Does low housing inventory cause you to struggle to find that perfect home for your buyer leads?

The MLS listing services does not have to be the only place to find homes. And in a low housing inventory market…

You simply can’t sit back and rely on it!

So:

Today, I’m going to break down hard-core actionable tactics to find homes in low housing inventory markets.

The cool thing is that these tactics will actually help generate more listings for you as well!

Click here to download our free guide on the 7 Epic Ways For Realtors To Solve Low Housing Inventory

Download our free guide on the 7 Epic Ways For Realtors To Solve Low Housing Inventory

1) Do you know the price points and terms of all new construction inventory?

Did you know that majority of the new construction housing will never hit your MLS?

In a low housing inventory market, that’s a big deal.

Do you have the knowledge of every new construction option that’s available to your buyers?

Can you easily give them an overview of locations, inventory, price points, and terms?

Real estate websites largely give buyer leads access to the MLS for searching houses.

But they are paying you to find them the perfect house. And that might be a new house depending on their situation.

Here’s the deal:

Get in your car and drive through all the new construction neighborhoods next time you have a slow day.

Speak with some of the representatives to get more information.

Not only will this improve your ability to assist buyers…

…but this will improve your chance of getting a referral back from new construction communities you work with a lot.

This can especially help you out if you are a newer agent (or even still in the process of becoming an agent). Why? The more knowledge of the local community you have; the more trustworthy you’ll seem to potential clients!

2) Double Dip With Your Personal Network And Contacts

One of the best ways to find unlisted properties for your real estate buyer leads is to use your personal network.

If you’re an experienced agent, you’ve probably sold several houses in the same neighborhoods time and time again.

This means a simple real estate newsletter to your old client list could shake out a motivated seller.

Here’s the deal:

You can offer yearly CMA’s to your old buyers. (This functionality is built into Easy Agent Pro’s LeadSites)

This can help them make sure they are paying correct property taxes.

And help you keep them informed about the value of their house.

For example:

Someone who didn’t want to sell in 2009 because of the loss in the value of their home,

may want to sell right now due to the rise in value.

Staying in touch with buyers through free reports, valuations, and content is a great way to get houses not found on the MLS.

Low housing inventory usually means great things for home valuations. You’ll want to tell your old home buyers that now is a great time to sell and buy a better home.

3) A Wanted Ad Can Shake “I’ll List In 2 Months” Sellers Loose:

There are always people in neighborhoods that KNOW they are going to sell, but haven’t listed yet.

If you have a serious buyer, you can send out “Seller Wanted Ads.”

There are several ways to do this.

Here’s an example:

If you have a buyer that is interested in a very specific neighborhood, you can canvas the area with real estate flyers.

You’ll want to include:

1. Describe what the buyer is looking for: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, etc
2. Describe why they are moving to the area
3. Give a general deadline that the buyer has in mind

You can easily shake a couple of listings out if you have serious buyers!

Plus, you get the opportunity of listing the property as well!

4) Zillow Can Give You Free Listings To Solve Low Housing Inventory

Zillow has this new feature called: “Make Me Move”

People who have never listed their home list the price that would make them move out of their house!

You can find it like this:

First:

You’ll want to select “Homes” under the search feature…

…then, you’ll want to only show “Make Me Move” listings.

These listings all have contact information next to them!

What you’ll find is that these houses are a great supplement for areas where inventory is low.

Granted, some of the prices that these people want, are a bit too high.

But, they did take the time to register on Zillow and put their price on the website.

They must have some reason to have done that.

These contacts can give your buyers extra options when it comes to finding the perfect home in the best neighborhood.

5) Pre-foreclosures are on the rise… (And how to find them first)

Zillow has a great number of Pre-foreclosures too!

Here’s the thing:

Banks are finally putting foreclosures into motion now that the market has recovered. They are collecting on people who have stopped paying years ago. But the best news is that most of these houses are near equity and don’t know it!

But the banks do and that’s why they are targeting them first.

You can contact these individuals and prospect them now that the market is great for sellers.

Plus, having a motivated buyer has to be welcomed news to these home owners.

Here’s how to find them:

6) Expired Listings Present Interested Sellers For Serious Buyers

Listen:

It’s never been a better time to prospect expired’s.

Why?

Because the market is recovered!

Most of these sellers were overvalued years ago…but now the price they wanted might be acceptable.

You should prospect new, old, and really old expired in your area!

Call them.

Seriously, the prices have recovered (and if you’re reading this post you probably have a buyer ready for their listing). That means they can get what were asking for their property now. If you are looking at calling expired’s, consider reading this article about real estate farming ideas. The combination of farming with expired prospecting is lethal in real estate.

7) FSBO (or unrepresented sellers) are more than excited to hear about your serious buyers

For sale by owners are another source of homes that aren’t in the MLS.

Plus, if you have a buyer for them, they really do want to hear from you!

I know a lot of you don’t like prospecting FSBO’s or unrepresented sellers.

But they are perhaps the easiest target for finding houses that aren’t in the MLS.

They literally have correct phone numbers listed on signs outside the front of their house.

What do you think?

Is there another resource for finding additional properties when there is low housing inventory?

Let me know in the comment section below!

Resources:

Here are some other reasons why home owners aren’t listing their properties

An analysis of the current housing inventory levels

How sales should bloom later this spring

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Tyler Zey

Hey! I'm Tyler with Easy Agent Pro! We provide top notch marketing content for realtors... And we do it for FREE! I get excited about sharing tactics and strategies that can be implemented TODAY.

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