Every home is on the market, it’s just the more motivated ones that put for sale signs up
If you are a regular reader of this blog or follow me online, you would have heard me quote multiple times in recent years “Every home is on the market, it’s just the more motivated ones that put for sale signs up”.
According to data from Hamptons, 33% of £1m-plus homes that changed hands in 2023 did so without being advertised publicly, with this figure rising to 51% in the £2m-£5m price point and 54% at £5m+.
I’m going to reshare a tactic that has been instrumental for clients of mine in helping them to break into the higher end of the market and target those properties that don’t yet have boards outside and are not being advertised publicly.
The VIP buyer campaign is quite possibly the most underrated and underused prospecting technique to help build relationships at the top end of the market and here is why.
Prospecting works best when it feels like a service.
According to data from Rightmove, 69% of buyers need to sell a property in order to buy and 52% of these buyers don’t yet have their property on the market.
Why is it these buyers don’t have their property on the market yet?
They want to find their perfect home before they put their own house on the market.
Unfortunately, most marketing that an estate agent does is to offer free valuations and asking homeowners if they want to sell rather than targeting buyers.
Remember, buyers of today are the sellers of tomorrow.
Based on the data above from Rightmove, I would recommend reverse engineering your marketing approach and offer potential buyers the chance to view the whole market and not just the tiny 2% that are listed on the traditional property portals.
But, how do I know who to target you might ask?
Most sellers who already have their house on the market will be looking to buy another property, so that’s a good start.
You can send direct mail, door-knock, or message these sellers online offering them a solution to finding their next home if they are struggling to find.
Every other agent will be offering them help selling their property whilst forgetting to provide assistance in finding their next home.
Don’t forget to also target the sellers who are actually under offer or SSTC as they might just be sitting on the portals each day waiting for something to come up and you can actively help them find their next home.
What better way to appeal to high value homeowners than saying you have buyers in a position to proceed wanting to buy a property like theirs.
You could also leverage your database, social media or place adverts in your office window to find these buyers that are searching for their next home before listing their own home.
Once you have these buyers, it’s time to get to work in finding them their next home by utilising your database, direct mail, and social media to source them a property.
Below is a flowchart highlighting how Simon Cowie, of By Design Warwickshire, turned 10,000 direct mail letters into £13,850,000 worth of listings and a further £9,000,000 of market appraisals.
And guess what?
It all started with a VIP buyer campaign for a seller that was yet to put their property on the market as they were struggling to find somewhere to buy.
You will find that some sellers will then contact you saying they have a property that matches what your buyer is looking for and some will be asking if you can help them find their next home as well.
Another client of mine recently sent out letters on behalf of their seller who was struggling to find somewhere to 480 properties for a very specific VIP buyer campaign, which resulted in 18 responses, 6 valuations, 2 off-market viewings, and a sale.
There are several other successes I could share with you where this strategy has worked and you can CLICK HERE to hear how Paul Leslie completed a chain and matched his seller with a property in a location he does not even operate in.
In conclusion, it is very simple, if you are not already doing VIP buyer campaigns, start right now and you will not regret it.
If you are struggling for inspiration on what to say in the VIP buyer campaign, please do feel free to contact me and I will happily share some ideas with you.
Thank you for reading.
Simon Gates - Opening The Gates
