Real Estate lead generation software is an extremely important part of any real estate investors’ business. There are tons of websites offering free real estate leads and a number of disparate programs that claim to be the best Real Estate Lead Generation Software. In order to understand what is at the root of these different programs and how they work it is important to know exactly why generating leads is important.
Generating leads is essential for any real estate agent to grow their business, but there are serious concerns relating to lead generation that you should be aware of. For example, how do you know that you are generating qualified leads and not wasting your time? What do you do when the leads you generate don’t convert into a closing? Do you want to get more real estate leads that actually work?
Real estate lead generation can be very challenging, especially when money is tight. If you are looking to build your business and find free real estate leads then check out my list of the best real estate lead generation websites. These sites offer free leads or a free trial to get you started. Give them a try today and let me know what you think.
Lead generation software, is it worth it? What platforms do people use to generate real estate leads? Whom do they pay? At first glance, real estate lead generation software seems like a great idea but only if you can afford the subscriptions. Not all agents have the funds to pay the monthly cost of most of these programs and then still have to wait for their commissions to be paid out. Some agents are even trying to convert their websites into lead generation monsters but suffer from lack of knowledge on how to make that happen. Real estate lead generation should be free, so why not create a free online resource that can be utilized as often as necessary.
5 best real estate lead generation services
The best real estate lead generation services are:
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.
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.
LeadPost
Are you already driving traffic to your website and you want to convert more of that traffic into real estate leads? If so, LeadPost’s website visitor identification platform might be the tool you need.
Visitor identification software allows you to see who’s visiting your website (even if they don’t fill out a form) and to capture their contact information. Then, it can deliver that data to your CRM or you can access it within the platform.
It’s easy to set up. You just place a short line of code on your website and the platform identifies and captures leads, which it then forwards to your CRM or marketing platform.
Here are a few features that make LeadPost a great real estate agent tool:
- Advanced filtering and suppression lists, so you only capture new leads that interest you
- Built-in direct mail retargeting, so you can send website visitors a postcard even if they don’t convert
- A remarketing platform so you can advertise to your visitors on Facebook and other ad networks
- Additional data like phone numbers, household income range, homeowner status, length of residence range, and net worth range
The platform has no monthly service fees, no minimum spend, and no contracts. You get 100 free leads when you sign up, so it’s easy to find out if it’s right for you. If you decide to continue, the price per captured lead is $0.24, and you can control your spending in real-time with its budget control feature.
SharpSpring
SharpSpring is lead generator software offering a fully rebrandable platform, behavioural email automation, website tracking, and in-built CRM system, among others. SharpSpring offers easy to convert and highly attractive landing page templates.
Highlights:
- Includes in-built call tracking for connecting with offline leads
- Automation is simple to implement
- Zero long-term contracts
- Dashboard provides all you need to run the tool
- Excellent customer support
Cons:
- Social publishing such as SEO or social recommendations unavailable
- Progressive profiling feature absent
- Currently lacks a forward/back navigation button
- No visual work-flow builder
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.
What is a real estate lead generation service?
A real estate lead generation service is a service for attracting, nurturing, or closing leads. While companies can invest solely in lead generation services, which may use strategies like cold calling, most agencies will see a better return when using lead generation services like email marketing and SEO.
These services tend to work better because they focus on pulling clients to your agency versus pushing clients to your agency, which is the case with cold calling. SEO, for example, generates real estate leads because it connects you with users actively looking for a real estate agent.
Conclusion
Since the real estate scene is always changing it has been on good authority that the best place to find real estate leads is online. With this in mind we want to take a look at some of the current and popular real estate lead generation websites and compare that with free software solutions.
Real estate tends to be a very local industry, so getting free leads can be difficult. These ‘free’ resources sometimes lead to dead ends, or even worse- outright scammers. It’s not a surprise that new agents or even experienced agents can find lead generation a little challenging. Fortunately there are some solid options for real estate lead generation software that is easy to use and capable of generating a huge number of leads.