You can’t expect real estate clients to come to you. To get new clients, you’ll have to do some prospecting. As a new North Carolina real estate broker, you can’t just count on referrals, word-of-mouth, and marketing and promotional efforts. To get your real estate business rolling, you’ll need some fresh real estate prospecting ideas, as well as a solid prospecting plan. Use the following steps to build and maintain a list of good real estate leads.
Key Takeaways
- Set realistic prospecting goals, such as making five contacts per day and securing one listing appointment per week, to build confidence and focus efforts.
- Commit to various prospecting tactics like calling known contacts, canvassing neighborhoods, and following up on expired listings, while evaluating their effectiveness.
- Prioritize time spent on motivated prospects who are ready to make real estate decisions, avoiding cold leads and dead ends.
- Start prospecting as soon as possible, as it typically takes 60-90 days to see results and receive commission payments.
- Integrate prospecting into your daily routine, treating it as a critical task, and ensure compliance with Do Not Call Registry regulations to avoid penalties.
Step 1: Set realistic prospecting goals
Calculate how many prospects you need to contact in order to lock down a buyer’s or seller’s listing appointment. Veteran brokers suggest that beginners start with five contacts per day, one secured lead per day, and one secured listing appointment per week. However, you should also talk to your broker-in-charge about the firm’s average or what is standard for your market. Getting new real estate clients is hard work, but relying on your brokerage to help you set goals and procedures takes some of the guesswork out of it.
Remember that you’re new at this. Like most people, you will need a warm-up period to gain confidence and ramp up your prospecting skills. So it is better to set more manageable goals initially.
Step 2: Commit to real estate prospecting tactics
Prospecting is essentially any activity that directly involves verbal or in-person contact with people for the sole purpose of obtaining their business. In order to see results, it’s important to commit to real estate prospecting tactics and follow through on them. After you’ve tried each idea full-heartedly, you can assess if you’re getting the best return on investment or if you need a new strategy.
Here are several real estate prospecting ideas and activities to try:
- Call or visit people you know.
- Canvass neighborhoods through cold calls or visits.
- Contact the owners of expired, for sale by owner, and foreclosure listings.
- Call former satisfied clients for referrals.
- Sponsor an open house for a seller, in which you actively solicit other people’s business.
- Volunteer for floor duty at your brokerage.
- Follow up with referrals that come through your website and other promotional efforts.
Even if you’re just getting started and don’t have a large network, there are several tactics to launch your North Carolina real estate business that you can integrate into your plan.
Free checklist: Learn how to earn more with the same amount of listings with this free download.
Step 3: Spend your time wisely
Certainly, you want quantity, because the more leads you build the better your chances of drumming up enough business to meet your goals. However, you don’t want to waste your time focusing on cold leads and dead ends. If your prospects are not ready to make a real estate decision, don’t make them a top priority.
During initial conversations with real estate prospects, ask them how motivated they are to buy or sell and when they plan to make a decision. Then prioritize those people who are willing and able to do so in the shortest time frame.
Step 4: Don’t put it off
Inconsistent and delayed real estate prospecting is particularly detrimental because of the lag time between when you start working with a client to the time you get paid. Keep in mind that it usually takes between 60 and 90 days from the time you start prospecting to when you receive a commission check. If you want to get new clients in real estate, you need to start as soon as possible.
From day one, make sure that you spend enough time developing real estate prospecting ideas, following through on prospecting goals and activities, and following up with your contacts. This will help ensure that you secure—and maintain—a solid amount of quality leads.
Step 5: Make prospecting part of your daily routine
To create a pipeline of real estate prospects that will grow and sustain your business, you have to prospect every day. Getting new clients in real estate is a large part of your job at first. Making a bunch of calls for two days straight and then nothing for a week won’t cut it. Instead, you need to treat prospecting the same way you would any other important appointment. Clear your schedule and focus entirely on it. At the end of each day, evaluate your prospecting efforts and set objectives for the next day.
Step 6: Know the law
Since much of your prospecting will be over the phone, it is vital that you know about and adhere to the legal policies of the Do Not Call Registry (DNCR). The DNCR state and national databases contain the phone numbers of consumers who have elected not to be solicited by companies they do not already have business dealings with. Fail to abide, and you could be penalized or fined. So make sure that you register with the DNCR and check what numbers are already listed in the national database.
Now that you know what to do, it’s time to get on the phone, tap social media, and hit the streets. The sooner you start building your pipeline of prospects, the quicker you can start making money.
For more real estate prospecting ideas, check out our previous article: 5 Real Estate Prospecting Plays for New Brokers. Plus, download our free checklist: Earn 5% More for Every Listing.
