Find Seller Leads with Homesnap Pro’s Likelihood to List Scores

Ninety percent of sellers hire the first agent they talk to. Think about that: If you can be the first agent that 10 prospects speak with, you could turn those conversations into 9 new clients.

That begs the question: “How do I get in front of sellers before my competitors?” The answer is by using the All-New Homesnap Pro.

Remember: You must be logged into your Homesnap Pro account to access these agent-only features.

Homesnap Pro is an included MLS benefit, and its latest update gives you an advanced set of new tools so you can find seller leads intelligently and quickly. Then, you can more narrowly target the homeowners who are most likely to put their home on the market soon.

Homesnap’s team of data scientists spent months perfecting a sophisticated algorithm, creating a new Likelihood to List score that combines a bevy of data points to determine which homes are most likely to list soon. The scores are broken down into three levels:

1. MOST LIKELY

These will be the likeliest homes to go on the market in the next 12 months. These homes will be marked in orange when you search using the Likelihood to List heatmap.

2. LIKELY

These are homes that have some signals that point to a listing in the next year. These homes will be marked in yellow on the heatmap.

3. LEAST LIKELY

These are homes that are unlikely to go on the market in the coming year. These homes will be marked in blue on the heatmap.

There’s a common saying in the real estate world that every house is for sale — meaning that it’s always worth having a conversation with a homeowner to gauge their unique situation and what circumstances would prompt them to sell. That’s what prospecting is all about, but the old-school tactics of cold-calling and cold-door-knocking are inefficient if not done strategically.

When you prospect using Homesnap Pro’s new Likelihood to List scores, in addition to its catalog of other new property search filters, you’re plugging into the most powerful pieces of prospecting while leaving behind the inefficiencies.

This is data-backed prospecting that points you in the right direction, so you aren’t spending your precious marketing dollars blanketing an entire neighborhood in postcards and flyers when you could just focus on a handful of relevant properties.

And beyond steering you in the right direction, the All-New Homesnap Pro provides a wealth of information on each property. In addition to real-time MLS data, you can see tax records, mortgage histories, deeds, and other historical information that can give you a fuller picture of the property.

You can also access homeowner profiles on every property, so you can instantly call, email, or text a seller lead. That puts you at a significant advantage, and it’s all free to you as an MLS benefit.

In order to make the most of the All-New Homesnap Pro, here’s how you can find seller leads:

1) First, establish your stipulations in the search filters.

You’ll see the traditional search filters, as well as new property filters so you can search by Ownership Time, Last List Date, Mortgage Rate and Age, Likelihood to List, and more.

2) Enable property heatmaps.

After you set up your search, you’ll see a button in the lower-left corner that says “Heatmaps.” This gives you the opportunity to see those same search filters as color-coded heatmaps instead of just dots on the map. This is what it looks like if you use heatmaps to search for properties based on Likelihood to List score.

3) Explore property information.

Click into one of the properties that’s orange, or Most Likely to List. Check out all the information at your fingertips — net equity, mortgage rates, ownership status.

4) Click on a homeowner profile.

See if the homeowner’s email or phone number are listed. Homesnap Pro+ members will also have special access to see any attached social media profiles, which provide additional avenues for outreach.

This is the smartest and most efficient way to find seller leads, and you can do it all for free. Download Homesnap today — available on iOS and Android — and also available on your computer.

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Ballots Arrive This Week – Washington Presidential Primary Election is March 10

Washington’s presidential primary election has been moved to Tuesday, March 10, one week after Super Tuesday on March 3. Although ballot packets arrive this Friday, Feb. 21, you may want to wait until Super Tuesday to verify your candidate is still in the running before voting, as some candidates usually drop out.

Your ballot will be mailed to you with a stamped return envelope if you’re registered by March 2, or it can be handed to you or printed from an online file if registering after March 2.

Contact the Benton County or Franklin County auditor’s office for registration information, or if you haven’t received your ballot by Feb. 28.

Registered voters and those preregistered who will be 18 years old by the general election on Nov. 3 are eligible to vote in the primary. You can register to vote or update your voter information online through March 2. After March 2, you may still register or update your information in person at the Benton County or Franklin County auditor’s office though Election Day on March 10.

Voters in Washington do not declare a party when registering to vote, but to participate in the Presidential Primary, you must mark one party box and sign the declarations on the return envelope.

Both the Democratic and Republican ballots will appear on a single (consolidated) ballot. Unlike other elections, you may only vote for one printed candidate on the entire ballot page.

For your vote to count, the candidate you mark on the ballot must match the political party declaration (box) you mark on the return envelope. If you vote both sides of the ballot, or the opposite side of the ballot, your vote will not count.

If mailing your ballot, please mail by March 7 to ensure it’s postmarked by March 10.

If voting after March 7, your best bet is to put your ballot in your local ballot box. You can find a list of ballot box locations on the Benton County and Franklin County auditor’s website.

If you’re notified that your ballot was rejected because you forgot to sign it, you can fix that by contacting the auditor’s office. You will need to work quickly because the time for certifying the primary is short.

For more information on the presidential primary please visit the Secretary of State website.

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HUD Awards Capital Funds to Improve & Preserve Public Housing

SEATTLE – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded more than $2.7 billion to public housing authorities (PHA) in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The funding will allow agencies to make needed capital improvements to their properties.

The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation was awarded $3,035,482 in HUD capital funds while 9 housing authorities in Idaho were awarded $1,618,480, 13 housing authorities in Oregon were awarded $9,324,005 and 23 housing authorities in Washington state were awarded $30,201,530.  View all local grants announced.

The grants are provided through HUD’s Capital Fund Program, which offers annual funding to approximately 2,900 public housing authorities to build, repair, renovate, and/or modernize the public housing in their communities. Housing authorities use the funding to complete large-scale improvements such as replacing roofs or making energy-efficient upgrades to replace old plumbing and electrical systems.

To help provide residents with decent, safe and sanitary housing and respond to the growing demand for affordable rental housing, HUD uses the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), a comprehensive strategy that complements the Capital Fund Program. RAD offers a long-term solution to preserve and enhance the country’s affordable housing stock, including leveraging public and private funding to make critically needed improvements.

For more than 75 years, the federal government has been investing billions of dollars in developing and maintaining public housing, including providing critical support through the Capital Fund grants announced.

In 2011, HUD released Capital Needs in the Public Housing Program, a third-party independent study that estimated the capital needs in the public housing stock in the U.S. The study found the nation’s then-1.1 million public housing units were facing an estimated $25.6 billion.

Since Congress authorized the RAD demonstration in November of 2011, early results show it is generating significant additional capital for distressed public housing. As a result, 130,000 public housing units have converted to a more sustainable Section 8 financing platform, all without any additional costs to taxpayers. Public housing authorities and their partners have generated over $8.6 billion to preserve or replace distressed units and support local jobs in their communities – all without additional federal resources.

SOURCE

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