As an agent, running a successful real estate business depends on generating leads. But with buyers priced out of the market and a record-low number of home listings, the competition to earn new clients is tough.
That’s why you should know about the best real estate lead generation ideas. These 13 top lead generation ideas will help you attract buyers and sellers to your real estate services, earn leads, convert clients, and win the business that fuels real estate success.
Top Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas
- Update Your Google Business Profile
- Solicit Positive Google Reviews
- Identify Homes That Are Likely To Go on the Market
- Establish an Active Organic Social Media Presence
- Run Paid Ads on Social Media
- Advertise on Waze
- Harness the Power of Video Marketing
- Give Compelling Listing Presentations
- Get Boosted on Homes.com
- Maintain a Custom Real Estate Website
- Host Great Open Houses
- Create a Buyer Persona
- Always Prioritize Customer Service
1. Update Your Google Business Profile
The first real estate lead generation idea you should pursue is a comprehensive Google business profile.
Your Google business profile is what pops up on the right side of the page when people search for your name on Google. As with restaurants or other businesses, your Google business profile displays your business information, such as hours of operation and contact information.
With an informative Google business profile, you will signal to consumers and potential leads that you are a legitimate agent who is ready to do business. Without an updated Google business profile, you’ll appear disorganized, unprofessional, and illegitimate – and people who are interested in your real estate services won’t be able to reach you.
Fortunately, Homesnap Pro+ members have their Google business profiles updated for them, automatically.
2. Solicit Positive Google Reviews
A Google business profile isn’t complete without positive, plentiful reviews. Reviews are what signals to Google that you are a legitimate agent who deserves to be verified, and displayed as an official agent option for people searching for real estate services.
Think about the last time you were searching for a restaurant. Did you look at reviews of the restaurant to learn what entrees had a good reputation and whether the eatery as a whole was worth recommending to your friends? Thought so. Consumers do the same thing when they search for a real estate agent.
Google wants to show its users content that is relevant and recent. If Google had to choose between a profile that has few reviews (or older reviews) and one that has many reviews, including recent ones, our research shows that it would definitely choose the latter.
Google thinks the same way. It will rank your profile if you have numerous, positive, recent reviews. Your profile simply won’t be ranked without them, and you won’t attract consumer attention, leads, and new business.
With Homesnap Pro+, attracting Google reviews doesn’t have to be a chore. The One-Click Review Tool allows you to ask friends, colleagues, clients, and other connections to leave you a review – all in a simple, painless click. Agents who use the One-Click Review Tool have an average Google rating of 4.95 out of 5 stars. Those who don’t use the One-Click Review Tool? They have an average Google rating of 1.5.
Which agent would you rather be? Get Google reviews, and use Pro+’s One-Click Review Tool.
3. Identify Homes That Are Likely to Go On the Market
Another valuable lead generation strategy is to actively identify homes that are likely to go on the market. Some homeowners are more likely to sell than others – people who have paid off their mortgage, for example, may want to cash in on the equity they’ve built in their home.
Homesnap Pro+ offers advanced filters such as distressed properties and ownership type to rank every property’s “likelihood to sell.” Quickly identify which homes in your area are likeliest to go on the market, and solicit those homeowners directly with your real estate services.
4. Establish an Organic Social Media Presence
Some people use social media only for pleasure, and some people choose not to use it all. If you’re an agent who wants to generate leads, you can’t be one of those people. You should have a strong and reputable organic social media presence.
Develop a social media footprint that hews to the EAT framework.
The first portion of EAT is engagement. With engagement, agents should focus on regularly posting on social media channels and responding to consumers’ comments on the posts. Agents should also ask questions to spur audience engagement. Consider asking questions such as “carpet or hardwood?” to get people talking about their preferences or “what homes are catching your eye this fall?” to learn about why people are entering the market and the homes they’re most excited to tour.
The second component of EAT is authenticity. By producing authentic social content, agents can tell honest stories about the home selling and buying processes and the real estate market in general.
For example, agents shouldn’t solely post videos and photos of fully staged homes and tours. Instead, consider posting before and after photos, or a video of your open house preparations. This way, consumers see that buying or selling a house is a process, and that you’re dedicated to the work necessary to make it happen.
The final part of the EAT framework is thought leadership. For agents, social media provides the opportunity to display subject matter expertise, which is especially valuable knowledge to share in a complicated time for the real estate market.
Overall, following the EAT social media framework ensures that when people view your social media content, they see a credible, engaged real estate professional.
5. Run Paid Ads on Social Media, Too
After laying the groundwork with strong organic social media, you can use paid social media to draw large numbers of leads into your sales funnel.
Our data scientists crunched the numbers and found that consistent investment in paid advertisements pays off for agents. In fact, agents who buy Facebook ads through Homesnap earn 2.5 times more leads from Facebook than agents who use social media but do not buy paid ads.
Agents should consider their needs and bandwidth when deciding what types of paid advertisements to buy. For example, through Homesnap Pro Ads, agents can buy individual Facebook and Instagram ads for specific listings.
But as listings go on and off the market, busy agents may find it difficult to track and manage advertising campaigns for a host of properties.
Instead, commit to consistent, ongoing paid social media efforts. In particular, Homesnap Pro Ads offers Subscribe and Save, which helps agents automate retargeting, the sharing of client reports, and other time-consuming parts of the digital advertising experience.
With Subscribe and Save, you can spend your time talking to clients, giving tours of properties, and performing the other in-person tasks necessary to succeed as an agent — not setting up social media ads.
Consistent paid social media ads will generate leads. And if your paid social media is complemented with strong organic social media, you will be able to introduce leads not just to a specific property or listing but to an agent brand.
6. Advertise on Waze
Google and paid social media often get all the lead generating attention. But they’re not the only options for a real estate agent like you.
You should also consider advertising on Waze, the navigation app. Waze is an excellent advertising platform for promoting open houses. These ads appear in the app for nearby drivers (in a safe, non-distracting way!) and encourage real-time behavior, like checking out an open house that’s just off your usual route.
There are three different ad units offered on Waze:
- Pin ads: Your open house pops up as a distinctive pin on the navigation map.
- Search ads: Your listing appears at the top of results when a nearby destination is searched.
- Zero-speed ads: This banner appears on the Waze screen when drivers stop for at least three seconds.
Each of these ad units offers Waze users the option to be redirected to your open house in a single tap. In addition to encouraging foot traffic, Waze ads also help increase overall awareness of your listing. Many people likely drive near the property daily, but not right past it if their route has them driving a street or two over. Through Waze, your ad acts as a digital yard sign for all in the vicinity to see, alerting them to your listing without needing to drive right in front of it.
You can run Waze ads through Homesnap Pro Ads – automating and managing your Waze advertisements alongside flagship social media channels.
7. Harness the Power of Video Advertising
This might not seem like an unconventional real estate lead generation idea, but hear us out. You probably read often that you should be using video in your advertising—videos that introduce you as an agent, showcase your listings and feature happy past clients. But how often are you actually doing that? As much as the stats back up using video (such as that it outperforms text-only ads and static images by an incredible 1,200%), very few real estate agents are using it regularly.
One easy way to share videos – that’s also free – is to create a Homesnap Story for any or all of your listings. These work just like the popular Instagram Stories and will appear as media on your listing in Homesnap.
When clients view the property page, they can watch your Story and click through photos of the home and any other media you added to the MLS listing. If you want to put some of your budget behind your Homesnap Story, you can easily boost it to Facebook and Instagram in just a few taps.
8. Give Compelling Listing Presentations
Listing presentations are a chance to win and secure a new client’s business. That means giving compelling listing presentations is a real estate lead generation idea of its own.
How should you give the most compelling listing presentations? Here’s what to do:
- Be customized and visual: Give a presentation that avoids a cookie-cutter template and language. Include attractive visuals and cater your presentation to the seller’s submarket and you won qualifications. Use the best charts, graphics, and listing presentation possible.
- Leverage a unique value proposition: What separates you from your competition? Highlight your best, most valuable qualities – whether that’s years of experience, personality, marketing specialities, or even hobbies outside of real estate. If you’re an experienced agent, lean on the fact that you’ve done this before. If you’re a relative novice, highlight your willingness to give everything and devote a huge chunk of time to your clients.
- Have a marketing plan: Craft a thorough marketing plan that demonstrates you know how to gain the attention of home buyers. As we mentioned earlier, visuals are crucial here. Show off your past ads and include performance stats for any marketing you have concrete data about.
- Include testimonials: People want examples of other consumers who have had success working with you as an agent. Include testimonials – written or on video – in which past clients speak to your abilities.
Give a compelling listing presentation, and you’re more likely to earn leads and end up representing them.
9. Appear at the Top of the Homes.com Agent Directory
As you generate leads, it’s important to optimize your reach on as many platforms as possible. Now, Homesnap Pro+ agents have an extra advantage in reaching more consumers, as they get boosted on the highly-trafficked Homes.com agent directory.
Getting boosted means your Homes.com profile is enriched with Google reviews, review ratings, and agent stories, so prospective clients can see you’re a top agent with a great reputation.
Overall, Pro+ agents who get boosted on Homes.com will:
- Reach a high volume of high-intent consumers
- Showcase their reputation with an enriched agent profile
- Earn more leads
We’re investing tens of millions of dollars to surge traffic on Homes.com, so upgrading to Pro+ is an incredible chance to get ahead of your competition.
10. Maintain a Custom Real Estate Website
Clearly, many lead generation ideas come from digital platforms. One of the most valuable digital platforms you can maintain is a customized real estate website.
Think of it this way: Prospective leads are searching for clients. They want to be sure that you are up to the job. Won’t a professional, detailed, individually-catered website help them recognize that you’re a legitimate service provider?
We certainly think so, which is why we offer Pro+ members personal, customizable websites. Pro+ websites include:
- A simple, elegant layout
- Power, lead-generating real estate tools
- Built-in search portal, powered by Homesnap
Pro+ websites are affordable and include your listings. Best of all: It’s a lead generation machine.
Your Homesnap Pro+ Real Estate Website comes ready-made with powerful home search tools and lead generation forms. Consumers can sign up for newsletters, delivered to their inbox and branded to you, that keep them up to date with the latest listings, transactions, and trends in their chosen zip code(s).
Consumers can also take full advantage of Homesnap’s Comparative Market Analysis feature, a seller’s market analysis tool, that enables them to assess the market value of their home by comparing it to similar properties that have recently listed or sold.
Consumers who provide their basic information (name, email address, phone number) can get access to both. There’s absolutely no legwork on your end. Just sign up for a Homesnap Pro+ Real Estate Website and watch the leads roll in.
11. Host Great Open Houses
Open houses are standard fare for real estate agents. But what many agents don’t realize is that by optimizing their open houses for lead generation, they can earn new clients.
For one, make sure that you have a strong open house sign-in sheet, in which you ask for people’s address, real estate needs, the types of properties they’re interested in, and contact information.
You can also ask whether people would like a free home evaluation or free home market report so that they can learn about homes and the market in their area.
Also, be sure to leverage your newfound video marketing expertise and familiarity with Instagram and Facebook stories in order to advertise your open houses to people in the area.
Even in a digital age, open houses are a valuable opportunity to convert consumers by demonstrating your expertise and hard work in-person. And don’t forget that your clients’ home showing experience will be stronger if you use Homesnap Showings, the leading showing management solution.
12. Create a Buyer Persona
Generating leads requires having some kind of target audience. Broadly speaking, all agents are looking for home buyers and sellers. But based on your experiences as an agent, specific skills, and even the region in which you practice, you should be able to envision an ideal client.
Maybe you’d like to service primarily first-time homebuyers, or families buying a home, or people who have certain interests and specifications. No matter what, you should create a buyer persona and then target people who fall within it through necessary marketing strategies.
If you as an agent create and then target a certain buyer persona, you are more likely to earn leads, as your messaging and presentation will speak to that cohort.
13. Always Prioritize Customer Service
At the end of the day, no lead generation idea is going to be sustainable if you don’t prioritize and embody pleasant, professional, competent customer service.
For all the efforts you make to prove and highlight your strong reputation, don’t squander it by failing to live up to exemplary customer service. In particular, prioritize a warm, welcoming tone, describe your efforts to your buyers and sellers, respond to messages quickly, and show patience and good humor – even when clients are being difficult.
Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas Increase Your Business
Overall, having good real estate lead generation ideas – and then actually practicing them – will put you on track to build and sustain a strong, sustainable real estate practice.
Now is not an easy time to earn new clients, but with the best real estate lead generation ideas and execution, you can still attract the leads and clients necessary to becoming your region’s go-to real estate agent.
Want the best product to earn new clients and win as much new business as possible? Upgrade to Homesnap Pro+, your personal lead generating machine.