A common cliché that we’ve always heard is “don’t reinvent the wheel”. This is a business philosophy that can be easily applied to prospecting. Instead of spending all of your time chasing new leads, why not proactively identify people who have a propensity for real estate?
These people can be both buyers or sellers. Quite often they are investors or vacation home buyers. For these people, buying and selling is a hobby that brings them great pleasure. For many, real estate is a passion. Now that real estate market is beginning to recover in many parts of the country, it makes sense to seek out these people and encourage them to transact business in real estate. This is true even if your local market has not yet recovered as many of these people are likely to give serious consideration to purchasing real estate in more desirable markets. We call this process a Reload campaign because encouraging people that have done a lot of transactions in real estate to do more is much like reloading a gun to shoot it again. If you reload the gun, it will shoot again just as multiple transaction buyers and sellers are likely to do more in real estate. They don’t need to be convinced. The motivation to buy or sell is already very strong.
How do you identify a Reload Prospect? Listed below are a couple of good examples.
- Review the list of your past clients, advocates, and Sphere of Influence to identify the ones that you have represented multiple times and those you know love real estate.
- Research local tax records or property appraiser’s information to find individuals who have conducted multiple real estate transactions over the past 5 years. If you’re not sure how to do this, these offices will be more than happy to assist you with the process.
- Local MLS data can also be a great source for information about individuals or groups that are very active in real estate.
- Talk to local building departments or county planning and zoning departments to identify builders and developers that have recently submitted plans.
Use either a face-to-face or phone prospecting program to reach Reload Prospects as they are unlikely to respond to direct mail and email. The buyer and seller closes can be a great source of information for conversational purposes. It may be difficult to locate Reload Prospects but once you do, the effort can be well worth the return.