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Leads can't be bought........they must be earned.

By Bryant Tutas

Real Estate Broker/Owner with Tutas Towne Realty, Inc and Garden Views Realty, LLC BK607690

August 31, 2008 07:03 PM

Hi foks. I am always reading and hearing about leads.

How do you get them?
What do you do with them?
Have you bought leads from this or that company?

Well, this got me thinking about.... what is a lead? A lead to me is someone that contacts me and tells me they want to sale or buy a house in the next 30 days and they were given my name by so and so whose house I sold last year. Leads are gold. Leads are money in the bank. They are ready to buy or sell and they are ready to work with you. Leads will turn into customers or clients and if satisfied will result in more leads by referring your services.

If you could get a couple of leads a week you could easily covert them into 3 to 5 closings per month. Leads can't be bought. Leads come from hard work and a loyal customer base that is built over years from providing honest and professional service. And from keeping in touch with past customers and clients.

Usually, when we are talking about leads, I think we are really talking about prospects. A prospect is someone that may be interested in selling or buying, sometime in the future, when Venus aligns with Mars. These are the people who spend days on the Internet contacting every Realtor they can. Or call off the yard sign while riding around on a Sunday afternoon. You can buy prospects. There are many large web based "lead mills" that are wanting to sell you what they call "leads."

Folks these are not leads they are prospects. To pay for these types of "leads" in my opinion is a waste of money. If these prospects were truly leads they would not be selling them to you for a few bucks.

So, save your money and concentrate your efforts on keeping in touch with past customers and networking with people in your community. Always provide honest and professional service and before you know it you will have a steady stream of leads. Remember leads can't be bought they must be earned.

I wrote this post over 2 years ago and still believe it to be true today. What say you?

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Yvette Smith

LONG & FOSTER - Williamsburg, VA

Realtor In Williamsburg VA, Homes for Sale

HI BB!

I say you're right. It's just like weight loss...there's nothing you can buy that will make it magically happen (unfortunately, or I would've bought by now!). It comes from hard work, perseverence and a never-give-up attitude!

Sep 01, 2008 01:26 PM

Sharon Simms

Coastal Properties Group International - Christie's International - Saint Petersburg, FL

St. Petersburg FL - CRS CIPS CLHMS RSPS

BB - good repost! You've written so many good posts over the last couple of years it's a shame to deprive the last 90,000 or so members of your early pearls of wisdom. It's back to the basics, isn't it? No magic pill.

Sep 01, 2008 02:08 PM

Rob Arnold

Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. - Altamonte Springs, FL

Metro Orlando Full Service - Investor Friendly & F

The best way to generate leads is to get listings. Listings create more buyer and seller leads. The second best place for leads is from referrals and word of mouth.

Sep 01, 2008 02:49 PM

Kathleen Daniels, Probate & Trust Specialist

KD Realty - 408.972.1822 - San Jose, CA

Probate Real Estate Services

Broker Bryant ~ very creative and funny. For only $5.00 - I'll take two.

Just to be clear - A lead is something that is not followed.

Sep 01, 2008 03:12 PM

Sara Homan

Coldwell Banker Ellison Realty 352-209-4044 - Ocala, FL

Realtor, Homes, Farms & 55+

BB, That was great! You depicted those lead sales folks to a tee!

Sep 01, 2008 03:15 PM

Gary Bolen

McCall Realty - South Lake Tahoe, CA

CRS - Lake Tahoe Real Estate Information

i had forgotten about this one. and its just as good now as it was when we first saw it. when those lead clowns call us, for some reason i don't understand, it's just hard being nice to them. but it sure is fun putting them on, and slammin' them down. Jerks!

cheers

Sep 01, 2008 03:47 PM

Ruthmarie Hicks

Keller Williams NY Realty - 120 Bloomingdale Road #101, White Plains NY 10605 - White Plains, NY

B.B.

So it was YOU on the phone the other day offering to sell me leads in my zip code for a mere $350/month! Thought I recognized the voice, but i couldn't quite place it.LOVE the t-shirt!

Sep 01, 2008 04:37 PM

Justin Williams

Independent - Virginia Beach, VA

Loan Officer

LOL love the outfit and sales pitch! You know I always joked around when my co-workers complained about leads and told them to get the phonebook...its so true leads can be worthless but great pospects you already have acess too is priceless!! great post and video!~

Sep 01, 2008 05:17 PM

Christine Donovan

Donovan Blatt Realty - Costa Mesa, CA

Broker/Attorney 714-319-9751 DRE01267479 - Costa M

Your video left me laughing. And, I have to agree with you with regards to leads versus prospects.

Sep 01, 2008 05:50 PM

Gail Robinson

William Raveis Real Estate - Southport, CT

CRS, GRI, e-PRO Fairfield County, CT

BB, I agree, the best leads are the ones where your phone rings and they want YOU! I don't do floor duty or accept referrals. My phone rings every day with buyers and sellers who want to talk to me about working with them. I wish they were all ready to list or buy within the next 30 days, but most are longer term prospects. What I appreciate most is that the calls coming in now are from people I don't know, but who know of me either through AR, referrals from friends, or see my listings online. We can only personally know so many people, so it's really important that word gets out beyond my SOI. That's now happening and if the lenders would just give out some money, perhaps I could have a few more sales!

Sep 01, 2008 06:02 PM

Lanre-"THE REAL ESTATE FARMER" Folayan

Samson Properties - Bowie, MD

I don't make promises.I deliver results.SOLD HOMES

I wish I would've known two years ago about Active Rain,then I would not have wasted my money on lead generation companies- Big Rookie mistake. Great post BB.

Sep 01, 2008 07:00 PM

Paul Francis

Francis Group Real Estate - Las Vegas, NV

Las Vegas Real Estate Agent - Summerlin Homes

Hmm... I know a Las Vegas real estate agent in our office that just signed up for a lead service and picked up two listings from it... Not too shabby for a minimal amount of time and about $30 a month....

Sep 01, 2008 11:45 PM

Rebecca Schrader

Competitive Insurance of Dundee - Dundee, FL

Bryant,

I say, this still rings true today...you really put it into prospective for us. Thank you for the post. And you know, we've all been there... buying "leads" (you're right, if they WERE leads, they would not be selling them to us for a few bucks!)

Sep 02, 2008 01:03 AM

Katerina Gasset

The Gasset Group & Get It Done For Me Virtual Services - Provo, UT

Amplify Your Real Estate & Life Dreams!

I will never buy 'prospects' or 'leads'. I am not interested in buying strangers! When someone calls us from our blog posts, they know, like and trust us. I do not ever suggest for a moment for anyone that I coach to buy prospects.

Sep 02, 2008 01:50 PM

Jason Feinman

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - River Vale, NJ

Bergen County Real Estate Expert, ABR, CNE, e-PRO

It depends on how and where you spend your advertising dollars and or lead generation dollars. I have used various combinations and have fine tuned my marketing plan to produce more fruitful leads, mostly through the internet and making it the top ranked website among real estate agents in my service area as based by Google, AOL and Yahoo. I started with pay per click, then optimized my website where I had growing popularity and the most relevant content to achieve high ranking across many keywords and phrases. Because of that, I was able to eliminate completely pay per click and use my monies elsewhere.

Sep 02, 2008 03:33 PM

Anonymous

Not Yet Licensed

I guess the key is knowing what to do with these "leads" once you get them.

Hi Bryant,

You're absolutely right. Lead generation is only one third of the story. To be really successful, you also need to have effective lead incubation and lead conversion. By the way, and this might come as a surprise to some agents, internet leads/prospects/suspects (or whatever else you want to call them) are NOT for everyone. Some agents get rich off internet leads, while other agents go broke.

Respectfully,

Bruce

Sep 02, 2008 07:08 PM

#72

Patricia Beck

RE/MAX Properties, Inc., ABR, GRI, SRES - Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado Springs Realty

Very important to differentiate the two, it is better to have people come to you for your services than paying for prospects.

Sep 03, 2008 01:29 AM

"The Lovely Wife" The One And Only TLW.

President-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc. - Kissimmee, FL

Sep 03, 2008 11:25 AM

Yvette Chisholm

Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. - Rockville, MD

Associate Broker - Rockville, MD 301-758-9500

Unfortunately, many people believe in these lead generators - and don't have good systems to incubate. We prefer to get our business by referral. Loyalty is high and we get people who already know what a great job we are going to do!

Sep 05, 2008 02:46 AM

Pippa Mac

Chevaux Group Realtor, The Woodlands and Spring - The Woodlands, TX

The Woodlands TX Real Estate

Oh yeah .. I have learned this the HARD way! I have bought the leads and it turned into a few sales but NOTHING beats personally touching people in some way, either with blogging, school, church, functions, social events, neighbors, friends or family .. find your voice! Thank you!