Knowing you should email your database is easy. Knowing what to send next Tuesday is harder. Here are practical email ideas for every stage of a real estate business, from launching a listing to staying in touch with clients you helped years ago. Each one links to ready-made designs if you want a head start.
One rule applies to all of them: send each email only to people who agreed to hear from you, or who have a relationship with you that allows it. Our article on email compliance for agents in Canada and the USA explains what that means on each side of the border.
Listing announcements
1. Just Listed
The classic, for good reason. Lead with the best photo and the price, add three or four key facts, and give the email one job: booking a showing. Send it to the buyers it suits rather than your whole list; a segment such as “city is Burnaby AND contact type is Buyer” keeps it relevant. Just Listed templates
2. Coming Soon
A teaser builds interest while the listing is being prepared. Check your board’s rules first, because many markets in Canada and the US restrict advertising a property before it’s on the MLS® system.
3. Price change
A new price can put a listing back on a buyer’s shortlist. Show the new price clearly, agree the wording with your sellers (“new price” often lands better than “reduced”), and send it first to the people who already toured or asked about the home. Price reduction templates
4. Just Sold
A sale is proof you get results. Share it with homeowners nearby, who are likely wondering what their own home is worth, and pair it with an offer to tell them. Ask your sellers before you share the price. Just Sold templates
Open houses and showings
5. The invitation
Put the date, time and address where nobody can miss them, including in the subject line or preview text. Send it a few days ahead so people can plan their weekend, and a short reminder the day before. Open house templates
6. The weekend tour
Holding several open houses on one weekend? One email with every stop, each with a time and a photo, is more useful than three separate invitations.
7. The recap
After the open house, thank the visitors who agreed to hear from you, share a highlight or two they might have missed and offer a private viewing. It’s often the email that starts a real conversation.
Newsletters
8. The monthly newsletter
A regular newsletter keeps you in touch between moves. A simple structure works: a short personal note, a market snapshot, a featured listing or recent sales, something local and one call to action. Choose a schedule you can keep; consistency matters more than frequency. Newsletter templates
9. Neighbourhood spotlight
Profile one neighbourhood: a few local favourites, what homes have sold for recently and what’s for sale now. Send it to the contacts who live there or want to.
10. Seasonal home-care checklist
Five maintenance jobs for the season ahead is genuinely useful for homeowners, including your past clients, and gives you a reason to offer a list of trusted trades.
Market updates
11. Monthly numbers
Average price, inventory, days on market and sales, from a source you can name, such as your board’s monthly statistics, and for an area and period you state clearly. Add a sentence or two of your own view: it’s the part readers can’t get anywhere else. Market update templates
12. Your neighbourhood report
Homeowners care most about their own street. A report for one postal code or neighbourhood, sent to the people who live there, feels personal in a way a city-wide average doesn’t.
13. Mortgage rate update
Buyers who are waiting on rates want to know when things move. Keep it short, explain what the change means for buying power, and point them to a lender or a pre-approval.
Buyer follow-ups
14. A welcome sequence for new buyer leads
Set it up once: when someone is tagged as a buyer, send a welcome, then a helpful buyer guide a few days later, then a “ready to see homes?” email a week after that, and stop the sequence as soon as they book a showing. Buyer follow-up templates
15. A first-time buyer walkthrough
First-time buyers have the most questions. Walk them through the steps, from pre-approval to closing day. If you mention government programs, check they’re current where your clients live, because they differ between Canada and the US and by province and state.
Seller follow-ups
16. Home valuation offer
“What’s my home worth?” is the question most homeowners are curious about. Offer to answer it, and label any figures as estimates. Seller follow-up templates
17. Yearly equity check-in
For past clients, a once-a-year note on how their home has done since they bought it is useful and low-pressure.
18. Seller prep guide
Homeowners thinking about selling in a few months appreciate a checklist of what to fix, clean and leave alone. It positions you as the person to call when they’re ready.
Past clients and your sphere
19. Closing thank-you
Congratulate your clients on their new home, and include a practical moving checklist. If you rely on implied consent in Canada, it’s also a natural moment to ask whether they’d like to keep hearing from you.
20. Home anniversary
A note on the anniversary of the day they got their keys, perhaps with how their home has done since, is one of the warmest emails you can send. Client appreciation templates
21. Holiday greetings
A greeting with no sales pitch keeps you in touch with your whole database. Recognise the occasions your clients celebrate, and check dates that move each year, such as Lunar New Year, Easter, Eid and Diwali. Holiday templates
22. Client appreciation event
An invitation to a summer barbecue, a pumpkin patch morning or a holiday drop-in brings past clients and their friends together, with you as the host.
23. Review and referral requests
Ask happy clients for a review soon after a good experience, and for referrals when the timing feels right. If you offer anything in return, check your regulator’s rules first; review sites such as Google don’t allow incentives for reviews.
Habits that make them work
- Segment before you send. A listing email to the right 200 people does more than the same email to 2,000 who aren’t looking.
- One email, one job. Pick the single thing you want readers to do and make that button obvious.
- Write like yourself. Personalise the greeting with first names, and keep the tone you’d use in person.
- Design for the phone. Preview every email at mobile size and send yourself a test before it goes out.
- Follow up on clicks. The report shows who clicked. A short call to those people is often worth more than the next email.
- Keep your list clean. Bounced addresses and old, unengaged contacts drag down your results. Our guide to cleaning your real estate contact database walks through it.
Every idea here has ready-made designs in OneHive Mail’s real estate template library, with your branding filled in automatically. For how campaigns, segments and reports work, see real estate email marketing.