Go Pro Systems: Using Auto Responders to Move Leads to Home Sales

Autoresponders are pre-written emails that are saved online, then sent out automatically when a potential client signs onto your Facebook fan page or registers to access specific information on your website or logs a comment on your blog. By pre-writing a series of unique responses that answer commonly asked questions about your business or respond to common requests for real estate information, real estate agents and brokers can effectively increase customer contact with a minimum of effort. Autoresponders also allow you to disseminate important information quickly and easily to a large group of contacts. If done effectively, autoresponders can build quality customer relations, turning leads into sales, while allowing you to manage your time and your business more efficiently.

Autoresponders can include short articles or tip lists on buying or selling a house, improving your credit score, purchasing a lease option house, preparing for an open house, closing paperwork checklists, finding a mortgage, how to schedule an appointment to view a house, how to handle a home inspection, etc. By sending helpful, informational emails in response to queries from website and Facebook visitors, you begin to lay the groundwork for a future relationship. When these people are ready to buy or sell a home, they're apt to remember your helpfulness and turn to you first. Every time you provide potential clients with a piece of useful information, you're building trust and establishing yourself as a real estate expert in the local market area.

Autoresponders are also an effective way to walk clients through the real estate selling or buying process. Sending out an autoresponder message to clients that anticipates their questions as they reach each new step in the buy or sell process makes them better prepared clients and decreases the need for direct contact. At the same time, and most importantly, with minimal effort you are able to reassure real estate clients that you are personally guiding their every step. Astute use of autoresponders allows you to develop a more "hands-on" relationship with real estate clients without actually being time-intensive.

Be sure you always provide an unsubscribe link in autoresponder emails. While you don't want potential clients to exercise this option, you do need to provide it. Some people find receiving unrequested emails irritating, and there's no reason to alienate a potential client at this early stage of your relationship.