Real Estate Leads - Comparing Lead Generation Sources

 

A real estate professional can count on real estate leads to be as valuable as gold - literally. Your clients tomorrow will be the real estate leads that you follow up on today. And so will your paycheck in a month. Your time as a professional in real estate is spent on generating leads and converting them to clients. In the late 1990s, the Internet was a main stream cultural Homes For Sale In Sedona phenomenon that gave rise to an entirely new tool for real estate agents: online lead generation services.

The majority of people who are looking to purchase or sell a house or do any other real estate-related activities online now prefer to use the internet. In the past, people would prepare to sell or buy a home and then go into a local Realty office to find a professional. They can now start looking at real estate for anywhere from three months to five years before actually making a move. Real estate professionals must find new ways to capture these leads early so that they can work with them and become clients. You have two options: either buying a lead generation service to pay for real estate leads or creating your website with contact pages to generate real estate leads.

Which is better? You won't be as successful if you don't do both. A personal website is essential for any real estate agent who wants to become a top producer. It should contain contact information and a blog. This will allow real estate leads to FIND you online.

The majority of top producers have their own websites. They also subscribe to one or several lead generation services, such as HouseValues and GetMyHomesValue. These companies sell real estate leads to agents at either a monthly subscription fee or per lead. These companies set up websites that offer homeowners free information about their home and exchange contact information. The homeowner fills out a form about himself, their contact information, and their home, and then submits it to the company. This "lead", in turn, is given by the company to any real estate professional who has subscribed to that area. It is up to the real agent to determine the value of these leads and to follow up with them.

Every lead generation company has its own unique approach. GetMyHomesValue, for example, offers only one lead - which means that the lead will be given to an agent in the local area. Other companies may sell the same leads to multiple agents. HouseValues uses extensive e-mail drip programs and scripts to make follow up easier for agents. GetMyHomesValue's staff attempts to contact leads multiple times for each agent before transferring the remainder of the follow up to the individual agent.

Most of the criticisms these lead generation companies get is about what constitutes real estate leads. These "leads", who are often filling out online information, can sometimes give false information in order to avoid being contacted. Agents are then unable to contact the leads as a result.

However, the successful agent will not quit when faced with real estate leads that provide a property address and an e-mail address but a poor name and number. The best agents will go to every length to follow up any lead before they are lost. This includes using public directories such as the White Pages, tax records for the property, reverse lookups, and tax records. They will email the lead weekly and visit the property to verify who submitted it.

What happens if the owners of the property claim that they didn't request their home valuation information and are not looking to sell the property? The hot agent will be furious at their inefficiency and point fingers at the lead generation company for giving them fake real estate leads. The HOT agent will present themselves and offer their services anyway. They will then hand out a business card and lead the home content knowing that even though they didn't get to the bottom, they added another prospect to their real estate lead pipeline.