Did you know that the National Association of Realtors found that 92% of the first sale by owners end up using a real estate agent to sell their home anyways?
Additionally, in typical markets, there are about 100 for sale by owners that go on the market every single month. This means that for sale by owners provide a consistent source of leads every single month and the best part of all is that they’re either free or very low cost to go after. Another reason why for-sale by owners are such a great source of leads is that they’re already motivated. We know that they’ve got a desire to sell as long as they can get the price that they need to get.
Outside of expired listings, I can’t think of another lead source that helps get you in front, face-to-face, of sellers every single month.
With the why out of the way let’s just jump right into the
1. Follow-Up
This is honestly one of the biggest mistakes Realtors make when working with for sale by owners. Most of the time a sale by owner will not list with the realtor right away. It’s a follow-up long-term game. It is definitely a marathon, not a sprint when working with for sale by owners.
They’ll Think They’ve Built a Great Relationship
The other thing is a lot of real estate brokers will make it halfway there and not keep up the persistence to the end goal. They’ll build what they think is a great relationship with for sale by owners whether it’s through providing value or talking to them over the phone.
The for sale by the owner will say “Hey you know what? I really like you and if I do decide to list I’ll give you a call”. Don’t believe it. They’re not going to call you. They’re getting you off the phone. It doesn’t matter if you have a great relationship or not. Keep up the contacts and advice you give them until they either list with you or someone else.
Leads Get Easier to Speak With
The other thing that I’ll say about follow-up is that the leads get easier to speak with the more times that you’ve spoken to them.
Your first call is going to be way harder than the third call, which is gonna be way harder than the seventh call, which is gonna be way harder, than the fifteenth call, and so it goes. As you get to build a relationship with them and you’re checking in, you’re providing value and the calls will get easier.
Side Note: They typically tend to have a higher answer rate than a lot of other lead sources because they don’t know if it might be a buyer on the other end of the line. So they’re more apt to pick up the phone than a lot of other lead sources.
Now that’s not to say that they all pick up the phone because trust me I’ve called many for sale by owners that don’t pick up the phone. Overall, they do tend to have a higher answer rate.
2. Present Value
You must have a servant mindset This is where you throw your salesperson hat out the window and you truly just try to provide value and be helpful to them.
The odds are on your side that eventually if you’ve provided enough value to the seller and followed up, you are going to get the listing.
How to Give Value to FSBOs
One common way that you can provide value is by giving them a market analysis.
Give them some comps that are in their area so that way they can kind of see what their home should be priced at.
Also when I set up a face-to-face appointment with the seller.
Additionally, you can give them some of the legal documents they may need like the seller’s disclosure, FIRPTA, or, if it’s an older home, a lead-based paint disclosure.
Your Vendors
A lot of times I’m going to be giving them contacts like my photographer’s information or painters or anything that they may need to help get their home looking as best as possible.
Essentially what I try to do is be their agent without actually being their agent and, of course, giving them any kind of legal advice since I’m not truly representing them. I’m just giving them as much free advice as I can without being their agent. By doing things like this, there will be a day when they do decide that they need an agent and you are, most likely, the agent that they call.
3. Phone Tips
These are things not to do when you’re on the phone with the for sale by owner. There are three things that you should never do when you’re calling a for sale by owner.
My Opinion
First off, this is just my opinion, but I don’t believe you should ever bait-and-switch a for sale by owner or give them BS. Don’t tell them that you’re looking at it for a buyer you’re working with or anything like that.
Never try to convince the seller
The other thing you should never do over the phone is try to convince the seller that what they’re doing or how they’re going about trying to sell their home is crazy. There are a whole lot of scripts out there that teach you how to try and convince the FSBO that what they’re doing doesn’t make sense and that yours is a much better proposal.
4. Book A Meeting
The fourth tip takes what you hear over the phone with a grain of salt.
The seller’s phone is probably blowing up by lots of other agents. They’re going to say whatever they think they can to get you off the phone if you don’t have a buyer.
Your only goal of that call is to get face-to-face in front of the seller. There is absolutely no way, at least in my years of dealing with for sale by owners, that I’ve ever succeeded just by talking and convincing them over the phone. It’s always after I’ve met with them face to face.
Also, when you get face to face with the seller there are two questions that I think are really powerful that will help you build trust and rapport with that seller.
Two Question You Can Ask Them
The first question you can ask them is “When you first saw this home, what did you fall in love with”. and the second one is “When you sell this home, what are you going to miss the most.”
The reason why these two questions are so powerful, especially when you’re face-to-face in front of the seller, is it starts to bring back nostalgia. They will associate that nostalgia with you as their agent because most likely no other agents that they’ve met with or seen have asked them those two questions.
5. Use A Dialer
There are three dialer systems that work well for FSBOs. I’ll list them from top to bottom and rank them in the order that I would use them in.
Vulcan 7
Number one is Vulcan seven and is the most expensive option of the bunch. It runs about two hundred and fifty dollars per month if you’re on a 12-month contract or up to about $300 a month if you’re going month-to-month with them.
I’d really only recommend spending this much if you’re also going to be calling expired listings which I would recommend that you do. Vulcan seven can do both for sale by owners and expireds.
For the price and for as good of a system that you’re getting this is top of my list.
Espresso Agent
Next on that list is Espresso Agent. This one’s a little less expensive as it runs about a hundred and fifty-five dollars a month which is when it’s on special. I usually see that special running pretty often and it does a lot of what Vulcan seven does.
It’s actually owned by the same company as Vulcan seven. It’s almost like a light version of Vulcan 7 for a little less money if you want to look at it that way.
TheRedX
My third option would be TheRedX. All three of these systems are great systems and I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them. In fact, just getting into the game is probably gonna do you more good than harm with any of these three.
I would definitely recommend going take a look at each one and seeing which one’s the right fit for you.
Spend the Money Yet for FSBO
Alright well, let’s just say that maybe you don’t want to spend the money yet for sale by owners.
You want to kind of dip your toes in the water so to speak to see if this is the right lead source for you.
There are also all sorts of free ways that you can get for Sale By Owner information and just hand dial them.
I’ll go ahead and list out the ones that I know of and if you know that I didn’t talk about adding them to the comments below.
So the ones that I know about are:
- Zillow
- Newspaper
- Classifieds
- Yard Signs
- Craigslist
- FSBO
- Facebook marketplace
Special Tip For Facebook Marketplace Strategy
Now the thing with the Facebook marketplace is you have to get a little different strategy there.
Sometimes you’ll see that they don’t include their phone number and they want you to just message them.
So in that case I do have a script for your message that goes out for sale by owners on the Facebook marketplace.
Basically, it’s a very simple script it just goes like this:
“Is your house still for sale at and then put the address at which point the seller is most likely going to say yes and then you just type when is a good time to call you”
This typically will get you the most responses you don’t want to put too much information out there again your goal here is just to get the phone number.
So you can get them on the phone and then use the script that I talked about earlier.
If you know of any that I didn’t list put them in the comments below.
6. Allow FSBO Pain
Sometimes as real estate agents especially when you know that you can help that person out.
You want to try and just sell sell sell to get them to use you because you know that you’re going to help them sell their home faster and for more money.
But sometimes you just have to let them go through the pain of seeing what it’s like selling it on their own.
Don’t Oversell Your Services
When you do this and you don’t oversell your services they’ll see what a pain it is to have to schedule their own showings and work with unqualified buyers.
And then if they even had a contract or an offer that was presented to them they start to realize that they’re a little over their head when it comes to understanding all of the terms and repercussions.
Or a lot of times if the seller is just not getting showings on their home which happens fairly often.
They’ll start to question their marketing and they’ll start to really understand what a value it is to work with an agent at that point.
7. Ask For The Business
Now when I say that I’m not talking in the very beginning on the first phone call.
Probably not even that first face-to-face up an appointment that you’re having with them.
But then along the way you can’t build too much of a friendly relationship where you don’t ever ask for the business.
Because then most likely you may never get it you’ve got to plant the seed in their mind that yes you’re going to help them you’re gonna provide value to them regardless.
But if and when they’re ready to use a realtor you’re gonna have their back.
Don’t give up
Now some other tips these didn’t make it in the seven because I feel like they’re kind of cliche and they’re said all the time but they are important is one don’t give up.
I mean you are gonna get beat down you’re gonna get a lot of No before you get yeses.
But if you stay consistent and that’s the other tip and you just continue to make the calls build the relationships add value to these for sale by owners.
You are going to get calls back I promise you and these are listings guys listings are gold in our business.
Four to six listings per month are more like five to seven to eight deals per month.
Because you’re gonna get more listings off your signs you’re gonna get buyers calling in that are unrepresented.
You can do open houses all sorts of great things that you can do when you obtain a listing.
