Real Estate Leads-You Get What You Pay For

While doing some research regarding what exact phrases people are using to search for “real estate leads” on Google, Yahoo, etc. I was surprised to see that the word “free” was quite common.

It makes perfect sense to attempt to find a free way to generate real estate leads. Especially since marketing is so expensive and time consuming. Truth is, you get what you pay for, regardless of the source.

There are two types of real estate lead sources that you can pursue, if your goal is to increase the number of leads you get. You can either generate the leads yourself, or you can purchase a lead generating service.

If you want to generate the leads yourself, I recommend that you set a realistic marketing budget and do a ton of research on the most successful marketing plans for your specific market. If you prefer to purchase real estate leads, keep the "you get what you pay for" principle in mind. When considering free real estate leads, remember that it is time, energy and money intensive to create and maintain a lead gathering plan. So why would somebody want to give those valuable leads away for free? It doesn’t make common or good business sense... unless the leads are junk, or there is a catch to the "free" offer.

There are Two Types of Real Estate Leads

Here's the difference between real estate seller leads that are worth paying for, and those that are marketed as being "free"...

• Motivated Seller leads worth buying because they consist of names and detailed contact information of people who are desperate to sell right now. They also include: sellers motivation, mortgage information, and full property details.

• Junk leads are usually nothing more than the names and contact information of people who have no intention of selling or urgency to sell their house. These are the "free" real estate leads you see offered on many not so reputable websites.

There is a clear difference between the two types of real estate leads. Motivated seller leads have an extremely high chance of becoming clients and money in your pocket. This is because you know that they are (A) in your local area and (B) looking to sell quickly. Junk leads are basically a waste of time and frustrating for both you and the person who you may contact-nobody wins.