Regular readers of this blog know that we devote a lot of content to prospecting expired leads.

These expired leads are with homeowners who’ve tried-and failed-to sell their property.  Perhaps it was priced poorly.  Or, maybe the agent didn’t do enough to market the property. Or, it’s possible they withdrew the property from the MLS because their life plans changed. Whatever the reason, you know that expired were, at some point, actively engaged in trying to sell, and thus, a potential revenue opportunity for you.

BENEFITS OF PROSPECTING EXPIRED LEADS

Here are two of the many benefits of prospecting expired leads:

1. Typically, a homeowner who did not sell the first time has an increased urgency to sell the second time around. That gives you a good chance to convert the lead to a listing if you stick to your expired listing scripts.
2. Working with expired listings gives you the opportunity to make significant GCI over a shorter period of time, especially when compared to working as a buyer’s agent.

It’s easy to be attracted to the allure of new expired listings. Indeed, if someone’s house came off the MLS yesterday, it’s possible they are frustrated or discouraged by the experience they just had. That’s why it’s so important to try and be the first agent to connect with these homeowners.

THE VALUE OF OLD EXPIRED LEADS

OK, so we get the value of new expireds. But what about those old expireds? Some might dismiss old expireds as yesterday’s news.

Well, we’re here to say: don’t be too quick to judge old expired listings as anything less than an opportunity worth pursuing with vigor.

For the record, old expired listings could be homes that came off the MLS a month ago, or a year ago, or even longer. You need to define “old” based on the dynamics in your market. In a large market, with lots of expired listings, you might want to focus on those listings that came off the MLS one or two months ago. In smaller markets, you might want to expand your pool with much older expireds.

Two things make old expireds particularly interesting.

• First, because many agents dismiss old expireds, you might find there is less competition when trying to build a relationship with these homeowners.
• And, related, compared to new expired listings, those old expired homeowners are likely not being inundated with calls from aggressive agents. This gives you a unique opportunity to forge a relationship.

If you’re a Vulcan 7 client, you have access to the best old expired listings and expired listing phone numbers in the business, so you’re already at an advantage over other agents.

The next question is: what do you say?

PROSPECTING OLD EXPIRED LEADS

When calling an old expired listing, you want to learn several things:

• Confirm that their home was previously listed and came off the MLS at a certain date. This tells them you’ve done your homework.
• Determine if they might still be interested in selling. A key question here is: if you sold, what would you do next/where would you go?  Their future plants will give you a hint of their urgency with regard to selling their current property.
• If they are interested, try to determine if they have an existing relationship with an agent? It’s likely they don’t have an existing relationship. But if they say “yes,” you can politely probe about the nature of the relationship to determine if you have a chance to get in the game.
• Try to get a meeting to examine the property and begin to build a relationship.

Once you’ve gotten to this point in the process, you can begin to use the other tools you have for working with expired listings.  Understanding how to maximize the value of expired listing leads is critical to success in real estate.  Just don’t forget: there can be gold in those older expireds.

Contact Vulcan7 today to get started!