All 27 Real Estate Lead Generation Strategies | 2022

New agents often have a scattershot mentality.

“I have to do everything!“

That is what I did. I door knocked, mailed a farm, started a homebuyer seminar, called FSBOs and expireds, bought paid leads, worked renters, networked with investors, blogged, and spent time on social media.

The result? By trying to do everything, I did nothing well. I was not consistent because I was spread too thin.

Instead, focus on just 4 prospecting pillars, any one of which can support your goal 100%.

Then, resist the temptation to try other lead gen strategies.

List of Lead Generation Strategies for Real Estate Agents

Sphere of Influence

1. Repeat and Referral
2. Client and Charity Events

Social Media

3. Facebook
4. LinkedIn
5. Instagram

Content Marketing

6. Email / Newsletter Marketing
7. SEO / Blogging
8. YouTube / Video

Hustling

9. Door Knocking
10. Open Houses
11. FSBOs
12. Expireds
13. Meetups / Seminars
14. Investors

Networking

15. Landlords
16. Renters
17. Agent / Vendor Referrals
18. Schmoozing

Business Model

19. Builders
20. Foreclosures
21. Relocation

Paid Leads

22. PPC
23. Advertising
24. Portal Leads
25. Direct Mail
26. Purchased Databases

Other

27. Farming

In my article about the Hub and Spoke, the goal of lead generation for real estate agents is to build your audience. Your audience includes:

• personal relationships
• people who have eagerly and willingly engaged with you or your brand
• anyone with whom there is no intermediary between you and them
• vendors, colleagues, and even competitors you have relationships with

These are people in your CRM that you are marketing to.

Your audience is first and foremost. This includes your sphere of influence, referrals, and repeat business. Every agent has an audience, whether just starting out or a top producer.

Limit yourself to just four strategies for growing your audience.

The Four Pillars: How to Do Lead Generation in Real Estate

What is your business? Real estate?

Nope.

It’s lead generation.

You can be the best real estate agent in the world. Without leads, you will earn $0.

You can be the worst real estate agent in the world. With leads, you will earn something (even if you’re just referring them to the best real estate agent in the world with no leads).

If you want to make it in this business, you need to be a lead generation machine. That means focusing on a few lead sources that can sustain your business, and mastering them. As you will see, there are dozens if not hundreds of different ways to earn business. You can’t do them all.

Pick the ones suited to your strengths and stay focused!

These are the principles taught by coaches like Verl Workman.

You need to pick pillars that can sustain your business. Is your goal to close 30 homes this year? Then EVERY lead source should have enough opportunities to generate 30 closings a year. That puts you on track for 120 closings, and if any pillar falters, you are overshooting your target.

Work backwards from your annual goals to create weekly prospecting goals.

If you are growing into a large team or a brokerage, it is possible to add more than four pillars as your team grows. But most agents and teams should keep focused on four.

Mix it Up!

When selecting your four lead generation pillars, it makes sense to diversify between those with quick and slow results.

New agents need at least one business pillar in the “quick and free” quadrant.

The “Quick” quadrants feature lead sources you can land listings and buyers quickly and start earning money to support your business quickly.

The “Slow” quadrants feature lead generation strategies that are more desirable for the long term: lower customer acquisition costs, building a brand, and scalability. You’ll want to start developing one or two of these strategies as well early on.

Mix it up!

Countercyclical Lead Generation

A countercyclical business model is one that does well when the market is doing poorly.

Having at least one countercyclical business line can help hedge against a changing market and keep you alive during the next real estate crash.

Obvious examples include:

• working with investors
• listing foreclosures for banks
• niching into short sales

In good times, these are probably going thin businesses. But by having an established competency in them, you will be well poised to pivot quickly when the market shifts.

Consider at least one countercyclical model as part of your four pillars.

Sphere of Influence

Sphere of influence, repeat customers, and client referrals! This is where top agents get most of their business, and must be one of your pillars if you are serious about real estate.

The majority of leads still come from referrals and repeat customers. Not PPC. Not Zillow. Not social media.

These have the highest ROI because they are warm leads with high conversion, usually involve few to no commission concessions, and have a relatively low or even $0 customer acquisition cost (CAC).

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Repeat, Referral, and SOI Lead Generation Strategies

Pros

• Big Chunk of the Market
• Cheap Leads
• Higher Price Points
• List to Last
• High Conversion
• Warm Leads
• Undisruptable

Cons

• Takes Time
• Follow Up Skills Needed
• Difficult to Scale

Client and Charity Events

Pros

• Supercharge Repeat and Referral Business
• Expand Your Sphere
• Ties in with Other Tactics
• Circumvent Commission Negotiations
• Build a Personal Brand
• Give Back

Cons

• Major Project
• Need a Decent Sized Database
• Expensive

Social Media

I can only begin to scratch the surface of all the different techniques, tactics, and platforms that might be worth your time.

My main recommendation is to pick one, or at most two, social media platforms to focus on. It is tempting to start a SnapChat, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram account as soon as you are an agent. While doing so may be worthwhile to brand yourself as a real estate professional, only select one for your real estate marketing effort. You will not be able to effectively manage them all.

Below are just a few social media channels. Instagram, NextDoor, Quora, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and other sites also might be great options to build an audience of home buyers and sellers.

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Facebook Lead Generation Strategies

Pros

• Plenty of Education and Resources
• Facebook Groups

Cons

• Cutthroat Competition
• Poor Organic Reach
• So-So Ad Targeting

LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategies

Pros

• Complements investor/commercial strategies
• Cultivate Industry Network and Thought Leadership
• Low Competition

Cons

• Expensive to Market
• Mediocre Campaign Reporting
• Smaller Newtork Limited to Professionals

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Instagram Lead Generation Strategies

Pros

• Works with Facebook
• 2nd Largest Social Network
• Mobile
• Extroverts Welcome!
• Highly Visual Brand Building

Cons

• Quality Photos Expected
• Can’t Link Out
• Business Accounts Punished
• Fewer Real Estate Tools

Content Marketing

What in the world is “audience building”? There are a few components, but essentially it is content marketing, building a brand, and top-of-mind awareness.

The main effort of your content strategy is probably going to be your website and email marketing to your database.

This category is different than the others. Unlike leads you pay for, or social media on which you “rent” space, you own these lead generation methods. Facebook can’t change an algorithm and suddenly you’ve lost your leads’ email addresses and phone numbers. Those are yours.

It is my personal favorite prospecting category.

Email and Newsletter Marketing

Pros

• Top of Mind Awareness
• Can Carefully Refine Audience Segementation
• Engaging with Warm Leads
• Inexpensive

Cons

• Can Be Spammy
• Requires Consistency
• Need a Database

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Websites and Blogging

Pros

• Passive Lead Generation
• Cheap to Get Started
• Warm Leads
• Easy to Multi-Purpose
• Non-Confrontational

Cons

• Takes Time
• Expensive to Outsource
• Difficult to Research
• All In or Bust

Video Marketing

Pros

• Passive Lead Generation
• High Engagement
• Build a Brand
• Can Be Multi-Purposed
• Great Analytics
• Can Rank on Google

Cons

• Not “Evergreen” Content
• Must Continue Producing
• High Effort

Hustling

I define hustling as those tasks that are usually free but just take your time and persistence.

Cold calling, networking events, sitting open houses, and doing the hard work of being a real estate agent.

These prospecting methods often have a lower conversion and aren’t for the faint of heart. But that is an advantage for the agent who is able to stick to it persistently. They succeed where most agents do not.

These are also some of the best methods for agents new to the business to cultivate potential leads on the cheap and lead with revenue.

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Door Knocking

Pros

• Free
• Synergy with other Prospecting Methods
• Targets Sellers

Cons

• The Ring Doorbell
• Seasonal
• Inefficient
• Not Scalable

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Open Houses

Pros

• Cheap
• Targets Unaffiliated Buyers
• Serves both Your Seller and You
• Get Listing Feedback

Cons

• Limited to After Hours
• Low Lead Quality
• Safety Risks
• Missed Expectations

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For-Sale-By-Owner

Pros

• Quick Results
• Cheap
• Natural Companion with Expireds

Cons

• Limited Volume
• Competitive
• Realtor-Skeptic Homeowners

Expired Listings

Pros

• Quick Results
• Cheap
• Natural Companion with FSBOs
• Target Leads are Open to Working with Agents

Cons

• Competitive
• Need Persistence

Meetups and Seminars

Pros

• Nonconfrontational Marketing
• Demonstrates Subject Matter Expertise
• Opprotunity to Partner with Vendors

Cons

• Must Market to Achieve Target Attendance Numbers
• Public Speaking and Presentation Skills Required

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Investors

Pros

• Repeat Business
• Good Pathway to Investing Yourself
• Suited to Analytical Types
• Countercyclical

Cons

• Lower Pricing Points
• Demanding Clients
• They May Outgrow You
• Eggs in One Basket

Networking

Networking also has a lot in common with Referral and Sphere of Influence strategies. Making friends at your kids’ soccer practices, attending your local Toastmasters, and expanding your SOI are all ways of building a database.

I see networking as building mostly B2B relationships (lenders, investors, property managers, etc). These relationships can unlock massive potential.

Landlords

Pros

• Cross Sell a Property Management Database
• Captive Audience
• Opportunity to Transact on a Portfolio

Cons

• Easiest With a Property Management Business

Renters

Pros

• Cross Sell a Property Management Database
• Captive Audience

Cons

• Easiest With a Property Management Business

Agent and Vendor Referrals

Pros

• Works Great with a Niche

Cons

• Need to Build Credibility
• Often Involves Referral Fees

Business Model

I call this business model prospecting because it is pursuing a specific niche, usually a B2B relationship from which you get leads.

These often require the cooperation of your broker if you are not a broker-owner yourself. They often involve sacrificing some of the commission in exchange for a steady volume of leads.

Representing Homebuilders

Pros

• Opportunity for Dual Agency
• Free Advertising
• Repeat Business

Cons

• Very Low Listing Commissions
• Exclusive Listing Relationships That Are Hard to Crack
• Only So Many Builders in an Area

Representing Foreclosure Banks

Pros

• Repeat Business
• Countercyclical

Cons

• Brokers Only
• Limited Opportunities in a Single Market

Relocation Services

Pros

• Predictable Business Volume
• Good Fit with B2B LinkedIn Marketing
• High Conversion

Cons

• Very High Referral Fees
• Strict Rules
• May Be Prohibited from Marketing to Clients Post-Close

Paid Leads

Buying leads is the easiest way to lead generate, although it’s expensive!

Consider, if you, on average, make about $5000 on a commission, would you pay $1000 for a lead? Of course!

And that is about what the numbers work out to. Targeting a 5:1 ROI is very typical for these leads. You can see how the math adds up quickly. If you want to do 30 deals this year, you probably need to be spending $30,000 or more on paid leads.

The problem is that this assumes a good lead conversion, often about 2% for these lead types. Most agents don’t have the patience or follow-up to realize a conversion that high. Instead, they waste money and then complain that the leads were junk.

Good agents get contact information and stick with it 6, 12, or more months after the lead.

Often these leads are prospects buying or selling in a particular zip code who were captured on a landing page, either your own, or Zillow’s, or another third party like BoldLeads.

Pay-Per-Click

Pros

• Quick Lead Generation
• Scalable

Cons

• Requires an Airtight Funnell to Maintain ROI
• Low Conversion Rates
• Forced Registration

Advertising

Pros

• Brand Awareness

Cons

• Very Difficult Lead Attribution
• Very Difficult to Calculate ROI

Portal Leads (Zillow, Realtor.com, etc)

Pros

• Quick Lead Generation
• Higher Intent Leads
• Scalable

Cons

• Requires Airtight Funnel to Maintain ROI

Direct Mail

Pros

• Targeted Marketing
• Matches Well With Other Strategies

Cons

• Must Be Able to Afford Consistency
• Low Conversion and Open Rates

Purchased Databases

Pros

• Warm Handoff
• Quickly Build a Database

Cons

• Unpredictable Quality
• Not Many Opportunities to Buy Databases

Farming

Farming is not its own category, as it includes elements of all of the previous prospecting plans. If you are farming a neighborhood, you are going to want to apply elements of all the prospecting methods above.

For example, you might send direct mail to your neighborhood, while hosting a community event, while working open houses for builders in your neighborhood, while participating in the HOA leadership, and while creating or commenting in the neighborhood Facebook group.

Geofarming

Pros

• Build Long Term Presence in a Market
• High Converting Leads

Cons

• Not Scalable
• Need Strong Connections to the Community

Working It

Lastly, you need to implement a system for being consistent with the pillars you’ve chosen. Your CRM might have workflows that keep you on track. CRMs don’t just have to be for reminding you to call leads. Many can be used to remind you to do a task.

Browse my list of the best real estate CRMs for your business!

Ultimate Real Estate Marketing Guides

For more real estate lead generation ideas, click into my Ultimate Guide on each prospecting method.