Have you ever wondered how to get more leads for your real estate business? What if I told you that generating leads is much easier than you think, and that if you do it right, you can get close to 50% of all your leads from the internet — for almost no money at all. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.Have you ever wondered how to get more leads for your real estate business? What if I told you that generating leads is much easier than you think, and that if you do it right, you can get close to 50% of all your leads from the internet — for almost no money at all. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.
Have you ever wondered how to get more leads for your real estate business? What if I told you that generating leads is much easier than you think, and that if you do it right, you can get close to 50% of all your leads from the internet — for almost no money at all. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.
The Ultimate Guide to Real Estate Lead Generation
How do you generate your real estate leads? Are you still knocking on doors or have you embraced modern technology?
Traditionally, real estate agents favored getting out into their neighborhood, knocking on doors, and introducing themselves to potential customers. Or buying lists of contacts, picking up the phone, and cold calling.
While there’s nothing wrong with traditional outbound marketing methods, there are plenty more ways to get leads in the digital age.
Real estate agents can use search engines, social media, blogs, videos, and other online channels to attract, engage, and nurture leads.
In this article, you’ll discover 19 ways to generate leads for your business and bring more customers through the door.
What is Lead Generation for Real Estate?
Lead generation is a marketing term that describes the process of attracting and converting a prospect into someone who’s interested in your products or services. For a real estate business, that would be someone who’s interested in using your services to rent, buy or sell their house.Join the Marketing AcademyMarketing pro-tips at your fingertips. Only 1 email per week!
Key Pillars of a Real Estate Lead Generation System
There are two categories for generating leads: inbound and outbound.
Inbound marketing is a way of attracting people to your business through the creation and promotion of related content and incentives. It’s the modern, digital way of marketing. Typical inbound activities include content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and advertising.
As you can see in the diagram below, generating leads comes right in the middle of the inbound marketing methodology:
Outbound marketing starts with some basic knowledge of your target audience. It’s what some may refer to as traditional marketing. Typical outbound activities include direct mail, telemarketing, email marketing, and event marketing.
A survey by Databox found that cold emailing was the most effective outbound marketing tactic:
A successful lead generation system uses both inbound and outbound marketing to attract prospects and convert them into leads before they become customers.
No matter which way you’re generating leads, It’s important to tailor your activities to each prospect as they progress through the three main stages of their customer journey:
- The Awareness Stage (Top of Funnel) – is when the prospect knows they have a problem, but don’t know how to solve it.
- The Evaluation Stage (Middle of Funnel) – is when the prospect is aware that you exist and you have a solution to their problem, but are considering their options.
- The Conversion Stage (Bottom of Funnel) – is when the prospect is almost ready to buy your solution, but may have a few final questions.
Depending on your marketing activity, you’ll capture leads in a variety of ways. For instance, people could be filling out printed forms at events like open houses, or they might complete an online form to request further information about your services or a specific property.
Whatever the situation, it’s important to consolidate all those leads into one system where you can track progress. Use a real estate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool to manage and follow up with leads in one place.
19 Ways to Get Free and Paid Real Estate Leads
#1. Referrals
Referrals are a powerful and reliable source for new leads. The 2018 survey of home buyers and sellers by the NAR found that:
- 41% of buyers used an agent that was referred to them by a friend, neighbor, or relative and 12% used an agent that they had worked with before to buy or sell a home.
- 63% of sellers found their agent through a referral from a friend, neighbor, or relative or used an agent they had worked with before to buy or sell a home.
The best part is that referrals are free. All you have to do is maintain a good relationship with your contacts so that you’re first in mind when they have a friend or colleague who wants to sell their property.
If you’re just starting your real estate business, then build your contacts through friends and family until your client list grows.
#2. Local SEO
Today, 44% of real estate buyers start their home search online, and 95% use the internet at some point in the buying process.
Therefore, it’s critical that your website ranks in Google when people are searching for agents to help them buy or sell a property. You do this with local search engine optimization (SEO).
Specifically, optimizing your website and Google My Business page to show up highly in Google Maps when people are searching for your target keywords:
Ranking highly in the map pack will help generate more foot traffic, phone calls and website visits for your business.
Check out this detailed real estate SEO guide to learn more about ranking your agency or brokerage highly in Google’s local map listings.
#3. Landing Pages
Realtors have a hard time turning clicks into conversions. In fact, real estate businesses only convert 2.47 percent of Google PPC traffic.
This is a shame, especially when you consider the investment (time and money) that goes into getting qualified traffic to your website.
The problem is that most real estate professionals send traffic to pages on their website that are not optimized to capture emails and generate phone calls. I.e. they don’t use custom landing pages to convert readers into leads.
HubSpot found that companies with 10 to 15 landing pages increase leads by 55%:
Realtors and brokers can use many different types of landing pages to capture leads. Here are some examples:
- Book an appointment landing pages
- Home valuation landing pages
- Community landing pages (below)
- Buyer guide landing pages
- Luxury listing landing pages
If you’d like to see examples of different real estate landing pages and learn how to increase your conversions, check out this comprehensive guide.
#4. Reverse Engineer the Competition
One of the fastest ways to generate more leads for your business is to find out where your top performing competitors are getting their online leads, and replicate the strategy.
This eliminates a lot of the guesswork, especially if you’re just starting out within an agency or brokerage.
You can use a tool like SimilarWeb to view the channels driving the most online traffic to the competition:
For example, I can see that Max Real Estate Exposure is getting most of it’s traffic from search engines like Google. This would tell me that SEO is a huge potential source of new leads.
You can also see that the business is getting some traffic from referral and social media sites. Therefore, it’s probably a good idea to drill in and identify the specific sources:
You can pick the referral and social media sites driving the most traffic, and start investing some budget in promoting your business across those sources.
BuiltWith is another useful tool to look at. Enter any website and find out which technology they are using to run and advertise their website. This can give you valuable insights into the specific channels they are spending money on to generate traffic and leads:
When it comes to marketing and lead generation, don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Find out what top performers are doing, and model your strategy around that. It’s the quickest way to get started with a proven roadmap.
#5. Open Houses
Running an open house is another excellent way to generate free leads. Even if the open house property doesn’t sell, you can still get a list of potential buyers.
The key is to have a system:
- Attract visitors
The first step is to make potential buyers aware of the open house event. You can use door hangers, flyers, and postcards in the neighborhood, promote on social media, and highlight your listings:
[source]
On the day of the event, use signposts on neighboring streets to direct people to the open house.
- Capture names
Once you have visitors coming to the open house, make sure you capture their contact details. You could use a formal sign-in sheet as people enter the open house. Or you could engage in conversation and ask for their details informally. Either way, follow up with a call or an email to your leads after the event.
#6. Community Pages
When a house buyer is moving into a new area, they’ll likely carry out extensive research about the whole community as well as the real estate market. That’s where community pages come in.
By creating community pages on your website, you can become the go-to resource for your area. Community pages can include topics like:
- Climate
- Demographics
- Economy
- Local businesses
- Schools and colleges
- Leisure amenities
- Medical facilities
- Transportation
- Shopping
- Restaurants
For example, Deb Hess & Company feature neighborhood details for areas of Chicago like Lincoln Park:
Include links to your real estate business alongside the community information so that visitors associate one with another. And remember to optimize your web pages for the different keywords, so they show up in Google search results.
#7. Virtual Tours
Traditional real estate marketing consists of photos and written copy. But there’s a smarter modern way to attract potential buyers and investors. Instead of inviting prospects to inspect a property, you can offer them a virtual tour from the comfort of their home.
A professional 360-degree virtual tour is a super way to showcase homes on websites, social media, and Google Maps so that your listings stand out from the crowd. And for potential buyers outside your location, this is an excellent time-saver as they can narrow their search before traveling to inspect the property.
#8. Google Ads
It’s not easy to claim the top spot in Google’s search results page. If you want to speed up the process, then it makes sense to use paid search. Google Ads is one of the best PPC platforms to help you find qualified real estate leads in your local area.
KEYWORD TARGETING
Using relevant keywords in your ads increases your chances of a top listing on the search results page. Choose words that are relevant to your content or listings to reach users searching those same terms.
For example, you could use the keywords “Boston” and “Condos for sale” to target people searching for “Boston condos for sale”:
Clicking on the link in the ad takes people straight to your condo listings:
Another option might be to target your company name and location as some people will search for your brand directly.
According to Search Engine Journal:
“Shoppers searching for your specific brand name are more than likely also your hottest leads.”
If you don’t use your brand name, it’s likely that a competitor will use it and appear above your branded organic listing. (See more below).
RETARGETING WEBSITE VISITORS
You can generate leads by remarketing to people who’ve already visited your website to check out listings and content.
For example, if someone visits your webpage about your selling process, then you could retarget them with an ad about properties you recently sold. Or if someone visits a specific listing, you could retarget them with an ad that offers the floorplan in exchange for their email address.
How do you generate your real estate leads? Are you still knocking on doors or have you embraced modern technology?
Traditionally, real estate agents favored getting out into their neighborhood, knocking on doors, and introducing themselves to potential customers. Or buying lists of contacts, picking up the phone, and cold calling.
While there’s nothing wrong with traditional outbound marketing methods, there are plenty more ways to get leads in the digital age.
Real estate agents can use search engines, social media, blogs, videos, and other online channels to attract, engage, and nurture leads.
In this article, you’ll discover 19 ways to generate leads for your business and bring more customers through the door.
What is Lead Generation for Real Estate?
Lead generation is a marketing term that describes the process of attracting and converting a prospect into someone who’s interested in your products or services. For a real estate business, that would be someone who’s interested in using your services to rent, buy or sell their house.Join the Marketing AcademyMarketing pro-tips at your fingertips. Only 1 email per week!
Key Pillars of a Real Estate Lead Generation System
There are two categories for generating leads: inbound and outbound.
Inbound marketing is a way of attracting people to your business through the creation and promotion of related content and incentives. It’s the modern, digital way of marketing. Typical inbound activities include content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and advertising.
As you can see in the diagram below, generating leads comes right in the middle of the inbound marketing methodology:
Outbound marketing starts with some basic knowledge of your target audience. It’s what some may refer to as traditional marketing. Typical outbound activities include direct mail, telemarketing, email marketing, and event marketing.
A survey by Databox found that cold emailing was the most effective outbound marketing tactic:
A successful lead generation system uses both inbound and outbound marketing to attract prospects and convert them into leads before they become customers.
No matter which way you’re generating leads, It’s important to tailor your activities to each prospect as they progress through the three main stages of their customer journey:
- The Awareness Stage (Top of Funnel) – is when the prospect knows they have a problem, but don’t know how to solve it.
- The Evaluation Stage (Middle of Funnel) – is when the prospect is aware that you exist and you have a solution to their problem, but are considering their options.
- The Conversion Stage (Bottom of Funnel) – is when the prospect is almost ready to buy your solution, but may have a few final questions.
Depending on your marketing activity, you’ll capture leads in a variety of ways. For instance, people could be filling out printed forms at events like open houses, or they might complete an online form to request further information about your services or a specific property.
Whatever the situation, it’s important to consolidate all those leads into one system where you can track progress. Use a real estate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool to manage and follow up with leads in one place.
19 Ways to Get Free and Paid Real Estate Leads
#1. Referrals
Referrals are a powerful and reliable source for new leads. The 2018 survey of home buyers and sellers by the NAR found that:
- 41% of buyers used an agent that was referred to them by a friend, neighbor, or relative and 12% used an agent that they had worked with before to buy or sell a home.
- 63% of sellers found their agent through a referral from a friend, neighbor, or relative or used an agent they had worked with before to buy or sell a home.
The best part is that referrals are free. All you have to do is maintain a good relationship with your contacts so that you’re first in mind when they have a friend or colleague who wants to sell their property.
If you’re just starting your real estate business, then build your contacts through friends and family until your client list grows.
#2. Local SEO
Today, 44% of real estate buyers start their home search online, and 95% use the internet at some point in the buying process.
Therefore, it’s critical that your website ranks in Google when people are searching for agents to help them buy or sell a property. You do this with local search engine optimization (SEO).
Specifically, optimizing your website and Google My Business page to show up highly in Google Maps when people are searching for your target keywords:
Ranking highly in the map pack will help generate more foot traffic, phone calls and website visits for your business.
Check out this detailed real estate SEO guide to learn more about ranking your agency or brokerage highly in Google’s local map listings.
#3. Landing Pages
Realtors have a hard time turning clicks into conversions. In fact, real estate businesses only convert 2.47 percent of Google PPC traffic.
This is a shame, especially when you consider the investment (time and money) that goes into getting qualified traffic to your website.
The problem is that most real estate professionals send traffic to pages on their website that are not optimized to capture emails and generate phone calls. I.e. they don’t use custom landing pages to convert readers into leads.
HubSpot found that companies with 10 to 15 landing pages increase leads by 55%:
Realtors and brokers can use many different types of landing pages to capture leads. Here are some examples:
- Book an appointment landing pages
- Home valuation landing pages
- Community landing pages (below)
- Buyer guide landing pages
- Luxury listing landing pages
If you’d like to see examples of different real estate landing pages and learn how to increase your conversions, check out this comprehensive guide.
#4. Reverse Engineer the Competition
One of the fastest ways to generate more leads for your business is to find out where your top performing competitors are getting their online leads, and replicate the strategy.
This eliminates a lot of the guesswork, especially if you’re just starting out within an agency or brokerage.
You can use a tool like SimilarWeb to view the channels driving the most online traffic to the competition:
For example, I can see that Max Real Estate Exposure is getting most of it’s traffic from search engines like Google. This would tell me that SEO is a huge potential source of new leads.
You can also see that the business is getting some traffic from referral and social media sites. Therefore, it’s probably a good idea to drill in and identify the specific sources:
You can pick the referral and social media sites driving the most traffic, and start investing some budget in promoting your business across those sources.
BuiltWith is another useful tool to look at. Enter any website and find out which technology they are using to run and advertise their website. This can give you valuable insights into the specific channels they are spending money on to generate traffic and leads:
When it comes to marketing and lead generation, don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Find out what top performers are doing, and model your strategy around that. It’s the quickest way to get started with a proven roadmap.
#5. Open Houses
Running an open house is another excellent way to generate free leads. Even if the open house property doesn’t sell, you can still get a list of potential buyers.
The key is to have a system:
- Attract visitors
The first step is to make potential buyers aware of the open house event. You can use door hangers, flyers, and postcards in the neighborhood, promote on social media, and highlight your listings:
[source]
On the day of the event, use signposts on neighboring streets to direct people to the open house.
- Capture names
Once you have visitors coming to the open house, make sure you capture their contact details. You could use a formal sign-in sheet as people enter the open house. Or you could engage in conversation and ask for their details informally. Either way, follow up with a call or an email to your leads after the event.
#6. Community Pages
When a house buyer is moving into a new area, they’ll likely carry out extensive research about the whole community as well as the real estate market. That’s where community pages come in.
By creating community pages on your website, you can become the go-to resource for your area. Community pages can include topics like:
- Climate
- Demographics
- Economy
- Local businesses
- Schools and colleges
- Leisure amenities
- Medical facilities
- Transportation
- Shopping
- Restaurants
For example, Deb Hess & Company feature neighborhood details for areas of Chicago like Lincoln Park:
Include links to your real estate business alongside the community information so that visitors associate one with another. And remember to optimize your web pages for the different keywords, so they show up in Google search results.
#7. Virtual Tours
Traditional real estate marketing consists of photos and written copy. But there’s a smarter modern way to attract potential buyers and investors. Instead of inviting prospects to inspect a property, you can offer them a virtual tour from the comfort of their home.
A professional 360-degree virtual tour is a super way to showcase homes on websites, social media, and Google Maps so that your listings stand out from the crowd. And for potential buyers outside your location, this is an excellent time-saver as they can narrow their search before traveling to inspect the property.
#8. Google Ads
It’s not easy to claim the top spot in Google’s search results page. If you want to speed up the process, then it makes sense to use paid search. Google Ads is one of the best PPC platforms to help you find qualified real estate leads in your local area.
KEYWORD TARGETING
Using relevant keywords in your ads increases your chances of a top listing on the search results page. Choose words that are relevant to your content or listings to reach users searching those same terms.
For example, you could use the keywords “Boston” and “Condos for sale” to target people searching for “Boston condos for sale”:
Clicking on the link in the ad takes people straight to your condo listings:
Another option might be to target your company name and location as some people will search for your brand directly.
According to Search Engine Journal:
“Shoppers searching for your specific brand name are more than likely also your hottest leads.”
If you don’t use your brand name, it’s likely that a competitor will use it and appear above your branded organic listing. (See more below).
RETARGETING WEBSITE VISITORS
You can generate leads by remarketing to people who’ve already visited your website to check out listings and content.
For example, if someone visits your webpage about your selling process, then you could retarget them with an ad about properties you recently sold. Or if someone visits a specific listing, you could retarget them with an ad that offers the floorplan in exchange for their email address.
Retargeting people who’ve already shown an interest in your content increases your chances of getting more quality leads.
BIDDING ON COMPETITOR NAME AND BRAND KEYWORDS
As mentioned above, there’s no rule to prevent you from bidding on your competitors’ brand keywords. As long as you don’t include their brand name or trademark in your ad copy.
There are three good reasons to bid on your competitors’ brand keywords:
- Cheap traffic – Brand name keywords are relatively cheap clicks compared to generic keywords in Google Ads because the demand is low.
- High-quality traffic – Visitors are interested in the same thing your competitors are offering – real estate – so they’re more likely to convert into a lead.
- Brand exposure – Advertising on your competitors’ brand keywords puts you in a strong position to make potential customers aware of your brand.
#9. FSBOs
For sale by owner (FSBO) listings are properties that are listed for sale by their owners rather than by a real estate agent. Consequently, they’re classed as warm leads to target because you already know the owners want to sell.
You can find potential FSBO leads in:
- Craigslist – check your local market real estate listings
- Zillow – check the “make me move” or FSBO listings
-
- Local newspaper websites – e.g. Home Find on The Boston Herald, or Real Estate on The Boston Globe
Once you’ve found a lead, it’s up to you to convince them they have a better chance of selling for a higher price when they use your services rather than going alone.
#10: Video
When three-quarters of brands see higher return on investment with their video marketing strategies than any other tactic, you know it’s a viable resource for your own
business.https://www.youtube.com/embed/cbQ5TqeuySA
People love visuals, especially in real estate searches. While having a ton of great infographics and SlideShares on your website is one way to attract attention and keep visitors perusing your pages, it’s really video that’s the essential marketing technique that’s generating significant leads for agents and brokers across the country these days.
According to the National Association of Realtors, 36% of people using video as an informative source during the home search.
While the value of video is clear, the challenge is creating and publishing your own.
If you’re looking for inspiration check out this list to see some of the best real estate videos from across the web, or learn how to better market your videos in this guide.
#11. Strategic Blogging
If you want blogging to generate leads for your business, then you have to include it in your overall inbound marketing strategy. Publishing the odd blog post here and there won’t work. Instead, you need to have a long-term plan.
Use your blog to provide valuable information to visitors so that it positions you as a trusted and credible resource. Buyers and sellers are not only searching for properties, but they’re also looking for supporting information.
For example, take a look at the Windermere Real Estate Blog that offers tips and advice on a variety of home-related topics including:
- Buying – The Risks and Rewards of Purchasing a Bank-Owned Home
- Selling – 5 Home Improvements That Will Boost Your Property Value
- Market News – 2019 Economic and Housing Forecast
- Community – Helping Students Realize Their Dreams Through Scholarship Programs
- Architecture – Avoiding the Pitfalls of Home Addition Construction
#12. Facebook Ads
Facebook is ideally suited to real estate marketing as it’s a visual platform. It’s still the largest social media network with over 2 billion monthly users:
And as people spend time there on a daily basis, you have a captive audience.
Advertising on Facebook is effective as long as you take advantage of the granular targeting options to ensure your ad reaches your ideal audience:
- Targeting – choose from interests, behaviors, and demographics. For example, you can target by zip code, age ranges, income, home ownership, and people “likely to move.”
- Objective – select from different campaign objectives including Lead Generation, Brand Awareness, Engagement, Reach, Conversions, etc.
- Ad Type – choose from different options including Canvas Ads, Carousel Ads, Video Ads, Collection Ads, Slideshow Ads, and Photo Ads.
Armed with this data you can create, target, and track the success of your laser-focused ads.
Here are two types of campaign to consider:
NEW LISTINGS
Advertising new listings to your chosen target audience on Facebook is a great way to attract new leads.
The key is to make the advert visually stunning, whether you choose photos or video. Use the best professional images for each property to make it stand out as people scroll their Facebook feed.
ALREADY SOLD
Showcasing properties you’ve already sold is a great way to promote your brand and attract leads who are looking to rent, buy, or sell within your location. When you run a Facebook ad featuring the sold property that’s targeted to an audience within the same area, you can:
- Attract leads that are ready to act now, and
- Promote your credentials to those planning to move in the future.
#13. Optimize Your Facebook Page
While advertising is a premier opportunity for you on Facebook, don’t forget you can still secure leads without spending a dime too. With some savvy optimization techniques, consistent engagement, and regular status updates featuring photos and videos of your listings, market, and clients, you can generate more interest in your brand.
Renee Hillman makes a product use of its facebook page:
Several dozen reviews, 5-star average rating, a stellar cover photo that doubles as social proof, countless status updates, new and sold listings, and a lot of community make broker Renee Hillman’s Facebook Business Page a great business asset.
Any online locale where you plant your flag and build upon your digital foundation — whether it’s your site, Facebook, another social network, or a separate blog — requires equal amounts of effort. Hillman clearly understands this mindset, as she treats her Facebook presence just like she does her Placester real estate website.
#14. Local Partnerships
You’re not the only business in your area. So why not join forces with other business owners where you can help one another. Join your local chamber of commerce where you can network and make connections with fellow business men and women.
For example, many divorce settlements force marital homes to be sold. Consider partnering with a local divorce attorney you would be happy to recommend your services in such situations.
#15. Get Referrals from other Realtors
When you attend conferences, you have an excellent opportunity to network with other real estate agents from outside your area. Take the time to build professional relationships with national and state realtors that can serve you in the future.
For example, when people have to relocate to your area, those national realtors can refer their clients to you.
#16. Live Chat
Visitors to your website don’t always want to fill out forms or call you. But they might be happy to engage in a live chat to get their questions answered instantly.
There are plenty of Live Chat apps available including FreshChat, Intercom, and Drift, plus you can use Facebook’s Messenger App on your website, too. Most apps include the option to auto-respond to website visitors and then determine if a human response is required.
#17. Automated Text Messages
Real estate text message marketing lets you engage potential buyers with information about suitable properties. And you can take this one step further with automated text messages.
For example, people interested in your Boston condos could text ‘CONDO’ to your designated shortcode (e.g. 29786), and your system would send information about listings in that area.
According to a Gallup survey, texting is far faster and better received compared to calls and emails:
- 90% of sales leads said they’d prefer to be texted, compared to 10% who preferred to be called.
- 99% of texts are read and have an average response time of 90 seconds.
#18. Pitch Local Investors
If you’re working in an area that has a lot of investment potential, then why not pitch local investors directly? You could save time marketing and advertising properties if you have investors lined-up already.
An investor is going to be more savvy than your typical first-time buyer, so you’ll need to play smart and professional to make a good impression and strike quick deals.
#19. Email Segmentation
Most of the people who receive your newsletters, digests, and other promotional emails are already leads you track and organize in your lead management software.
What some agents don’t realize, though, is not every lead is created equal. There’s the obvious buyer vs. seller dynamic. However, there are plenty of other lead characteristics that distinguish each lead from another.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it (hint: You’ll want to accept it) is to bucket your prospects into distinct lists so you can send different types of email to them.
It’s through this segmentation you’ll maximize the ROI of your email campaigns (not to mention prevent you from blasting emails to leads who have long been cold and are no longer worth pursuing).
Here is an example from Smith & Berg:
Working in the high-end California real estate market, the Smith & Berg team at Partners Trust sends appropriate emails newsletters to its contact database.
Sure, a number of these contacts are likely already leads, but what sending consistent, strong emails like this does is help them distinguish weak leads from strong leads.
In the marketing sphere, these strong leads are classed as sales-qualified leads (SQLs), meaning they’re more likely to be converted into customers and, thus, deserve more attention with one’s real estate marketing strategy.
Qualify Your Real Estate Leads
Generating leads is the first step in the process of acquiring a new customer.
Next, you’ll need to decide which leads are most likely to convert quicker. To do that, you score each lead based on a set of criteria. Lead scoring helps you determine which prospects need to be fast-tracked and which need nurturing.
Image: managing and scoring leads inside the Placester CRM.
For instance, you may score someone higher if their demographic information matches your target audience. For example, they live locally and want to move to a larger home in the next few months because the family is growing.
On the other hand, a couple looking to downsize when they retire next year is less likely to convert immediately and would, therefore, score lower.
There are two recognized marketing industry scores:
- SQL – a sales-qualified lead (SQL) is almost ready to become a customer. They may need specific questions answered to get across the line. Your job is to remain attentive and responsive to keep them on track.
- MQL – a marketing-qualified lead (MQL) is more likely to become a customer than other leads but is not ready to become a customer right now. They’ll need nurturing over the coming months with regular follow-ups to keep them interested in your service.
At first, you may need to experiment with your lead scoring criteria. But once it’s working, you’ll be on your way from lead generation to customer acquisition.
Be Consistent
Before we wrap up, it’s important to remember that you can’t use all of these lead generation methods all of the time. In fact, you’d have little time left for anything else like generating revenue.
What’s more important is to be consistent. Select the methods that best suit you and your business, and refine them until they run like a well-oiled machine.
Best Real Estate Lead Generation Companies
Drive sales and watch your business thrive
By Allison Bethell Updated on December 21, 2021 Fact checked by Michael Rosenston
Our editors independently research and recommend the best products and services. You can learn more about our independent review process and partners in our advertiser disclosure. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links.
Lead generation software helps real estate agents find clients and close deals. Using lead generation companies, agents are able to find both buyers and sellers that live in certain areas, have certain interests, or are looking for certain types of properties.
Agents are able to advertise in a local area and provide leads in exchange for a monthly charge. Much of this is done online through a combination of websites, social media, and other tools.
We reviewed over a dozen different lead generation services companies before we decided on the best. We looked for companies that produce top-quality leads from social media, multiple listing service (MLS), brokerage websites, and listing sites.
In addition to the number, type, and quality of leads produced, our choices were based on features offered, pricing, and reviews from real estate professionals and other customers. Here are the best real estate lead generation companies to help you grow your business.
The 7 Best Real Estate Lead Generation Companies of 2022
- Best Overall: Market Leader
- Runner-Up, Best Overall: BoldLeads
- Best for Automation: Zurple
- Best for Finding Buyers: Zillow Premier Agent
- Best for Getting Listings: Offrs
- Best for Social Media: Zoho CRM
- Best Price: REDX
Best Real Estate Lead Generation Companies
Best Overall 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.
Runner-Up, Best Overall BoldLeads
Bold Leads is based in Chandler, Arizona and is active in supporting their local community. It has helped 6,000 real estate agents across the U.S. and Canada. The company offers a vast array of features for producing great buyer and seller leads, which is why we named it our runner-up. It also offers comprehensive customer support and training, so you can get to know the system and get up and running quickly.
Bold Leads only provides exclusive leads to agents. It places ad campaigns on platforms such as Google and Facebook and then draws customers who click on the ads to customized real estate websites where they provide their contact information, which then gets sent to the agent in that area. You can contact and organize your new leads from the built-in CRM.
Bold Leads features include:
- Buyer and seller leads
- Automated follow-ups
- Software coaching, like video training
- An all-in-one platform with its own CRM
- Text concierge and email templates
- Lead engagement indicator tools
Bold Lead offers customer support, training, and coaching, as well as videos to get you up and running, learn how to accept and manage leads, and become familiar with the platform. In addition to a monthly budget for purchasing leads, expect to spend more for market reports and other features. Generally, reviews indicate that customers are satisfied with the company and like its lead system. However, some customers said it’s difficult to cancel and found some of the buyer leads to be poor quality.
Best for Automation Zurple
Zurple was founded in 2009, is headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, and is owned by Constellation Software. The company is our choice for best automation because it offers leads as well as integrated CRM and other automated tools that make contacting and maintaining leads easier and more efficient. Zurple’s automated responses are personalized and data-driven and intelligently engage with clients on your behalf.
Zurple is end-to-end software that captures leads and converts them into conversations and then into clients. It optimizes your marketing budget by only targeting your specific area and can even target specific sub-areas within individual zip codes. You can use Zurple’s targeted ads and combine them with your own leads from places like Zillow. Zurple will personalize emails from your email address to contact leads about houses they’ve already been looking at.
Some of Zurple’s features include:
- Buyer and seller leads
- Automated, personalized, and data-driven emails from your email address
- Integration with Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com
- CRM
- Complete online profile of each lead
- Lead contact alerts
Zurple is easy to set up and it offers all the tools you need, including creating and customizing your ads and website, as well as a CRM to manage your leads. It has a blog and success center resources to help you get started. You must put your information in to see pricing and availability in your area.
Customers have mostly positive things to say about the company. They appreciate that leads are converted into clients. However, some users think that the interface needs to be updated.
Best for Finding Buyers 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.
Best for Getting Listings 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.
Best for Social Media 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.
Best Price REDX
REDX is our best-priced option because of its a la carte pricing with no setup fees, which allows you to pay for what you want and nothing more. Its monthly prices are reasonable and you can combine leads for a more robust prospecting campaign. It was founded in Utah in 2003 as a solution for providing expired leads to real estate agents and has since been used by over 50,000 agents in both the U.S. and Canada. REDX provides lead data to agents for prospecting. It’s specific to the real estate industry and uses aggregate data from public records to source leads. Every lead that they provide includes contact information.
REDX focuses primarily on seller leads and includes pre-foreclosures, expired listings, for sale by owners, for rent by owners (FRBO), hard-to-find contact information for homeowners, and its Power Dialer feature, which helps you contact more sellers quickly. It offers online training, tutorials, and unlimited customer support.
REDX features include:
- Multiple types of real estate seller leads including expireds
- Geo-focused leads
- Full range of training and support
- Prospecting platform
- Help with lead conversions and lead management systems
- Leads are verified against active listings and the Do Not Call list
- Scripts built into the system
Agents can start using REDX right away by contacting customer support and watching tutorial videos for additional help. Pricing varies depending on the lead source. For example, for sale by owner (FSBO) and pre-foreclosure leads are $39.99 per month, GeoLeads are $49.99 per month, expired leads are $59.99 per month, and FRBOs are $79.99 per month. You can add the Power Dialer for $99.99 per month. There aren’t many reviews out there, but the ones that exist are positive and highlight that the expired leads are current and updates.
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.
How Does Real Estate Lead Generation Work?
Real estate lead generation is a marketing and advertising process which stimulates interest in either a house for sale or a realtor to work with. This interest is then turned into a sales pipeline with the goal is to turn the lead into a client, who then closes a deal by either buying or selling a house through an agent.
Agents and brokers generate leads in different ways, including via social media, referrals, their own network, open houses, and from lead generation companies. Leads are what keep a real estate brokerage in business. A closed lead provides a commission check to the agent and a check to the brokerage.
How Much Do Real Estate Leads Cost?
Real estate lead generation companies offer different prices depending on the location and number of leads selected. Some have onboarding fees of a couple of hundred dollars and others have no upfront fees but charge monthly fees of hundreds of dollars or more, plus per lead costs which can range from a few dollars all the way up to thousands of dollars. Typically, leads in popular housing markets are more expensive to purchase because the company knows the listing prices are high and commissions from successful sales will also be considerably higher.
Usually, you pay for leads monthly and can decide on a set budget or change it up depending on how business is going.
Is Buying Real Estate Leads Worth the Cost?
Most agents know that, in order to keep up with today’s buyers and sellers, they need to have an online presence. Buying online leads is worth it if you don’t already have a big network or referrals but want to grow your business. You have to decide what your monthly marketing budget is going to be and how to best allocate the funds to decide if it’s worth it to buy leads. Investing in lead generation is only worthwhile if you’re going to be diligent and consistent with following up on each and every lead.
CONCLUSION
Lead generation is an important part of real estate. With fierce competition in the market, there are many ways to generate leads for real estate businesses. The difficulty is finding the most cost-efficient and productive methods. This guide will help you identify ways to grow your business using lead generation.
Real estate professionals always want more business. And for most, lead generation can be tough to address. Here are some ways you can improve your lead generation and grow your real estate practice in 2018.