There are mixed feelings in the real estate world for leads that come in off the internet. On one hand, all the statistics show that 80%+ of people start their home search on the internet, so you’ve got a huge market there. On the other, some Realtors® don’t like these leads because they feel they’re “tire-kickers” or are looking too far in the future.

I think internet leads are a great way to ensure ongoing clients for your business, both now and in the future, but they do need to be approached a little differently than your traditional lead.

There are two important steps to take when dealing with internet leads -

1. Make sure you ask lots of good, qualifying questions

Some examples are:

Are you looking for a home or condo?
What price range would you like to stay within?
When are you looking to buy? (very important, so that you’ll know when it’s appropriate to follow up with them)
Have you been to Chicago before? (If they're not local, lets you know whether they’re making the initial trip to get familiar with your area, or will be actively looking for homes)
Are you planning to finance, or pay cash?
Are you working with a Realtor® yet? (If no, another good question to ask is if they’ve submitted their info to other sites and are waiting for a call back. This can give you a better idea of whether they’re shopping around, or are pretty serious buyers)

2. Make sure you put them on a calendar, tickler file, reminder system, etc. to follow up with them soon, even if they aren’t looking for a while yet. This puts you back on their radar if they’ve been talking to other agents by phone. Then you can continue with softer follow-up, like an Item of the Month, newsletter, etc. to stay in front of them. And by all means, follow up with them again around the time they expected to really start looking seriously. Too often, leads are interested, but the Realtor® fails to follow up with them at the time they said they’d be ready.

Internet leads can be time consuming if you let them run you around town with no intention of buying for another year. By using these qualifying questions, and a solid follow-up system, you can be available for them when they’re ready to work with you.