Many real estate agents complain about online consumers creating leads which contain bad information, leads which cannot be pursued, a.k.a. “bogus leads”.

This is no doubt the case a large percentage of the time. However, it seems that recognizing a “good” lead has become clouded by the expectation that online leads are all “bogus”. By this, I mean that, in many cases, when an agent receives a new internet lead, they already feel that it is not worth the effort to follow up.

Is this simply a case of recognizing what constitutes a good lead? How much consumer information is needed for a lead to be considered “good”? In our estimation and in keeping with online consumers’ behavior, only minimal information is required or should be demanded or expected. Most online consumers do not want to work hard to get to where they want to go.

Whether this is accessing the MLS on your website or requesting assistance with their current real estate situation, most consumers do not want to be forced to divulge too much information until they feel comfortable doing so. If you come away with the consumer’s name and a valid email address through the consumer’s first experience with you or your web site, that is all you really need to get started turning them into a “good” prospect. Continue reading this post

I’ve been online tonight reading a lot of different views on Internet Leads.  I keep hearing and reading the same complaint.  “Internet leads are no good because I don’t want to chase the business.”  “They are never serious buyers.”   “I would rather work on referrals and networking”.

It’s interesting because in some ways, not much as changed since I got into Real Estate back in 2001.  I was told then by everyone, don’t waste your money or time on Internet Leads.  As I look back, all of those real estate agents who told me that either never had more than a half dozen sales per year, or are no longer in business today.

So let’s talk for a minute about what they call “chasing the Internet Lead”.

Firstly, chasing and prospecting can be interchanged.  If you are going to make money in this business, you need to understand that prospecting is a major part of this business, at least for those who are successful.  I recently attended a seminar in Las Vegas that had 4,200 Agents attending.  I had talked to probably 50 Agents that sell between 50 and 150 homes per year.  They all had one thing in common: they all prospect daily.  Therefore, they are successful because of the amount of prospecting they do on a daily basis.

So what does this have to do with Internet Leads? Continue reading this post

How do you increase business in 2010?

Listen to the experts! Here is your chance to ask a panel of real estate experts questions specific to your business.  Send your questions in advance (via this blog in comments or via email), and ask more questions during the call!

Learning how to drastically improve your business is just a phone call away.

REGISTER NOW

Topic: “Gearing Up for 2010 – What REALTORS® Need To Do Now”

When: Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Time: 9am – 10am Pacific / 12pm – 1pm Eastern

Meet The Experts:

• Eric Pakulla, RE/MAX Advantage Realty, Maryland: “Mastering Internet Lead Conversion”
• Chris Tesch, ABR, E-Pro, RE/MAX Bryan College Station, Texas: “Propelling Business Through Technology”
• Patrick Kitano, Domus Consulting Group and Transparent Real Estate Blog, California: Expert For: “Social Networking Best Practices”

Learn more about the experts

See you on Tuesday!

I thought it would be worthwhile to show agents, particularly HomeGain BuyerLink and AgentEvaluator members, some true stats of Internet leads (from one Realtor to another).

My goal in gathering this data was to discover  home buyer tendencies.  I randomly took 100 of our sales this year to come up with the following stats.

I figured it’s roughly 50% of our sales this year and would be a great sampling.

The main findings were the following:

Average Number of Days to Purchase: 180.5 days

Quickest Sale: 5 days

Longest Sale: 539 days

(Last year we had approximately 20 sales from leads that were from the year 2004.)

Number of Closed Leads with Phone Numbers: 88

Number of Closed Leads with no Phone Number: 12

(This is a tough number to quantify as many of our Agents put the phone numbers in the CRM once they have obtained it.  When I worked on this stat two years ago, we were at 25% of our sales came from leads with no phone number.  I believe we are most likely still around that level.)

Continue reading this post

HomeGain hosted its third “Ask The Experts” live real estate forum last week. With a new format that allowed more question time for participants, HomeGain.com received dozens of questions directed at the experts before the session began, and many more during the call.

The panel of experts were:

• Barry Karch of Prudential BKB Realtors in El Paso, Texas, who answered questions about ”Generating New Business From The Internet”
• Mitch Ribakof eHomes Realty Network in Melbourne, Florida, who covered “Converting Leads Into Clients”
• Carl Medford of Windermere Properties of the East Bay, in San Francisco Bay Area in California, who spoke about the ”Essentials of Being A Virtual Agent”

Listen to this valuable 40-minute real estate call:

Continue reading this post

SO… it’s official. We’re finally in a depression. You think? And it took our government telling us to know it? Truth is, most Realtors I know have already been in a depression for a LONG time. At least now the government agrees with them. It’s a small consolation to some, I’m sure.

So now what? You could:

• Go out and run up a credit card debt SO large the government will have to bail you out to keep VISA from going out of business.
• Go and buy a larger tub -– you’re already taking a bath, why not invite some friends to join you?
• Go and sell your house on the San Francisco Peninsula and with the proceeds, buy an entire Midwestern state and set yourself up as a ruling monarch.

On a serious note, times like this define a Realtor, and can help break them out of mediocrity. There ARE Realtors out there (other than REO listing agents) who are actually doing well in the current market. They’ve taken the time to build systems into their business which continue to bring a steady flow of prospects.

As any successful Realtor knows, you cannot depend upon one stream of business –- like a stool, you need at least three legs to properly support your business strategy.

Here are 5 things you can do right now to ensure that your business has the foundation it needs to succeed: Continue reading this post