My favorite sales hack: the second touch
The second touch is a second message you plan before you send the first one. In my experience working expired, farm and database lists, most outreach stops after one message. If nobody answers, the agent moves on to a new list. A planned second message keeps the conversation going and makes it easy for the seller to reply.
Most agents have one good first message. The expired letter. The postcard. The text after a price drop. Very few have a second message written down.
So the plan goes like this. Send it. Wait. Check for replies. Decide the list was bad. Buy a new list. The list was probably fine. The plan was only one message long.
Here is the part most agents get wrong. In my opinion, after years of running expired, farm and database lists for my own prospecting, silence usually means bad timing, not no. Treat that as my read on the lists I have personally worked, not a study you can look up. The seller was at work. The letter sat on the counter for a week. They were still arguing with their spouse about whether to sell at all. None of that means they are never selling. It means your message showed up on the wrong day.
The second touch is not nagging. It is the same conversation, one step further, sent two to four days later. It costs you almost nothing, because you already paid for the list.
One message is not a campaign. It is one chance.
### A second touch keeps the conversation going
The first message gets attention. The second message gives the seller another easy chance to reply. Sometimes the timing is simply better the second time.
### A follow-up feels like a continuation, not a new pitch
You are not sending another random sales message. You are following up on something you already started.
It is easy to reply to
The second message can ask for something small. A yes, a no, a quick opinion, a time. Less work for them means more replies.
Make the second ask small
The first message usually asks for a listing appointment. That is a lot to ask from someone who does not know you yet. The second message should ask for one small piece of information they can answer in a few words.
Three small asks that work on most lists, one per list type. The expired ask below is the second touch that plugs into the expired listing guide for realtors, which lays out the full expired sequence around it. The farm ask below runs alongside the mailing cadence in a real estate farming plan. The database ask below pairs with these email tactics that turn a database into listing appointments which show what to send once someone replies.
Are you still planning to sell this year, or is it off the table for now?
Do you want the price the last two homes on your street sold for?
Quick question. Would you rather list this fall or wait for spring?
A no is still useful. It clears the list. The real problem is the people you never heard from, because you only asked once.
Write both messages at the same time
This is the whole habit. If you wait until nobody replies, you will write the second message in a bad mood and it will sound like it. Write it right after the first one, while you still know why you picked this person.
- Mention the first message in one short line, then move on. No apology.
- Change the channel if you can. Letter first, then a call or a text.
- Add one new thing they can use. A sold price. Days on market. A photo of the sign down the street.
- Send it two to four days later, while they still remember you.
Then stop. Two good messages to a list you already own will beat a new lead source you have never tried.
If they still do not answer after the second message, do not send a third that week. Park the name and put a reminder on it for thirty days. Nothing is lost. You now have a list of people who did not say no, which is a much better list than the one you started with.
Log every second touch in your CRM or a simple sheet with five fields: list source, first message sent date, second touch version, second touch sent date, and reply or no reply. In Follow Up Boss I do this with a tag per second touch version, and the Follow Up Boss connection walkthrough covers that setup. Give each version at least 50 sends, then compare reply rates to see which second touch gets answered and which one gets ignored. That comparison is the only way to know whether your second touch is earning replies or getting ignored, and it takes about ten minutes a week to run.
Eight kinds of second touch, with the lines I use
Steal these, and pull more openers from the library of 57 real estate cold outreach openers that get replies. Swap in your town, your street, your number. Every one of them is short enough to send from your phone.
The afterthought is my favorite of the eight. It feels human, because people really do think of things after they hit send.
- One thing I should have added to the email I just sent you.
- I probably should have mentioned this.
- Thought of something after I hit send.
- I left out the part that actually matters.
- I should have led with this.
- I realized I made that sound more complicated than it is.
- I almost put this in the email.
- Random thought after I sent that.
Give them one piece of information they can react to.
- One thing I should have added. A few of the equity reports I have run lately came back a lot higher than the owners expected.
- Just saw another home in (town) close above $800k. That is the third one this month.
- Inventory in Fairfield is up almost 18 percent from last year, as of the October 2025 report. Pull your own figure and its reporting period from your MLS before you send this line.
- I have run (X) of these this week and (X) came back higher than the owner expected.
- (Property) just sold for $(X). That one surprised me.
- The online estimates have been all over the place lately.
Then give them the easy next step: if you want me to run yours, let me know.
Correct yourself. It breaks the normal sales pattern right away.
- Actually, let me rephrase that.
- Scratch that. Better question.
- I do not think I explained that very well.
- Here is the simpler version.
- I probably buried the useful part.
- The report is not really the point.
- Forget selling for a second.
Then say what you actually mean.
Sometimes the second touch should change the question completely.
- Better question. Do you know roughly how much equity you have today?
- Forget the report for a second. When is the last time you checked the number?
- Quick yes or no. Is selling completely off the table?
- Still thinking this year, or probably not?
- Would a strong number change anything for you?
- Is this still somewhere on your radar?
- Still a no, or more of a maybe now?
Notice how easy every one of those is to answer.
You do not chase. You make the next move available and let them take it.
- If you want the number, I will run it.
- Let me know what you would like to do.
- I can put it together if it would be useful.
- If you want me to take a look, just say the word.
- Happy to run yours too.
- I can add yours to the ones I am doing this week.
- If you want it, I will send it over.
- No rush. Let me know if you want me to handle it.
Being specific beats being clever.
- One thing I should have added. 18 Oak just sold for $812k.
- I noticed 42 Elm went pending in six days.
- The last three sales I looked at on (street) were all above $(X).
- I just pulled a report where the equity was almost $100k higher than the owner thought.
- I keep seeing a bigger gap between assessed value and market value lately.
Then: thought you would find that interesting. Did you see that one? Want me to run yours?
Do not ask whether you can help. Just make helping easy.
- I am running a few of these Thursday. I can add yours.
- I already have the data pulled up. I can send you the number.
- I am looking at these this week anyway. Happy to include yours.
- I can give you a quick read without turning it into a whole thing.
- I will run it if you want it.
Change the frame.
- This actually is not about selling.
- Forget whether you are moving or not.
- The home value is not really the number I would focus on.
- The report matters less than knowing where you stand.
- You do not need to be planning a move for this to be useful.
- I think this is worth knowing even if you stay put for ten years.
That removes the objection nobody says out loud: if I answer, this person is going to think I am ready to sell.
Pick one list this week. Write the second message before you send the first.
The second touch is not another follow up. It has to move the conversation forward. Add context. Add value. Ask a smaller question. Make the next step easier.
Your first message starts the conversation. The second touch builds the momentum.