How a 24-year-old agent closed $56 million+ in 2024 sending golden letters

On paper, Will Van Wickler’s story sounds like a fairy tale. A 24-year-old college dropout and self-described introvert closed $50 million-plus last year, sending 26-word golden letters in Maine. Even the titles of Van Wickler’s (many) podcast appearances sound suspicious. My personal favorite: “How To Hit a Million In Your First Year As An Introvert!”

Don’t worry, we’re not judging you for clicking on our own breathless title promising an easy shortcut to get on the RealTrends list. We were skeptical, too. But like you, we were also curious. Can you close over a million in GCI as an introvert? Are golden letters really the most effective way to hit the ground running as a new listing agent in 2025?

The short answers? Yes and yes. We recently sat down with Van Wickler to learn how he did it. He walked us through the exact golden letter strategy he used to close $1.3 million-plus GCI in his second year, and gave us his hard-won advice for becoming a top listing agent, even as an introvert.

Will Van Wickler: By the numbers

• Market: Portland, Maine
• Niche: Second homes, Investment properties, vacation rentals
• Year one sales volume + sides: $5,000,000 + ~24 sides
• 2024 sales volume + sides: $56,760,512 + 75 sides
• Primary lead generation strategy: SOI, past clients, referrals and golden letters
• Real estate coach: Aaron Heard, KW Maps coaching

From $5 million volume to nearly burning out in year two

In 2019, Will Van Wickler had a problem. Like so many young people in America, he quickly realized that college might not be the answer — too much debt and too few opportunities. He wanted out. He wanted a career that was lucrative and fulfilling, one that didn’t require a degree. After listening to dozens of audiobooks and podcasts on entrepreneurship, he settled on real estate.

While still taking classes part-time, he joined a local Keller Williams team as a buyer’s agent and hit the ground running — closing over $5,000,000 in year one. Considering most new agents earn a small fraction of that, he should have been thrilled. He wasn’t:

“After that first year, I was exhausted, but I didn’t know why. I was doing all the things new agents are supposed to do: trying to build a sphere of influence, holding open houses, and even going door-to-door. It turns out I’m an introvert. Running buyers around and asking how Jack and Susie are at the tee ball game just wasn’t for me.”

Burnout is shockingly common in real estate, even for extroverts. So, Van Wickler had to come up with new tactics to thrive because he was not ready to throw in the towel.

Invest in accountability on day one

Instead of quitting, Van Wickler decided to double down. He left the team and struck out on his own. The only problem was that he needed a drastically new approach to real estate. To find it, he invested $1,000 to hire the best coach he could find, Aaron Heard from Keller Williams MAPS coaching. An expensive proposition, but one that would ultimately transform his career. Here’s Van Wickler:

“It was scary. I wasn’t earning that much. I didn’t really have a thousand dollars to spend on a coach, but I knew having skin in the game would force me to be accountable. When a half-hour coaching call costs $250, it forces you to show up, to bet on yourself.”

I know what you’re thinking. Accountability sounds helpful, but is it really worth $250 per call? Van Wickler thinks so. Here’s why: The fear of wasting money can be a surprisingly effective motivator.  Of course, for Van Wickler, coaching didn’t just keep him accountable; it helped him zero in on the lead generation strategy that launched his career into the stratosphere, golden letters.

Niche down to scale up

During his first two years in real estate, Van Wickler tried nearly everything to drum up buyer leads. Open houses, door knocking, cold calling, you name it. They worked, but left him teetering on the edge of burnout. His coach convinced him to niche down to scale up:

“When I left the team in my third year, I didn’t have a database, CRM, or sphere, so I decided to just go after listings. I tried 18 different things to get listings that year. It was my coach who pointed out that this approach wasn’t scalable and suggested I focus my energy on the three strategies that I had the most success with. The golden letter was one of those strategies. That year, I made a million dollars selling real estate and took over around 28 listings just off the golden letter.”

Golden letters 101: The MOFIR that makes your phone ring

After paring down his lead generation strategies, Van Wickler quickly discovered that golden letters were driving the lion’s share of his listing leads. Even better, they spared him from the drudgery of cold calling each morning. It was an ideal lead generation strategy for an introvert. After yet another call with his coach, he decided to go all-in on golden letters.

Why golden letters convert better than most direct mail

Why do golden letters convert better than postcards, flyers or most other direct mail strategies? Simple. According to Van Wickler, golden letters are an ideal version of a MOFIR (Make an Offer For Immediate Response), a marketing strategy devised by Gary Keller in his iconic book, SHIFT. The MOFIR strategy is simple, but effective; make clear, compelling offers that encourage your prospect to respond with a simple yes or no answer.

The near magical benefits of MOFIRs

According to Van Wickler, the hand raisers that call from a MOFIR are more motivated than those from traditional lead nurturing strategies. Here’s why: they responded to a binary yes/no offer. If they call, they are interested. As an added benefit, they tend to call quickly, not after six months of throwing your just-sold postcards in the trash. Here’s Van Wickler:

“I didn’t have a big sphere. I didn’t love calling expireds. But I wanted the phone to ring for me. I saw examples of MOFIRs on billboards, in calls to action in ads, and in databases. I didn’t have that. So, I had to find the people to release the MOFIR to.”

It was a simple, repeatable system that made his phone ring, one Van Wickler knew he could gamify:

“You make the offer, you send it to a geographical area, and people call you. You either convert the business or you don’t.”

Sounds pretty simple, right? Van Wickler thinks so, too, with one caveat: for golden letters (or any lead generation strategy for that matter) to work, you must keep it simple. As Van Wickler put it, one of the biggest reasons for his success with golden letters was that he didn’t know enough to ask questions or try to improve the system. He just did the work.

Replicate Van Wickler’s strategy

Ready to do the work? Here is Van Wickler’s exact golden letter strategy: 

1. Choose the right mailing area

Choosing the right area to send your letters is a crucial first step in Van Wickler’s Golden Letter System. Your best response rates come from areas that have: 

• A 7-8% turnover rate 
• A reasonable commute time from your office — one that you wouldn’t mind driving one or multiple times each day
• An average sales price that works for your business model 

While Van Wickler’s formula won’t guarantee success, if you follow the rest of his system below and remember to keep it simple, you can maximize your odds.

2. Do. Not. Change. The. Golden. Letter.

When we asked about the most common mistake agents make with golden letters, Van Wickler didn’t mince words; they try to change it. Save your creative writing, or, let’s face it, ChatGPT’s creative writing, for your blog. Will Van Wickler’s golden letter is 26 words for a reason. No headshot. No logo. No paragraph about how their neighbor’s house sold for above asking. Just a simple, compelling MOFIR:

Dear [Lead name],

Would you be interested in selling your home at [property address and city] to a client of mine?

If so, please call me on my cell at [your cell phone number]

Thank you,

[Your name]

Remember, Will Van Wickler partly credits his success to not asking questions. He just did the work. Van Wickler’s golden letter is boring. It’s too short. Don Draper would laugh it out of the boardroom. We get it. But it does one thing your fancy customized golden letter won’t do: it gets results.

3. Memorize, internalize and personalize your scripts and objection handlers

When we asked about scripts, Van Wickler was adamant that they were crucial to converting golden letter leads. Recalling his first summer using his golden letter system, he told us how he practiced his scripts every day for 60 days straight.

But for Van Wickler, memorizing scripts, even the scripts he sells in his Golden Letter course, isn’t enough. To convert golden letter leads, you must also internalize and personalize them. Internalizing comes from putting in the reps. The more you practice, the more you deliver your scripts to live leads, the more “natural” you will feel saying them. You may also need to change details to reflect your local market conditions.

To prepare for the inevitable objections to being pitched by a fresh-faced 22-year-old, Van Wickler worked diligently to figure out the five most common objections his leads would throw at him. He then reverse-engineered his objection handlers to deal with them.

Want all of Will Van Wickler’s golden letter scripts, along with his deep-dive golden letter course? Check out his website here:

Get started with The Simple Golden Letter

Van Wickler’s best golden letter objection handler

The most common objection you’ll hear from a golden letter lead? “Do you REALLY have a buyer for my house?” This is where most new agents panic. They start to overthink it and come up with elaborate stories, or worse, they just lie.

Like his entire golden letter strategy, Van Wickler’s best objection handler is simple, direct and compelling:

I’m working with a lot of different buyers. I don’t know if your home is the right fit for them. That’s exactly why we need to meet. I need to see your house in the eyes of the buyer, and then we can talk about what your home is worth in today’s market.

Your turn

Know a visionary agent or broker who’s thriving despite the odds and has actionable insights to share? We’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us here: vetted@housingwire.com

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