Generally speaking you’re going to be pretty good at what you do if you garner any degree of acclaim for it, and here at Real Estate Leads our online real estate lead generation system has a very long list of realtors who are ready to speak of just how helpful the system has been in helping them generate new leads. Some of whom become new clientele for their real estate business, and while that part of it is up to you the leads we provide are a genuine opportunity to be first-in-touch with people who are ready to make a move in your local real estate market.
And of course the important part of all of that is having the opportunity to do that before other realtors – your competition – become aware of them. Make no mistake about it – real estate is as much of a dog-eat-dog business as any and there are more realtors than there are slices of the pie to go around at all times and pretty much anywhere that you might be working as a realtor. So it is fair to say that we are indeed good at what we do and so with this blog entry we’re going to stay in the lane we know best – talking about real estate leads, and specifically with a focus on lead generations strategies that exist outside of the bounds of Internet marketing principles.
Save for number one on this list of best real estate lead generation strategies at least. Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and get the advantage for yourself and immediately see why using a real estate lead generation service IS at the top of the list here.
1. Subscribe to a Real Estate Lead Generation Service
Generating leads via free, organic strategies is still going to be preferable for many agents. But using a real estate lead generation service like ours can save you time by reliably providing you with the names and contact information of genuine potential buyers and sellers. We know that it is easy and legit to be skeptical of whether these services work, but the fact of the matter is that they do. Without going into too much detail these leads come from recipients who voluntarily participate in online surveys about real estate activity in their area, and depending on how they submit info then they may become a real estate lead.
There is more to it than that – actually quite a bit more – but all you will really likely want to know is that the leads are genuine. They are, and if they weren’t there wouldn’t be so many realtors who have stayed with our service for many years now. Which is exactly the case with Real Estate Leads.
2. Work Within Your Sphere of Influence
Your sphere of influence, or SOI, can be more simply referred to as all of the people you know. From family, friends, and colleagues to every acquaintance – professional or otherwise – that you have. This group can be an incredibly resourceful place to get real estate leads, both from your actual connections and from their contacts and referrals. But you need to be reaching out regularly. Maybe this can be through a text, a short, personal email, or even through Facebook Messenger or an Instagram direct message. Don’t be too pushy in asking for leads, but don’t be overly meek and unobtrusive about it either.
The best maxim here is to connect with people on a people-level first. If it leads to business, that’s great but also don’t concern yourself if not much comes of it.
3. Host as Many Open Houses As You Can
An open house is a face-to-face audition made for potential new clients, and whether they might be buying that home or perhaps working with you for the purchase of a different one. It is an excellent opportunity to meet someone face-to-face and doing so within the realm of the business itself and having their interests aligning with yours inherently.
When an agent opens a property to the public for a specific time, potential buyers can tour the open house without an appointment. Anyone who walks through the door is a potential lead. The value of open houses and interacting extensively with guests can’t be stated strongly enough.
4. Do Neighborhood Farming
Farming for real estate leads means putting the bulk of your focus on a particular area or neighborhood to increase your name recognition there more explicitly. This is doable through targeted marketing and community involvement. When your name is out there, you increase the chance that when someone comes to be in need of an agent then they will call you. Provided you’ve made the right impression on them of course.
Sending out any and all types of physical marketing collateral is good in the same way it always has been, but if you prefer a more automated approach, Offrs.com and SmartZip offer predictive analytics tools to find the next big real estate market to focus on.
5. Build a Social Media Presence
Building an audience on social media isn’t easy, and especially for anyone who is not social media savvy. That includes most older realtors for sure, but the effort is definitely worth it. With a strategic social media marketing plan, you can increase your reach and create a profile that displays your expertise to potential leads as soon as they click on your name. The know, like, and trust factors that can be built through social media marketing for real estate have so much value and the type of value that is really long lasting. LinkedIn is a must for realtors, but a realtor Facebook Page and one for Instagram too are great ideas.
6. Embrace Networking
Networking in the most simple sense is so beneficial for generating leads for real estate, and it’s especially effective with the way it goes hand in hand with building your SOI. But with networking you are focusing more on connections for the express purpose of building your business and so more person-to-person networking strategies are going to be needed.
You can also make efforts to be in places where people gather. You might become active with your alumni associations, join a committee at your children’s school, volunteer with a local charity, or attend fundraisers. It is smart to review market data and trends before going to an event so that you are armed to answer any questions and to show your expertise. Dress well and remember to wrap it up if that’s the way it progresses.
7. Maximize Your Website’s Search Engine Optimization
People – and all people for that matter – use the Internet to search for real estate agents available locally if they don’t already have one in mind. Your website’s SEO will determine whether or not your site comes up on the first page of the SERPS – search engine result pages if you don’t know the acronym. If you have no idea whether or not your website is SEO optimized then it is 200% worth it to pay someone to take care of that for you. Whatever it costs you will be recouped in no time at all with a greater volume of real estate business because clients found you as the realtor via a Google search or something similar.
8. Take Advantage of Targeted Messages & Mailers
Targeted mailing puts a pinpoint focus on people who meet specific criteria, like homeowners who own certain types of homes or any other type of specific criteria that might connect to certain type of client base that you would like to have more of and see a legit opportunity to make that happen. Using these approaches can allow you to reach even more potential clients than you can through networking alone. You can and should learn more about direct mail, email marketing, bulk text messages and there’s a whole lot more with targeted advertising that you should get on top of as soon as you can in order to promote yourself as a real estate agent.
9. Be Generous with Agent-to-Agent Referrals
Likely needs no explanation here, but if it does this is when you connect another agent in a different market with one of your connections. When that referral is made and they then close a deal there is always the professional expectation in this business that you will be paid a percentage of that commission. It will work the opposite way too.
Long story short, if you are a generous with these referrals you will curry the favour of other realtors in a big way and they’ll be happy to reciprocate and be even more likely to feed you even more potential new clientele who may be ready to buy or sell homes in the area where you are working as a real estate agent. And yes, that may mean sending you ones that they might be splitting with another realtor in any other scenario where you haven’t been generous in this way.
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Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and receive a monthly quota of qualified, online-generated buyer and / or seller leads delivered to you exclusively. You receive them and are the only one to do so, and what that does is give you first crack at being in touch with these folks and presenting yourself as the real estate professional they need to be assisting them with the purchase or sale of a home so that they maximize their satisfaction with the new home or what they’re able to get for the sale of one. It works very well, and you can read our testimonials section to see what other realtors like you have to say about how it’s benefited them.
