Why Nobody Is Opening Your Real Estate Emails

Most agent emails die in the inbox before they are ever read. The fix is rarely the content — it is the sender, the subject line and the expectation you set.

August 11, 2026

Kenneth Toppin

Active Realtor · 16 Years · Top 1% in Canada · $400M+ Sold

About Kenneth

01 — The Problem

The Problem

You send a monthly market update to 800 people and 90 of them open it. You assume email does not work. Email works fine. What is broken is that your list does not recognise you, does not expect you, and your subject line reads like a newsletter instead of a message from a person.

02 — In The Field

A Real-World Example

An agent in Mississauga sends "October Market Report" from "RE/MAX Team Marketing" every month. Open rate sits at 11%. She changes the sender to her own name and the subject to "Three houses on your street sold last month" — the same content, sent to the same list — and the next send opens at 41%.

03 — Take Action

Three Things To Do

Send as a human, not a brand

Your from-name should be your name. People open emails from people. A brokerage name in the sender field is the single fastest way to get filtered as marketing.

Write subject lines about them, not you

"Market Update" is about you. "What your neighbour's house just sold for" is about them. Reference the street, the neighbourhood, the number — something specific enough that ignoring it feels like missing out.

Clean the list before you blame the content

Contacts that have not opened anything in twelve months are dragging your deliverability down. Segment them into a re-engagement sequence or remove them. A smaller list that opens beats a big list that does not.

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