If you are in the business of real estate, acquiring leads is a challenge you have to face. You can get leads when promoting your real estate property to potential clients and buyers. You can also obtain leads from people directly, who are interested in selling their own property. Keep on reading if you want to know the essential lead generation tools real estate.
These days lead generation tools real estate are an important piece of the puzzle for real estate agents. Web savvy consumers and home buyers want information at their fingertips, and real estate companies are meeting that demand. If you are looking to upgrade your own web presence, or take your lead generation up a notch here is a list of best lead generation tools for the real estate community.
There are tons of different tools you can use to generate leads in real estate as a new agent, but which is the best? In this guide, I go over some of the most popular lead generation methods that agents use to get their business off the ground. I tell you what they are, what they’re good for, and exactly how much they cost. In addition to that, there is an extra section on lead generation ideas in general (because who doesn’t want to learn more about that?)
As a real estate agent, getting started you need to stand out and create a name for yourself. That is where lead generation comes in. In this guide I will give you my top lead generation websites that are absolutely free to join and get leads for your real estate business. There are not going to be any tricks or easy ways to generate leads, just plain old common sense things you can do to grow your business naturally without it costing a dime!
Why is Lead Generation Important?
Real estate is a revolving door of clients — as soon as you get a new one in the door, another one is settling on their forever home. In order to keep your business flowing, you need to constantly have new clients coming in. That is where a targeted lead generation strategy comes in.
Relics of lead generation past, like cold calling and knocking on doors, are not as successful as they once were. Most people won’t even answer the phone or open their door to someone they don’t know. These methods of generating free leads are tired. Luckily, there are plenty of new and easier ways to generate leads that convert into happy homeowners.
There are several reasons why real estate lead generation is important, including:
- Building relationships: Proactively searching for new leads is a great way to build relationships with new clients and audiences, allowing you to grow your brand and build trust.
- Increasing profits: Generating leads allows you to bring more awareness to your business. Once you have leads, you’ll be able to showcase what you have to offer in hopes of converting them into clients. Once a lead becomes a client, you’ll then begin earning more profits from their sales.
- Growing your business: Lead generation is the act of attracting more prospects to your company. Generating leads is important because it allows you to grow your business, which can create a snowball effect through referrals, word of mouth, and more brand awareness.
Phone Duty – Great for Warm Buyer Leads
Sometimes old school is the best school.
Eric Bramlett, owner of Bramlett Residential knows a thing or two about using old-school methods in a new age. After trying out a Client Concierge and live call transfers with less than impressive results, one of his senior agents suggested they try good old-fashioned phone duty.
Eric had his doubts. “I’d never considered it because it seemed old school. I know that agents hate traditional phone duty because they have to sit in the office and answer the phone. One reason agents become agents is so that they’re not chained to a desk,” he explains.
But, the results were undeniable.
“We found that people that call in want to talk with an agent right now. They don’t want to talk to a receptionist, or a Client Concierge, they want to talk with a knowledgeable agent.”
“Since we’re immediately satisfying that need, we saw our conversions go through the roof. We were converting around 1/3 receptionist call-ins in the past. We’re now converting almost 100% of the qualified inbound calls. It’s been a massive success,” says Eric.
With an outcome like that, it’s not surprising Eric is building a system around this tried-and-tested lead gen tactic.
“We set up a virtual phone duty that our agents sign up for. We have simple rules like ‘don’t schedule an appointment’ and ‘pull over to talk if the call you take is a lead.’ We record all of the calls to identify opportunities for improvement,” he says.
Video Content – Best Way to Consistently Generate Free Leads
Video is quickly becoming a winning formula for real estate marketing.
Christian Ross, Managing Broker at Engel & Völkers, has been a huge advocate for video content for a long time now.
In 2009, she shot a video titled Why You Should Move to Atlanta that introduced her to a host of international clients who have each bought two to five properties from her over the years.
“I know everyone is saying it, but creating videos has given me huge ROI. I am intently focused on video production. The videos I created over five and ten years ago still pay dividends and they have over 70,000 views.”
And Christian knows exactly how to leverage and repurpose that content for maximum results.
“I have already filmed over twenty videos with my videographer for me to put in my Follow Up Boss drip campaigns, channel, and throughout the client process. I am also filming Coffee with Christian with local businesses and interesting people,” she explains.
So, what’s her secret formula for creating irresistible video content?
“Everyone should have a YouTube channel and create playlists that focus on the community, sellers and buyers and quick tips. I create both professional and iPhone videos.”
Christian acknowledges that not everyone is comfortable with staring into the camera, but the way she sees it, we’ve already spent most of 2020 living through an uncomfortable reality.
Her mindset: “We have to get comfortable being uncomfortable, right?”
Video Housewarming Parties – An Instant Source of Free Warm Leads
Dale Archdekin is a leading real estate coach and the founder of Smart Inside Sales. Basically, he’s the guy top producers go to when they need to 10X their lead conversions.
And like any genuine thought leader, you can always count on Dale for the latest cutting-edge lead gen tactics. Here’s Dale on how some of his coaching clients got creative during the pandemic.
“For clients concerned about having anyone in their home and maintaining social distancing protocols, their agent can plan and host a video ‘housewarming party’ on Zoom. This obviously works well for those clients who are not as tech savvy or aren’t already regularly using video conferencing.”
A housewarming party you can attend in your pajamas? Who could say no to that?
“It’s a great way for the agent to bring additional value to their client and meet the client’s potential referrals for additional business,” Dale explains.
Dale was kind enough to share his running list of lead gen ideas that only work as a result of the 2020 paradigm shift:
- Branded face masks and hand sanitizer
- Connector of community support resources: who has senior shopping hours, who has opened a pop up food bank, what restaurants are delivering meals to high risk people, etc.
- Volunteering!
- Community good-will political debate station
- Virtual video open houses (marketed on social media)
- Concierge video home tours (marketed on social media)
- Hosting a socially distanced, mask-on, Halloween party for kids in your sphere.
It’s amazing how creative you can get when faced with a new challenge. Of course, there are also those classic, reliable sources of real estate leads you should always be working into your strategy.
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.
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.
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.
BoomTown
If you’re looking for a trusted real estate agent tool, BoomTown has a 5-star rating on G2. BoomTown is a SaaS real estate lead generation platform that automates lead generation, marketing, and analytics for real estate agents and brokerage firms.
Here are a few features people like about Boomtown:
- It has a clean design which makes it easy to navigate.
- It allows realtors to set up alerts for new leads.
- It helps you diversify your leads with multi-channel campaigns, such as social media, paid ads, and remarketing, and makes it easy to follow up with prospective customers (for example through bulk texting).
BoomTown does have some drawbacks. Users say that some of its follow-up options can feel rather impersonal. It’s also relatively expensive. Pricing is not displayed on the website, so clients need to get in touch with them to see what they can offer. But plans are around $1,000-$1,700/month.
What is the Best Way to Generate Leads?
Lead generation marketing probably teaches an innovative and advanced outlook regarding lead creation. Software and tools have become the best lead generation platforms. Moreover, users can transform any lead gen into profitable sales.
The user must be well-versed enough to generate A1 leads, manage them, capture the existing ones, and convert them. Some key attributes to create first-rate leads are below. Take a sneak peek at the below-mentioned properties.
- Customer relationship management is undoubtedly a contributing factor to creating leads. Socializing with fellow clients through various platforms won’t be in vain. Consequently, quality generating leads are easy to generate in this way.
- Guest posts and blogs are popular concepts of SEO marketing; however, it is of great use in generating leads. Moreover, writing a guest blog for the specific marketing sector will allow the user to get referral traffic.
- Several online service provider forums are helpful to search out various leads and campaigns. These social forums include LinkedIn, Volar Connect, Jobcase, and ZipRecruiter. Users can find jobs, emails, and contact lists through them. Hence, such professional networks will generate leads instantly.
Conclusion
Leads generation tools are online programs or applications used for obtaining prospective leads for real estate agents, property managers, as well as for individual real estate investors. The application specializes in every kind of property you could desire, be it a house or an apartment, commercial building or a plot of land.
Real estate agents can choose their suitable lead generation tool based on the criteria they wish to filter the results. For instance, if they are looking out for beautiful properties located in a particular city that meet a certain price range, they need to use the filter feature. Agents can also choose specific properties such as homes with swimming pools just by clicking on the option offered on the website.