In business, a lead is a qualified prospect that is expressing interest in buying whatever you are selling. It could be anyone from a homebuyer, an investor, or even a company.
In real estate, generating leads is every agent’s number one priority.
Leads are perhaps the most integral part of real estate. They convert into customers, which in turn leads to profit. They promote career growth and provide the key to success.
Now, the real estate industry can become unpredictable, which means you could be flooding with clients one moment and desperately looking for one the next. Here lies the importance of having a healthy pipeline of leads.
But how exactly do you generate leads when you’re relatively new in the industry?
Here are 7 ideas for generating real estate leads for new agents.
Start with family and friends
When you’re a new real estate agent, you’ve got to start with what you have. Chances are you have family members, relatives, or friends who would love to do business with you. Make a list of prospects from your inner circle and begin branching out from there.
You can reach out to them in person or by the old-school method of cold calling. Tell them that you are newly licensed and are currently looking for clients. You will find that most of them would be happy to help you reach out to other prospects.
Advertise on the Internet
In this day and age, almost everyone is connected online, so you must leverage the Internet to advertise. The Internet is a powerful platform, and its wide reach can be highly beneficial to your career.
You can invest in paid online advertising. This increases your visibility without you having to go places to promote your services. Advertising allows your prospects to reach out to you by responding to your ads instead of the other way around.
You can also be completely organic. You can join forums such as Quora and answer real estate-related questions. Or perhaps you can focus on advertising via social media.
Take advantage of social media
With today’s social media craze, you can easily promote your services for free on different networking platforms.
Generating leads through social media platforms can be fun and exciting. You don’t have to stick to rules; you can be completely carefree and creative.
In platforms like Tiktok and Snapchat for example, you can create useful, value-adding, yet humorous videos that can easily catch your prospects’ attention.
You can also take advantage of Facebook ads. However, if you’re on a tight budget, you can join private or public groups that allow you to connect with potential clients and keep you on top of industry and market trends.
If you’re looking into a younger population of prospects, Instagram might just be the best idea. It is an underlooked source of lead potentials, which comprise mostly of millennials. The platform’s algorithm is a little bit tricky, though, so do your research.
Offer free real estate advice
When you’re new to real estate, generating leads may be frustrating. Given the tough competition, it might be challenging to find prospects especially when you’re inexperienced.
You have to show them your potential. One of the best ways to do this is by offering free real estate advice.
You could do it in a coffee shop or at a restaurant you are a regular at. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll receive perks for bringing in extra customers for them? You can also offer professional real estate advice virtually via video conferencing applications such as Zoom.
Find FSBO listings
Another lead-generating method you can do is reaching out to FSBO listings. FSBO stands for “for sale by owner”, which means the owner is trying to sell the property without engaging the services of an agent.
FSBO listings typically sell for less than properties handled by real estate agents. It is often time-consuming and difficult for owners, which is why they get tired and eventually turn to agents for help.
Once you find FSBO listings, reach out to the owners and tell them how you can help them save time and effort by offering your services. In the end, it will be a win-win for you both.
Explore expired listings and divorce leads
Like FSBOs, expired listings are a great way to generate leads, too.
Expired listings, especially ones that are over a year old, usually mean disheartened owners. They are probably frustrated with their current agent and are under a lot of stress. At some point, they will want to sell, so where’s the harm in reaching out to them and offering help?
Divorce leads are another untapped market that many agents are now turning their attention to. If there’s a property any owner would want to sell with as much urgency as possible, it’s one with a court order. Working divorce leads could even be the perfect niche for you to focus on.
Referrals
Finally, the best, completely free way to generate leads is by gaining referrals from your satisfied customers. When you cultivate relationships, you are essentially expanding your network.
According to studies, at least 90% of clients re-engage the services of their previous agents or recommend them to their family and friends.
Referrals may not come by easily for new agents, but do not fret. When you nurture existing clients and earn their trust by keeping in contact with them, you are basically setting yourself up for success.
Conclusion
Zig Ziglar, a famous American salesman, and motivational speaker, once said that you’re out of business once you’re out of prospects. Leads are the foundation of any business, not just real estate. Without them, there will be no sales, no profits, and no business at all.
Therefore, generating leads should be your main focus. Yes, there may be other ways to boost business profitability, but in the end, it all comes down to what or who keeps your business going - clients. So get ahead of the curve, and earn quality leads.
To be sure, these ideas won’t promise you hundreds of leads coming in. It can be tough out there. But we can say this - if you don’t do anything, then you can’t expect leads to just come in.