This was the last day of week three of our month long series on a better way to reach aged expired listings, and I spent most of it doing the actual work. I pulled a brand new list from my MLS, scrubbed it, loaded it into LeadDeck and started tapping through the cards on my phone, live, with no edits.
By the end of the hour I had one new warm lead from a live conversation and two inbound calls from lines I'd put in the water earlier. None of that happens if you only treat this stuff as information. It happens when you plug in and do the work.
From MLS to a ready deck in minutes
I started in my MLS and followed the filter cheat sheet from our Skool community: one school district, the property types I want, a price floor, then expired and canceled listings going back far enough to give me a workable list. Select all, export the CSV.
Next I ran that file through the MLS checker, which scrubs out anything that has since been relisted, gone pending or sold. This time it left me with nine. That's actually perfect, because the goal is one focused hour. I uploaded those nine to LeadDeck, picked the aged expired sequence so the text and email are pre populated, and I was making calls in less than 10 minutes from the start of the stream.
The first time you do this it might take you a little while. Once you've done it a few times, it moves this fast.
Hard to reach can be a good sign
The first card was a string of disconnected numbers. When that happens I hide the number with a tap and move to the next one. I don't get discouraged, because "the hard-to-reach ones are some of the best leads because if they're hard to reach for us, they're hard to reach for others."
So I work each card as fully as I can. I try every number, send the emails I'm confident in, run the enhanced skip trace when the data looks thin, and tap to send direct mail when it's owner occupied. "The more lines we have in the water, the more potential bites we have." All we're looking for is a bite.
The same script every single time
Someone in the chat asked whether I read a script or ad lib. I say almost the same thing on every call and every voicemail:
- Their name.
- My name and my company.
- "I know this might be a long shot."
- Are you still accepting offers on the street address?
- Please let me know either way.
- I'll text you when I hang up, or email you if it's a landline.
"It's formulaic every single time." That last step matters, "because it ties it all together. And it means that I'm not a spammer or a scammer."
The only time I vary it is when something's off. At one point I realized I was calling a California number at 7:24 in the morning their time. I owned it in the voicemail, apologized, and followed up by email instead of text so I wasn't buzzing their phone that early.
When an owner answers
On one of the early cards the owner picked up. I asked if he was still accepting offers, told him I had a buyer ready to get him at least a preliminary offer, and asked if it would make sense for me to put some numbers together. He said yes, and I got permission to text him so he could send me his best email.
Right after the call I showed what happens next. I entered the property to pull quick offer options, then requested verified offers from three different institutional buyers so he'd have something concrete to look at, including a sell and lease back option if he wants time to make his move. Then I tapped to push him into my CRM.
Here's how I think about it. "Best case scenario, he decides, hey, I'd like to proceed with one of these. Worst case scenario is when he is ready to proceed, he will consider me to solve the problem that the original listing agent wasn't able to solve in the first place."
Go deep, not wide
Someone asked if they could automate the voicemail drops and text messages. My answer was no. When I actually say the person's name on a voicemail, they're far more likely to call me back, because I took the time to send that message personally instead of blasting it.
That's why the goal I coach is "One hour, 10 cards." Work all 10 as thoroughly as you can instead of spraying and praying. "Go deep, not wide." In this whole series I've never worked more than 10 cards on a stream, and almost every time I've picked up at least one new warm lead.
We automate where it makes sense, "but not automating the human touch." And honestly, I find that encouraging. "AI is not going to replace us." Agents who don't use AI to get more efficient and effective are the ones who get left behind.
Where I do use AI agents
I was asked if I use AI agents to make calls. "I do not and will not." Where I'm testing them right now is email and text, to find the warm hand raisers so I can spend my time on the human conversations.
That paid off live. In the middle of the stream I got an inbound call from someone who reached out because of an email one of my AI agents had sent. He turned out to be a pocket buyer as well as an owner, so I saved him as a contact and followed up with a resource I'd promised. Near the end, a portfolio buyer my AI agent had contacted the week before called about a multifamily package I'm marketing, and I got him the details before noon.
Neither call happens if I don't pick up. "We are in a business where we get rewarded by answering our phone."
Lean in when the skip trace fails
The last card in the deck couldn't be skip traced. I don't skip those. I lean in and get curious, because "the folks that are harder to get in touch with are in some cases the very best leads." I asked my AI to research the owner and contact details while I looked the property up in my MLS. This one turned out to be new construction owned by an LLC, so I chalked it up as an L. That's going to happen sometimes.
Still, it was a win of a day. "I have just found more often than not that the universe rewards taking action."
Practice until you sound confident
One more good question from the chat: how do you sound that confident when you still feel like you're asking permission to make the call? You can take the transcripts of these live prospecting calls, feed them into the AI of your choice, and practice with it. And know for sure "I was not born with this skill." I had to do the work to get better at it, and you can too.
Keep going with us
Next week is week four, the last week of this aged expired series, Monday through Thursday at 10 AM Eastern. On Monday I'll close the loop on the verified offers for the owner who answered live. In November we're starting fresh with tired landlords.
If you want the filter cheat sheet and the other resources from this series, join our free Skool community, 1 Deal A Week In Real Estate.
Key takeaways
- Pull aged expireds straight from your MLS, scrub them, and you can be calling in under 10 minutes.
- Treat hard to reach owners as an opportunity, and work every number, email and mail piece on the card.
- Use the same short script every time, and always tell them you'll text or email when you hang up.
- When an owner says yes to offers, get verified offer options in front of them fast.
- One hour, 10 cards. Go deep, not wide, and keep the human touch.
- Answer your phone. The lines you put in the water come back to you.
Chapters
- 00:00 Last day of week three: live prospecting aged expireds
- 04:00 Pulling aged expireds from the MLS with the filter cheat sheet
- 06:30 Scrubbing with the MLS checker and loading LeadDeck
- 08:30 Working the first card: disconnected numbers and email
- 11:30 The voicemail script in action
- 13:30 An owner answers and says yes to offers
- 17:00 Getting quick and verified offer options
- 21:00 Owning a too early call to California
- 25:00 Do I read a script or ad lib?
- 30:30 One hour, 10 cards: go deep, not wide
- 33:30 Why I won't automate voicemail drops
- 37:00 Where I do and don't use AI agents
- 40:00 An inbound call from an AI agent email
- 50:30 Leaning in when the skip trace fails
- 54:00 Practicing to sound confident
- 55:00 A portfolio buyer calls back
- 58:30 Wrapping up the week and what's next