Real estate text message ideas to get you more closings in less time

June 30, 2023

Real estate text message ideas sound easy to come by… but they can be a little difficult to generate when you’ve got lots of other tasks on your plate.

Not to worry, we’ve got you covered. I’ve researched the most popular texting use cases for real estate agents and pulled ideas from users of SimpleTexting’s real estate texting software to give you a quick and easy set of examples to draw from.

Although the way each specific real estate agent uses text messages will vary, let’s cover some templates and common use cases we see from our own users.

• Encourage responses
• Request info
• Schedule discovery meetings
• Follow up on previous questions
• Confirm home inspections
• Text when offers are accepted
• Ask for reviews
• Ask for referrals
• Automate out-of-office or vacation text messages

Make sure to include a call-to-action in your text messages so contacts know what to do next. These could be:

• Email me at [EMAIL ADDRESS]
• Call me back at this number
• Reply to this text
• Schedule a meeting at [LINK]

You can easily ask prospective clients about details like:

• The neighborhood or area they’re looking for a home in
• Their budget
• Features they want in a home
• Their desired timeline for selling or buying a home
• Availability for home tours or meetings

Real estate comes with a lot of due diligence. Make sure you, the buyer or seller, and everyone else involved stays on the same page with a scheduling text. You can even include a link to your calendar or scheduling platform.

• Hey team! Our client [NAME] has scheduled a discovery meeting for tomorrow at [TIME]. Head to [LINK] to confirm or decline the meeting.
• Hello [NAME], to make the discovery process easier, schedule an appointment at your convenience using [LINK].
• Hi all! This text is just to confirm our upcoming discovery meeting on [DATE] at [TIME]. Reply Y or N.

If something pivotal came up during a meeting or a previous conversation and the question was never resolved, send a quick text to clear up any loose ends or concerns.

Speaking of due diligence, you’ll need an easy way to coordinate with the home inspector who’s scheduled to complete the job.

Use texts to confirm scheduling and reschedule appointments as needed.

• Hello, this is [NAME] from [COMPANY NAME]. Are you still available for a home inspection at [ADDRESS] on [DATE/TIME]?
• Hi [NAME], unfortunately, the homeowners at [ADDRESS] are no longer available on [DATE]. Could we reschedule for another day?
• Hello! I saw that you accepted our home inspection appointment at [ADDRESS] on [DATE]. I’ve attached a PDF with a few instructions for getting to the house.

When a home gets successfully bought, the buyer is going to want to know immediately. Eliminate voicemail boxes and email spam folders by sending a simple, instant text with the good news included.

Reviews are pivotal for your business. The numbers show that 49% of consumers trust business reviews just as much as personal recommendations from people they know.

Texts are a great tool for review generation. Simply send a review request with a link to your favorite review site. 

Word-of-mouth is similarly powerful. In fact, word-of-mouth recommendations play a key part in 80% of all B2B and B2C deals. Take advantage of that by asking your clients to refer you to their friends, family, and community.

Even if you’re not in the office, you’ll still want to give your clients an immediate response. That response could just be “I’m not in the office right now, but I will be back on [DATE].” The important thing is that your contacts get a response when they reach out.

Of course, what you say to buyers and sellers will vary a bit. Let’s look at some easy tips you can take to communicate more effectively with your home-buying clients.

• Market new listings
• Promote coming-soon listings (appeal to exclusivity)
• Inform of price cuts
• Promote open houses
• Schedule showings
• Confirm showings
• Remind buyers of scheduled showings
• Follow up with buyers

Of course, letting clients know about new home listings is a crucial part of every real estate agent’s job. 

As soon as new listings come onto your radar, send out a text to your clients announcing them. For a little extra appeal, include an image of the listing in an MMS message.

Part of why texting works so well as a marketing tool is because it can be used to give your contacts the sense that they’re seeing information no one else has access to. 

As you send out texts announcing listings that haven’t yet hit the market, leverage that sense of exclusivity to motivate your contacts to take action and snatch up your offers.

If you’ve ever bought a home, you know how exciting it is to hear that a property you like has gone down in price. Personally, I’ve never responded to a text as fast as I did when my own realtor sent me this:

Texting allows you to communicate these exciting updates to your clients the moment they happen.

A packed open house is a successful open house. If you’ve got one coming up, let your text contacts know when and where it’s happening and any other details they might need. 

Features like mass texting make it easy to get one message out to hundreds or thousands of your clients in just a few clicks.

• Hey [NAME OF AREA] home buyers! The property at [ADDRESS] is holding an open house this [DAY] at [TIME]. Don’t miss it!
• Hello [FIRM NAME] family! Will we see you at the [ADDRESS] open house this [DATE]? Reply to this text to let us know you’re coming.
• Hi [NAME], I know you’re looking for a home in [AREA NAME], and the property at [ADDRESS] is holding an open house this weekend. Call me and let’s go over the listing!

If you’d rather not spend hours playing phone tag or sending emails that may end up in a spam folder, texts give you a convenient option for scheduling showings directly from your phone. 

Just send a text asking if your contact is interested in seeing a certain property and let them know how to schedule their showing—sending a link to your calendar or scheduling software is the most effective way to do this, both for you and your client.

Don’t just leave it at your scheduling text, either. Follow up with a message to confirm that you have each showing confirmed and on your calendar. This helps remove any room for uncertainty and keeps you and your clients on the same page.

Last but not least, be sure to remind clients ahead of time that they have a showing scheduled with you. This will help reduce no-shows and can even be a big boost to your reputation as a real estate agent, as buyers appreciate an agent who is proactive about staying in touch.

We’ll use the term “follow up” here as a bit of a catch-all. You can follow up with buyers on a number of different occasions, including:

• After an open house
• Following a showing
• When you haven’t heard from them in a while
• After a home inspection
• When the sale has closed

This not only keeps the home-buying process smooth for all parties involved, but it also ensures that your client is never left in the dark without an update.

And, on the flip side, you’ll need a few ideas on hand for when you need to communicate with someone selling their home. Here are our top three.

• Confirm home values
• Celebrate offers
• Follow up with sellers

After a valuation, check in with your home seller to confirm the value of their property, answer any remaining questions they have, and get any issues or discrepancies straightened out.

It’s also good practice to communicate with your sellers even when you don’t need something from them. Reaching out to congratulate them on offers they’ve received tells them that you’re invested in their success (not just your own).

Similar to following up with your buyers, sellers will also occasionally need to hear from you. Follow up with them after:

• Offers are made on the house
• An open house concludes
• Changes happen in the market
• They contact you with a question

In order for your real estate text marketing program to thrive, you’ll need people to text (surprise). These ideas will give you a headstart in filling up your text lists with eager subscribers.

• Real estate riders and signs
• Open house sign-in sheets
• Website text-us call-to-action

To draw in more interest (with more convenience) on every sign and rider you put out, include your phone number and an invitation for potential buyers or sellers to text you.

To make it even easier for your contacts to join your text lists and motivate them to take action, add your keyword to your signs so subscribers can sign up for your texts in seconds.

The same principle applies to your open house sign-in sheets. Show off your keyword or number to visitors and get contacts every time you hold an open house. 

Just be sure to include a clear call to action and all the relevant compliance information so contacts know what to do next and what it is they’re signing up for. 

Once you’ve created your keyword and set up your auto-confirmation, each contact would receive something like this:

You can also capture website visitors’ attention and easily move them to your text lists by adding a “text us” call to action button on your site.

There are a couple of ways to do this through SimpleTexting. You can add a text widget to your site that opens each contact’s native texting app with your number and a message pre-filled, or you can send web visitors to a web form where they’ll fill in their phone number and any other details you choose to ask for.

Still hungry for more real estate marketing ideas and inspiration? Here are a few more tips to consider to round out your real estate marketing strategy.

• Listing descriptions
• Mobile photography tips
• Expired listing letters
• Facebook ads

Go above and beyond when sending out listings. Let your clients and the community know why they should be excited about each new listing.

Include all the necessary details in an easy-to-read, skimmable format so readers can tell at a glance whether the home is for them.

Wrap it up with: Interested? Reply to this text to set up a showing or get more information.

Photos can make or break an up-and-coming listing. On your next social media post, email, or text blast, add in a couple of valuable tips for taking high-quality mobile pictures of the property to be sold.

This tells your clients and prospects that you’re invested in their success through the whole selling process.

An expired listing doesn’t have to equal a lost opportunity. Rescue the situation with a well-written expired listing letter to help homeowners choose you when they decide to re-list the property. 

Offer to help them, give them market updates that lend some insight into why the listing expired, and let them know that you have a plan to help the home sell when it’s re-listed.

Whether you love it or hate it, social media is where your clients (and future clients) are. 

In fact, 46% of real estate agents report that they get their highest quality leads from social media. Leverage that lead source with eye-catching, concise Facebook ads showing off your services.