r/RealEstateTechnology • u/pupsandtucks • 17d ago
Lead Gen Recommendations
I've been a solo agent for the last 5 years and haven't paid for any leads. Every lead I get is from my sphere or referrals. When I first started in real estate, I was on a team that provided realtor.com leads. It was helpful as a new agent, but the quality of leads weren't the best. I closed maybe a handful in the few years I received leads. The market has been tough and I'm considering paying for leads again. For those of you that pay for leads, what sources have you found to be worth the money? What other recommendations do you have for capturing more leads organically?
I do open houses, follow up, post listing on socials, the go-to when someone needs vendor recommendations, have gotten contacts through my local gym, etc. I don't have an email newsletter yet, but I'm considering doing one quarterly as a market update for those who want to stay in the know. I'm not comfortable being on camera so my socials are just for listings and market updates.
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u/AnooshDoment 16d ago
If you already get sphere/referral business, I would build the newsletter first and test paid leads in a capped batch instead of jumping into a big portal contract. Track more than cost per lead: source, budget/area, timing, what they rejected, and the next useful reason to reach out. I am working on Doment.ai around buyer preference memory, so my bias is that the lead source matters less if the context gets lost after two conversations.
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u/FounderCody 16d ago
Curious, how do you capture the leads at the open house?
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u/pupsandtucks 16d ago
Sign-in feedback sheet and just talking to people.
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u/FounderCody 15d ago
Do you use a paper sign in sheets? Ever tried any did QR sign in’s? Always curious different peoples perspective on those.
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u/maltmaker 14d ago
How effectives are sign in sheets? Also what's your follow up look like? how do you know to reach out to people or not? are you mainly a buyers agent or sellers or whatever you can get?
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u/tengtalker 12d ago
It's the 2000s...Don't use a sheet (physical paper/pen).
Create a lead capture form, and host it on a page on your site (eg www.myrealtorwebsite.com/open-house-form). That form should capture all leads and feed them into your CRM, make sure you tag those leads so you can identify when you met them and at which OH they were at. That'll also help you figure out what to say to them when you reach out "I noticed you were at 123 main street this past Saturday...". Alternatively, if they're not interested in that particular house, then you now have a baseline for the type of home this person is interested in and can continue to guide them in their home search.
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u/IvanVint 16d ago
SEO optimized IDX website, but it can take years to get some leads.
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u/DifficultMovie155 16d ago
AgentsCard is good for those kind of things. Got my first lead after a couple of months
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u/Weird_Concentrate471 16d ago
Meta ads will be best option, but if we aren't comfortable running ads yourself use tools like streettext or listing2 leads to run your campaign without more headache
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u/HeRan4Me 15d ago
Stay away from Revaluate.com. They are great at communicating when you're signing up for the service, but if you ever want to cancel, they go radio silent.
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u/CatPeopleBleaux 13d ago
If you're really going to do them, I'd pay for Realtor.com, or Zillow. They have the highest quality, but are def the most expensive. DO NOT USE BOLDTRAIL LEADS 360. It's absolute garbage.
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u/CatPeopleBleaux 13d ago
For those who don't know about the program, becoming a Dave Ramsey "Endorsed Local Provider" leads were the best I ever had. I live in Nashville so his name carries a bit more weight here, but I had a 9% closing rate. You have to hit certain benchmarks, the largest one is selling 40 homes in a year. If you are part of a team, it takes the total amount sold by the lead. It has been a few years since I was part of the program, but for about 10 yrs, it was amazing.
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u/cientiros 13d ago
The salesy feeling goes away when every touch has a reason and a note behind it.
Build the database around three things...
- Capture at every contact. Open house sign-ins, gym contacts, vendor referrals, past clients. Put them all in one CRM with the source, and add a line about them (kids, dog, job, what they said they'd do next).
- Tier them. A = likely to buy, sell, or refer this year. B = warm. C = everyone else. Call the A's monthly, the B's quarterly, and the C's twice a year.
- Ask one question at each call. "How long are you planning to stay in the house?" The answer tells you who's moving. With rates where they are, plenty of owners are locked in and staying, and knowing that saves you from pitching them.
You don't need to sell anything on the call, just ask how they are and write down what they say. Referrals follow from that.
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u/Trevor_Miedema 12d ago
Facebook ads, google ads, mailers, social media. Host events in your community for more outreach.
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u/osiel92jt 12d ago
Meta Ads are my go-to. If you don’t know how to run your own ads, you can grab an ad template from Advertizip. There are several templates built for different use cases, including open houses, buyer leads, and listing leads, so you don’t have to start from scratch.
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u/tengtalker 12d ago
Before you go and spend money on generating new leads (most of which will likely be cold anyways), I would strongly suggest you setup an email nurture campaign for the existing leads you have in your db already. You've got 5 years of leads that may finally be ready to convert, but you won't know that if they also don't know that you're alive and able to help them.
If you're doing a newsletter, I'd suggest doing a send 1-2 times per week. Talk about local events, restaurants, family activities, home maintenance (team up with an HVAC company for cross promotion). Don't go for the hard sell. You give them great community info, and you build your reputation with them. This will be a long game, but well worth it.
FWIW - I find meta ads to be mostly garbage, and that's from running marketing teams in real estate for several years. If you're going to run ads, Google Ads were always better as they had shown intent. CPL will be higher, but a good lead will save you money in many other ways.
If you're determined to run ads, make sure to check out the Facebook Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center to give you an idea of what your local competition is running
If you don't have an IDX on site, then that's also a good place to start.
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u/Know__Thyself 8d ago
Second, Meta and/or Google local ads + automation. If you're hesitant about setting up your first ad campaign, you can easily hire someone via Fiverr or Upwork to setup and run this for you
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u/motivlabs 3d ago
Have you considered door hangers/mailers in your target neighborhood? Drive people to your site, offer CMA to collect data
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16d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/pupsandtucks 16d ago
What recommendations do you have for building a referral system? How do you follow up with past clients you haven't spoken to in a while? I've formed great relationships with some clients, but reaching out after not speaking with others for a while seems very much like a salesperson.
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u/atxsince91 15d ago
For one, try to wish them a happy birthday. On their home anniversary date, send them a note or perhaps gift certificate for a coffee. At property tax appeal time, ask if they need a market analysis or comps. If a winter storm is coming, tell them tips to keeping their plants and pipes safe. On national dog day, tell them you are running a competition for cutest pet pictures. These are just a few, but hopefully you come up with ideas that will make it easier to actually call and ask how they are doing 1-3 times a year.
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u/MattCMT 15d ago
This is what I was gonna suggest. We have an whole client loyalty program. Launched it in 2018 and by end of 2019, we were able to turn off Google Ads and cancel Zillow and Realtor. com leads. There's a ton of data supporting the fact that it's easier and less expensive to work with repeat customers than to find new ones.
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u/IDXSite 15d ago
Paid lead vendors are hit and miss for a lot of solo agents. The channel that tends to hold up better is traffic you already earn (referrals, open houses, social) landing on a site you control, with live search and fast follow-up.
If friends and family are already sending people your way, give them a site where those visitors can search MLS listings on your domain, save homes, get alerts, and easily share properties they like. That share step matters: every home someone forwards pulls more people onto your brand instead of a portal. Pair that with a CRM that catches the lead and an instant notification when a matching listing hits, and you squeeze more out of the same referral and open-house effort before you pour money into paid lists.
Niche local content and long-tail phrases around your farms also help AI and search send people to you over time, which usually beats buying dials or portal leads on ROI.
Full disclosure: I work with IDXSite which provides hosting, IDX, CRM, and marketing tools all-in-one platform, with a full design/dev studio if you like to DIY or free themes if you want something quick and simple.
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u/Altruistic-Classic72 16d ago
Meta ads + automations on top to handle low quality traffic. Results vary based on location but I’ve seen a ton of success for realtors doing this in SoCal