Real Estate Lead Generation

[Nitin K Aggarwal]

Hi,

I am looking for a good system or program to helping get my listings up. Any recommendations on good lead generation systems or sites that can help or anyone has used? Something that gets you the bang for your buck

[Charlie MacPherson]

I've been in your shoes.  A new agent with an empty funnel - and it's a tough place to be.

Everybody and their brother wants to sell you leads.  Zillow, Realtor, Trulia (owned by Zillow Group last I knew) - and they're not cheap either.  Not only are they not cheap, they sell the same lead to 3-4 agents at the same time.

If you're going down that road, be prepared to respond to each lead within seconds, not minutes, because your competition will do the same, and you don't want to be the 4th agent calling.

Better to concentrate on being out there in public and letting everybody know you're a Realtor.  Get your own website together and get it set up for robust SEO with someone that actually knows what they're doing (@Jerryll Noorden here on BP).  Use some Facebook ads.  Try other social media sites too.

The bottom line, and I say this as a former Realtor, is that if you look at any handful of full time agents with a few years under their belt, there's not a dime's worth of difference between them.

Nobody, regardless of what their brokers tell them, has anything truly unique.  What differentiates agents is that the best ones work very hard.  Those that aren't as motivated are toes-up in the parking lot within 18 months.  Few make it to the 5 year mark.

One thing about investors.  Be careful which ones you work with.  There is no end to the stream of "new investors" who will waste colossal amounts of your time and gas while never closing on a deal.  You need to filter those out aggressively. 

Get proof of funds and/or pre-approvals from a lender - and not those garbage hard money POFs that the lender lets you print off from their website.  Those are a waste of toner.

Work hard for people who value your time, because for the most part, that's all you have.

Good luck!