How To Use Home Anniversaries To Get More Real Estate Sales [Free E-mail Template]
Whether you follow Ninja or another relationship-based sales philosophy, you’ll hear the recommendation that real estate agents should provide value to their clients. Why? To build loyalty. Loyal clients will refer you their friends and family, and use you for their future real estate transactions.
That sounds amazing! You could get a lot of deals even from a relatively small book of business this way, but…will a simple e-mail or phone call really do all of this for you? The answer is that it depends on the value you’re able to provide.
Do this to get more real estate sales from your home anniversary follow-ups:
Get re-acquainted
Provide a market update
Offer to do a Current Market Analysis (CMA) of their property
Offer this service to others in their network
Get Re-Acquainted
When you sold them their home, you took the time to get to know its attributes, and how it fit in with your client’s wants and needs. Brush up on these. Ask how it’s working out.
For example:
Have they made any changes since?
Are they considering renovations?
Were there any surprises with the house? (For instance, perhaps the furnace needed to be replaced sooner than anticipated.)
Familiarizing yourself with all of the different attributes about your client’s home ownership experience does several things:
It shows you care beyond the sale. People want to work with those that have their best interests at heart. This is one way to demonstrate that you do.
When the time comes to relocate, you will already know the ins and outs of their property. They are unlikely to start from scratch with someone new. You will get the sale.
The information you receive forms the basis of a well-informed current market analysis. Taking the furnace example from above, if the home now has newer equipment, this will be reflected in its current value.
Provide a market update
Tailor this to the level of homeowner interest. Some clients really love the nitty-gritty details, in which case the more information you can provide, the better. Others are happy to know overall regional trends and leave it at that.
You will be able to access most of the information you need through your MLS. Your market update can include:
Recent sales of similar homes in your client's neighbourhood
Overall sales trends in your region
Sales trends specific to your city
Current industry projections and overall outlook
How many days homes are currently on the market before selling
How many homes are selling at or above asking price, versus below asking price
Conduct a Current Market Analysis (CMA)
You're already familiar with conducting CMAs when helping homeowners determine an asking price for their home. CMAs are not only useful in this instance.
CMAs are a valuable tool to homeowners throughout the ownership cycle. For example, your client may be looking into getting additional financing for a renovation. By providing this ongoing value, you can really solidify your client relationships. You won’t be one of those real estate agents that home buyers and sellers wanted to use again, but forgot about by the time they purchased their next house!
What to say
Home anniversary follow-ups can be done via phone, e-mail, or some combination thereof.
E-mail Template - Short
Hi [First Name],
Congratulations on the anniversary of your home purchase – I can’t believe it’s already been [#] of year(s)!
How are things going with [you and your family/the house? Any plans for renovations or other updates?]
Sincerely
[ Signature ]
This template is best if you want to use the home anniversary as an opportunity for multiple touchpoints with your client. It’s short and sweet, and you can offer to provide an updated CMA or other advice based on how your client responds.
You can gauge whether to ask after the client’s family, or just stick to their home, based on personality. For some, it would be unquestionably rude and transactional to ask about their home without asking about them first. For others, they may not want to get so personal until they know someone better, so use your best judgement of what’s appropriate. When in doubt, just ask about the house.
E-mail Template – Long
Hi [First Name],
Congratulations on the anniversary of your home purchase – I can’t believe it’s already been [#] of year(s)! How are things going with the house?
I thought you’d be interested to know how home prices are trending in your neighbourhood, so I’ve attached an update for you. Of course, I’d be happy to come out and do an updated home appraisal if you’re wondering how your property compares to these stats. Let me know if that’s something you or someone you know would be interested in.
I look forward to hearing from you, and congrats once again!
Sincerely,
[ Signature ]
This longer template gives your client up-front information, and you’re able to let them know you can help them even though they’re not buying or selling right at this moment. That saves you some back-and-forth. This is valuable because in the shorter template, they won’t get this information unless they respond back to you. That’s an easily avoided missed opportunity.
Managing the Workload
Effectively approaching home anniversaries is so critical to getting referrals and building a successful book of business, we have a smart follow-ups section devoted to them in RealOffice360. Using these follow-ups means touching base with your clients on their home anniverseries is not a daunting addition to your workload.
In practice, it entails sending one of these e-mail templates right from the system, and having a couple of quick chats with each client. These can be dispersed throughout the year. For instance you could reach out to individuals with upcoming anniversaries during slower points in the month or quarter.
Final Thoughts
Staying top-of-mind doesn’t just mean publishing real estate posts into the void and hoping someone sees. Your past clients’ home anniversary dates are an invaluable follow-up opportunity. When leveraged correctly, you will turn that follow-up into warm referrals and successful sales.
Between marketing your business, juggling showings, and staying on top of your leads, you need a system to manage your workload in a stress-free and intuitive way. RealOffice360 is an unbelievably simple CRM, business tracker, and daily planner for real estate agents and Realtors®. Rather being just a data dump for client information, RealOffice360 helps you visually build your business plan, cultivate your real estate database towards your goals, and ultimately keeps you focused on what matters most: your clients and your deals. Get started for free - no credit card required!