Should You Buy Real Estate Leads?

Real estate leads are the lifeblood of your career. They are where all of your business ultimately stems from. At Smart Sales Coaching, we help our clients transform into lead conversion ninjas that can take any old lead mix and turn it into pure gold. But before you can convert any real estate leads, you need to generate them.

There are various lead sources that agents and ISAs can work, some require money, others just good old fashioned door-knocking. The question a lot of real estate agents have is, should they purchase lists of real estate leads?

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons.

Why Agents Purchase Real Estate Leads

Buying real estate leads is an attractive route for a lot of agents, especially new agents just starting out. The primary benefit is that you get instant business opportunities. You have a list that you can immediately start calling through. You also have a more predictable lead cost when compared to other methods, like paid advertising, because you are paying for a specific number of leads. Purchasing real estate leads can also help diversify your lead sources if you use it as just one strategy among several.

The Drawbacks of Buying Real Estate Leads

Although there are some benefits, there are some significant downsides to purchasing real estate leads:

• High cost – When you buy leads from a marketplace or a site like Zillow, it can get very pricey, very quickly. The cost can easily range as high as $20 to $80 per lead. Marketplace websites are just middlemen who want to make as much of a profit as possible, and you pay the price for it.
• Inconsistent quality – Purchased real estate leads could be solid, but they also may not even be real. You can often get fake names and fake phone numbers tossed into the mix, because there isn’t a huge incentive for providers to thoroughly vet the lists.
• You may be competing with other real estate agents – Lead providers will often make the contacts available to multiple agents, meaning you are going to be up against some serious competition for each lead that you paid so much for.

What’s the Alternative?

Buying real estate leads can work, but it should be done very cautiously and only as a part of a wider lead generation strategy. The more important part of your strategy should be to build your brand and your reputation, so you have leads coming to you. Inbound real estate leads are the gold standard and can be cultivated through:

• A solid organic social media presence: post market updates, current listings, client stories, and information on your area.
• A paid social media strategy: run ads on Facebook and other platforms featuring videos of things like the top neighborhoods and trends in your area, client success stories, and the unique value you bring to the table.
• Regularly send out emails: let people in your database know about current listings and trends to encourage them to buy or sell with you.

The money you invest in building a positive, effective online presence will likely be money better spent in the long run compared purchasing lists of unverified real estate leads. But it’s not just about creating inbound leads; you can also reach out to potential business in your area.

• Expireds
• For sale by owners
• Withdrawn
• Past clients and people in your sphere

No Matter Which Real Estate Leads You Work, You Need Solid Sales Skills

Whether you’re buying leads, creating inbound leads, talking to referrals, or calling expired listings, you still have to convince that person that you are the agent who can help them achieve their goals. For that, you need to have excellent conversation skills and outstanding sales capabilities.

And it just so happens…that’s exactly what we help real estate agents and ISAs cultivate here at Smart Sales Coaching. Click here to check out our programs.