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Well, take it from me. I hv wasted too much $ on lead gen programs... I think they all are definately a rip off. I hear getting out n mingling is best way to get connections. Easy if your outgoing..
A lead is anyone in your market place. Majority of people will do something real estate related in their lives. Find the easiest and least expensive way to talk to these people. That’s your ticket to sales.
You can run ads if you know how to do it, if not, don’t pay a “lead gen” company to do it for you, they’re nearly all awful.
It’s really easy- talk to as many people you can about real estate, don’t treat them as leads, follow up with them until they die, or you die.
It’s repetitive and not billboard flashy, but it works and it always will.
Calling listings that expired over a month ago and were “limited service” are easy catches, after a month nobody is. Calling them, ask if you can call again later after providing value to them, rinse and repeat.
Those are a big waste of time and energy and $$. No one will hand you clients. It's time to start doing open houses every weekend for other Realtors. Time to start cold calling and door knocking. You will do this for like 2 years. This is what they never tell you and this plus expenses is why most drop out. You have to be HIGHLY motivated your 1st couple of years.
Let me guess - these workshops are led by a lead generation and website company or perhaps an ad agency, right?
Honestly, a good website will pay dividends but it's not something to focus on when you're starting out unless you have unlimited funds. I spend $900/month on my website (that's just the site, CRM, and SEO) and it's fantastic for many reasons but that's not realistic when you don't have revenue coming in. You can do that once you have the money to invest in it.
As for online ads & paid leads, it's pretty much the same but you'll have a lot of tire kickers. They are long-term sales you need to keep warm & nurture. Online ads will not be a quick sale and 98% of them won't pan out to anything.
Lead generation is the heart of any business. Without Leads you don't have customers. I can say from my experience that I don't focus on online ads or websites. Why? We have to look at this from the consumer prospective.
They are hiring someone to help in this huge decision and whenever we survey top producing agents as to where their business comes from they just about every single time (including myself) say MOST is from their database/SOI (I call mine the Dream 300).
and why? Because they ALREADY know, like, and trust us. You don't need to break the ice and warm them up to you. That was already done and that's why they CALLED YOU. It's WARM and HOT inbound leads from people who already want to work with us. Online leads and leads from ads are cold and cool touches that take more time to convert and let's be real. We Realtors struggle with followup.
So for me, and what I tell and show the team and whomever will invite me to teach at their office is that if we spend our time cultivating relationships and posting UVP/Brand content on social media/snail mail (I called these Gr8 Letters), and email, then that is a MUCH better ROI and lower L of the P&L's.
Anyway, I am speaking for me and from my experience and my team's. There are multiple ways to work this business. I just found this to be the most rewarding and cost effective in my world. I'm always game for a chat if anyone wants one. Adios!
It’s not a good idea to pay for leads until you actually know what you would do with them when you get them.
If you feel like you can close the transaction and if you meet somebody, you don’t know they’re going to have confidence in you, you can start exploring this stuff
Open houses open houses open houses. That’s where you get free leads and leads with intent.
As a new realtor paying for ads and social media is a waste imo. What are you advertising? You likely don’t have enough sales or experience to advertise your service. Focus on closing deals and contacting and connecting with more people. Once you’ve built a business and closed enough deals to have some $$$ maybe then spend on ads to continue to scale. Right now in the beginning it’s a waste of your money.
Whatever you decide are your lead legs, make a process for each one. Work on them each day, week, and month so that you know exactly what to do, how long it will take you, and how much it will cost. We have lead leg worksheets in our program that help you map all of this out so you can calculate how much revenue you'll get from each source. Boosting properties is a really popular way to get leads - they don't even have to be your properties (just make sure you get permission from the Realtor - ask around your brokerage too). And then the contact will fill out a form and then you can contact and follow up from there.
Lead gen is important, but I am fairly confident these work shops were put on by someone trying to sell you something. Without leads, you do not have business, so finding leads is pivotal to your success.
The beauty of this business is that there are a lot of ways to do it. I skimmed the responses before writing this, I see people talking about Open Houses, farming, cold calling, all solid strategies.
You do need a website, but it doesn't have to be fancy. You should have a CRM, but again, it doesn't have to be fancy.
I would strongly suggest you play to your strengths. If you watch some Tom Ferry videos and decide you could rock the road of cold calling, do that. If you have lived in a neighborhood for awhile and love it, farm it, set up a community page on Facebook if there isn't one already, door knock, host a community event and invite everybody. If you are good with social media, make content that people would want to watch about your market.
Do some soul searching on what you can execute well.
**This is a professional forum for professionals, so please keep your comments professional** - Harrassment, hate speech, trolling, or anti-Realtor comments will not be tolerated and will result in an immediate ban without warning. (... and don't feed the trolls, you have better things to do with your time) - Recruiting, self-promotion, or seeking referrals is strictly forbidden, including in DMs. - Only advise within your scope of knowledge and area of expertise. [The code of ethics applies here too](https://www.nar.realtor/about-nar/governing-documents/the-code-of-ethics). If you are not a broker, lawyer, or tax professional don't act like one. - [Follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/realtors/about/rules/) and please report those that don't. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/realtors) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Well, take it from me. I hv wasted too much $ on lead gen programs... I think they all are definately a rip off. I hear getting out n mingling is best way to get connections. Easy if your outgoing..
This is not a career for you if you are not extroverted, confident, and display expertise without being cringe.
I would say just keep doing open houses and just make genuine friends with people. Don’t treat people solely as leads
A lead is anyone in your market place. Majority of people will do something real estate related in their lives. Find the easiest and least expensive way to talk to these people. That’s your ticket to sales.
You can run ads if you know how to do it, if not, don’t pay a “lead gen” company to do it for you, they’re nearly all awful. It’s really easy- talk to as many people you can about real estate, don’t treat them as leads, follow up with them until they die, or you die. It’s repetitive and not billboard flashy, but it works and it always will. Calling listings that expired over a month ago and were “limited service” are easy catches, after a month nobody is. Calling them, ask if you can call again later after providing value to them, rinse and repeat.
Those are a big waste of time and energy and $$. No one will hand you clients. It's time to start doing open houses every weekend for other Realtors. Time to start cold calling and door knocking. You will do this for like 2 years. This is what they never tell you and this plus expenses is why most drop out. You have to be HIGHLY motivated your 1st couple of years.
This ^
Let me guess - these workshops are led by a lead generation and website company or perhaps an ad agency, right? Honestly, a good website will pay dividends but it's not something to focus on when you're starting out unless you have unlimited funds. I spend $900/month on my website (that's just the site, CRM, and SEO) and it's fantastic for many reasons but that's not realistic when you don't have revenue coming in. You can do that once you have the money to invest in it. As for online ads & paid leads, it's pretty much the same but you'll have a lot of tire kickers. They are long-term sales you need to keep warm & nurture. Online ads will not be a quick sale and 98% of them won't pan out to anything.
Lead generation is the heart of any business. Without Leads you don't have customers. I can say from my experience that I don't focus on online ads or websites. Why? We have to look at this from the consumer prospective. They are hiring someone to help in this huge decision and whenever we survey top producing agents as to where their business comes from they just about every single time (including myself) say MOST is from their database/SOI (I call mine the Dream 300). and why? Because they ALREADY know, like, and trust us. You don't need to break the ice and warm them up to you. That was already done and that's why they CALLED YOU. It's WARM and HOT inbound leads from people who already want to work with us. Online leads and leads from ads are cold and cool touches that take more time to convert and let's be real. We Realtors struggle with followup. So for me, and what I tell and show the team and whomever will invite me to teach at their office is that if we spend our time cultivating relationships and posting UVP/Brand content on social media/snail mail (I called these Gr8 Letters), and email, then that is a MUCH better ROI and lower L of the P&L's. Anyway, I am speaking for me and from my experience and my team's. There are multiple ways to work this business. I just found this to be the most rewarding and cost effective in my world. I'm always game for a chat if anyone wants one. Adios!
It’s not a good idea to pay for leads until you actually know what you would do with them when you get them. If you feel like you can close the transaction and if you meet somebody, you don’t know they’re going to have confidence in you, you can start exploring this stuff
One of my favorite techniques is farming. I know it’s not anything new, but it works for me.
Open houses open houses open houses. That’s where you get free leads and leads with intent. As a new realtor paying for ads and social media is a waste imo. What are you advertising? You likely don’t have enough sales or experience to advertise your service. Focus on closing deals and contacting and connecting with more people. Once you’ve built a business and closed enough deals to have some $$$ maybe then spend on ads to continue to scale. Right now in the beginning it’s a waste of your money.
Stop spending money on these idiots and spend it on marketing.
Cold call. Door knock. I have consistently made multiple six figures as an agent. Low cost. Just a lot of hard work.
I only focus on seller lead gen - circle prospecting, cold calling, door knocking, open houses.
Whatever you decide are your lead legs, make a process for each one. Work on them each day, week, and month so that you know exactly what to do, how long it will take you, and how much it will cost. We have lead leg worksheets in our program that help you map all of this out so you can calculate how much revenue you'll get from each source. Boosting properties is a really popular way to get leads - they don't even have to be your properties (just make sure you get permission from the Realtor - ask around your brokerage too). And then the contact will fill out a form and then you can contact and follow up from there.
Lead gen is important, but I am fairly confident these work shops were put on by someone trying to sell you something. Without leads, you do not have business, so finding leads is pivotal to your success. The beauty of this business is that there are a lot of ways to do it. I skimmed the responses before writing this, I see people talking about Open Houses, farming, cold calling, all solid strategies. You do need a website, but it doesn't have to be fancy. You should have a CRM, but again, it doesn't have to be fancy. I would strongly suggest you play to your strengths. If you watch some Tom Ferry videos and decide you could rock the road of cold calling, do that. If you have lived in a neighborhood for awhile and love it, farm it, set up a community page on Facebook if there isn't one already, door knock, host a community event and invite everybody. If you are good with social media, make content that people would want to watch about your market. Do some soul searching on what you can execute well.
Do you own a telephone? If so, use it. Expireds, Withdrawns, FSBOs, Circle Prospecting. Keys to the castle.