If you’re not getting the best return on your real estate marketing, it might be time to try something different. MLS reverse prospecting is a popular way to reach qualified buyers and sellers without having to actually “reach” for them.
The goal of this article is to help newer real estate agents understand what reverse prospecting is and why you can use it to drive more qualified leads.
What Is Reverse Prospecting?
Reverse prospecting is a marketing technique used in real estate, where one can find which agents sent our listing out to potential buyers via the Auto Email option. There are two types of reverse prospecting:
MLS Reverse prospecting - Where you search for potential buyers through their agents and the criteria they listed on the MLS.
General reverse prospecting - Searching for deals by sending out e-mails or advertisements to the general public, with the buyer’s needs attached. Realtors or buyer’s agents mostly do this.
MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, is one of the most popular marketing tools in real estate today, and reverse prospecting is one of the many features MLS offers. Since this is a feature real estate agents use, we will focus on this type of prospecting in our article.
In other words, MLS helps the right buyer find the right property, but reverse prospecting helps the property find its buyer. There are some conditions for this option, but most of the time it gives significant results, which we will talk about in our next paragraph.
Reverse Prospecting in Real Estate Marketing
Reverse prospecting in real estate falls under an umbrella term called reverse marketing. This is a marketing technique where you or another realtor find leads and potential buyers by the criteria the clients pointed out themselves.
Likewise, the reverse prospecting feature works in a way where you (as the agent) search for leads through other agents or realtors. This feature also allows you to contact these buyer agents and update them on the deal, or offer more information on it.
Of course, there are some conditions to this amazing feature, and they include:
In most cases, only agents that forwarded your listing via the Auto Email option are open to contact.
You can only reach agents, not the leads themselves because buyer information is confidential.
This feature works only for active listings, not expired or finished ones.
How to Use Reverse Prospecting
Most real estate agents love this feature and use it commonly in their work, and that is why we fully recommend you try it out too.
Next up are the short how-to tips on using MLS reverse prospecting, all the hacks and tips you will need in search for that one perfect sale.
Go to your MLS profile, and select your Active listings.
Choose one active listing, and in the toolbar of the listing should be “reverse prospect”.
This will open a new window to look at, with all the information on agents that forwarded your listing.
Here is what information the MLS table can give you:
Agent - Name of agent that referred to your listing. No MLS will ever give you the information of the potential buyer, so be sure not to look for that!
Reference number or ID - This is the reference number of the lead, instead of their name.
Count - Some MLS software offers an insight into whether you have already contacted the buyer’s agent in the past, and how many e-mails the agent has exchanged with the lead.
Date - When your listing was forwarded to the lead.
Other information (e-mail, address, phone) - This is not buyer information! This segment tells you the contact information of the buyer’s agent, like the name of the office they work for, contact info, and when to reach them.
Why Use Reverse Prospecting?
Now that we have reviewed what reverse prospecting is and how to use it, you are probably wondering whether you really need it in your business strategy.
We understand that in the real estate world, we have to find ways to shorten both the buying process and do the jobs for our leads and realtors too. That is why reverse prospecting helps us with keeping in touch with other realtors and agents out there.
Here is why we use reverse prospecting through MLS in our business today:
Easier to reach buyers: With this option, you don’t reach potential leads directly, but you will be able to reach them through their agents. This might be a downside, but the fact that you are at least exchanging information is a huge pro and builds confidence in you as an agent.
Connect with sellers: The only way to contact your potential buyers is through agents that have other leads and might find the right buyer for you. Even if the first choice didn’t work out. You never know what can happen in the real estate world!
Update on deals and improvements: MLS reverse prospecting is mostly used in situations where you want to update a listing. For instance, if your listing has been selling for a year, maybe the owner wishes to speed up the process and lowers the price of the property. Here, you can use reverse prospecting to contact potential buyers and their agents first, in search of a fast and easy sale.
Getting out there: Reaching out to other realtors and agents will broaden your contacts, and just talking about potential deals can positively affect your work in the future.
Part of most MLS options: Most MLS software offers an insight into reverse prospecting and today, it’s a standard part of MLS operating in the US.
Conclusion
After reviewing all the pros, cons, and definitions of reverse prospecting in real estate, we have concluded that this is a powerful tool in reaching out to other agents and realtors with potential buyers. The key with this tool is that you don’t reach the lead directly.
In the end, we hope our reverse prospecting article helped you understand this term and shed light on why it’s so popular today.