What Are Qualified Real Estate Leads?

You know that you're in the business of sales and marketing, but what exactly are qualified real estate leads? It's best to think of your leads as future clients. Your goal is to find people who are going to be receptive to your services and then turn them into clients.

Lead generation has always been a bit different in the real estate industry. This is because it's very personable. People want to be connected with someone they trust when buying a property. That means that lead generation isn't just about selling, it's about building relationships and creating trust.

Becoming an authority on real estate is one of the best ways for agents to generate leads. Your status as an expert will help you attract new clients who are looking for someone with your experience level.

In this article, we'll go over the different ways you can build this authority.

Looking to build trust with homebuyers and sellers in your real estate market? Authorify can help you build authority by setting you up with your very own digital books or printed books!

5 Methods for Lead Generation for Real Estate Agents

Lead generation strategy is an important part of marketing strategy which involves finding people who might be interested in what you have to offer and turning them into qualified leads.

Here are five different ways you can take yours to the next level.

1. Become Active on Social Media

Real estate social media marketing is a great way to connect with new clients and stay top of mind with past clients. Creating fresh content can help keep your name in front of clients, attract leads and build a reputation as an expert in your field!

With social media, you are able to be a source of helpful information for potential buyers and sellers, while also keeping in touch with past clients. Social media provides a platform to share tips on buying or selling homes, updates on the real estate industry, and anything else that would be relevant to your audience.

You don't have to pay for advertising on social media. Although, if you want to reach more people you can use Facebook ads or sponsored posts on other sites. You can also use SEO (search engine optimization) to get better traction on these sites.

For example, if you're looking for more leads from LinkedIn or Zillow, then you'll want to optimize your profile by adding keywords so you'll show up in search results when someone is looking for a real estate agent.

2. Follow Up and Get Referrals from Existing Clients

Now that you’ve closed a deal, you may be wondering, “What’s next?”

When it comes to lead generation, follow ups and referrals are the name of the game.

You’ve likely heard that word-of-mouth is a powerful marketing tool. According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising.

But cold calling is out. If you’ve helped out homebuyers who were happy with your service, don’t keep it a secret to yourself. Ask them to refer you to their friends and family members who are also looking for homes in your area! This can help grow your sphere of influence.

You’ll come across as more genuine and authentic than a random stranger calling them up. Oh, and if they refer someone to you and that person buys a house, give the client a sweet reward like a gift card or a commission. That way, they’ll be incentivized to keep referring more people to you.

3. Look For FSBO’s

When looking for great real estate leads, one of the best things you can do is find FSBO’s or properties that are “For Sale By Owner.” These properties are a gold mine for real estate investing and lead generation.

When you find these homes, you can approach the owner and offer to help them sell their home. Most people who choose to sell their home on their own don’t know what they are doing. And they will be more than happy to have your help!

The key here is that you can use this experience as a way to get their information and build your list of potential leads!

You’ll be able to talk to them about what they are looking for in an agent, and then you can work with them to get them the property they want.

As long as your commission is covered when you sell the property, it should be easy enough to get the owner what they want and make some money in the process too!

There's no need to spend money on buying leads when you can get FSBOs for free with a little legwork.

4. Host an Open House

When you host an open house, you have an opportunity to meet and interact with potential buyers. You may think that hosting open houses is a thing of the past. However, it's still one of the best real estate tactics for getting warm buy leads.

Here are some tips for getting the most out of your open houses.

• Promote your open house on social media, your website, and local real estate listing sites.
• Create a sign-in sheet where people can leave their contact information. If possible, you should collect at least an email address and phone number. If you're ambitious and want to try for more leads, also ask for their name and home address.
• Showcase the best features of the home in a way that will appeal to buyers.
• Host an open house before the home is officially listed on MLS or any other listing site if possible.
• Always follow up with attendees after the open house ends to see if they are interested in purchasing a home or working with you as their agent.

5. Practice Good SEO with Everything

If you’re doing a lot of digital marketing, SEO is your best friend. If you don’t know what SEO is, it stands for search engine optimization. In other words, it’s the practice of creating and optimizing your content marketing with the aim of ranking highly in Google and other search engines.

It’s important to remember SEO when doing things like writing blog posts, creating social media posts, or designing landing pages. You might be thinking, “What does this have to do with real estate lead generation?” Well, I’m glad you asked!

Real estate lead generation through SEO comes down to one simple principle: You need people to be able to find you on Google if they are looking for a home in your area.

To optimize your digital marketing with SEO, first use tools like Google Analytics to understand who your audience is.

Then, create content specifically geared towards that audience based on the data you collected. This will show them that you understand their needs, which increases trust and improves conversion rates.

You can also channels like email marketing to build segmented lists and grow your reach.

Build Up Your Authority

The real estate industry is tough and competitive. You have to work hard to stand out from the crowd and position yourself as an authority.

One of the best ways to do this is through testimonials. When you get a happy client, don't be afraid to ask for a testimonial and share it all over your social media. This can go a long way in building up your authority.

Another good way to position yourself as an expert is by writing or collecting digital resources, such as ebooks or guides, that clients can use on their own time.

Creating a social media account with attractive pictures and even your catalog of closed sales are all great ways to do this.

If you'd like more information about how to build up your authority, feel free to reach out and we'd be happy to help!

Looking to passive connect with homebuyers and sellers in your real estate market? Check out Authoify’s real estate lead generation software to start enhancing your business!

Become Credible with Help from Authorify

As a new real estate agent or realtor, you’re probably thinking that most of your time will be spent selling homes and outside of real estate marketing. While that’s the end goal, there are many other tasks that fall under your responsibility. 

It’s up to you to market yourself and your agency/brokerage both online (through your real estate website) and offline (‘pick up the phone’ tactics and open houses). You have to learn the business inside and out, generate leads, close deals and make sure you’re following all legal procedures as set forth by the state or country in which you practice real estate.

The question is where do you start to get the best lead? The answer is simple: with our help.

Authorify helps real estate professionals grow their authority in their local market with:

• Expanded marketing campaigns to grow your online leads
• Real estate training for new businesses and agents 
• Your own personally branded book (digital or print) for lead gen
• Templates for business card and other marketing material

Whether you’re part of a group of new agents looking to score potential clients for the first time or a trained veteran in realty with an established CRM and buyer leads process, we’re here to help. 

Grab those new leads with us today!