Some FORCE agents are inundated with so many Internet leads, it eliminates their need for cold calls.
With Zillow, Trulia, Facebook, and all kinds of virtual home tours; the highly personal world of real estate is becoming increasingly virtual and inundated with an ever- increasing need for speed.
Among all the places to find leads—both real-world and virtual— we asked some of our members where they are capturing meaningful leads.
Where to Capture Meaningful Leads
» Word of mouth—“By providing the most outstanding customer service to our current clients, we hope they feel con dent in referring us to their family and friends,” says Todd Sullivan, Managing Broker at 509 Properties in Spokane, Washington. Tracy Peltier, Associate Broker at 3 Tier Real Estate, LLC, in Sterling Heights, Michigan, also relies heavily on word of mouth and the reputation she has built in her community over her 13 years in real estate.
» Repeat business—Jennifer Ruspini of Ruspini Realty in West- port, Connecticut, says many of her clients are repeat business.
» Cold calls—Cold calls are alive and well at some offices. Sullivan and his team of three listing agents together make about 120 cold calls per week. They also engage in some good old-fashioned door knocking.
» Open houses—Sullivan’s team also holds about two to three open houses each week to meet new clients.
» Online—Michael Morris with William Raveis Real Estate in Ridgefield, Connecticut, says, “Our biggest thing is we really believe in Internet advertising.” His team posts to 50 of the top 60 real estate websites. Sullivan and Peltier also post regularly to their websites, top real estate websites, and Facebook. When Peltier posts to her website, it automatically filters her listings out to 300 other websites.
Pursuing the Online Lead
It goes without saying that posting listings online is now standard for most real estate agents. With 36 million unique visitors each month, Zillow is an essential part of the real estate world; and for agents who are prepared to capture online leads, the Internet can be a substantial source of new business.
Posting to 50 of the top 60 real estate websites certainly seems to be paying off for Morris, who says online leads make up about 70 percent of his leads. The other 30 percent, he says, come by phone.
In fact, Morris says, “We get more than enough leads coming in, so we don’t need to cold call.”
“We average about 25 Internet leads per day; it’s constant,” Morris says, adding, “It’s even more on the weekends, and that’s when a lot of people staff down.”
Morris makes sure his team is up and running over the weekends, and he requires one of his four buyers’ agents be in the office at all times, “so we always have an agent on duty who can speak intelligently to buyers.”
Sullivan takes a similar approach with his team of agents. “Each agent signs up for floor on average for three shifts per week,” he says. “ They answer calls on our listings and also generate new clients from our website.”
Don’t Let Your Leads Pass You By
“Timeliness is next to godliness on these leads,” Morris says. “If you don’t get back to them in an hour, they will move on.”
According to an article on Placester, 30 to 50 percent of sales go to the agent who responds first.
With more and more prospective homebuyers starting their home searches online, it is imperative agents be there to meet them. The earlier an agent can interact with a homebuyer, the more likely that homebuyer is to work with him or her and actually purchase a home through him or her.
Interested in learning more about the most popular real estate websites? Take a look at this list of the 15 most popular sites.