The number of days that a home spends on the market before getting purchased has been falling for several years. In 2017, sellers could expect to wait 60 to 95 days before selling their homes. In 2021, the average wait times fell to about 35 to 60 days.
While these numbers offer some insight into the housing industry, they fail to consider an important industry sector: off-market homes for sale by owner.
Plenty of homeowners don’t want to put their homes on the market. They might not want to deal with the hassle of open houses and visits. They might want to protect their privacy or prevent a lot of traffic from coming into their homes.
Regardless of the reason, real estate brokers and investors can use off-market homes for sale by owner to improve their return on investment and grow the strength of their portfolios.
First, though, you need to know how to find off-market homes.
Use Mailers to Cast a Wide Net
Direct mail has a surprisingly high return on investment that makes it an attractive option for many marketers. Some research shows that direct mail has a median 29% ROI. That might sound too impressive for anyone used to managing email campaigns. It’s much better than the results from most digital marketing options, though.
There are some challenges for real estate professionals trying to find off-market homes for sale by owner. The biggest obstacles include:
- Finding the accurate names and addresses of homeowners.
- Paying the fairly high cost of print materials and stamps.
- Needing to cast such a wide net to find a few potential sellers.
No matter how much time, work, and money you devote to direct mail, you might not get any leads. You’re bombarding a whole area with mailers, hoping to get a few responses. It’s terrific when it works. Unfortunately, there aren’t any guarantees.
Cold Calling Homeowners
Cold calling homeowners in your area will probably cost a lot less than sending out mailers. As long as you have a lead list and a phone, you can call property owners to ask whether they’re interested in selling.
You can probably already spot one of the downsides of cold calling: it takes a lot of work! You will spend hours placing phone calls to people who may or may not have any interest in selling their homes.
Cold calling is even harder than most people think. Consumers hate unsolicited phone calls. In response to this, app developers have created numerous third-party applications that let people report annoying numbers. If enough people report your number, it will get flagged. At that point, hardly anyone will answer your calls.
Additionally, service providers monitor numbers for signs of robocalling. Making more than 100 calls per day from the same number will likely get it flagged.
If you choose to use cold calling, follow call management tips to protect your number’s reputation.
No matter what you do, prepare to spend a lot of time in your office with a phone up to your ear.
Use Predictive Analytics to Target Your Outreach Efforts
The more you try to find off-market homes for sale by owner, the more obvious the real problem becomes. You waste a lot of effort trying to contact people who have no interest in selling their homes.
No matter what type of outreach method you use (direct mail, phone calls, emails, etc.), you can’t concentrate your effort on uncertain leads that may not convert.
Predictive analytics solves this problem!
ProspectNow’s predictive analytics relies on machine learning and artificial intelligence to determine which residential properties in your area will likely get put on the market within the next 12 months. The algorithm scours public information and other data associated with listing homes for sale. For example, people tend to list their homes shortly after getting married, having children, and filing for bankruptcy.
With help from predictive analytics, you can focus your efforts on off-market properties owned by people who have started to think about selling their homes. Obviously, not all of them will convert. But you can expect a much higher percentage of them to show interest in your real estate services.
Get Accurate Contact Information for Your Outreach Campaigns
You also need accurate information to ensure you contact the correct people about buying and selling real estate. Unfortunately, a lot of databases have outdated contact information. You might never know you have used the wrong phone number, email address, or mailing address to reach a property owner.
ProspectNow has a residential properties database with more than 100 million listings. The company updates its information frequently, so you always have access to the latest, most accurate contact data.
When you have access to ProspectNow’s residential property database, you can make more of every hour you spend in lead outreach. Instead of taking a “scattershot” approach and using the wrong contact info, you can use the correct contact information to approach people more willing to show interest in selling their homes. Ultimately, that’s how you make the most money from finding off-market homes for sale by owner.
Find Off-Market Homes for Sale by Owner With Help From ProspectNow
ProspectNow has been around since 2008, making the lives of real estate brokers and investors easier. The data that you can get from ProspectNow costs a lot more when you use platforms made by other companies. By using ProspectNow, you will find more leads, close more deals, and, therefore, make more money! ProspectNow is a vital tool for business success in real estate and real estate marketing. Additionally, ProspectNow is trustworthy, easy to do business with, and a provider of reliable data.
Find out how ProspectNow’s database and predictive analytics can help you find off-market homes for sale by owner by starting a free trial!