Landlords, like the property developer prospect type, are a group of prospects, in our local marketplaces, that are in the business of property.

Landlords use or see property as a vehicle to improve their wealth.

Landlords do not attach their heart to a property, they attach their bank balance to the property

It could be said that landlords enjoy the game of property.

Landlords engage regularly with the local real estate agents. They often have a network of real estate agents who they speak with to gauge the activity in the local property marketplace, getting information from the ground up so to speak, what’s selling, who’s buying, what rents are being achieved.

Landlords are likely to have a good understanding of the impact local government policies are having on housing and the local marketplace. They will also have a good understanding of the national economy.

Astute Landlords understand that all these factors can affect when it’s the right time to buy, sell, or hold, in a property marketplace.

Landlords can be less emotional about the buying and selling of property than the property homeowners and the FSBO type of prospect, simply, because they see property as business, as a way to improve their overall wealth as an individual.

Unlike a property homeowner, they have not attached their heart to the property… they are attaching their bank balance to it!

As a local real estate agent, when considering the importance of this group in your prospecting activities, an important recognition is in most cases, landlords, have more than one property, their goal in general is to build up a property portfolio.

In most cases landlords are open and welcoming of communication from the local real estate agent.

Landlords will watch the property market for the right time to sell a property from their portfolio, in many cases to release funds in order to improve their bank balance or to purchase another property which they feel will sharpen the performance of their portfolio

Local real estate agents should always be engaging with and prospecting landlords, they are a ripe source of listing opportunities for the agent.

Landlords, as a group of prospects for the local real estate agent, can be easy to source and track down. Lets look at the 3 bests ways for the local real estate agent to do this.

1. Some local governments will sell what’s called a ‘Rates Roll’

A Rates Roll, is a list of property owners that pay the government rates on properties in the local governments area. For example, if a landlord owns a property in location A, then he will be paying the council/government rates for that property, however, the Rates Roll, will show that landlords own residential address and contact details.

I’ll note here that less and less local governments are making this information available for purchase, however, it’s definitely worth making the call and asking them if they provide it for sale. 

It is also worth reaching out on Facebook or on your local online classified advertising platform such as Gumtree / Craigslist/ Trade me; to see if there is a Rates Roll for sale by a previous agent or another party.

In general, once a landlord, always a landlord, what I mean by this, is even if the Rates Roll list, you purchase is older, and maybe the landlord has already sold the property which was listed on the Rates Roll list, the landlord is very likely to own more properties. Landlords are always worth prospecting.

Rate rolls may be a little harder to find these days but are well worth the search.

Oftentimes its well worth reaching out to companies which are in the business of selling data or lists, as they are likely to provide data very similar to what can be found on a rates roll

2. The easiest way to find the local landlords is by searching ‘properties for rent’ in your marketplace on the property portals.

In most cases these online listings will link back to a rental agency; a little further on we’ll cover exactly how you bypass the rental agency and connect directly with the landlord property owner

A proactive real estate agent will also search for ‘properties to rent’ on the free local classified adverts websites.

Another platform where you may also find such ‘properties to rent’ adverts will be on Facebook.

Oftentimes, although the volume of adverts on these platforms will be smaller compared to the property platforms, these platforms are definitely worth the search as the adverts are far more likely to have the landlords actual contact details as opposed to the rental agents contact details.

3. Before we dive into exactly how to prospect to landlords, we’ll look at the third most proactive way to source the landlords within your local marketplace. And that is through the use of the property software employed by our business/agency/brokerage.

I always teach that a local real estate agent should know every property within their local marketplace. I teach that a marketplace of around 4000 properties, which is turning over around 5% of its properties each and every year offers the best-case scenario for a local real estate agent to build a successful real estate sales career out of. 

There is a systematic approach a local real estate agent can take using the property software employed by their business/agency/brokerage to ensure they know every property within their local marketplace, and, to build an active pipeline of opportunity to prospect for listing opportunities within that marketplace.

Follow this step-by-step process.

Step 1:

• Break your marketplace out into a list of streets.
• Next, enter the street name into the property software, the software will list for you every property on that street.
• Click into each property and note the following detail.

• The property address
• Name of owner/s
• Year of purchase
• Purchase Price
• Some property software’s may also detail previous real estate agency campaigns for that property, this is likely to include any sales marketing or even rental marketing for the property.
• With most property software, when you click the property owners name, it will also list out for you any other properties, this person owns.

The best action an initiative-taking local real estate agent can take is to build this information out on an excel sheet in preparation for active prospecting or better again is to make use of Hubspots Free CRM sales system

This information is literally GOLD from the viewpoint of accessing real prospecting opportunities within your marketplace.

In many cases the property software will not have the property owners direct contact details or identify which property the owner actually lives in, when the property owner owns more than one property, however, what you as the local real estate agent should be realizing is the significant amount of opportunity your local marketplace offers.

You now have a group of prospects, individuals who we know are interested in property, they are likely to be interested in talking with real estate agents, and more often than not are regularly thinking about buying and selling property. As a local real estate agent these are the people we want to connect with.

There are 2 action-steps a proactive real estate agent can now take to connect directly with this highly valuable landlord lead.

Step 1.

Google the name of the landlord.

In today’s world, it is as likely that you will find the person online as you will not.

Lets run through some examples as to why you might find them with an online search

• They own a local business or trade
• On LinkedIn. Often landlords are people with good earning potential, so it is common to find them as small business owners or in a professional role
• On Facebook
• On other social platforms
• As part of a local sports team, charity, or event

The headline is this, there are any number of reasons you might find a person online, so, when you come across a high value lead such as a local property owner who owns multiple properties and therefore represents to you a high value lead, it is definitely worth taking the time and effort to search for that person online.

Step 2.

Narrow down which property is the landlord’s own residence and ascertain which properties are the landlords’ rental investments.

This will be relatively easy to do for many of the properties in the landlord’s portfolio; and on occasion may even lead you directly to the landlords’ contact details.

With the property software your office/agency/brokerage employs, most likely there will be a section within each property report that details all the ‘agency campaigns’ for the property. If the property has been advertised for rent, the report may detail the advertising content from that online campaign. The report may also detail the listing of the advertised weekly rent within that same section.

An extra step a proactive agent will do is google, the property address and ‘For Rent’, for each of the properties included in the landlord’s listed portfolio. It is likely you will come across the most recent and older online advertising listings for the rental properties. The properties may have always been advertised for rent through an office/agency/brokerage, however, at some time over the years, the property may well have been advertised for rent by the actual landlord, the real estate agent may well be lucky enough to find the landlords direct contact details.

In the case, that with these 2 proactive steps to source the landlords’ contact details, the direct contact details have not been found, what will have been made clearer to the real estate agent is which properties are tenanted and which property is most likely to be the landlords own home residence.

The local real estate agent can now engage in the activity of ‘intentional door-knocking’ and/or ‘intentional letterbox-dropping’

We have all been taught early in our real estate career about the effectiveness of letterbox dropping and door-knocking to win new listings – quickly.

As a local real estate agent, we understand that as soon as the potential sellers in our marketplace see us actively listing and selling property, they become aware of us as an active real estate agent, and they call us!!

We know, that when we get to this point, we’re on the right track to building a strong and successful real estate sales career.

Even though we as real estate agents know this and understand listing properties for sale in the local marketplace is key to attracting other potential sellers to our business, often local real estate agents can find door-knocking and letterbox dropping difficult to do.

We may become discouraged, feeling we could door-knock 100 properties just to speak to 1 person, or, we have had the frustrating experience of letterbox-dropping 100 letters, not to get a single call. These results can be very disheartening for the local real estate agent striving hard to get their real estate sales career running strong 

However, the activity of intentional door-knocking and intentional letterbox-dropping, to a person we know, is as interested in property as we are, a person we know comfortably associates their wealth with property, and see’s property as a vehicle to make money, just as we do, a person we know enjoys to talk about the property marketplace and the opportunity within it, a person we’re full sure, represents an opportunity to us, well, let me tell you, that’s a whole other energy behind the value to us as the local real estate agent, to knocking that property owners door or letterbox dropping to that property.

In this section we will run through a proven cold-call telephone script, door-knocking script, as well as the content for letterbox-dropping material, which the local real estate agent can engage when prospecting landlords within their property marketplace.

Cold-Call Telephone Script

Team to get a copy of my sales script structure and  sales script prompts, click the banner below

Ok before we finish up todays post, let quickly run through the intentional door-knocking process

All new agents, or agents who are revamping their career, would be well served to engage the prospecting activity of door-knocking to support themselves and their careers to effectively win listing opportunities - quickly.

As I teach in my door-knocking video you can watch it here 👉🏼 https://youtu.be/FnuKjq5O7eM , door-knocking is not for the weak hearted, however, it is the surest way for a local real estate agent to win listings within a matter of weeks.

It is exactly what I did to win my own first number of listings.

There are certain ways to approach door-knocking to make it easier on yourself, these processes will also result in better listing opportunities earned.

It’s what I call ‘intentional door-knocking’ 

Intentional door-knocking for landlords is simply a more targeted door-knocking session.

Intentional door-knocking for landlords, involves following the process I have laid out to source the contact details of landlords, then grouping those landlords, where their residential address is clear to you, and hopping in the car to go door-knocking a group of 10-20 landlords a day.

You will need to use common sense when engaging this prospecting activity.

When going out on the road, just like a field-sales-rep in a field-sales-role, if your intention is to call on 10-20 landlords in any one day, the furthest away from your area/home/office/base you should drive is an hour/ max hour and a half.

It is best to plan out your journey so you’re not driving around in circles, start your day with driving to the furthest away landlord prospect and work your way back to base, towards the end of your intentional door-knocking day.

This type of prospecting activity will be easier to do for those real estate agents who have been in a cold-calling-sales-role prior to entering the real estate industry, however, if you’ve never cold called before, step outside your comfort zone and give it a shot, it simply is the surest and quickest way to win yourself new business!

For those real estate agents who simply cannot bring themselves to walk up and knock the door… there are 2 approaches you can take instead.

1.  Employ the prospecting activity of ‘intentional letterbox-dropping’

Follow the same ‘intentional door-knocking’ process I have just laid out, except just drop the letter in the landlord’s postbox

You’re probably thinking, ‘I could just post the letter, seems a lot of fuss to drive all the way there?’  - that is option 2, we’ll come to it next.

So why would you go to the effort of driving to the landlord’s residence and drop the letter by hand?

Well, my friend, ‘fortune favors the bold’! You might accidentally bump into the landlord, they could be in the garden, just leaving or just returning home, and more importantly, you might just build up the nerve to knock the door when you have driven all the way there

Maybe as you have been driving all the way to the landlords residence, you’ll be thinking on how valuable this prospect is to your real estate sales success, and, you’ll have worked out that … F*ck It!! I don’t know this landlord from Adam. They won’t realize I feel a bit embarrassed, and you’ll be thinking, I’ve nothing to lose and so much to gain! (You can do this!) 

2.  Mail the letter to the landlord. This is also very effective for the following reasons.

1. As the letter is addressed to the landlord you know that the letter will get directly into the landlords’ hands
2. It’s very likely the landlord will read the letter you have sent them

Mailing letters directly to landlords is a very effective way to bring awareness of your real estate service to them.

Click below to access the letter material I use in my own business to prospect landlords

OK team, that brings me to the end of todays post on How to prospect Landlords to win more Listings for sale.

Remember

Landlords, like the property developer prospect type, are a group of prospects, in our local marketplaces, that are in the business of property.

Landlords use or see property as a vehicle to improve their wealth.

Landlords do not attach their heart to a property, they attach their bank balance to the property

It could be said that landlords enjoy the game of property.

Landlords will watch the property market for the right time to sell a property from their portfolio, in many cases to release funds in order to improve their bank balance or to purchase another property which they feel will sharpen the performance of their portfolio

Local real estate agents should always be engaging with and prospecting landlords, they are a ripe source of listing opportunities for the agent.

Team, all of the resources mentioned in todays post are linked below, along with my own personal calendar for you to book a free strategy call or coaching session with me.