For a real estate professional, real estate leads are literally worth their weight in gold. The real estate leads you pursue today will become your customers tomorrow and your source of income one month from now. As a real estate professional, you’ll spend a lot of time generating leads for the industry and turning them into clients. Online lead generating services were a new resource for real estate brokers in the late 1990s as a result of the Internet’s development and entry into popular culture.
Most individuals now turn to the internet first when looking to purchase, sell, or do anything else related to real estate. In the past, when someone was ready to buy or sell a home, they would stroll into their neighborhood Realty office and hire a real estate agent. They can now begin looking into real estate anywhere between three months and five years before they actually move!
To be able to interact with these leads and convert them into clients, real estate agents must devise innovative strategies for capturing these leads as soon as possible. There are now two main ways to do that: either paying for real estate leads through a lead generating service, or producing your own real estate leads by building a website with contact pages.
What Method Is Preferable?
Actually, you’re not succeeding as much as you could if you’re not doing both. A personal website with homeowner information, contact forms, a blog, etc. is a MUST for any real estate agent who aspires to be a top producer. So that potential real estate clients can FIND you online
On the other hand, most of the top producers out there have their own websites in addition to being members of one or more Lead Gen, like GetMyHomesValue or HouseValues. These kinds of businesses offer agents real estate leads for a monthly subscription fee or charge the agent per lead. These companies put up websites where they provide free property valuation estimates in exchange for contact information from homeowners. Basically, a homeowner visits the business’ website, fills out a brief form about themselves, their contact information, and their home, and submits it. The company then distributes this “lead” to any real estate professional who has signed up with them in the lead’s geographic area. It is up to the real estate agent to determine the worth of and do further follow-up on these real estate leads.
Generating Business Operates
Each lead generating business operates a little bit differently. For instance, GetMyHomesValue offers exclusive leads, which are delivered to just one local agent; some businesses, on the other hand, appointments sell the same real estate leads to a number of agents. While GetMyHomesValue has their employees attempt to contact the leads multiple times for the agent and then leaves the remainder of the follow-up to the individual agent, HouseValues has extensive email drip campaigns and scripts to make follow-up a little easier for agents.
The main objection leveled at most of these lead generation businesses is to the definition of real estate leads. These “leads” can frequently provide false information because they are filling out forms online and want to avoid being approached. The agents therefore find it more challenging to follow up with leads as a result of this.
Real Estate Leads
When faced with real estate leads that have a property address and e-mail address but a terrible name and number, the successful agent, however, does not give up. Before discarding pay per lead, a great agent will exhaust all follow-up options, including using public directories like the White Pages online, the property’s tax records, reverse look-ups, etc. Weekly emails will be sent to the lead, and they may even visit the listed home to find out who submitted it.
What happens if the home’s owners assert that neither they nor anyone else on their team is looking to sell? The less than desirable agent will be incensed at the waste of their time and accuse the lead generation company of selling false real estate leads. Although they may not have gotten to the bottom of the lead, the HOT agent will introduce themselves anyhow, offer their services in any way they can, and hand out a business card. Then, they will lead the home with the knowledge that even though they may not have gotten to the bottom of the lead, they have added another prospect to their pipeline of real estate leads.
Final Thought
When used properly, online lead generation tools are a HUGE advantage for real estate salespeople. You need to be willing to put in a lot of effort and time if you want to succeed with real estate leads found online. Even if the lead does not close for six months, a year, or even two years, as long as you are pursuing real estate leads and maintaining brand awareness, you will have an advantage over your rivals.
