Posted in&nbspPopular Articles on May 14, 2013

Real Estate Leads

Get Real Estate Leads

Acquiring real estate leads is one of the most challenging and most commonly misunderstood components of new realtors. Marketing to consumers and lead generation takes time, money and above all else, Effort.  You see in any business enterprise the effort put into marketing correlates directly to the bottom line, sales. Business-to-consumer marketing is Lead Generation.  Not every contact will turn into a sale. In addition, the art of getting referrals from existing clients will help to explode your business as well.

Finding Leads

There are 2 methods to which you can get real estate leads. First is to buy them. Second, is to develop a lead generation system that gives you consistent new leads. The most effective is to use a combination of the 2. New real estate agents can get their business off to a quick start if they buy a batch of leads. You can buy leads and have a marketing piece out the same day. Developing a lead generation system is effective, but it may take up to 6 month to a year before you start getting a consistent flow of leads in your pipeline. Let’s face it, although networking is a great way to get consistent leads, it may take a year before the networking group has enough trust in you to start giving you real estate leads.

Tracking Leads

An important aspect of converting a lead to a sale is Lead tracking. Now that you have 100-200 real estate leads how do you know who to call next week? When were they moving out of town? How many times have you talked to them? There are a number of very important items to keep track of your leads, that’s why you need to use a software package to keep track of every aspect of your lead. While talking to your prospects it’s important to takes notes. Make sure you annotate the most important information you are going to need to make a sale. Don’t forget to track your results. Sending out full size envelopes costs twice as much as a postcard to make sure you know the cost per lead and the cost per sale. The numbers can and will make you much more efficient.

Get rid of the Maybe’s

Real Estate Leads from Hot Probate Leads

It’s always amazing how many sales people hold on to the maybe’s and count them as a legitimate prospect. If you think back to all the time spent on the maybe’s and drove them a little harder to say “no,” you would have saved a lot of time. Next time you get a “let’s see what happens”, or “call me back”, stop them right there. Ask them point blank, “if you were listing your house tomorrow, would I be the agent?” Your time is valuable; it takes 5-6 calls to get that person back on the phone. Think of a no as a blessing. Now you can get them off your list to call back and spend more time finding the “yes.”

Become a top performer

Top performers rely on proven real estate leads from Hot Probate Leads. Whether youre a real estate agent, broker or real estate investor, connecting with your ideal prospects is vital to your success.

Added Oct 2013

Real estate investing comes down to finding motivated real estate leads. Once you have mastered the art of getting the right leads you will find it to be is a lucrative career. The ability to work on your own schedule, pick the projects, and personal freedom are rarely found in any other industry. So why doesnt everyone do it?  The simple answer is risk.  With the average price of a home around $200,000, it takes capital. Now that’s not the entire truth because there are people out there “wholesaling” which doesnt require a lot of capital, but does require a marketing budget. The other risk is time. Most new real estate investors have a full time job so if you spend 20 hours a week prospecting deals and meeting with potential sellers, it may take a month or two to get an income. So whether you are a professional investor using your own capital and resources or just starting out, you have to decide on a marketing strategy.

Real estate leads come in many different types. There are new home buyers, people looking to grow into a bigger house, people looking to downsize relocations, and a whole host of other reasons. On the flip side there are many reasons people sell a house. As an investor you will be looking to find motivated sellers. There are quite a few categories of motivated sellers, to name a few, divorce, relocation, and the most motivated sellers and out of state property owners and properties in probate. If you are wondering how to find probate properties, there are 2 methods. One, go to your courthouse and write down the names of the people handling the estate, or you can buy probate leads. In addition, you can join different network marketing groups. The most important avenue for leads is to let people know you are looking to buy properties. Sign up with your regional real estate associations and groups. I have found the camaraderie of fellow investors a great resource for ideas. Other professionals like attorneys and accountants are fantastic resources.

There are a number of investors that have had great success with craigslist, real estate publications, and articles, blogs, and bandit signs all of which have their pros and cons to investing. Another really good technique is to advertise is by means of flyers. Let’s say you buy a full page flyer in a locally distributes paper, take ½ the page and sell the other half to one of your contractor. You’ll get your message out and it will cost you ½ the amount.

To be effective in real estate lead generating, you’re going to need a few internet tools. First is a web page. On that web page you will need a way to collect data (leads). My suggestion is a wordpress site with a form built into the first page. Once you get the page built, you need to have an seo specialist review it, otherwise you’ll never get anyone to the web site. Second, you will need to register and start using the following web 2.0 sites: Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Instagram, tumblr, and a few more.  Oh I’m sorry, did you think there would be a quicker way to make money? After all, you may have gone to a seminar, or picked up a book that was titled “2 weeks to real estate riches.” You see what I have mentioned here is just on the execution side of “starting” your business.  There are other considerations to take into account, the type of business structure to buy the properties in. You can buy real estate using your self directed IRA, how to protect your IRA if you do decide to use it, and finally how to avoid getting labeled as a real estate dealer.