A common mistake with real estate lead generation is simply buying a high volume of leads but not looking at how much it actually costs them per closed deal. A high total number of leads does not matter if the traffic being sent through the routing network was shared with many other agents and not all of those leads were sent with high intent.

Analyzing this data from real estate lead generation companies, and eliminating marketing claims, will allow agents to understand the true underlying economics being utilized by top players in their industry. This allows agents to create a lead generation stream that is both operationally within their actual capacity and financially aligned with their budgets.

How Real Estate Lead Generation Companies Charge You

There is a clear divide in today's market between those vendors who provide only raw contact data and those who also provide full follow-up management systems. To select the appropriate vendor, the agent needs to know exactly how much time they will spend pursuing unqualified lead contacts; otherwise, agents will end up purchasing inexpensive raw leads that require a significant amount of time to convert into clients.

Agents should avoid focusing on the cost per lead metric. A ten-dollar lead that took twelve months and fifty phone calls to convert into a client will quite often yield a lower net income than a fifty-dollar lead that took thirty days to convert. To accurately assess this continued risk, agents must analyze the total cost of acquiring a signed client.

Another variable is the concept of exclusivity. While shared leads may have a lower initial cost, they immediately create a competitive environment for agents in the identical location to respond as fast as possible; therefore, if an agent is not using a lead follow-up system that can respond to a lead within two minutes, the agent's capital will be squandered on shared leads.

Contract length most definitely contributes to the overall financial risk involved for agents. A one-year or six-month agreement exposes agents to greater financial risk if there is insufficient lead production during the first sixty days of operation. Agents have to ensure their cash flow reserve is aligned with their contract requirements based on the vendors they decide to use.

The Top 10 Real Estate Lead Generation Companies

1. Market Leader

Market Leader is a complete full-service marketing package among real estate lead generation companies for its users. The service includes exclusive leads assigned directly to a built-in CRM, so that an agent stays productive in one program.

The initial fee is $189 a month for one agent. Pricing for teams begins at $329 per month. Each member of a team incurs additional monthly fees for each user added to the system as well.

For agents who want to buy leads based solely on volume: Agents can purchase the Network Boost package. This option guarantees agents 30 leads for $300 on a flat rate basis. The net cost is a straightforward $10/lead.

The CRM tools are being well received as efficient; however, agents report that the leads can respond slower than what is expected.

Who should avoid it? Agents using a custom built and successfully utilized CRM, do not wish to develop a second software ecosystem to facilitate their ad network access.

2. SmartZip

SmartZip is able to apply predictive analysis of the future, to identify likely sellers. Instead of waiting for an ad to display on a homeowner's computer, it looks six to twelve months ahead and identifies homes that statistically have a high potential to go up for sale.

The initial fee for this program is quite high at $500 per month. According to the data available, the typical active user spends an average of approximately $1,000 each month to support their ability to be more visible in their farm area.

The software creates its predictions from consumer behavior, local MLS data, and demographic trends on a broad scale. It provides a list of ranked homeowners based on their likelihood of listing within 18 months.

This provides the agent with an opportunity to mail and provide digital advertising specifically to the homeowners that make up, on average, the top 20% of their potential sellers. In contrast to mass marketing, you now spend your marketing dollars only to target these specific homeowners.

New agents who require immediate commission checks should not utilize predictive models. Agent platforms that utilize predictive models have a long-term time frame for return on investment and require an agent to have a sufficient marketing budget to wait an additional year for a return on investment.

3. CINC

CINC provides geo-targeted paid lead generation with a robust AI-driven customer relationship management system. The platform is designed specifically to route leads based on geographic boundaries and search intent. It is a premium platform intended to be leveraged by larger-scale operations.

Unfortunately, solo agents often carry a large burden of costs, which begin at an initial monthly cost of $899. A larger team can expect to pay $1,500 or more per month to access the CINC platform. Marketing costs for CINC users are in addition to the real money required to purchase ad space.

CINC has a significant competitive advantage over other lead generation platforms because of its size, utilization of performance data collected from over 50,000 active agents and teams, and the continuous optimization of its ad spending strategies across different local markets based on the performance data collected.

CINC has also developed an artificial intelligence algorithm that assists agents with generating initial text and email responses, relieving agents of the burden of generating these responses manually. This holds the prospects warm while an agent wraps up their listing appointment and calls the prospect.

Who should not be utilizing this: Casual or part-time agents will be losing money utilizing CINC. They need to follow a strict daily follow-up schedule and have a large monthly advertising budget for CINC to work properly.

4. Zillow Premier Agent

The giant of pure buyer demand is Zillow Premier Agent. The platform intercepts active house hunters on the largest real estate website in the United States. The leads they obtain are of extremely high intent and value, as they are currently looking for specific properties that are on the market.

The pricing for Zillow Premier Agent can vary considerably based on market conditions in your local area. The average cost per lead that agents typically pay ranges from $20-$60 per lead depending on the market complexity. For example, ZIP codes that are pricey will drive the cost per lead upward.

Because of the huge amount of consumer traffic, Zillow has approximately 230 million page views a month, according to HousingWire. As a result there will be an extremely higher volume of direct inquiries generated than any agent's website will be able to handle.

Also because the leads are for specific homes, starting a discussion with the buyer becomes much easier, as they already know what they want to look at, so there is no need for a long discovery process.

Who should not be utilizing this: Listing-focused agents are likely to not find much value from the leads generated. In addition, the agents who work in highly competitive luxury markets are likely to find their target ZIP codes sold out or too expensive to maintain a positive return on investment.

5. Real Geeks

Real Geeks will cater to the mid-market by providing a simple, yet affordable, one-stop-shop. With a single solution, agents can access a website, lead generation system (LGS), CRM, and basic nurturing tools.

The starting price of $399/month for up to 2 users is very competitive. If agents would like to have access to certain features without signing a long-term contract, they must sign a 6-month contract at a higher rate of $499/month.

Real Geeks has a strong reputation for ease of use. The mobile application has a 4.9 rating in the Apple App Store. This is important for agents who work from their cars.

The focus of Real Geeks is on providing an easy-to-use platform. The amount of automation does not overwhelm the user. This allows for agents to quickly learn and implement.

Who should NOT use this: Large brokerage teams that have complex routing rules should use another product. Real Geeks works well for smaller partnerships but does not scale well for a 50-agent office.

6. Ylopo

Ylopo is an AI-led business among real estate lead generation companies that uses AI for all aspects of lead generation and initial conversion. By applying AI technology over existing databases Ylopo is able to identify prospects and develop readiness to buy.

The software starts at $395 per month. In addition, agents need to spend money on their own advertising programs to create leads.

The AI assistant is not a traditional chatbot. Ylopo claims their AI assistant has been trained on more than 50 million real estate conversations. This enables the AI to handle complex objections and schedule appointments directly.

Ylopo is well known for its ability to dynamically remarket via AI. The software analyzes leads who do not reply and subsequently retargets them with ads via social media, to encourage them to re-enter the funnel into active status.

Who should pass on this: If you don't allow AI to communicate with your leads, this software's features are not going to impress you. If you use this software, you must trust its ability to handle the first ten messages sent in establishing a new relationship.

7. REDX

The approach taken by REDX is completely different than other systems, since it focuses specifically on outbound prospecting. Rather than using digital advertising as the foundation for generating leads, it provides agents with the actual contact information of homeowners that are likely to sell.

It offers agents a very flexible and cost-effective pricing structure. For example, agents can purchase just the leads they want, with packages starting at only $60 a month. They may also purchase a package with multiple types of leads for $166 per month.

To enhance the potential of obtaining leads, agents typically purchase the Power Dialer feature for an additional $99 each month. This feature allows agents to quickly contact hundreds of homeowners, without manually dialing their numbers.

The company provides significant added value by verifying all leads against the National Do Not Call Registry. All lead files come with up to three phone numbers, known email addresses, and detailed homeowner information.

Who should pass on this: Agents who have call reluctance will lose their money with REDX. Agents using REDX have to spend a minimum of two hours a day on the telephone, making cold calls and receiving direct rejections.

8. Sold.com

Sold.com operates entirely on a pay-at-closing referral basis, which eliminates the financial liability associated with other subscription-based software, as it does not require any type of initial payment or contract to join.

Instead, the organization charges a 30% - 35% referral fee on your gross earnings, once your sale completes. By structuring this way, the organization has put the financial risk onto you, the agent; essentially, you only pay when there is success, however, this means less profit margin on larger transactions due to the cost that accompanies no risk.

The network will direct all upcoming leads towards the agents with proven history as a top producer and reside within that territory. Also, agents who are effective with closing will typically receive more introductions in future business within the company than agents who are not effective in closing business.

Who Would Skip This? If you are one of those agents producing a lot of business, but you have a large cash flow, you would purchase your own leads and not have to give away a third of your commission, which does not make sense statistically, assuming that you can invest into ads.

9. RealAnalytica

RealAnalytica offers a strategy that acts as an automatic workforce built on top of a CRM, as the company is marketing this product to replace the work that an inside sales person performs.

The pricing model is very much based on each person using the software instead of for every lead that you produce; for this reason, the cost to use this software as a service is a very affordable $40 per month billed yearly; and again, there are no charges for leads, just the usage of the software.

Additionally, this system will utilize two different forms of artificial intelligence, known as "Ivy" and "Scout", two programs that will prospect your assigned sales territory weekly, as well as "recycle" old leads that may not have had any activity in several months, back into your sales process.

As a result, this provides an entire system that will continue to work through the potential referrals that you have already entered (or made) while you continue to show homes to prospective clients. The entire objective behind this system is to maximize the use of the data you are already collecting without relying on external real estate lead generation companies for additional traffic.

Who Would Skip This? If you are a new agent and have no existing contacts or database, you will not receive any return on your investment with this type of service. This tool requires an extensive list of old leads to function as intended and demonstrate its value.

10. BoldTrail (kvCORE)

Previously known as kvCORE, BoldTrail is a comprehensive enterprise platform designed for entire offices. It unites incredible IDX website integration with some of the foremost marketing automation capabilities in the field.

Pricing occurs at the brokerage level, and agents do not purchase individual licenses through this firm.

According to the comparison data, BoldTrail is the top-performing product available to mid-sized to large brokerages. Its features allow for comprehensive management of lead routing, team performance tracking, and automated marketing campaigns.

The BoldTrail system supports behavior-based lead funnels, which organizes leads based on the information they view on the website; therefore, text messages sent to leads are matched precisely to the listings seen on the site.

Who should avoid this tool? Independent agents are unable to purchase BoldTrail directly. Even if an independent agent could access BoldTrail, the complexity of the program may be daunting to an individual attempting to manage both technology and selling homes.

How to Match Lead Sources with Your Daily Schedule

The greatest pitfall of lead generation is selecting a system out of alignment with your daily activities. For instance, a high-volume buyers lead package would not make sense for an agent who spends six hours daily in listing meetings. When choosing between different real estate lead generation companies, you should evaluate your time allocation before you evaluate your budget.

Your operational reality will determine whether your payment structure is most appropriate through a referral-style (security). Some real estate teams rely on the sheer volume of an AI dialer to accommodate a large number of agents.

Working as a Solo Agent

If you are a solo agent, your time is limited. As a result, if you are only one person, then you will find it impossible to respond to fifty new internet leads in a week without dropping the ball on existing clients. Therefore, when looking at speed to lead - the fastest way to get the next stage of the sales process going - you may not be able to have your sales process complete in under two minutes.

Thus, as a solo agent, high-intent platforms or referral models are best suited to your situation. Zillow Premier Agent connects those people who need to sell their house today and Sold.com connects agents with home sellers without any financial risk upfront.

You should actively avoid using overly-complicated customer relationship management (CRM) systems that require the heavy labor of advertising management. If you are working on your software's routing rules at midnight, you are losing money. Keep the tech simple, and use platforms that give you prospects who are ready to talk.

Working with a Real Estate Team

The real estate team representative (team leader) has a completely different set of problems than the solo agent; teams have to feed people every day so that they can be satisfied and productive, therefore these teams need a system that supports massive volume business with strict accountability structures.

For this reason, the platforms CINC and Market Leader thrive in a team environment by allowing the team leader to invest thousands of dollars into targeted advertising to create a large "shared" leads pool. Once the leads come in, the team management software tracks which agent called the lead, and how quickly they called the lead. The teams that are able to dedicate their time and resources to maintain a database of leads will be the most successful. AI should be utilized to respond to leads immediately, providing agents with time to properly respond to leads in a timely manner.

Working as a Listing Specialist

If agents only want to work with sellers, standard IDX digital ads should not even be part of their plan. Buying clicks on property search sites will only yield buyers. Listing specialists should be focused on obtaining data & predictive analytics, and having direct phone number access to homeowners in a specific neighborhood.

The two primary players for this operational model are SmartZip and REDX. A listing agent should be building their prospect list a minimum of 6 months - 1 year into the future, and continually market to that specific neighborhood until the homeowner sells.

Executing this method requires an adequate amount of cash flow and tremendous amounts of patience, as the predictive seller leads have a long nurture lag period. It does work, but you must be willing to put in a few months of advertising your services and not sign a listing contract before your first closing. The only way to identify if you are actually making a profit is to match the actual cost of each closed deal with the time spent nurturing that contact. If you have a higher level of technical capacity and a large base of employees, companies like CINC offer the necessary tracking to measure your return on investment (ROI). Conversely, if you run a leaner operation in terms of costs and are more concerned about profit margins than volume, then using systems such as REDX will usually give you the highest ROI back in terms of your "sweat equity" (your investment of effort).

Questions and Answers About Real Estate Lead Generation Companies

How do shared networks affect the lead conversion timeframe?

Shared networks provide so many leads that they are normally shared with all agents at once causing most leads to receive multiple inbound calls and/or text messages within minutes of their names being added to the network. If your lead management system is not automatically contacting the lead via text message or calling the lead within 60 seconds of receipt, your conversion ratios will drop close to zero. This is why most agents today are relying heavily on automated AI response units or systems to help establish the initial contact.

Why do predictive seller models fail for agents who work alone?

Predictive analytics can identify someone's need to sell 6-12 months prior to the closing date. Agents who work alone typically fail to take advantage of this technology because they do not currently have enough cash flow to maintain a marketing campaign for an entire year without having a sale close. In addition, many agents who work on their own will discontinue the necessary direct mail and other follow-ups once they are busy with active clients, which interrupts the long-term trust between the seller and the agent needed to secure that listing.

What is the most important metric to track for social media leads?

Speed to lead is by far the single most important measurement when converting leads coming from paid social media advertising. Prospective buyers who are viewing paid social media ads are usually perusing the internet for entertainment purposes and are not actively looking to buy a home. As such, their attention span is generally very short, with studies showing that if you wait longer than five minutes to follow up with a lead generated via social media, you will significantly reduce your chances of qualifying them for a sale by at least 80 percent.