There’s the expression that even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, but if you are working in any sort of sales or sales-related profession then you can’t take any type of cavalier attitude to the success of your business. A listing will fall into your lap from time to time, but you are 100% going to have to be putting much more hustle and initiative into the way you generate leads for real estate. You want to be drumming up leads for real estate in volume, because there’s no surefire way for converting leads into listings for realtors.
You will have leads that go cold and disappear, and that’s why we talk about ways to generate leads in real estate to the extent that we do. The advent of the Internet 25+ years ago revolutionized every aspect of business, and the real estate business was no exception and especially with what the web did for marketing homes to client. Talk about expanding horizons in the biggest way possible!
And of course it did so much for what realtors have in the way of options when it comes to how to generate leads for real estate. Some agents who are charismatic, gregarious and can handle their liquor will do well with more traditional approaches to generate leads real estate like door knocking or volunteering to be their brokerage’s representative at community events that will allow for promotion of your real estate services.
So what we’ll look at with this blog entry here are 8 organic and easy ways to generate leads. Go over them and see which ones are those that you think suit your self-promotion business style.
Add Any Property on Marketplaces
It is all about maximum exposure when you are looking to generate leads for real estate and you are aiming to have your current listings attracting would-be home sellers contacting you as a realtor they’re interested in working with. What’s recommended here is to start with at least 5 groups, 1 micro site, 5 different city names real estate pages and that start accordingly.
You can post about your property and get interested leads right into your inbox. This is pretty effective considering many people use the marketplace these days.
Look for Expired Listings
There can be any number of reasons why a listing has expired and the property has yet to sell, and unless you can see something obvious suggesting why then you can see expired listings as a way to generate leads for real estate. You will need to be tactful and timely with the way you approach the homeowners, but if you can do well with this it is possible to turn them into a lead that you may convert if and when they decide to put the home on the market again.
Sometimes agents are hesitant to reach out to homeowners whose listings have expired, but it’s recommended and sometimes it can be done by just leaving your card and suggesting that you’d be happy to provide them with a more current free market evaluation anytime they’re thinking that they may list the home again. That could be next month, it could be next year, it could anytime.
This is best done when you have a strategy in place to convince the homeowner that you’ll take a better and more effective approach to their listing than their last agent. Rejection can and will be part of the game here, but that is always how it goes when you generate leads for real estate.
Attend or Host Real Estate Events
Good ideas here can be any of the many Expos and tradeshows happening across the country almost every month. Confident realtors nearly always do well when they attend these events on a regular basis as it is a wonderful place to get quality leads for real estate. You can even choose to exhibit at these events to attract potential buyers or to enjoy more opportunities for philandering.
There are always many potential homebuyers who are in attendance at any local real estate expo and if you can establish a connection and rapport with them they may choose you as their realtor down the road. Some realtors will be able to show them one or more of the properties they currently have listed. You can hand out a few flyers and exchange a few cards.
Advertise Online
These days every prospective homebuyer does is going to be looking at real estate listings online and doing most of their research there. And for most of them Google will probably be their first stop. Having paid ad listings there can be a good idea too if you have a larger budget for the way you promote yourself as a realtor. In addition to search engines, you should definitely look at advertising on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Original Content
Blogs and posting unique content to your social media pages is a huge opportunity for connecting with buyers and sellers in your local market. You can build your brand and increase your organic search rankings by creating helpful blog posts, creating videos, or sharing a market analysis of your local area can build your authority as an expert and make you a go-to source for information and real estate services. This will help you generate leads for real estate too.
Open Houses
One of the most old-school real estate lead generation means is holding open houses. Now that’s done to provide service to an existing client who’s listed a home with you, but every good realtor will be keeping an eye out for prospective homebuyer clients in attendance who may not be working with a realtor at this time. Open houses are often used as a marketing tool for agents to get new clients, and again often because many of the folks who attend open houses will be ‘browsing’ and in the earliest stages of their interest in buying a home.
Be Creative
People love to see others using creative and funny yet harmless ways of promoting yourself. Some realtors get very creative and irreverent approach to getting real estate leads and promoting themselves. There is one realtor here in Vancouver who has his face superimposed onto different scenes and then a funny one-liner that works well with the image. And you know what? We all remember his name and that’s exactly what he’s going for to get real estate leads differently
Volunteer with the Church
Provided it lines up with your belief and whether or not you are supportive of it, getting involved with any of the local churches in your community is also very beneficial for getting new clients in real estate. Some realtors will be quite keen to be extensively involved because they are already a member of the church, but even realtors who aren’t especially religious can promote themselves through it.
One idea that we know of is a realtor who sends 48 assorted donuts to his local church every Sunday morning. One the inside of each of the 4 boxes of 12 there is his business card, and then a stack of the cards next to each box. This is another example of creative things you can do to generate real estate leads, and there’s so many of creative and thoughtful ways of doing that.
