I got into real estate not too long ago, I need leads and I am considering online lead generation. What should I do?
** Warning, I say a lot before I actually give you the advice, it’s all great info so you should read all of it, but in case you want to just get to the point, skip to the part in bold “My advice to new agents”.
I’ve been doing online marketing since the day Google started Google AdWords. Over the years I’ve spent over $40 Million on search engine & social media marketing.
Ohhh and one more thing you need to know about me. I hate lies, with a passion. So know that what I am about to say is me being very very straight with you. I will never tell you what you want to hear, you need to hear it all.
So… The first thing I need to say is: If you are looking for pre-qualified leads that are ready to buy/sell/rent without you having to go sift through a bunch of leads and spend a good amount of time talking to them. You should stop reading this. This isn’t for you. You will not find these types of leads online.
… Unless you have an Inside Sales Agent (ISA) that’s highly qualified to be able to talk to online leads and they spend the time by sifting through a bunch of leads and talking to them to pre-qualify them for you.
Alright. Now that we got that out of the way.
There are a ton of reviews BOTH positive and negative about online real estate leads.
So what’s the deal, why does it work for some but it doesn’t work for others?
It could be a variety of things.
Common Reasons why online leads don’t work for some people:
1. Mindset - If you get into this thinking that every lead is garbage you will not be able to do a good enough job with qualification to try and find the good ones. The thing is that most online leads are just garbage, it’s your job to find ones that are not.
2. Budget/Timeframe - Not giving it enough time and not getting enough leads. When it comes to buyer/seller leads a good number is 100 leads. 1 out of a 100 (1% will work out).
3. Saying the wrong things - Training is important. At AgentLocator we have a whole course dedicated to training you to understand what to say to the leads and how to say it. We have spent thousands of dollars putting our training material together. Here is a link to it if you want to take it. (We give it away free)
4. The leads - There is a good chance that you get 100 leads and you still don’t convert anything. Think about it, these leads are not out there searching for an agent to help them buy/sell. We are finding people that are searching for properties online and as they are looking at what’s available we are getting their contact information. They may not be motivated to make a move right away. You may need 300 leads before you convert 1.
Common Reasons why agents are successful:
I would repeat the same reasons but the opposite of the reasons why it doesn’t work.
My advice to new agents.
Alright. I’ve gone on long enough. So now what’s my advice for a brand new agent?
The advice will depend on how much you can spend before you need to make some money back.
New agents many times need money right away, if you are in this boat and you need to make money right away my suggestion is that you get into rental leads if you live in an area that pays you a decent amount for a rental. What I mean by decent is if you make 50% of the first month's rent you can make it work. Some areas agents aren’t allowed to work with rentals and some areas pay as little as $50 to find a renter.
So if you need money right away, you need to get into rental leads ASAP. You can make $10K/mo in rental leads next month and it can fund your buyer leads as well. Be prepared to work your behind off as you will get flooded with rental leads. The great thing about this is that you can literally pay off everything within you 2nd month of being on rental leads.
Now, if you don’t have the time for rentals or if you have the money to spend on buyer leads, here is what you do: Spend $1000/mo on Google Ads for whatever city you are looking to target.
Well wait a sec, before you spend $1000/mo you need to do our training course. It’s about 7 hours of content you need to consume so be ready. Once you’ve done that, spend $1000/mo on your buyer leads for whatever city you are working in and you should have a deal in your books by about the end of your 3rd month with plenty of other deals in the pipeline.