“I think we’ll wait until next year.”
If you’ve heard this line from clients in the past 12 months, you’re not alone—there’s a reason it gets memeified every December.
Now that the new year has officially started, those same clients are likely rethinking their plans—and it’s the perfect time to reconnect.
Whether they were waiting for lower rates, more inventory, or a better market, now’s your chance to position yourself as the expert they need to make their next move.
In this post, we’ll cover six actionable strategies to re-engage clients who pressed pause, turn their hesitation into confidence, and set your business up for a strong start to 2025.
#1: Annual Client Letter
This strategy is a yearly priority for Jupiter, Florida Realtor Katie Lucie, who broke down her annual client letter in a recent BAM article, providing helpful tips and examples you can apply to your own letter to any clients who pressed pause late last year.
To make this stand out even more, send this letter via “snail mail.” If you and your clients prefer communicating via email or text message, you can do that, too.
#2: Offer an Equity or CMA Report
You can reconnect with some (or all) of your clients with a simple email or text message offering them something they would likely find useful, such as—
- Equity report (how much equity they’ve gained in the past year)
- CMA report (how much they could realistically get for their home in today’s market)
- List of homes on the market that have all the must-haves (including a price that fits their budget)
BAMx members receive a bundle of templates every week for email, blog, video, and social media. Last week, they received an email template perfect for reaching out to clients who wanted to wait until the new year—making it that much easier for you to re-engage them.
#3: One-on-One Video Message
You can also create a personalized video for each of your clients who waited for the new year, presenting valuable information or offering an equity report or other resources a particular client would find helpful. You can send this via email or text message, whichever the client prefers.
Tom Storey, a Toronto real estate team leader and podcast host, creates these for his clients twice a year to reconnect, deliver value, and stay top of mind.
#4: Pick Up the Phone
You knew this was coming. Whatever your relationship with cold calling, there’s something about a one-on-one phone conversation that texting, email, and other digital communication methods can’t touch.
This is where good phone conversation scripts come in handy. But those work best when you’re actually practicing with them in daily role-playing exercises. The #1 RE/MAX agent (and bestselling author) Jordan Cohen still practices scripts with his wife to stay sharp.
We’re not saying you shouldn’t post the script where you can see it when you pick up the phone; that can be a huge help when you forget what you were going to say (happens to the best). But if you’re going to make this part of your reach-out strategy, practice those scripts until they no longer sound—or feel—like scripts.
#5: Send a New Year’s Gift (or Drop One Off)
This could be a gift card to a favorite local coffee/tea shop or a small care package to celebrate the new year with them and remind them how ready you are to help them transact in 2025.
Some care package ideas to consider:
- “Stay Warm” package with a cozy throw, cocoa mix (and/or comforting teas), a mug, and a gift card for their favorite hot drink at a local coffee shop
- “Stay Well” package with items to help them fight off the winter viruses—or recover from them—like Emergen-C tablets, tea with immunity-boosting herbs, soothing throat lozenges, and a funny mug (humor can be the best medicine)
- “Planning Your 2025” package with a small planner, some good-quality pens, sticky notes, a magnetic list pad, and that coffee shop gift card, so they can use it to get away for a personal planning sesh.
#6: The 5-for-5 Strategy
Credit for this one goes to ReminderMedia founder and CEO Luke Acree, who broke down the strategy in a BAM article last week.
Here’s a quick rundown of the strategy:
- Step 1: Each weekday, select five clients from your database of contacts.
- Step 2: Spend five minutes sending a personal text or video message to each one.
In this case, you’ll select five clients who told you last year that they wanted to wait until the new year to buy or sell a home. You can merge this with the gift strategy as well as the phone conversation. But it works beautifully just as it is.
Which strategy will you use to reach out to your clients this month?
