3 tips to help find listings for your buyers in a low inventory market
Are your ready to duke it out in this competitive market?
According to a recent Dallas News article, Texas is seeing the lowest housing inventory it has experienced in decades with North Texas seeing an even tighter market. This can prove frustrating for agents who see a drop in the listings they acquire as well as buyers who have a limited number of choices.
Low inventory can often mean saving money when marketing your listings since houses often sell as soon as they hit the market. You might want to consider using the dollars saved on your listing budget and invest it to help you find more listings for your clients looking to buy.
Here are three marketing tips to help find more listings to show during a low inventory market:
1. Hand deliver "I have buyers" flyers
You can print a small number of "I have buyers" flyers and hand deliver them based on the types of homes you are seeking. With a good handle on the neighborhoods you specialize in, you can choose the homes that seem to meet the needs of your buyers. Your print materials can cover the following points to help entice someone to list:
The going prices in the area that could see them make some profit on the sale of their home
The details and features your buyer is seeking
The fact the buyer is pre-approved and motivated to put in an offer
A story about a personal experience that illustrates how high demand is for in their area, such as a recent bidding war
A note that if they are not interested, to spread the word to neighbors who might consider selling
2. Reach out to fellow agents
You can also use your SOI of fellow agents, and beyond to find coming soon or pocket listings. Eflyers work well for this, as once a sellers' agent knows you have buyers, they are more likely to respond and let you know what they've got available. This gets your foot in the door and also saves the seller having to go through multiple viewings and open houses. Of course a savvy agent might expect a higher price, or still decide to list knowing they could entice a bidding war, but at least you will be one of the first to get a viewing for your clients. Likewise you can get on some email lists and expand your incoming listing information from fellow agents or even real estate eflyer services so you are always one of the first to know about new listings.
3. Look for expired listings
Expired listings or homes that were recently removed from the market in the past few years can provide a potential gold mine in a low inventory market. Often sellers have taken their homes off the market but have not kept up on the current housing market trends. Knowing there is now a demand for their home could entice them to consider selling again. Although most people have decided not to sell for a reason, there will still be those who have made the decision because they had no choice. Some of these home owners might have even been forced to rent out their home when they were unable to sell, and would be happy to know they still have options. With many varied potential scenarios, it never hurts to reach out to these people and see if your offer might interest them in listing again.
Realtour has beautifully designed flyer, brochure and postcard templates that can easily be edited to get the message out that you have buyers. You can also choose from a number of text only eflyer templates and a long list of agents you can combine with your own SOI to help find those coming soon and pocket listings. The system also allows you to create your own flyer artwork and blast it out using the blank template option and a PDF of your own design.
Now is the time to put that money you are saving on selling listings to good use and help find homes to keep your buyers happy. After all they are the sellers of the future!
