SMS marketing has become many real estate professionals’ go-to way to reach motivated sellers. It’s fast, affordable, and easy for one person to launch and manage without the support of a virtual assistant or a team.
Research also shows that text messaging is the best way to get a message across because most people read their texts within seconds of receiving them, even if they don’t recognize the phone number.
However, texting isn’t a magic way to get deals under contract. If anything, it takes more thoughtful and strategic messaging than any other marketing strategy. So to help you get your texting campaigns off the ground, here are three real estate text message scripts you can implement into your business right away.
How to start a texting conversation with a motivated seller
Starting a conversation with a motivated seller is one of the most challenging parts of text message marketing. In the past, investors could send messages that advertised their intention to buy a property. These texts were effective because they caught people’s attention. Unfortunately, bad actors abused them and they quickly became annoying.
Scammers started leveraging these texts as well, which led the FCC and phone carriers to block cold texts that contained certain keywords. That means you’ll need to be strategic when you open a conversation. If you include the following words in your initial texts, you’ll see a low deliverability rate and you may be flagged as spam:
- Interested
- Selling
- Offer
- Property
- Cash
- Local Investor
- Purchase
- Looking
- Mortgage
- Loan
- Insurance
- Debt
- Lend
As you can see, many of the words you would normally use to start a conversation with a motivated seller won’t get you far. That’s why you’ll need a low-pressure message that’s interesting enough that people open it and respond to it.
We recommend something along the lines of “Are you the owner of [property address]?’ This text is effective because it leads with curiosity. The person you’re texting doesn’t know why you’ve texted them, but they can’t really afford to ignore you. From their perspective, you could be anyone, and your text could be about anything.
The good news is that once someone responds, they’ve engaged in the conversation. Now the rules about what to include and exclude from your texts relax quite a bit. From here, you can jump right into asking them about their real estate.
However, before you go any further, there’s one more important thing to remember. While this is a great opening, you shouldn’t rely on it alone. We recommend having at least 10 variations of your opening text and changing those regularly.
If you send the same message repeatedly, the carriers will flag you as spam. The general rule of thumb is that if you act like a spammer, you’re going to be treated as one. But if you introduce some variation, the carriers will see you as a legitimate texter.
“Are you still interested in selling?”
As we’ve established, once a lead responds to your text, you can launch directly into your marketing material. Keep in mind that cold outreach is all about creating interest immediately. This is true of email marketing, cold calling, and texting campaigns alike, so your second text needs to get directly to the point. One of the best ways to do this is what sales experts call “assuming the prospect” and, by extension, assuming the interest.
To do that, you can respond with, “Great! I was wondering if you’re still interested in selling it?” This reply is short and very presumptuous. And while that may not seem like a great way to start a conversation, it’s surprisingly effective in this setting.
This approach is also great because it cuts directly to business. It gives off-market sellers a chance to get what they need: an offer on their home without working with a real estate agent. Finally, this approach gives you a yes or no answer, helping you quickly filter out leads that aren’t worth your time.
The open-ended question
If you’re working a more qualified list, you can change your response slightly to read, “That’s great! When are you interested in selling your property?”
This script does everything the first one does, but it’s even more direct and actionable. If your lead is highly motivated to sell, there’s a good chance they’ll name a timeframe. Then all you have to do is propose a meeting or even make an offer if you’re certain about your comps and ARV numbers.
If you feel like this approach is too abrupt, you can add an explanation to the end of the text so it reads, “That’s great! When are you interested in selling your property? I’m looking to buy something like it in the area.”
Whichever variation you choose, these are great ways to start a conversation. If your leads respond favorably, you’ll be on your way to negotiating a price after exchanging just a few texts.
The referral text script
In the world of cold calling, starting a conversation by referencing a referral can be a potent way to keep a call going and hook a lead. The same strategy works when texting.
Once a lead responds, you can reply with a message that says, “Well I’m looking to buy a property in your area and I was wondering if you knew of anyone who wants to sell.”
This text serves two purposes: it can give you new leads to contact and it’s a non-invasive way to ask your lead to sell. If they’re motivated, there’s a good chance they’ll respond by telling you that they’re the person you’re looking for!
Conclusion
Texting wholesale leads is a great way to start conversations with motivated sellers. Not only can you reach a lot of people in a short amount of time, but it’s also one of the best marketing strategies for a one-person business or a small team.
That’s why we’ve offered you these three free real estate text message templates. These templates are based on sales best practices and have been proven to provide great response rates simply because they’re designed to elicit curiosity.
If you plan to use these scripts for real estate wholesaling, there are just two things you need to know: text messaging works best when followed up with a phone call, and it isn’t designed to replace other forms of real estate marketing.
Unfortunately, bad actors have abused SMS campaigns, which has resulted in stricter regulations around text messaging. As a result, you won’t be able to use it to replace your other marketing efforts.
Instead, you should view it as a way to supplement your cold calling campaigns, bandit signs, and other marketing strategies. If you complement your marketing and outbound efforts with real estate text scripts, you’ll have an opportunity to increase the number of off-market leads in your pipeline and close more real estate deals.
