Author: Kelly Cruz, Customer Support Specialist – Realty Partners LLC

Sarasota, FL. November 17th, 2021 – Purchasing leads can become costly especially for new REALTORS®, or those that don’t have the finances to get involved in paid lead programs. If you feel like you have hit a wall and are looking to find new buyers or sellers then you should consider mining organic leads. 

An organic lead is someone who finds you through a web search or learns about you through any method you’re not paying for. There are several ways to generate organic leads and we would like to share with you some of our favorites.

Sphere of Influence

What is your sphere of influence? According to Agent Legend a sphere of influence (SOI) consists of all of your connections as a real estate professional. This can include friends and family, previous clients, and leads that encounter your business through marketing efforts and purchased leads.

Your sphere of influence should be the first place you start when working to generate leads, however this often gets overlooked by agents. REALTORS® sometimes feel uncomfortable reaching out to their sphere for fear of rejection as they don’t want to appear overbearing. The reality is that your SOI may be more likely to trust you over an agent they don’t know personally and they can even become some of your best cheerleaders.

Open Houses

Open Houses are great opportunities to meet buyers. If you don’t have any listings of your own then offer to hold an open house for one of your REALTORS® colleagues within your brokerage. 

Be sure to share the Open House on your social media accounts and display some marketing materials such as flyers, business cards, and of course an Open House sign on the lawn. Find a way to gather lead information from potential buyers. KvCORE offers a great Open House Mobile app to collect names, numbers, email addresses. You can download this app from the app store to a tablet and set it up in the entryway of the open house with a sign requesting they fill it out.

Referrals

One of the best ways to get quality leads is through referrals. According to The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), 64% of sellers are found through referrals and 41% of sellers found their agent through referrals. 

Remember the SOI we touched on earlier? Well they are a great place to start with referrals. If your SOI isn’t in the market to buy or sell at the time, then maybe they know someone who is. Another option is to build referral partnerships with preferred vendors or local businesses you frequent. Ask if you can display business cards at their establishment or if they are willing to do a cross-promotion on each other’s business websites. 

Social Media

It’s no secret that Social Media is a global phenomenon. Many businesses have taken to various platforms to advertise their services, real estate brokerages and agents included. Social media is great for both advertising and building relationships so it is important to be well versed in the platforms.

Creating content can be a lot of work but there are platforms that can assist you with keeping your posts both relevant and regularly scheduled. COREListing Machine is a great tool for doing just that. This program connects directly to your Social Media accounts to schedule and post articles, your listings, and your brokerage’s listings on a regular basis. It doubles as a lead engine and funnels leads from these posts to your CRM, in turn saving you much time and effort. 

Cold Calls

We know that many REALTORS® shutter when they hear the mention of the “dreaded” cold call. The facts are that cold calls are a numbers game and if done correctly can prove successful. It can be uncomfortable at first but part of sales is accepting rejection and moving forward unscathed. 

Find data for individuals that may have not worked with an agent in a while. For instance, FSBOs, absentee homeowners, expired listings and so on. A great script is key to winning a lead in the cold calling process. You can find more information on cold calling and some great scripts in this blog. 

Community Building

Real estate is about building relationships. An effective way to start building relationships is to get to know your community by volunteering or joining a local organization.

You can sign up for charities such as your local United Way to stay up to date on various volunteer events. Remember when volunteering, stay on task and make your networking less “in your face”. Wear a shirt with your company logo or your name tag, and keep business cards in your pocket in the event someone asks about your business. You can also consider joining your local Chamber of Commerce to attend networking events and meet other agents or vendors in your area for referrals. 

Whether you are a new agent, or an experienced agent just looking to rev up your business; organic leads are a staple. The best part? Organic leads are usually completely free if not very affordable. Decide which tactics work best for you and be patient as you incorporate them. Which organic lead generators sound the most exciting to you?