Turn your new listing into your next one

Work the homes closest to [Your listing], by mail and by phone.
Give them one reason to come: an hour set aside for neighbors before your open house.
End every conversation by asking permission to stay in touch.
Then the listing gives you a new reason to call back when it goes under contract and again when it closes.

About 30 minutes a day. Pick your open house day first.

About 20 dials in 30 minutes is our planning estimate, not a result.
You won’t reach every home twice before the open house, so start with the closest.
If the listing goes under contract first, skip to “When the listing changes.”

Move 1: Tell your seller, today

Why now: You need their okay for the early hour, and neighbors may mention your calls to them. That’s how they see you did what you said.

Move 2: Mail your letters, then time your calls

Why now: A letter in their hand gives your call a reason. Mailing one to yourself tells you the day to start dialing.

Check each owner name against county records or your MLS before you mail.

Your mailing list has addresses, not phone numbers.
Ask your broker where the office gets numbers and how it checks them against the national and state Do Not Call lists.
Any home you can’t call gets the one-question letter (Move 6).

If townhomes sit next to single-family homes, keep those two groups apart.
Choose homes by property facts only, never by who lives there.

Move 3: The invitation call

Why now: The open house gives you an honest reason to dial, and you’re only inviting. Most people won’t do anything. What you want comes at the end of the call. Call only numbers your broker has cleared, at the hours your broker approves.

Don’t ask if they want the estimate.
If you say it’s coming, send it.
No email from your own records? Skip those two sentences.

Add everyone to your database that day, tagged with this listing and how you met.
If someone mentions a move, write down the timing and call them back that week.

Move 4: Your own database, in one email and ten calls

Why now: You don’t have time to call everyone you know. This email makes the listing a small game, and each reply is a conversation you didn’t have to start. Send it only to people in your own database, never to the owners on your mailing list.

Give four prices as answers, and make each one a link to the same page: [Listing page link].
Only one is real.
Include an unsubscribe link, and ask your broker about the three wrong prices.

Your Next 10 lists: write three lists of ten: most likely to list in the next 12 months, most likely to buy, and most likely to introduce you.
Beside each seller, write the property and its rough value.
Beside each buyer, write price range, neighborhoods, and type.
Look at them every morning.

Say “all my clients” only if that’s true.

Move 5: The neighbors hour

Why now: Neighbors feel awkward walking into a house on their own street. A named hour tells them it’s meant for them.

In the MLS, post the public hours only.
Anyone who walks in during that hour gets welcomed and shown the house, because the hour is about who you invite, not who you let in.
Ask your broker how fair housing, MLS, and office rules apply to an early hour.

This needs a real printed home marketing plan. No plan yet? Leave this line out.
Note who picks it up.
A sign-in may not give you consent to text, so ask your broker for approved wording. Without clear consent, call or email.

After this, send something at least quarterly.
Anyone with no agent who plans to sell within 12 months gets a saved search a quarter mile around their home. Each time a home nearby closes, send one line: “Hey, just wanted to let you know another home sold in your area.”

Move 6: The one-question letter

Why now: This is for owners on your list you never reached or couldn’t call. Stamps are the only cost.

Keep the word “if.”
Don’t say you have a buyer unless you do.
Ask your broker what must appear on it.

If it goes under contract

Count your real showings and offers, then call the same list again, trying each home twice.
Ask your seller and broker before you share any count.
Leave out a count that doesn’t help.

Don’t turn a showing count into a number of other buyers looking. A showing count doesn’t tell you that.

When contingencies are removed

Ask your broker what you may post.

When it closes

Only now may you say “sold.”
Call the same list a third time, and send every estimate you promised.
Ask your seller and broker before you state the price.

• Which Do Not Call lists apply to me, including any state list? Where do we get phone numbers, how do we check them, and what calling hours do you approve?
• How do fair housing, MLS, and office rules apply to an early neighbors hour?
• What consent do I need before texting anyone from a call or sign-in form?
• May I share showing and offer counts, and the closed price before it’s public?
• Do the three wrong prices in the email raise any advertising issue, and what must appear on my letter, invitation, and email?
• How do I handle representation if a neighbor I call wants to see my own listing?

No answer by the time you need it?
Hold that one piece and keep doing the rest.
Check every script against your broker’s rules before you use it.