Lead generation for realtors: what each channel really costs

The leads you keep come from two places. People who already know you, and homeowners who Google something about a house or a street and end up on your website. Everything else you pay for by the month. Lead generation for realtors mostly comes down to that one split. The month you stop paying a listings website or a lead company, those leads stop. Your reviews, your Google Maps listing and the pages on your own site keep going.

What your leads cost you right now

Someone calls off your sign. Your cousin's friend texts to ask if spring is a good time to list. The bill for your spot on the big listings website comes out on the first of the month. Every one of those is a lead, and every one has a price.

A sign call costs you nothing extra. You already paid for the listing. It brings buyers and nosy neighbours, and it stops when the sign comes down.

Your network costs time. The coffee. The birthday text. The call you meant to make in March and did not.

The listings website costs money every month. You pay to have your face beside homes in the areas you work, including your own listings. The buyer who found you there found the website first. Next month it can show her someone else.

A bought lead costs money and a race. A lead company runs ads, collects a homeowner's name and number, and sells that one inquiry to you and two or three other agents at the same time. It looks like a lead you bought. What you bought is a spot in line.

A referral from a lender or a past client costs upkeep. Lenders send work to agents who send work back. Past clients refer you for as long as they remember your name.

Write down last year's closings, one line each, with where each one came from. Most agents already know. It lives in their head, not on paper. Then put what each one cost beside it, in dollars or in hours. That column is the whole post.

Six ways to get leads, in the order to add them

Each one costs something to start and something to keep going. The keeping is where most of them die.

Start with your network, on a schedule. Not when you happen to remember. A list with a date beside every name and a real reason to call that is not "checking in." The sale price two doors down from them. The anniversary of the day they got their keys. An hour a week, for as long as you sell houses.

Then your Google Maps listing and your reviews. A homeowner who searches for an agent picks from what the map shows her. Your photo, your stars, and how old the newest review is. If you cannot find yourself on the map, this is why. Then make asking for a review part of every closing. An afternoon to fix. One text for each closing to keep it current.

Then a page on your own website for each neighbourhood you work and each kind of home you sell. When someone Googles "what's my house worth" and her neighbourhood, the page she clicks should be yours, with your name, your number and your form on it. Not a listings website. Not a bank's calculator. One page per neighbourhood. One for condos, one for downsizers, one for first homes. Writing time up front, and an update each season.

Then Google Ads, on the searches that name a neighbourhood, a school, or a house for sale. Someone typing a neighbourhood and "for sale" has already decided something. Google Ads puts your page in front of that exact search, and the neighbourhood page you built catches the click. What a click costs, and what a booked appointment should be worth against it, is in how much a Google Ads click costs in Halifax. A monthly budget, and a weekly look at which searches spent it.

Then Facebook and Instagram ads, in the neighbourhoods you work. This is the one I like most for an agent, because it is cheap and it does something Google cannot. A seller usually is not searching for an agent yet. She is scrolling at 10 at night wondering what the place down the street went for. Facebook and Instagram ads let you show up in her feed for pennies at a time, a few streets at a time. You on video, talking about her neighbourhood. The place that just sold. What is coming up. A market update once a month. She sees you every few days for months, and by the time she is ready to list, she already knows you. She does not go to Google. She calls you. The catch is that you have to be willing to get on video and take the pictures, and have someone keep it current for you. You do not have to post every day. If you will do that much, this works like a tap. Room in your calendar, turn it up. Booked solid, turn it down.

Last, the listings website and the lead companies. A cost. That is all they are. Spend there only what you would be fine losing for a month while you measure it, and never more than you are putting into the five above.

Getting the lead is just the first step

Every one of those channels ends the same way. A homeowner reaches out, and then she waits.

She fills in your form at 8:20 on a Friday night. You see it Monday at 9. That is a whole weekend for another agent to call her first.

When ad money looks wasted, I usually find a slow reply under it. The ad worked. The page worked. Nobody picked up. Answer in minutes when you can. Send a two-line text when you are in a showing. Clear every inquiry at the same time every evening, including the ones that look like nothing.

If you have no listings, no reviews and a phone nobody answers, do not buy ads

An ad sends a homeowner to a map listing with no reviews, a website with nothing for sale, and a phone that goes to voicemail. You paid for her to find that out.

Fix those three first, in that order. Get a listing out of your network, so there is a sign on a lawn and a listing page on your website. Ask every client you have closed with for a review. Decide who picks up the phone when you cannot.

And do not buy a new website before your Google Maps listing is done. She sees your photo, your stars and your newest review before she ever sees your site. A beautiful website behind a bare map listing is a nice house with no sign on the lawn.

Pick one. Get it working. Then add the next.

Your network, your Google Maps listing, pages on your own website, Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram ads, or the listings website and the lead companies. Pick the one that is most likely to get you a booked appointment this month. Run it for a month and write down what each appointment cost you. Once it is up and working, add another.

If you want help figuring out where to start, or you want someone to build it for you, book a call. Twenty minutes. Bring what you are paying for right now, listings website bill and all. If it is already set up properly I will tell you so, and you can get back to your showings.

Frequently asked questions

How do realtors get leads without paying a listings website?

From the two things they already own. The people in their phone, called on a schedule, and pages on their own website that answer the searches homeowners make about their own neighbourhood. A Google Maps listing with recent reviews sends those searches to the agent instead of to a listings website. Google Ads and Facebook ads add to both, once the agent can answer every inquiry fast.

Is it worth buying real estate leads?

Only in one case. A bought lead is one homeowner's inquiry sold to more than one agent at the same time, so the agent who replies first usually gets the conversation. Buying them is worth it only if you can answer in minutes and you track what each booked appointment costs you. If neither is true, you are paying for a race you are not set up to win.

How much should a realtor spend on ads each month?

Enough for one channel to produce booked appointments for a month, and nothing more until you know what each appointment costs. The number comes from your own closings, not a rule of thumb. Once one channel is measured, decide whether to add budget or add a second channel.

What do I need in place before I run ads?

A complete Google Maps listing, recent reviews, a page on your website that matches what the ad promises, and a phone someone answers. A homeowner who clicks an ad about her neighbourhood should land on a page about her neighbourhood and hear back fast. Without those four, ads pay to send people to an empty storefront.

How long before paid ads produce a closing?

Ads produce booked appointments before they produce closings, and a closing follows the seller's timeline, not the ad's. A homeowner who clicks a market update may not list for months. The first number to watch is the cost of each booked appointment, not the number of closings.