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Having a solid campaign around your Just Listed properties is a great way to generate more leads down the line. Not only is discussing listings in the local area a great way to show how you’re succeeding in the market, but it is also a great chance to generate leads and grow quality owner data. An excellent tool that we encourage agents to add to their toolbelts is the Neighbour Open Home.
During your next open home, invite clients that live in the surrounding streets. This gives them a chance to get intimate with their hyper-local market and gives you the opportunity to make an in-person impression too.
Utilising the Neighbour Open Home
Before your next listing has its first open home, schedule a separate time to hold a neighbours open home.
Step 1: Tell your owners why you want to do it
Let your owners know that the open home is only for the neighbours and that it has a specific purpose. The neighbours that live in the same area love the area – if they didn’t, they wouldn’t live there! They are often our best spruikers! Your neighbours will tell any of their friends and family that the property is on the market and how wonderful of a place to live it is. Secondary to that, neighbours love coming through for a sticky beak regardless. If we have them all come through at a dedicated time, we can ensure we’re able to spend more time on buyers at the open homes.
A great tactic we have seen is to get the owner’s permission to write a note to neighbours from the owners, inviting them along. It gives the neighbours permission to come along rather than feeling like they’re intruding or being nosy.
Step 2: Invite the neighbours
Check your CRM for clients in the street and surrounding streets that you have the details for, give them a call and let them know you’ll be popping an invite in their mailbox and that you, and the owners, would love to have them along. Drop the handwritten note in their mailbox, and to all other owners in the street/s as well. Then, the day before your neighbours open home, text the locals to remind them they are invited to an open home within walking distance. People are busy and will forget so the text reminder is important. If possible, send another reminder the morning of too.
With any luck, you will get to have a few decent conversations with your local clients, show off your skills and experience and begin to dig if they’ve any real estate plans of their own. Make small talk, show that you know all the ins and outs of the home and the area – remember, they could be interviewing you and you don’t even know it! Make sure you make note of who you spoke to and put it into your CRM as soon as possible for future reference.
Great agents will keep the local owners informed of the success throughout the campaign (whether they turned up or not). Keep local owners up to date with information around:
- Auction invites
- Price the property sold for
- If it was an auction, how much over reserve it sold for
- The number of people that turned up and
- The number of leftover bidders
After the dust of the sale has settled, we recommend a follow-up call during the next week to discuss the results and numbers and listen out for that “not yet” as it may mean “sometime soon”. Peruse the rest of our blogs here to add many more useful prospecting tools that you can use today!
