Return to Office (RTO) Leads

Research project on alternative lead generation solutions for high quality leads in real estate.

The RTO Project

Unlocking New Leads for Creative Finance Deals in Real Estate

The RTO (Return to Office) Project identifies a unique opportunity for real estate investors to find high-potential leads in today’s tough market. As big tech companies enforce return-to-office policies, many employees who relocated during the remote work boom are now struggling with long commutes and are motivated to sell.

Traditional lead lists don’t capture this shift, but by leveraging data on these employees, investors can locate properties and use creative financing strategies like seller financing or subject-to deals to secure incredible opportunities. This method gives investors a fresh edge, avoiding over-saturated, lagging indicators and tapping into real-time trends to find hidden leads.

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RTO Leads Playbook

Objective

The goal is to market to high-quality leads with a strong incentive to move or sell—those who are not found on generic distressed property lists. By combining local market knowledge, automation, and cutting-edge technology, this playbook allows you to reach motivated property owners faster than traditional solutions. You’ll become a trusted resource early in their financial or logistical distress, enabling you to close deals quickly and efficiently.

Purpose

This playbook is designed to create a leads list that serves as a leading indicator of distress, giving you a first-mover advantage. Unlike traditional methods that focus on lagging indicators like pre-foreclosures, the RTO (Return to Office) and Layoffs lists present opportunities for creative financing strategies, such as subject-to and seller-financing deals.

  • RTO (Return to Office) Leads: Corporate employees who relocated to suburban areas during the remote work boom of 2020-2022 are now being asked to return to the office. This often creates unsustainable commutes, particularly for employees with little equity in their homes. These properties are prime candidates for subject-to deals, especially when the owners are unable to sell below a certain threshold.

  • Layoff Leads: Employees impacted by layoffs, particularly in tech-heavy roles, face financial pressure. Many may be open to subject-to or seller-financing deals to quickly alleviate their financial burden, providing investors with unique opportunities.

Requirements

To successfully implement the RTO Leads Playbook, you’ll need an active LinkedIn account. Here’s why this is crucial:

  • Active LinkedIn Account: LinkedIn has strict anti-bot policies. If your account is inactive or only recently created, LinkedIn may flag your activity as suspicious when running searches or using scraping tools. To avoid being flagged as a bot, it’s important to have an established, active LinkedIn profile that engages regularly with posts, connections, and activity.

  • Network Access: The more active your LinkedIn account is, the better. Having a well-maintained profile with a large, relevant network increases your ability to search for employees beyond your immediate connections. This expanded reach allows you to access high-quality leads that might otherwise remain out of view.

By ensuring your LinkedIn profile is not only active but also robust, you'll be able to maximize the effectiveness of your lead-generation efforts.

Steps

  1. Company Identification:

    • Identify companies with active Return to Office (RTO) mandates requiring employees to be in the office 3-5 days a week.

  2. Location Identification:

    • Pinpoint the location of these companies’ main office hubs to target employees who moved farther away during remote work periods.

  3. Role Identification:

    • Focus on computer-heavy, office-based roles (e.g., engineers, developers, analysts, project managers) that could be done remotely but are now affected by RTO mandates. These employees are more likely to experience commute stress.

  4. LinkedIn Search:

    • Build a targeted search query in LinkedIn to find employees working in the affected roles and locations.

  5. Scraping:

    • Use web scraping tools to pull a list of these employees from LinkedIn.

  6. Skip Tracing:

    • Perform skip tracing to obtain the home (or mailing) addresses of these individuals.

  7. Property Data Collection:

    • Gather property data such as date sold, latitude, longitude, beds, baths, square footage, etc.

  8. Owner Information:

    • Collect additional details about the property owner, including their mortgage and distressed levels, to assess motivation.

  9. Scoring:

    • Score properties based on factors like distance from the office, equity, and role within the company to prioritize the highest-potential leads.

Personas

  • COVID-19 Homebuyer: Purchased during the pandemic, lives over 30 miles from their office, with limited equity. Ideal candidate for subject-to financing.

  • Near-Retirement Seller: An older employee who owns their home outright or has significant equity. This individual may be open to seller financing to generate income without needing a lump sum.

Tips

  • Focus on large, dense metro areas that were expensive to live in before 2020, especially those with significant public transportation networks. These regions are more likely to have employees who moved to more affordable areas during the remote work period and are now struggling with long commutes.

Resources

APIs

Analyzing Creative Deals & Generating Offers

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