Marketing Letter for Expired Listings

Written by Brandon Cornett | © 2010

Question: “What kind of information should I put into a marketing letter for expired listings in my area?”

It depends. Why did the listing expire? You can’t always get this kind of information, but if you can it will make the letter easier to write. If you think the listing expired because it was overpriced, then you could send a letter about your pricing strategies for clients — and how they get results.

Expired Listings Create a Certain Mindset

There’s one very important thing to keep in mind, when creating a marketing letter for expired listings in your area. The recipient might not think highly of real estate agents. At least, not at the time your letter reaches them. If their agent failed to sell the home, the homeowner might be a bit jaded toward the profession. It doesn’t matter whose fault it was that the house didn’t sell. The owner (your intended reader) will blame the agent.

If your marketing letter talks about all the things homeowners do wrong when selling a home, it might evoke an angry response. Again, you need to consider the mindset of your reader. On the other hand, if you talk about the primary reasons why agents fail to sell houses, you might get a different response entirely — the kind of response you want. You can almost hear the homeowner saying: “Exactly! That’s what I kept telling my agent. Man, it sounds like I could see eye to eye with this person.”

I don’t mean to general expired listing scenarios, or the people involved. I’m just giving you something to think about.

Tips for a Smart Marketing Letter

This is the kind of approach you might want to take:

“Some agents just don’t know how to sell a house. This is one of the most common reasons why real estate listings expire in the first place. It usually comes down to failures with pricing and marketing. In the end, the homeowner is left high and dry. Sound familiar?”

Whatever strategy you take, you need to test and track your marketing letters for effectiveness. If you send a batch of letters to expired listings and get no response whatsoever, then you might be barking up the wrong tree — or “barking” in the wrong way. Adjust your approach. Step back and rethink your strategy. Just don’t repeat the same mailing. If it didn’t work once, it’s not worth doing twice.

As you sit down to write your marketing letter for expired listings, think about the seller’s problem. What lies at the heart of the problem? What solutions can you offer to help them overcome this?

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