Generating high-quality leads for real estate agents is all about automation and doing it consistently, so you spend more time closing and less time chasing inquiries. Lead generation tools are designed to help you organize your lead generation process and close more deals in less time. They provide powerful features, such as a CRM, billing, scheduling, and website integration functionality – which can make any realtor’s life much easier.
Finding the best lead generation for realtors can be a daunting task. I’ve been searching for free real estate leads on the internet for ages. You see, our firm is launching a new lead generation campaign and we want to ensure that we choose something really effective. Lead generation tools are extremely important because they help you gain leads directly from your website.
When it comes to creating a lead generation campaign for realtors, you want to make sure that you are getting the best leads for your marketing dollar. The real estate industry is one that relies on word of mouth referrals, but business owners still want to take advantage of various other methods of lead generation.
Are you looking to increase your leads and referrals as a real estate agent? If so, this guide will help you. I’ve listed some lead generation tools that can help you get leads for real estate faster. These tools can help generate more leads for real estate in just a couple minutes or hours. However, it is important to note that none of these tools are magic bullets and that in order to generate leads in real estate, you need to pound the pavement.
What Are Real Estate Lead Generation Companies?
A real estate lead generation company is a platform that helps agents attract prospective clients (either buyers or sellers), known as leads, to a certain agency or broker. A lead generation company will run ads and market to prospective clients when they visit sites such as Google, Zillow, or Facebook and look for houses. Then the company will sell you that person’s contact information if you purchased leads in the area that they’re looking in. However, these companies don’t guarantee that these leads will close or that they will even respond to you when you contact them.
Zillow Premier Agent
Zillow Premier Agent is our review’s best real estate lead generation company for finding buyers because it offers leads that are generated directly by Zillow, most of which are buyer leads. It is part of the real estate powerhouse Zillow Group, which was founded by former Microsoft executives in Seattle, Washington, in 2006. It’s the most well-known real estate lead generation company on our list.
Zillow is one of the first sites that many potential homebuyers use, so it makes sense that you would purchase leads here. Real estate agents pay Zillow Premier Agent to be featured on certain pages, which include placement on listings and personalized websites. So, when customers are browsing for homes, they will see the agent’s information and be able to make contact. This is a bit different than how the other lead generation companies work.
Some of Zillow Premier Agent’s features include:
- Buyer and seller leads by zip code (mostly buyer leads)
- CRM
- Customer support and training
- Phone call introductions to leads in your area
- Personal webpage
- Branding across Zillow’s sites
- Marketing templates
You can get started with Zillow Premier Agent by getting in touch with a member from the support team who will go over your marketing budget and desired area and help you navigate the site. Pricing for Zillow Premier Agent varies depending on the area, average home price, and competing agents in that area. There’s no monthly minimum or signup fee.
Offrs
Offrs is our best choice for seller leads because it has online home evaluation tools and predictions for potential home sellers to become leads as well as a built-in CRM to keep track of your new leads. It was founded in 2014 and is owned by Constellation Data Solutions Inc.
When the company was launched, the founders found their first clients by knocking on agency doors and convincing agents to sign up individually. The site is specifically focused on sellers and aims to connect those customers who currently want to sell their home, and those who will want to sell in the near future, with agents who sign up for leads. It uses proprietary predictive analytics tools to predict who will become a seller lead.
Offrs has the following features:
- Seller leads (current and predicted)
- CRM
- For sale by owner leads
- Expired listing leads
- Apps to access leads and location-based homeowner data
- Template builder
To get started with Offrs, you can schedule a 30-minute session with a specialist to learn more about what the company offers, its pricing, and how to set up a lead generation system and apps. It also offers custom options for brokerages with agent rollout and apps for every agent.
It has mixed reviews with some customers receiving quality seller leads that they closed and finding the software easy to use. However, others didn’t receive any leads or any that were qualified or even looking to sell their home.
Zoho CRM
Zoho is our top lead generation company for social media because it can easily be used to capture Facebook or Twitter leads, as well as leads from websites and emails. It was founded in 1996 and is used by multiple industries including real estate, small businesses, and retail.
It offers a free trial and features opportunity tracking over an entire sales cycle. It can also track the competition and features an app, live support and training, webinars, prospecting tools, and lead tracking. It can help you manage your pipeline of leads once they come in. Customers can contact support to help get set up and take advantage of webinars and online training. The company offers multiple different support plan options.
Some of Zoho’s features include:
- Buyer and seller leads, as well as sales leads for other industries
- Social media and email lead capture
- Predictive analytics
- Customized reports
- Management tools to assist with assigning leads
- Real estate CRM and marketing tools
Zoho’s pricing is between $14 per user month and $52 per user per month when billed annually depending on the plan. If you pay monthly rates are higher. A limited, free version is available and custom plans may be available as well. Customers complain about being overcharged and poor customer service. However, other customers like its marketing tools and integration with compatible products and think it’s a good value.
Zurple
Zurple is a real estate lead generation and marketing platform that helps realtors generate leads, track and analyze lead behavior, and automate follow-ups.
Zurple’s strength is automation. It engages and nurtures leads by sending them personalized emails based on their behavior, and notifies real estate agents when is the best time to contact a lead.
Zurple also integrates with other platforms, such as Zillow or Realtor.com.
Pricing info is not available on Zurple’s site, but other sources indicate that a base package begins at $299 for a single user, plus a setup fee, and contracts are for 6 or 12 months.
Recently, some customers report disappointment with Zurple’s customer service, but overall it remains a great real estate agent tool.
RedX
RedX is ideal for agents who use cold calling to engage leads. It uses aggregate data from publicly available databases on expired, FSBO, FRBO, and pre-foreclosure listings. This tool allows you to set up reminders and alerts to contact leads. It also features built-in call scripts with ideas on how to overcome objections.
RedX’s pricing is flexible, allowing users to pay for the services and features they need. The company doesn’t charge a setup fee. That makes it an excellent option for new realtors and brokers and those who only need one or two lead source types. Plans for different source types range from $39.99/month for FSBO leads and pre-closures to $79.99/month for FRBO leads.
Bold Leads
I like Bold Leads. A lot. In simple terms, they handle Facebook Ads using their lead capture landing pages or “funnel” templates. They DO NOT access or manage your personal FB account. Nor do they give you access to their actual ads, but if there is a competing agent in a market you serve, there is a good chance you’ve seen their ads. They do give you access to their landing page templates. Their website states that they only advertise for one agent in a specific area, and they stick to their guns to this policy, despite me offering to pay more than the agent who had already purchased that particular zip code. They also state that they use an algorithm to display the ads to people who are most likely to be buying or selling. My gut says that it’s not really their own proprietary algorithm, but really them just using the Facebook audience insights. Either way, they get leads. I’ve advertised on FB for years and I’ve become quite proficient at it. Their ads have a better conversion rate than my ads, and trust me, I’m good at it.
They charge $299.00 per month for their subscription and $300.00 per month in Facebook ad spend for a total of $599.00 per month. Let’s break that down. What you end up paying for is $299.00 for someone to manage your own Facebook Ad spend of about $10.00 per day. Here are the benefits:
- You don’t have to learn Facebook Ads.
- You don’t have to learn how to create landing pages as they have about 30 of them.
For some of you, it’s worth paying $299.00 per month for someone to run Facebook Ads that produce you leads. For others, that’s an extra $10.00 per day of ad spend that you can be using on your own ads. You have to weigh it out yourselves. Fortunately for me, I learned Facebook Ads and can advertise in any zip I want.
Market Leader
Market Leader is our top choice for real estate lead generation companies because it offers robust features, offers buyer and seller leads from multiple sources, and can be set up easily. The company was founded in 1999 in Bellevue, Washington, and it helps over 250,000 customers with leads, education, and customer support. Industry leaders such as EXIT Realty, Better Homes and Gardens, and Re/Max all use Market Leader.
Market Leader offers a guaranteed number of exclusive leads each month and it never sells the same lead twice, so you won’t be competing with another agent for the lead. Market Leader sells leads from its site Housevalues.com, which attracts prospective sellers when they’re trying to value their homes. A second source is Leads Direct, which is a pay-per-click advertising campaign targetted at consumers who are looking for home listings.
Market Leader offers the following features:
- Both buyer and seller leads
- Marketing automation
- Customizable website
- Mobile app
- Integration with Market Leader systems
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
Getting started with Market Leader is easy. All you have to do is create a profile, customize alerts, and add and organize your contacts. The company’s pricing varies based on how many leads you sign up for. Normally, you’ll pay a cost per lead and a monthly fee for other services such as CRM.
The company has also introduced its Market Leader Professional, which includes a fully integrated lead capture website, CRM, and marketing center to seamlessly engage and manage leads. With this service, you can capture powerful insights in the CRM when visitors register on your website and leverage automated marketing to send relevant listings.
Overall, Market Leader has positive reviews; agents like the platform’s exclusive leads and report that the service is easy to use and helped them grow their business. However, there are also some common complaints about the company, including that leads aren’t always reliable and customer service is sometimes not helpful.
How We Chose the Best Real Estate Lead Generation Companies
As part of this review, we looked at over a dozen real estate lead generation companies before deciding on our top picks. We evaluated each company based on the number and types of leads they offer and lead quality, as well as features, pricing, customer reviews, and more before deciding on our list of the best lead-gen companies available.
Conclusion
The real estate market continues to grow at a steady rate. This is great news for realtors of all kinds. Whether you are a Realtor, painter, plumber, or just someone looking to make some extra cash on the side, lead generation for your business is vital to ensure your chances of success. The only problem is that generating leads is not enough — you must also convert these leads into paying customers.
Many real estate agents are significantly lacking on the lead generation front. This could be because they don’t know how to generate good leads. Perhaps they likely tried before and didn’t work. That’s fine, because you’re in a position to realize some great gains here.