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Internet Leads

By Thomas J. Quick

Mortgage and Lending with Sunflower Financial LLC.

January 19, 2007 05:52 PM

Internet leads, Is anyone having luck with Internet leads anymore? do people really fill out these things on the Internet or they just trying to win an x-box360? I have used many Internet lead sites in the past and they used to be good. Now i call and call these leads to get no answer. I work mainly off referrals, but use Internet leads to supplement my pipeline. i am wanting to know if anyone out there is having positive response with these leads? Or should i go back to doing multiple open houses on Sunday? if anyone has some marketing ideas let me know. I am always looking to extend my network. I am never to busy for referrals!!!

Thanks

Thomas Quick

Senior Associate

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Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

Our only internet leads come from our own sites, not from lead sellers. Build a lead generating site of your own.

Jan 19, 2007 11:07 PM

Fred Light

| Nashua Video Tours - Nashua, NH

Real Estate Video Tours for MA and NH

I would say you need to learn HOW to 'use' internet leads. Internet customers are very different from typical 'walk in', non internet customers. X Box 360? What does that have to do with anything real estate related? Are you calling people who have ASKED to be called? If I signed up for the MLS and / or filled out a form to do so, I would not EXPECT a call. If you called me, I would be out of there so fast you wouldn't know what happened! Are you chasing your customers away? Just because someone requests information, they may not (and probably DON'T) want a call from a house salesman! You're invading their privacy.

Where do you get your Internet leads? From your website? Does it provide the information that your customer is looking for? Internet customers are generally buyers and are generally looking MONTHS out in advance. They do NOT want to talk to a house salesman (and yes, that's how they perceive you!) NOW. They are not READY. YOU are not wanting to talk to someone who is looking to buy in 10 months either - it's too EARLY.

Internet customers are learning about the process, learning about the market, checking out properties online, driving by neighborhoods.... all on THEIR schedule on their OWN time. They are doing a lot of YOUR grunt work FOR YOU. If you hunt them down like prey early on in the process, they'll just run. You need to have a website (your point of first contact with that customer) that gives them ALL the information that they want during that information gathering process. If you do that, you will be perceived as the 'expert', they will repeatedly return to your site looking for that information, and when THEY are ready, they will contact YOU.

During that 'process', you need to have some subtle mechanisms in place to keep them tied to your website (i.e. daily email updates from MLS, a monthly enewsletter (featuring information, news and maybe a few hot listings... .not a hard core salespitch about YOU). A gentle reminder that you're THERE, that your website is there for THEM, and that the answers to their questions can be found THERE. And when they're ready.... those answers can be found through YOU.

Most realtors are unsuccessful with online leads because they don't know how to approach those leads and cultivate those virtual relationships over time until that customer IS READY.

My most successful clients online don't contact people EVER. EVER. Unless they contact them FIRST. They do 90% of their entire volume directly from their website. And they are some of the top producers in the area. It works and it's been proven, time and time again. Yes, it flies in the face of typical realtor training "once they contact you don't let them out of your sight until they buy... or they'll go somewhere else and buy". That's offline, old school thinking. If you want to do business online, you must do business the way your customer wants to conduct business.

The beauty of it is this: If you provide the information they are looking for on your website, they will do most of YOUR work for you. You will spend YOUR time doing the important things they cannot do... negotations, contracts, closing, etc. You will work SMARTER, not HARDER. You will be more productive doing less work. Let THEM drive themselves all over town looking at properties! Unless you enjoy playing taxi driver!

If you don't believe me, why do you think most web leads have bogus phone numbers? Why do most leads NOT respond to emails when you email them?

BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT TO TALK TO A HOUSE SALESMAN (now.) But they will.

Jan 19, 2007 11:17 PM

Jodi Kevern

Arizona Focus Realty - Gilbert, AZ

I have not done internet leads myself because of the stories I hear from others who have tried it. I would really like to know how those that make it work do it. Honestly. I don't mind working leads until they are ready but it sounds like so many of the people that are searching for a home online want to do it without the salesman that comes on the other end of that website.

Mar 28, 2007 03:12 PM

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