Is SMS Messaging the “Secret Sauce” for Closing More Sales?

People’s email inboxes get inundated everyday with spam, work emails, personal emails, calendar invites, and endless other clutter. 

Their text message box? Much cleaner. 

Case in point: SMS messages have an average read rate over 95%. Compare that to the average email open rate of just 20%. 

(You know a “But…” is coming)

But it’s all too easy to piss off your prospects, and get flagged as a spammer by phone carriers. 

So how do you use the power of SMS messaging for good and not for evil? 

Follow these commandments to close more leads — and to turn around and sell properties faster.

Commandment 1: Thou shalt not text cold leads

You can cold call prospective sellers. You can send cold outbound emails and direct mail too. 

But do not cold text message your leads. REsimpli can do the heavy lifting for you, in your cold outreach campaigns. We have a built-in dialer to reach out to your leads. Our CRM automatically tracks these calls and results for you.

Likewise, REsimpli’s CRM can manage your email campaigns and direct mail campaigns. When prospects respond, the system will automatically track which campaigns they came from. 

And at that point, you can then start harnessing the power of SMS messages. 

Commandment 2: Use SMS messages after establishing contact

A lead calls you back at your tracking number. Or they text you, or email you, or send a passenger pigeon with one of those little tiny notes around its ankle. 

Now they’re fair game to send SMS messages. 

In fact, we just explained last week how we process incoming leads. The very first step? An automated SMS message responding to the prospect, asking for a few basic details. When a lead reaches out, you can (and should!) automatically start them on a drip campaign. That campaign should include a mix of many different contact methods, from SMS messages to phone calls to emails to direct mail.

It’s hard for leads to ignore you when they hear from you in so many different ways.

Commandment 3: Avoid red-flag keywords in SMS messages

You know how your email service provider tries to filter out your spam emails?

Phone carriers try to do the same. And they do it by screening SMS messages for spammy, red-flag keywords.

There are hundreds of these, but here are a few common ones by way of example:

• 100% free
• No Cost
• Free Quote
• Serious Cash
• Guaranteed
• Sign Up Free Today
• Subscribe

You can check out our full list of over 180 of these spam keywords to avoid on our website. Never, ever use them in your SMS messages. 

Granted, phone carriers could still flag your text messages even if you don’t use them. But you vastly improve your deliverability rates by avoiding these obvious and screened keywords.

Commandment 4: Build your trust score with phone carriers

Just like the credit bureaus keep a running credit score for you, phone carriers keep a running “trust score” for your business. 

And no, you can’t just wipe the slate clean by switching carriers. All phone carriers share this information with each other, and it attaches to your business’s Employee ID Number (EIN). 

Play by the rules and you’ll keep your trust score high. Break these commandments and your trust score will suffer the consequences.

Commandment 5: Never buy or sell phone numbers

Repeat after me: “I will never buy or sell leads’ phone numbers.” 

And if you still feel tempted, write it out 100 times on a blackboard like Bart Simpson.

For one thing, phone carriers will definitely flag you with a spammy low trust score if they find out. 

Beyond that, buying phone numbers just doesn’t make sense, since you’re not sending cold SMS messages to prospects. Right? 

You may text leads who gave you their phone number. That’s it.

Video: SMS Marketing for Real Estate Investors

How to Use SMS Messages for Selling Homes

“Okay, okay, I get it. But what about my buyers list? Can I send SMS messages to them to sell properties faster?”

Yes, you can. 

But again, you need to follow some simple rules if you want to keep your trust score and deliverability rates high. 

Get permission first

This one shouldn’t come as any surprise by now — your buyers must volunteer their phone number and opt in to receiving text messages about your deals as they come along. 

Build this opt-in into your registration form, when buyers sign up with you. Not all will opt in, but if you phrase it right, most will. 

Try something like “Want text notifications to be the first to hear about new deals? Add your phone number below.” 

Your buyers sign up specifically because they want to hear from you. Texting them deal alerts is simply another way to give them what they want. 

Sell properties faster by texting your list

Growing an engaged and responsive buyers list is half the battle in wholesaling real estate. 

When you know you can unload your purchase contracts in minutes or hours, rather than days or weeks, you can churn through ever more volume with less effort. That makes for a lean, mean business machine that cranks out the green. 

Sure, wholesalers don’t have much money tied up in each deal. But deals in process do take up wholesalers’ time — and just as importantly, their mental real estate.

You want your deals closed and off your plate as soon as possible. Texting your buyers list can speed that process up for you.

Send follow-up texts about slow-moving deals

Is a wholesale property not moving? No buyers biting?

Send follow-up texts to your buyers list. 

Some buyers may have missed it the first (or second) time around. Or maybe you’ve priced the property too high. 

If you lowered the price or are offering a new incentive, send an SMS message to your buyers. 

You can’t afford to let these contracts sit idle. Use SMS messages to line up buyers pronto.

Don’t use SMS messages for non-urgent updates

Your buyers signed up to receive text alerts about deals. 

Not your newsletter, not your hot take on the current housing market, not cute photos of your new puppy. You can email those if you feel compelled to, but do not send them by text. 

The surefire way to get buyers to unsubscribe from text alerts is to send them non-urgent updates. 

Text messages work so well because they interrupt people in whatever they’re doing. Don’t waste that privilege.

Tying it all together

You can and should use SMS messages in your real estate flipping or wholesaling business.

But only text sellers or buyers who gave you their number voluntarily. Even then, use SMS messages sparingly. They’re incredibly powerful — but a little goes a long way. 

Text messages work best in concert with other contact methods. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, start by using our templates for drip campaigns. 

You can tweak them to fit your own business as needed, but we’ve refined our drip campaigns through thousands of real estate deals in the field. These are battle-tested and they work. 

That’s the beauty of using a platform like REsimpli: you can follow a tried-and-true blueprint. 

Follow the system, do the work, see the results.

It’s that simple.