that real estate is a heavily relationship-driven market. It's an industry that's all about who you know.

So, when interacting with clients, aim to build strong relationships. Give them a reason to want to recommend your services to their friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors.

Why is this so important?

38% of homebuyers used a real estate agent that others recommended.

So, leveraging word-of-mouth to build awareness around your services is essential.

Even if a potential referral doesn't need your services right away, they may need them in the future.

How do you get referrals? Ask for them.

Give your clients a reason to recommend you to others. It’s as simple as going above and beyond to make the home-buying (or selling) process as seamless as possible.

Pro tip: A housewarming gift after the close is a fun (and caring) way to keep yourself top of mind at the end of the transaction.

2. Leverage Cold Outreach

Ideally, you want potential clients to come to you. What business owner doesn't?

Unfortunately, when a homeowner looking to sell needs a real estate agent, they often don't know where to look, which is why people end up getting recommendations from others who have used a real estate agent.

Cold outreach also makes it easier for sellers to find real estate services. Cold-calling or emailing potential leads lets them know that you're available to help them with their home-selling needs, even if they're not ready for your services yet.

Just introducing yourself puts you at the top of mind so that they know exactly who to call when they're ready to sell their property.

This is why 50% of real estate leads come from cold calling or direct mail marketing. Agents often get leads from cold emailing, too.

Here are some tips for cold-calling and emailing your leads:

• Research your prospects to understand their needs, preferences, and potential pain points. Use high-quality data sources like professional networking platforms, real estate databases, or lead generation services.
• Personalize your outreach to make your messages stand out. Address prospects by their name and reference specific details from your research.
• In your outreach, offer something of value, such as helpful information about the local market, insights into the selling process, or access to exclusive resources.
• Build rapport and establish a connection with leads. Find common ground, show genuine interest in their goals, and empathize with their challenges to build a meaningful relationship.
• Follow up to remain top of mind and re-engage cold leads.

Engaging visuals are also important in marketing campaigns as they grab attention and keep readers engaged.

Virtual Staging AI allows you to create images of beautifully-staged rooms in seconds.

You can include these images in your email marketing campaigns to potential buyers and sellers. This allows you to showcase the full potential of your listings.

Image rendered by Virtual Staging AI

To maximize success, use a mixture of cold outreach and other marketing strategies, such as SMS and email newsletters.

Consider implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to streamline communication with prospects.

3. Use Paid Ads

Using paid ads is a great way to acquire real estate listings. In fact, organic and paid search drive 57% of real estate businesses' website visitors.

Paid ads work so well because they increase visibility and exposure in the highly competitive real estate market.

With paid ads, you can also benefit from target audience outreach. Advertising platforms like Google Ads and social media sites allow you to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors.

As a result, you can tailor your ads to reach people who are looking to sell homes in your service areas.

Your ads will also show up for potential sellers who are interested in real estate or who have searched for real estate services near them.

In the screenshot, you can see paid search results for the keyword "real estate agent houston tx". These ads target property owners looking to sell their homes in the Greater Houston area.

(Image source)

Compelling real estate ads should include the following key elements:

• Headline
• Descriptive copy
• Call-to-action (CTA)
• Contact information
• Social proof

4. Create Direct Mail Campaigns

While we live in a digital world, traditional real estate marketing strategies still work.

60% of people who receive direct mail visit the promoted website. When making a purchase decision, 76% of consumers trust direct mail communications.

Direct mail campaigns work so well because their tangibility adds a personal touch to communications. Plus, they help real estate agents establish themselves as local authorities and trusted experts in their community.

Direct mail can also be an effective strategy when targeting older sellers who may prefer traditional forms of communication.

Lastly, direct mail marketing allows you to share success stories of high response rates and low-cost property purchases.

Below are some ways you can use direct mail to get more listings:

• Share stories of successful real estate transactions where you achieved high response rates from potential buyers or sellers and facilitated low-cost property purchases
• Send "Just Sold" postcards to nearby houses after a listing sells.
• Send personalized letters or postcards to target potential sellers in specific neighborhoods or demographics.
• Send targeted mailings with relevant content, market updates, and personalized messages.
• Target property owners who may be interested in selling but haven't listed their homes on the market.

5. Share Lead Magnets

Only 5% of your market is ready to buy. That means that a huge portion of your seller's target audience is still doing their research and gathering information.

For homeowners who want to put their property on the market, this entails looking for strategies to properly stage their home, attract potential buyers, raise their home's value, or win in negotiations.

So, as a real estate business trying to appeal to this audience, you can provide them with the information they're looking for.

How?

By creating lead magnets. These valuable resources help you build a massive pipeline and become the go-to agent when potential sellers are ready to sell.

The goal of lead magnets is to provide your audience with something of value in exchange for contact information, such as their email.

By collecting this information, you can create an email marketing campaign that nurtures leads.

Different types of lead magnets to offer to potential sellers include:

• Free home valuations
• Real estate market updates
• Tips for renovating to raise property value
• Seller's guides or eBooks
• Seller's checklists
• Exclusive listings
• Consultation or strategy sessions
• Home-selling webinars or workshops

Here's an example of a lead magnet for homeowners who are looking for helpful information and tips on the selling process.

(Image source)

When prospects click the link, they'll land on this page, which urges them to download the eBook.

(Image source)

After clicking the CTA, the prospect will enter their email and name, which registers them for future marketing communications.

6. Market Your Services on Social Media

Social media is one of the top three tools that provide real estate professionals with quality leads.

So, engaging with your target audience on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok can be a highly effective way to get more listings.

You can post various content showcasing your expertise and providing value to your audience.

This might include property listings, market updates, home buying/selling tips, home walkthroughs/tours, client testimonials, and community highlights.

(Image source)

(Image source)

You can also leverage paid ads to increase the visibility of your real estate services.

Using the right targeting options based on factors like location, age, interest, income level, and more can help you get your ads in front of the right audience.

7. Purchase Leads

When learning how to get real estate leads, sometimes you have to go back to the basics. By basics, we mean purchasing leads. Maybe your marketing strategies aren't generating enough leads.

Well, you can let lead generation services and platforms do the work for you.

Some of the best platforms are:

• Market Leader: Market Leader is a lead-generation platform that guarantees a certain number of leads per month. It costs $139, plus $25 per lead, and is best for solo agents.
• REDX: A unique selling point of REDX is that it provides access to expired leads, FSBO leads, and pre-foreclosure leads. Its prices start at $39.99
• Offrs: Offrs uses AI technology to predict which homeowners are most likely to list their homes in the future. So, this platform is best for agents who want to find off-market deals.

For more options, check out this article on where to buy real estate leads.

8. Initiate Door-to-Door Knocking

Door-to-door knocking at neighboring houses before open houses allows you to engage with potential sellers locally.

The goal of door-to-door knocking is to build a strong network of potential leads in target neighborhoods.

You should also collect their contact information so that you can follow up with them in the future.

• Other benefits of door-to-door knocking include:
• Establishing face-to-face contact
• Offering free assessments of homes
• Distributing flyers with contact information
• Building local market knowledge
• Identifying immediate sellers
• Increasing visibility in brand recognition in the area
• Establishing trust and credibility
• Generating referral opportunities

9. Implement Area Farming

Area farming involves concentrating your marketing efforts and resources on specific neighborhoods or geographic areas.

This allows you to become an expert in your chosen area, build strong relationships within the community, and establish yourself as a go-to resource for all real estate leads in that locality.

Also, dedicating your resources to one specific area increases your chances of dominating that particular real estate market.

Below are some of the most effective neighborhood farming strategies:

• Host community events {e.g. open house happy hours, holiday celebrations, charity drives, etc.)
• Provide valuable content about the local real estate market.
• Host social media live streams to provide updates on notable sales in the area
• Offer free home valuations to homeowners in your target area.
• Network with local businesses to cross-promote each other's services and reach a wider audience.

10. Follow Up With Clients

Being able to help your clients find a qualified buyer, secure a high sale price, and minimize time on the market has to be one of the best feelings in the world for real estate agents.

But the relationship doesn't have to stop after the sale of a home.

Nurture your relationship with clients by following up regularly.

Maintaining a strong relationship over time will boost your chances of getting referrals.

When customers have a good experience with a business, they're 38% more likely to recommend that company to others.

The same is true for real estate services. If a friend or colleague asks one of your satisfied clients about where to find a reputable agent, they're going to mention you.

Or, when talking to someone, they may voluntarily bring up their positive experience with your services.

And they might even take the initiative to post a review of your services on Google or other platforms.

Just look at this review that real estate agent Justin Landis received from a past client.

(Image source)

So, don't miss out on the power of strong, unbreakable client relationships.

Follow these tips for keeping up with past clients:

Send personalized messages (e.g. Happy Anniversary cards every year or five years after their move).

Check in periodically to ensure they're satisfied with their current home and offer assistance with any real estate needs that may arise.

Invite them to local events or community gatherings to maintain a connection.

Putting Your Plan Into Action

Hopefully, this guide has given you insights on how to get more real estate listings.

From leveraging social media to connect with your audience to fostering strong relationships to get repeat business and referrals, there are many ways to attract the motivated seller.

However, every real estate professional is different in terms of their approach to client interactions, negotiation style, and market expertise.

So, research and experiment with different ways to generate listings until you find the right strategies for you.

Get started with Virtual Staging AI today to create stunning, visually appealing images of staged homes that will help you showcase your listings' full potential.