Real estate Marketing Blog

Real Estate Lead Generation: It’s About Quality, Not Quantity

Real estate lead generation has become a trending topic on the Web in recent years. With over 90% of homebuyers taking to the Internet to start the buying process, it’s no wonder why lead generation for real estate agents has become such a hot topic.

Any successful real estate agent has a good real estate lead generation system in place, whether it includes online or offline marketing. A good real estate lead generation program can mean the difference from the average performer to top producer for your brokerage.

So what makes a good online real estate lead system? In our opinion, it all starts with the quality of the lead.

Lead generation has become a booming business as of late. Marketers and real estate lead generation companies around the world are helping agents find more leads online than ever before. Outsourcing your lead generation efforts can be a great way to gain more business, reduce marketing costs, while remaining focused on your core business. But as with most good things, there are some downsides to outsourcing your lead generation to third parties. The greatest downside is the uncertainty in the origination of the lead and exclusivity to you – both greatly affecting the quality of the lead.

Pro’s and Con’s About Outsourcing Lead Generation

Pros:

• More sales opportunities entering your funnel with less effort on your behalf.
• Reduced marketing costs to gain access to buyers and sellers in the market.
• Prospects are pre-qualified, saving you time and shortening your sales cycle to close.
• You can purchase leads on-demand, meaning that you can set your budget to receive the number of leads you want.

Cons:

• Buying real estate leads can be costly especially when you are paying per lead (can range from $50-$500).
• No personal branding – leads are not aware of your identity or brand name.
• Leads are cold when you get them because someone else generated the lead for you.
• Too much time has passed before you receive your lead. The longer an internet lead is followed up with, the colder they become.

There are some benefits to buying leads from third parties (like the ones mentioned above), but the cons can play a significant factor in your closing rate. The reality is, when you buy leads from third parties, these leads do not know who you are, or what you want when you call on them. If you don’t like cold calling, these leads will be just as difficult to close as opening your local phonebook and randomly calling names.

The best approach to get real estate sales leads are from your own sources. Organically grown leads have 3 times greater closing rate than any other third-party lead source. Why? Because leads generated from your own sources (website, social media, flyers, etc.) have a chance to become familiar with you and your brand before you try to establish contact with them. For instance, an Internet lead will come from your website, your referrals will come from already satisfied customers, and so forth. If you want to close more business, you will need to invest in the right channels that will allow you to grow and develop leads organically from your own sources, not relying on others to do the dirty work for you.

Real estate lead generation is a process, so focus what little time you have on building and creating your own effective process to capture and covert leads quickly. Your website is the most visited property you own. That would be the best place to start. Invest in SEO, lead capture systems such as live chat, and lead nurturing such as email marketing. It will make all the difference in the world if you spend your money on these areas.