How to Get Leads for Real Estate: 3 Questions to Ask Before You Buy

There are only really three ways to get leads for real estate. You generate them yourself, you buy a list and chase it, or you buy leads from someone who generates them. Most investors end up doing some mix of all three.

If you are going to buy, the quality of what you get comes down to three questions. Ask these before you send anyone money.

First, decide how you want to get leads at all

Before the three questions, be clear on which route you are taking, because they behave very differently.

• Generate your own. You run ads or build SEO. You own the channel and the cost per lead drops over time. You also carry the learning curve, the testing budget and every bad month.
• Buy a list and chase it. Cheapest per record and most expensive per conversation. Nobody on the list asked to hear from you.
• Buy generated leads. Someone else spends the ad money and hands you people who raised their hand. You pay more per lead and skip the risk.

If you are buying, here is what to ask.

Question 1: How are the leads being generated?

This is the question that separates a good provider from a bad one, and most buyers never ask it.

Are they inbound or outbound? Are they coming from Facebook lead forms, Google lead forms, a website, SEO, PPC, YouTube? Each source behaves differently on the phone.

You want inbound leads from Facebook, SEO, PPC or YouTube. Those are homeowners who went looking for a way to sell and filled out a form. That is where the quality lives. If a provider cannot tell you plainly where the lead came from, that is your answer.

Question 2: Are the leads shared or exclusive?

A shared lead has been sold to several buyers. By the time you call, the homeowner has already spoken to two or three other investors, and your contact rate drops hard.

The entire point of buying leads is to have conversations with sellers consistently. That is the only way deals get closed. A shared lead works directly against the thing you are paying for.

Ask it straight: is this lead exclusive to me, and will it ever be resold? See shared vs exclusive leads for the longer version.

Question 3: What is the return policy?

Most pay per lead providers have some form of return or credit policy. You should be asking what it covers and making sure it matches how your business actually runs.

Typical valid returns include bad phone numbers, people who are not the owner, properties outside your area, duplicates, spam entries, and homes that were already listed when you were told they were not.

Worth remembering: when you run your own Google or Facebook ads to your own website, there is no return policy at all. A wasted click is simply a wasted click. A credit policy is one of the real advantages of buying per lead, so find out exactly what yours covers before you start.

Then compare on cost per deal, not cost per lead

Once a provider passes those three questions, do not pick on price per lead. Ask for the lead to contract ratio, apply your own close rate, and work out cost per closed deal.

On our numbers a $75 cold call lead produces a roughly $7,500 deal, while a $100 inbound lead produces a roughly $3,400 deal. The full breakdown is in inbound vs cold call leads.

A short checklist

1. Where exactly does this lead come from, and is it inbound?
2. Is it exclusive to me, and will it ever be resold?
3. What is credited back, and how do I submit a return?
4. What is your lead to contract ratio across clients?
5. How fast does the lead reach me after the form is submitted?
6. How many other buyers do you work with in my market?

If you want those answers for your own area, check motivated seller leads by market, or compare the main lead providers side by side.

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