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Whether you are a home inspector, a contractor, a home buyer, or even a real estate agent yourself, email is one of the most effective ways to connect with a real estate agent. Facebook or Instagram aren’t ideal for that task, plus not all agents have social media accounts. But they definitely have an email address and use it daily in business communication.
So how to write an email to a real estate agent and increase the odds of your email getting opened and replied to? In this article, you will get over 10 great tips on how to make sure your email doesn’t end up in the trash or spam folder.
Email writing is a process, and there are always things that can be improved. Better email writing skills mean more success in your marketing, and from there, more profit in business overall.
The sender’s name and the email’s subject line are the first things the recipient sees, and these two determine whether they open the email, or send it to the trash folder. Consider these tips to write a great subject line :
The tone of the email should be casual but not overly familiar. Although you write a business email, if your tone is too formal or impersonal, it can come across as robotic, scripted, or phishing. The opposite isn’t good either — being too friendly while you are not that particular real estate professional’s friend or family makes it sound awkward and out of place.
In reference to your listing information in the local newspaper Times Daily, dated 13th January 2023, I am sending this email to apply for a viewing of a property located at 1234 Main Street.”
❌Too friendly:
Wanted to pop up here for a sec to touch on 1234 Main. Let me check it out tomorrow, will you?”
My name is Ray, and I’m getting in touch to request a viewing of the property at 1234 Main. I’m hoping to find a stable longer-term tenancy and make a home I can be proud of.”
Many people do not read line by line, but rather scan through from top to bottom. Format your email so that it is skimmable:
All in all, make your email easy to read and understand even when real estate agents are on the go from one home to another.
If you are struggling with writing, here is a tip to work around the issue. Switch on the voice recorder on your smartphone or laptop and just speak as if you are talking to a friend. Then write down what you’ve recorded and use it as a base for the email.
Personalize by greeting your recipient by name — i.e., “Hi, Nick”. Then follow with more personalization to make the email tailored to that particular recipient. Make sure to apply that to all emails you write to agents.
How? Take some time to research their website and social media for clues on their interests. If there is something you have in common, consider mentioning it in the email.
Some examples of this could be going to the same school, having mutual acquaintances, or being fans of the same sports team. Alternatively, you could find something about their business to compliment or congratulate — moving to a new office, closing a deal, or closing a deal on a property.
Your email should be direct and get to the point quickly to avoid wasting the busy realtor’s time.
Get rid of words and sentences that are there for fluff. Provide the context. Add a few pieces of key information about your services or experience and if you want to share more, point your reader to where they can go to learn about it — i.e., your website or your home inspection report.
Keep your email between 50 and 180 words — that’s big enough to say all that’s important yet still short enough for a busy recipient to read. In some cases, you could go up to 200 — but more than that is a big “no”. No one wants to comb through a long piece of text from an unfamiliar sender to figure out what the message is about.
The unique value proposition (UVP) is what sets you apart from other competitors like fellow home inspectors or contractors. It drives home the benefit of working with you. Some industries (and businesses) can do fine without it, but you will have an advantage if you have a relevant UVP.
The UVP should state a direct benefit to the agent. It can be a service only you can offer, a type of work your competitors refuse to do, or convenience in interacting with you — i.e., an online scheduler to book a meeting without multiple back-and-forth emails to agree on the time.
Show the reader you can walk the talk — add a sample report, a portfolio piece, or a link to testimonials to demonstrate that you are good at what you do. If you are relatively new in the business and don’t have a big selection of cases yet, you’d want to offset that by showing off your most impressive one.
End your email with a call-to-action (CTA) to prompt the recipient to respond. CTA makes it clear what you want the real estate professional to do after reading your email, and that you do actually want them to do something.
An example of a CTA: “Just respond to this email and let me know what you think about my home inspection offer”.
Make it easy to connect with you — add all your contact info to the email, after or within your signature:
If you are a real estate agent yourself, check out our article on the realtor email signature .
Read over your email to catch any email mistakes and typos before you send it out. The error-free copy gives off a better professional impression, so it’s well worth the effort.
If you’d like some help with the process, standard Microsoft Word and Google Docs spelling and grammar checks can catch most errors. To improve the text further, consider using software like Grammarly or Hemingway. Grammarly’s free version will detect most of the grammar and spelling mistakes and offer corrections. The Hemingway app would do the same plus suggest how the phrasing of your email can be improved.
The real estate market has its peak season during May, June, and July, and many regions have their local micro-markets with their own peaks and downtimes. During such busy seasons, buyers and sellers are very active and realtors are less likely to reply to an unexpected email from an unknown sender. On the opposite side are October and December, the two slowest months of the year.
The slowest months are a good time to send an email to an agent, but it will work in other periods as well — as long as you use the tips from this article and keep at it. Plan out and send your first email, then a follow-up email to agents with an interval of a few days between them. If there is no response, try again in 2-3 months.
Consider the time to send an email and the day of the week as well. Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday are all solid choices. The ideal time to send emails can vary from the start of the workday to lunchtime. Experiment with your strategy and test the results to find the most effective option.
Following up is an essential part of sending cold emails . That is because following up multiple times can double the response rate. Although the exact boost you get depends on many factors, the average response rate (how many answers you got compared to the emails sent, in %) would no doubt improve.
According to the same Yesware research, on average, 70% of unanswered emails never get a follow-up email from the sender. If you send a follow-up, you have a 21% chance to get an answer to your second email, and a 25% chance to your third. So, you might want to send up to 5 follow-up emails in the span of 60 days if you haven’t received a response.
