I’ve been selling real estate for over eight years now and have had the privilege of observing both successful and unsuccessful Realtors. I have worked in the same office with and have been involved in transactions with some of the top producers in my area.

One thing I have observed about their business is that their lead generation is mostly systematic. Not all of them receive their leads the same way but the big producers have built up a consistent lead generation system where most of their clients contact them. Of course, there are successful Realtors who are out door knocking and cold calling but the largest producers seem to be chased and not chasing.

Where to Get Leads?

There are many ways to “skin a cat”. Realtors can farm geographic areas, build a web presence, advertise in print, use direct mail, purchase leads, or network with their sphere of influence. All of the avenues can lead to success. You just have to decide which of them work best for you. Non computer savvy Realtors barely know how to turn on a computer so they might not be suited to focus on the web. A new agent with few contacts may find it difficult to live off of their sphere of influence. There are very successful agents out there in virtually every market using one or all of these avenues to garner leads. If you do just one of these extremely well you will generate plenty of leads.

Goal: Be Chased, Don’t Be Chasing

If you have been in the business long enough you have probably cold called or door knocked. Some love it while the majority of the agents I speak with generally do not. Your ultimate goal as a Realtor is

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It goes without saying that anyone in sales should track their leads: Where they’re coming from, how much they cost, and how many close.

Why is this so important?

If you’re spending $500/month on a lead source, and you only close one deal per year from that source, then you paid $6,000 to close one deal. If the lead source provided you a $1MM closing, then it was definitely worth it. If, however, the closing was a $250k home, then your money is probably better spent elsewhere.

While detailed lead tracking is always a great idea, it can become a bit complicated, unless you have sophisticated software to help you with the process. However, tracking return on investment is relatively easy, and is a great place to start tracking leads, if you haven’t already.

If you’re a real estate broker, manage a team of agents or a solo agent, the first step is to itemize your lead sources.

Common sources include referrals, sign calls, ad calls, purchased leads, and web leads. It’s a very good idea to be as detailed as possible when categorizing lead sources. If you purchase leads from multiple sources, you obviously want to know how much each source produces.

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Last week FrogPond.com launched FrogPond TV, a marketing tool (great for real estate professionals) that keeps the viewer informed on current business topics in a concise and enjoyable format.

Susie Hale, founder of FrogPond.com and wife of Bob Hale of the innovative Houston MLS caught up with Louis Cammarosano at Inman Real Estate Connect San Francisco last month for an interview that would accompany their kick off announcement of their new product, FrogPond TV. During the interview, Louis talks about the pre-launch of Homegain’s AgentView that was released earlier this week.

Here’s the FrogPond TV interview with Louis Cammarosano:

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I recently read an excellent article published by Baylor University, “Lead Generation: What Really Works”, which articulately discusses lead generation. The three categories the writers included in this article were lead generation, conversion of the lead to an appointment, and closure of the appointment to a transaction.

One of the studies I found particularly interesting was finding out the extent that real estate agents and brokers take to keep records of their lead generation efforts. And for those who keep records, how detailed the records are that they keep.

For “conversion to appointment” only 23% of the respondents reported their records as Moderately Detailed or Extremely Detailed. With a mere 32% reporting moderately or extremely detailed for “closure to a transaction”.
With a reported 17% of the respondents marketing budget allocated on the Internet or Website activities, unfortunately, or fortunately for us, the online world remains this big black hole. And, without keeping detailed records, it shall likely remain this ominous, monstrosity, money pit for many but it doesn’t need to be this way.

HomeGain’s BuyerLink does a great job of tracking your advertising budget. I’ve been using BuyerLink for years now. The concept is that it’s up to you to keep on tracking your results from the initial lead generation, to conversion through close.

Regardless of your preferred marketing method, they discuss how are you attracting your leads? Are you “seeking” or “attracting” your leads? In today’s tough market the survey results reflected that more seek oriented (60/40) for highest lead conversion in a tough market.

Of the leads generated 58% were buyers and 42% sellers. Many brokers, including myself, consider home buyers a premium in this Continue reading this post

One of the things that I find fascinating in the real estate business are referral fees. I hear REALTORS upset about them and always trying to lower them. I know, with the financial pressures of today’s market, this may sound weird, but I LIKE THEM.

Before you throw something at the screen, let me explain.

In today’s buyer’s market, EVERY buyer side that you have is a result of someone or something. It is the result of a marketing channel that you have invested in. Maybe it is your internet presence. Maybe it is HomeGain. Maybe it was the time you spent on a press release that attracted a buyer or investor. Maybe it was a radio ad.

Whatever it was, you invested in it in one way or the other. I find it amusing that REALTORS often do not pay THEMSELVES a REFERRAL FEE and use it to build up their market presence.

Even if you invested time instead of money into your lead that turned into a buyer, the only way to get more time is to eventually use some of that money to buy back the time either in that market channel or in another one that you deem will generate more ROI.

How do I know this works? Our brokerage did it.

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The problem with online marketing for real estate professionals is the reality that learning online marketing has little to do with real estate practice. Remarkablogger confirms one of real estate’s online marketing principal missions – lead generation and conversion.

If visitors don’t take actions that result in profits, you are wasting your time.
You can do all the SEO work you like, but if nothing happens when visitors show up, you did it for nothing. You can pay tons of money in advertising, and you have thrown away every penny if nobody buys anything or signs up for your newsletter. You can write comments on other blogs and work through social media to attract visitors, but if those visitors just bounce right back out of your site without doing what you want, you’re leaving money on the table.

Mastering the tricks and vagaries of effective online lead generation are beyond the scope of 99% of real estate professionals. The industry knows this, and online real estate applications have historically aimed to simplify or automate online marketing presence for agents: Continue reading this post