Engagements are another GREAT resource of leads for any agent. Why are engaged couples leads? Considering one of the top priorities of two people getting married is buying a home (even if it’s five years after the wedding), engagement announcements can lead to hot buyer leads for a smart agent. The best part is, prospecting engagement leads is as easy as grabbing your favorite Sunday paper and checking out the announcements.

This is yet another task you can have your assistant or even your kids do! Have them cut all the engagement announcements out of the paper and if you have the capability, scan them to your computer. Design a nice ‘Congratulations’ email to send them along with the picture of their announcement? To get their e-mail address, call the couple and let them know you have a gift for them.

Tell them as an engagement gift, you’d like to send them a $25 gift certificate to the store of their choice and all you need is their email and address. Is $25 worth a hot prospect you can start nurturing a relationship with and who will buy within 5 years? YES!! Tell them it is your specialty, dealing with first-time buyers, and you just wanted introduce yourself in case they ever had any questions regarding real estate.

You should be scanning your newspaper weekly for new engagements to start prospecting. You can also do the same for college graduation announcements – many college grads will be looking to purchase homes in the next 5 years, so you can approach them in much the same way you do engagements. Jump on them as soon as possible, because if you don’t make that introductory phone call someone else will.

You can learn some great follow up tips by checking out our article on Following Up With Engagement Leads.