How to Get More Listings in a Competitive Market: 9 Strategies for Agents

Written by James Steere

When inventory is tight and every agent in the zip code is chasing the same sellers, the agents who keep winning listing appointments are rarely the loudest. They are the ones the seller has already seen, heard of or been told about before the first phone call. Learning how to get more listings is mostly learning how to become familiar and trusted in a small area, and then staying that way.

Below are nine strategies for building real estate listing leads, followed by a simple way to tie them together. None of them requires a huge budget. All of them reward consistency.

First, Know How Sellers Actually Choose

Start with the data, because it changes where you spend time. In the National Association of REALTORS' 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers (published November 2025):

  • 66% of recent sellers used an agent who was referred to them or one they had worked with before. Specifically, 37% were referred by a friend, neighbor or relative and 29% used an agent they had used previously.

  • 80% of recent sellers contacted only one agent before choosing.

  • Reputation was the most important factor in choosing an agent (35%), followed by honesty and trustworthiness (22%).

Source: NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, Chapter 7, November 2025, a copy of the NAR report hosted by a state association. NAR's overview is here.

The takeaway: most sellers are not shopping. They are choosing the agent they already know. Your job is to be that agent before the seller decides to sell, which is why awareness, referrals and reputation come first in the plan below.

1. Pick a Farm and Commit to It

Geographic farming means choosing a specific area, usually a few hundred to a couple of thousand homes, and showing up there again and again. It works because familiarity compounds. A homeowner who has seen your name on a postcard, a social post, a sign and a market note for a year does not feel like a cold call when you knock.

Choose a farm where you can realistically become the local name: homes you already sell in, a price range you understand, a neighborhood you can speak about in detail. Then give it a rhythm you can keep for at least twelve months, such as a monthly market note, a seasonal event and regular local content. Gaps reset the clock, so choose a schedule you can sustain.

2. Run Your Sphere Like a Pipeline

Sphere marketing is the quiet engine behind the NAR numbers above. If two-thirds of sellers come from referrals and repeat clients, your past clients and personal network are your most valuable list.

  • Keep one clean database with names, home addresses, closing dates and notes.

  • Contact each person at least a few times a year with something useful: a neighborhood value update, a home maintenance reminder, a local event.

  • Mark purchase anniversaries and call instead of just sending an automated email.

  • Ask directly and kindly: "Who do you know thinking about a move this year?"

Referral business feels slow because it is invisible until it is not. Track each contact so you can see it working.

3. Use Short-Form Video, Including TikTok

Short-form video is the fastest way to let people feel what working with you is like before they meet you. Pew Research Center's 2025 survey found 37% of U.S. adults use TikTok, up from 21% in 2021, and 50% use Instagram (Pew Research Center, "Americans' Social Media Use 2025," Nov. 20, 2025). Pew measures usage, not home sales, so treat this as reach rather than a promise of results. But homeowners, their children and their neighbors are watching.

Ideas that suit a listing-focused agent:

  • Neighborhood explainers: "Three things to know about living on this street" in under 40 seconds.

  • Process clips: what happens during a listing appointment, a photo day or a showing weekend.

  • Local market takes: one number from your area, one plain-English meaning.

  • Behind the scenes: staging before and after, with the seller's permission.

Film vertical, put the point in the first two seconds, add captions and repost the same clip to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Post a few times a week for ninety days before you judge it. Do not post a sold announcement and expect leads. Post something a homeowner in your farm would actually want to watch.

4. Get Featured in a Real Estate Magazine

A neighborhood expert is also someone who appears in the places residents read. A well-designed feature in a real estate magazine gives you something social media cannot: a polished, permanent page you can hand to a seller, mail to your farm or leave at an open house. It helps a prospective seller picture how their own home would look when you market it.

Listing Boosted publishes the Only Homes Collection, which reaches 25,000+ readers per issue. Whether you work with us or another publication, treat a magazine feature the way you would treat a listing photo shoot: plan it, keep the design clean and add a QR code to each page so a reader can scan it and reach the property, your video or a home value request. Then reuse the feature everywhere: in email, on social and in your listing presentation.

5. Use Meta and Instagram to Reach Your Farm

Social advertising lets you show your local face to the homeowners you want to meet. Keep it simple:

  • Target a radius around your farm or specific zip codes.

  • Lead with value, such as a local market snapshot or a short video of a recent listing, rather than "Thinking of selling?"

  • Retarget people who watched your video or visited your site.

  • Send them to one clear page and one clear offer, such as a home value estimate.

Test small budgets for a month, then keep what produces replies. Awareness ads will not produce an appointment overnight, but they make your name familiar by the time you follow up another way.

6. Send One Useful Email a Month

Email is not glamorous, but it is where homeowners who are not ready today will find you when they are. Send one short, local note each month: what sold nearby, what that means for values, one tip for owners and one invitation. Write to one person, not a list. Use their first name and refer to their street or neighborhood.

Keep each email to a few hundred words. Stay consistent for six to twelve months, and answer every reply the same day.

7. Treat Open Houses as Prospecting

NAR found that 3% of sellers met their agent at an open house, which is small. It is also a moment when a dozen people who live nearby come inside, many of them thinking about their own homes. An open house is a farming event as much as a buyer event.

  • Invite the immediate neighbors personally, with a note and a QR code to the listing.

  • Ask visitors a friendly question: "Do you live nearby? Would you like to know what your home is worth?"

  • Put a market snapshot and your magazine feature on the table.

  • Follow up with every neighbor within 24 hours.

8. Make QR Codes Your Bridge Between Print and Digital

Every printed piece you create, whether it is a postcard, flyer, yard sign rider or magazine page, should carry a QR code. A reader who is interested in the moment can scan it and see the video, a property site or a home value form in seconds.

  • Use a different QR code per piece so you know which one produced the lead.

  • Send it to a mobile-friendly page that loads quickly and asks for very little.

  • Test every code before it prints.

  • Say what the scan will do: "Scan to see the 60-second tour."

This is also how you learn which parts of your marketing are working.

9. Present Your Marketing Before You Are Asked

Every seller wants to know how you will market their home, and the best answer is the marketing they have already seen from you. Keep your photography, color palette, video style and print design consistent. Bring a short portfolio to listing appointments: two or three recent listings, the video, the printed feature and a calendar for the first thirty days. A seller who can see it and scan it is more likely to believe it.

Tie It Together: A Multichannel Brand-Awareness Plan

Most sellers need several light touches before they trust someone with a sale. A realistic quarter might look like this:

Channel Role Cadence
Sphere calls and notes Referrals and repeat clients Weekly
Short-form video Familiarity and personality 2 to 3 posts a week
Email Steady local usefulness Monthly
Meta and Instagram ads Awareness across the farm Ongoing, small budget
Magazine feature and mailers Credibility and a handout Per issue
Open houses Meet neighbors face to face Each listing


Give each channel one number to track: referrals received, video views and saves, email replies, ad inquiries, QR code scans and open house sign-ins. Review them monthly. Keep what produces conversations, trim what only produces activity, and keep the message consistent across all of them.

Where to Go From Here

You do not need every strategy at once. Choose a farm, build your sphere routine, start posting short video and pick one print or magazine placement. Once those four are steady, add email and ads.

If you want to add a real estate magazine feature to your plan, you can compare the available packages or reserve space in an upcoming issue of the Only Homes Collection. For more help, read our guides on how to market your new listing and how to market a luxury listing, and our new listing launch checklist.

Sources

James Steere
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