Want a shortcut to the closing table? Real estate lead generation companies will jump-start your business. In my quest to find the most stellar lead generation companies in a sea of mediocrity, I tapped into our team’s combined extensive real estate experience, sifted through countless options, and uncovered the best of the best. I dug into pricing, features, lead quality, lead types, whether leads are high funnel or low funnel, and exclusivity to find the top real estate lead generation companies for 2024.
Real Tactics Pro’s Top Picks for Real Estate Lead Generation Companies
| Company | Best For | Deep Dive Review | Real Tactics Pro Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zurple | Sophisticated nurturing system | Read Our Full Review | 4.9 |
| CINC | Hyperlocal leads | No Review Yet | 4.8 |
| Zillow Premier Agent | Buyer leads | Read Our Full Review | 4.5 |
| Ylopo | Tech-savvy agents with existing CRM | Read Our Full Review | 4.3 |
| Market Leader | Get a predictable number of exclusive leads and affordable social media leads | Read Our Full Review | 4.2 |
| Real Geeks | Affordable all-in-one lead generation system | Read Our Full Review | 4.2 |
| zBuyer | Affordable leads with no contract | Read Our Full Review | 4.1 |
| SmartZip | Geographic farming | Read Our Full Review | 3.6 |
| Offrs | Seller leads without a contract | Read Our Full Review | 3.4 |
| Catalyze AI | Exclusive inherited property leads | No Review Yet | 3.3 |
| REDX | Prospecting leads | Read Our Full Review | 3.1 |
Not all reviews on our site have been updated with the new rubric, so some scores may differ from the standalone reviews. This article contains the latest scores with the improved rubric, and we’re actively updating all reviews to reflect these scores.
Zurple: Best Overall Real Estate Lead Generation Company
Starting Monthly Prices
- Basic Package: $309 per month
- Auto Leads: $139 per month
- Additional Sites: $100 per site, per month
- Pipeline Boost: $300 per month
Why I Chose Zurple
I am impressed with Zurple’s powerful lead generation system, which has exceptional nurturing tools for agents who can spend a little more. Due to its hefty price tag, the system is a little much for a newer agent. But an established agent looking to up their lead gen game might find Zurple just the ticket. Zurple builds your business on autopilot with a healthy stream of exclusive leads.
- Automated lead nurturing and auto conversations: I’m in love with Zurple’s lead nurturing system. Once a lead is captured through one of its landing pages, it’s fed directly into the customer relationship manager (CRM), where the nurturing campaign begins.
- Behavior-led outreach: These highly engaging interactions are sophisticated outreach campaigns using email, text messages, MLS market updates, new listings, and more that adjust based on the lead’s behaviors.
- Lead-capturing websites and integrated CRM: Instead of having one website with your branding and IDX feed, Zurple’s websites are more like landing pages designed to capture data from site visitors. This feature separates your agent site from these landing pages, driving more leads directly to your CRM.
Where Zurple Could Improve
One of my biggest detractors is the price of this software. It’s not as accessible to a newer agent who would love to be able to invest in an excellent all-in-one lead-gen system. It’s a great fit for established agents with a healthy budget, team leaders, and brokers. However, newer agents may find this software to be cost-prohibitive.
In this situation, I highly recommend a platform like Real Geeks. They offer many similar features but at a more affordable price.
How Zurple Generates Real Estate Leads
Zurple uses landing pages targeting buyers or sellers for their agents’ specific markets. You can use the ads manager inside Zurple to run ads to drive traffic to your landing pages. You can also use these landing pages to capture leads organically through your social media, website, and any other place you exist on the internet. Zurple also offers paid programs as an add-on if you want to let them do the heavy lifting to get your landing pages in front of the right people.
CINC: Best for Hyperlocal Leads
Starting Monthly Prices
- $900 per month for solo agents depending on your market with six-month contract
- $1,500 per month for teams depending on market and size with six-month contract
Why I Chose CINC
With its sleek and stylish IDX websites, advanced CRM, behavioral messaging, and artificial intelligence (AI) texting tool trained by top-producing agents, CINC is a top-shelf real estate lead generation platform with a price tag to match. But when it comes to actually generating leads and getting them to the closing table, I believe CINC is light years ahead of similarly priced rivals like BoomTown. Seriously. It’s not even close. CINC launched in 2011 with a laser-like focus on one simple strategy: drive the highest quality real estate leads possible to agents and teams.
- Hyperlocal advertising generates higher-quality leads: CINC uses a hyperlocal, custom-tailored approach for agents who use the platform. After signing up, CINC’s onboarding team interviews you to find the exact neighborhoods, school districts, or gated communities where you know the best buyers and sellers are looking.
- Advanced CRM and AI nurturing tools make conversions: CINC’s advanced CRM and automated nurturing tools use technology and clever design to ensure leads don’t slip through the cracks. Its behavioral property alerts modify the type and timing of the nurturing texts and emails sent to your leads, increasing engagement for efficient conversion. Another tool I love is its artificial intelligence (AI) texting assistant, Alex. Instead of blasting out the usual prequalifying questions, CINC uses top-producing agents to train its AI to respond to leads.
Where CINC Could Improve
One area where CINC could improve is their lack of customization options. They build out the website for you based on your specific needs. But if it’s not exactly what you want, there aren’t a lot of options. I would hate to spend tons of money to get a website I didn’t much like. It might offset the high price tag if CINC could offer customizations to make the sites fit agents’ desired aesthetics.
How CINC Generates Real Estate Leads
Like most companies on our list, CINC uses a combination of pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google, Facebook, and Instagram to generate buyer and seller leads. However, instead of only advertising by county or ZIP code, CINC targets hyperlocal leads in specific neighborhoods, school districts, or gated communities, depending on the agent’s preferences. They also offer Facebook retargeting ads to stay top of mind with leads who have already visited your website.
Zillow Premier Agent: Best for Buyer Leads
Starting Monthly Prices*
- Major metro markets start around $1,000 per month
- Non-major markets average between $300 and $500 per month
*These estimates fluctuate based on the median sold price in your area, number of agents, and how many leads you want to capture with the service.
Why I Chose Zillow Premier Agent
Agents love to complain about it, but Zillow Premier Agent is in a class of its own when it comes to generating buyer leads. In 2023, the platform accounted for a mind-boggling 44% of all real estate traffic online. Love or hate them, the harsh truth is that most of your future buyers will be on Zillow. It’s not a matter of if—but when. But I didn’t pick Zillow as the best source for buyer leads because they dominate the market. Here is a closer look at the three main benefits of buying leads on Zillow:
- Captures buyer leads before the competition: Millions of buyers start their home search on Zillow’s website. An astonishing 60 million monthly visitors go directly to Zillow’s website—not Google—to search for homes. What does that mean for you? Well, since so many buyers start their search on Zillow, by the time they end up clicking on a Google or Facebook ad from another lead generation company, chances are they’re already talking to a Premier Agent. Advertising on Zillow gives you a first shot at these leads.
- Generates warmer buyer leads than other companies (yes, really): Even if buyers start their home search on Google, Zillow’s unique advertising strategy means you’ll get warmer buyer leads from the platform. Unlike competitors who capture buyer leads while they’re looking at cute kitten videos on Facebook, Zillow generates leads when they are actively searching for homes. So, does that mean every lead you get from Zillow will be ready to close in a month? Of course not. But, the purchase intent is generally higher.
Where Zillow Premier Agent Could Improve
Zillow could really improve by offering more exclusive leads to their agents. Maybe they don’t need to be exclusive but offer the leads to fewer agents. As a real estate agent, paying such a high price for a lead that 10 other agents also compete for feels like playing the slots in Vegas. Sure, you might hit once in a while, but how much money did you spend before you finally won?
How Zillow Premier Agent Generates Real Estate Leads
Zillow sells display advertising next to listings in specific ZIP codes to its clients (Premier Agents). Zillow transfers leads to the Zillow CRM or into whatever CRM you’re using, and the nurturing and conversion are up to you.
Is Zillow Premier Agent Worth the Cost?
Ylopo: Best for Tech-savvy Pros
Starting Monthly Prices
- $1,500 setup fee
- Tech Plus: $345 per month
- Starter: $545 per month (includes $300 toward advertising) + any additional ad spend
- RAIA AI: $100 per month
Why I Chose Ylopo
Ylopo is not the ideal solution for everyone, but for agents who are looking for a complete marketing solution that generates quality leads, it’s a stellar choice. Ylopo allows you to integrate with your existing marketing systems, like your favorite CRM, while delivering exceptional advertising that generates new leads and re-invigorates your cold ones.
- Includes paid ads and speed-optimized websites: Ylopo is a done-for-you marketing solution designed to drive traffic to your website, capture information from top-of-funnel leads, and feed them into your integrated CRM for a long-term nurturing campaign. You’ll have to do a lot of work to convert these digital leads into clients, but the lead generation from Ylopo will deliver plenty of leads for you to work with.
- Remarketing and AI-enhanced lead nurturing: Ylopo puts its data mining, paid ads, and AI to work targeting your cold leads and nurturing your new ones. It tracks online behaviors from your leads and tailors Facebook ads to them to re-ignite those cold leads and keep your fresh leads engaged.
Where Ylopo Could Improve
Having some control over the ads going out on your behalf seems like a great place to allow improvement. Ylopo has invested a lot of time and effort into creating ads that work—I totally get that. But having a bit of customization over the verbiage of the ads, just enough to make it sound like it’s coming from you and not from a cookie-cutter ad machine, just makes sense.
How Ylopo Generates Real Estate Leads
Ylopo is a done-for-you marketing solution that leans into the power of pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google and Facebook ads. It drives traffic to your optimized website and tracks behaviors to tailor the user experience. Ylopo uses lead capture from the PPC ads and feeds them directly to your chosen CRM. Once the leads are in your CRM, the Ylopo lead nurturing artificial intelligence (AI) bot, Raiya, begins interacting with your leads through text and voice to engage and qualify them. Most leads are top-of-funnel digital leads and require a longer nurturing process. However, the retargeting of older leads amplifies your success and conversion rates.
Market Leader: Best for Exclusive Leads
Starting Monthly Prices
- Agents: $189 + $7 to $30 per lead
- Teams (up to 10): $329 + $7 to $30 per lead
- Broker: Custom
Why I Chose Market Leader
Market Leader remains near my top rankings because of its exclusive lead guarantee and new Network Boost program offering affordable top-of-funnel social media leads and automated nurturing tools. It might not have the bells and whistles that competitors like Real Geeks, Chime, or BoomTown offer, but since Market Leader’s CRM and nurturing tools are a fraction of the price, I think it’s a decent choice for agents. Market Leader is an excellent option if you want affordable leads and basic but effective tools to nurture them.
- Predictable Exclusive lead: Unlike its competitors, Market Leader offers a predictable number of monthly exclusive leads, which makes predicting your future performance much more straightforward. Once you figure out your lead conversion rate and closing ratios, it’s easier to forecast how many deals you’ll close in a year.
- Affordable social media leads and automated nurturing tools: Market Leader offers social media leads starting at just $6 each through their new Network Boost program. You’ll want to nurture these top-of-funnel leads with Market Leader’s automated lead nurturing tools.
Where Market Leader Could Improve
Market Leader’s CRM could use a bit of an overhaul. Since most of Market Leader’s exclusive leads are top of the funnel, it needs a more robust system for nurturing those leads for its clients. The lead quality is one of the biggest complaints agents have about Market Leader. But I believe that’s because the leads are so far from conversion. If Market Leader invested in a quality nurturing system within a better, more user-friendly CRM, it might solve their issues.
How Market Leader Generates Real Estate Leads
Market Leader takes the ad agency approach to generate real estate leads, placing targeted ads where your prospects spend their time (Facebook and Google). These ads direct seller prospects to Market Leader’s landing page and HouseValues.com, and buyer leads to a personally branded, IDX search-enabled site. Once a lead gives their information, it’s automatically populated in the Market Leader CRM, and then you take over with nurturing and conversion.
Real Geeks: Best for Affordable, All-in-One Lead Generation
Starting Monthly Prices
- Startup fee: $250
- $299 per month (up to two users)
- $600 per month: Real Leads lead gen services
- Robin AI add-on: $200 per month
Why I Chose Real Geeks
I chose Real Geeks for all-in-one lead generation platform for one simple reason—It comes jam-packed with the same cutting-edge lead generation, marketing, and nurturing tools other platforms offer at a price individual agents can actually afford. You get a sleek IDX website designed for conversion, a sophisticated CRM, automated drip campaigns and texting, top-shelf training and customer support, and even a behavioral marketing tool called Reactive Responses that can give Zurple a run for its money.
- Includes paid real estate leads and DIY lead generation tools: I love that Real Geeks’ platform lets you choose how you want to generate real estate leads. You can buy into their Real Leads program and let their marketing experts run your Facebook, Google, and Bing ads for you, or you can use their Facebook Marketing Tool to create your ads. You can use their home valuation tool to generate seller leads or drive traffic from your Facebook ads to your IDX website to capture buyer leads.
- IDX website and CRM designed for conversion: I love Real Geeks’ powerful conversion tools. The home valuation tool allows you to create custom landing pages for specific neighborhoods and automatically send out a market report drip campaign to nurture them. You can create custom workflows to nurture your leads or use tools like SMS auto-responders, their AI chatbot Robin, or Reactive Responses, which sends automated text messages based on leads’ behavior on your website.
Where Real Geeks Could Improve
I love Real Geeks’ websites and lead gen features. But if I were running a team, I would definitely need more analytics and lead distribution. I think Real Geeks could be a powerful tool for teams and brokerages if it added some additional management features.
How Real Geeks Generates Real Estate Leads
Real Geeks generates leads using a combination of Google and Bing PPC ads to drive seller leads to home valuation landing pages or Facebook ads to drive buyer leads to an IDX website. You can also generate leads yourself with their platform using the Facebook Marketing tool to simplify the process of creating Facebook ads and save some money. Real Geeks users can also drive traffic to their IDX websites or landing pages through search engine optimization (SEO) or social media to generate leads.
zBuyer: Best for Affordable Leads With No Contract
Starting Monthly Prices
- $400 per month minimum (leads cost between $12 and $17 each)
- No contract or startup fees
Why I Chose zBuyer
If you want affordable, high-quality leads without the expense and velvet handcuffs of CRMs, marketing tools, and a long-term contract, try zBuyer. zBuyer sticks to the old-school “just give me the leads!” strategy that so many agents ask for. Here are the top three benefits you’ll get from zBuyer:
- Affordable buyer and seller leads with no long-term contract: Most lead gen companies require six- to 12-month contracts. Not zBuyer. If you don’t like the platform or leads, you can leave. No questions asked. Frankly, I’m surprised more companies don’t do this since most complaints, even for top real estate lead generation companies, mention that locking consumers into long contracts is a pain point.
- Free prospecting leads: Another feature that put zBuyer at the top of my list is its free prospecting leads. Yes, you read that right. For every dollar you spend with zBuyer, they will give you one four- to 12-month-old lead from their system—for free. These leads will be ice cold, but you can always warm them up with lead-scoring software like Revaluate.
- You don’t have to spend money on a CRM you don’t want: Most Realtors who want to buy leads already have a CRM. Instead of forcing you to pay $200-plus per month for another one, like most lead generation companies, zBuyer sends buyer and seller leads directly to your CRM. So it doesn’t matter which CRM you use. Want to switch from Follow Up Boss to Wise Agent? Changed your mind and want to try Top Producer? zBuyer has you covered.
Where zBuyer Could Improve
One problem with zBuyer’s lead generation system is that it can sell out. It would be great if they could zero in on specific areas instead of ZIP code or county. In some areas, that’s a lot of ground to cover. In my specific area, for example, the entire city was split into two ZIP codes. And the county was so large that there’s no way I would want to cover the entire area it encompassed. There’s a lot of wiggle room for more agents to get more targeted leads if zBuyer could break up the areas and target more specifically.
How zBuyer Generates Real Estate Leads
zBuyer uses innovative analytics to uncover early indications of interest in selling or buying. The company offers targeted potential sellers a chance to discover their home’s worth and potentially a cash offer. Buyer leads are captured through the company’s site, HousingNow.com.
Potential leads must confirm their interest at several points, verifying their intent—which results in higher conversion rates. zBuyer then provides the agent with the lead’s contact information in real time via the zBuyer app, email, and your chosen CRM. While the leads aren’t exclusive, zBuyer says they work hard to “limit their exposure.” ZBuyer is a low-cost, low-risk option with excellent customer service and a robust lead-generation strategy.
SmartZip: Best for Geographic Farming
Starting Monthly Prices
- Starts at $299 per month (requires 12-month contract)
Why I Chose SmartZip
SmartZip’s near-magical ability to predict likely sellers—and their suite of marketing tools to nurture and convert them—made them a clear choice for seller leads in 2024. Here’s a quick breakdown of the two biggest benefits you’ll get from SmartZip:
- Reach likely sellers months before your competition: SmartZip’s predictive analytics technology combs through millions of data points to identify likely sellers six to 12 months before they’re ready to sell. That means you’ll reach seller leads before your competition does.
- Best-in-class marketing and nurturing tools: I love SmartZip’s marketing and nurturing tools. While its CRM might not be as sophisticated or customizable as tools like Propertybase, it does give you a lead’s estimated equity, home data, social media profiles, or taxable value changes. That’s not to mention their CheckIn app that tells you who to follow up with every day. You also get home valuation landing pages, automated direct mail campaigns, a comparative market analysis tool, and local trend reports.
Where SmartZip Could Improve
SmartZip has powerful predictive analytics backed by tons of data. But the big drawback is a lot of the leads generated are still top of the funnel and need a lot of nurturing to get them to convert. SmartZip could play a huge role in getting those leads to the closing table with some AI-driven nurturing tools to help agents convert them.
How SmartZip Generates Real Estate Leads
SmartZip combs through consumer data (from places like credit card companies), market data (from places like your MLS), and demographic data, predicting which homeowners in your targeted region are most likely to sell.
Realtors who sign up with SmartZip immediately get access to the SmartZip CRM, populated with “Smart Data” for your areas. Essentially, this is a list of all the property owners in your targeted area, ranked by how likely they are to sell their home in the next year and a half. Armed with this information, you can focus your outreach on only the most likely sellers, saving you time and money on marketing efforts and making your lead conversations more fruitful.
Offrs: Best Seller Leads Without a Contract
Starting Monthly Prices
- Premium: $3,599 per year (~$300 per month) with 12-month contract; $599 per month on month-to-month plan
- Premium + ISA: $5,499 per year (~$458 per month); $899 per month on month-to-month plan
Why I Chose Offrs
I included Offrs on this list because it utilizes predictive analytics to generate leads but doesn’t lock agents into a long-term contract. Many platforms deter agents with long-term commitments. I love that Offrs takes a different approach. It also uses hundreds of data points to generate their predicted sellers and boasts a 72% accuracy rate. If you’re looking for a platform to help you predict your gross commission income (GCI) for the year, Offrs claims to be the software to do just that.
- Includes exclusive paid lead generation for up to five ZIP codes: Offrs’ hefty price tag comes with paid lead capture campaigns and a daily dose of predictive sellers, FSBOs, and expired listings in your designated areas. You’ll also get online ads to target your leads to enhance your conversion rate. Offrs uses hundreds of data points to uncover patterns of behavior that lead to homeowners selling within 12 months.
- ROOF conversion: ROOF leverages its AI technology to help convert your leads into clients by ensuring each lead is touched 30 times within the first 90 days. ROOF is your inside sales agent (ISA) reaching out to your leads via text, calls, and email. The AI assistant will qualify your leads for you and stay in touch until it’s time for you to take over. The best part about ROOF is you can pay for the upgrade and use it at will, or you can simply pay a 25% referral fee from your commission at closing.
Where Offrs Could Improve
I love the flexibility Offrs gives agents, along with the stellar leads it provides. But the long lead nurture period makes converting difficult for a lot of agents. Offrs could improve agents’ return on investment (ROI) by adding in a few additional lead nurture tools, perhaps some AI-powered nurture tools, to help get those leads over the finish line.
How Offrs Generates Real Estate Leads
Offrs generates leads for its agents with predictive analytics. It pushes hundreds of data points through its proprietary algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) systems to uncover behaviors, characteristics, and demographics that lead to home sales within 12 months. The leads are then delivered directly to the Offrs agent.
Catalyze AI: Best for Exclusive Inherited Property Leads
Starting Monthly Prices
- $360 per month for 30 leads under $1 million
- $450 per month for 30 leads over $1 million
Why I Chose Catalyze AI
Catalyze AI took the crown for best inheritance leads for one simple reason. They are the only company using predictive analytics and AI technology to identify highly motivated inheritance leads before they end up in probate court. They can also uncover inherited properties in trusts—something competitors like US Probate Leads and All The Leads can’t do. That means you can start marketing to highly motivated sellers before they get sold as leads to other companies. With so many agents desperate for listings, getting there first gives you a massive advantage over the competition.
- Highly motivated exclusive sellers: The beauty of the inherited listing leads Catalyze AI offers is that many are highly motivated to sell. After calculating taxes and maintenance costs, most heirs realize they would rather get a cash windfall from a quick sale than pay to maintain a second vacant home. Sure, if the property ends up in probate, the sales process might take a while, but the company says that, on average, 40% of Catalyze AI leads end up selling within 12 months. Since Catalyze AI lets you talk to these leads before other agents, you’ll be the first person they call when they’re ready to sell.
- Affordable leads allow you to fill your database quickly: Even better, exclusive seller leads from Catalyze AI start at only $12 per lead for homes worth less than $1 million and $15 per lead for homes over $1 million. That means you can fill your database quickly and use automated nurturing tools to keep them warm while you work leads that need to transact faster. Yes, this is a longer-term strategy, but the system will pay for itself if you close just one $1 million-plus home per year with Catalyze AI.
Where Catalyze AI Could Improve
Catalyze AI offers an amazing system for finding inherited property leads. And the price point is definitely competitive. But these are the type of leads that require a delicate touch and a whole lot of patience to convert. It would be amazing to see Catalyze AI assist agents with this. This is the perfect opportunity for psychology-tested AI nurturing to bolster agents’ efforts.
How Catalyze AI Generates Real Estate Leads
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people inherit properties. Catalyze AI helps sort through more than 400 million data points to narrow these properties down to the best real estate leads—so amazing that Catalyze AI estimates this market represents $77 billion in property value each year.
10 Predictive Analytics Companies Real Estate Agents Need to Know About
REDX: Best for Prospecting Leads
Starting Monthly Prices
- Vortex lead management: $50 per month
- Expired leads: $70 per month
- FSBO leads: $50 per month
- Power Dialer: $100 per month
Why I Chose REDX
With pricing starting at just $49.99 per month, REDX was my clear choice for the most affordable lead generation company for 2024. If you want leads and are willing to invest your time instead of your money, REDX is your golden ticket to double your GCI this year. With REDX, you can choose between multiple lead types and use their tools, training, and scripts to convert them to clients. Even better, all of the leads REDX offers are seller leads. If you want to become a listing agent and are willing to pick up the phone and call them, REDX gives you the best bang for your buck.
- Vortex CRM and Power Dialer make prospecting easier: REDX’s included VORTEX CRM and Power Dialer work together to simplify and speed up the cold calling process. Leads are sent directly to the VORTEX CRM. The Power Dialer automatically dials and connects you if the lead picks up the phone. The system leaves a prerecorded message on their voicemail if they don’t. When you connect to a lead, the Power Dialer pulls up scripts and objection handlers to help you convert them.
- Included scripts, objection handlers, and training to help you convert more leads: While similar lead generation companies just sell you leads and an auto-dialer, REDX takes it a step further by including powerful scripts and objection handlers right in the auto-dialer to help you convert them. They even offer live role-playing and extensive lead conversion training with expert cold callers like LabCoat Agents’ Tristan Ahumada.
Where REDX Could Improve
I think REDX is a great lead generation company, but the inability of agents to seamlessly integrate their leads into their CRM is a source of frustration. Sure, REDX’s Vortex is great. But, managing leads exclusively within Vortex can be inconvenient for agents who prefer consolidating their leads in their CRM. It would be great to see REDX open up its integrations so agents can make that decision on their own. Currently, agents can work the lead inside Vortex until it’s ready to convert, then move it over to their CRM. But right now, that’s still a manual chore for agents.
How REDX Generates Real Estate Leads
Instead of waiting for leads, REDX flips the script with an outbound real estate lead generation system, putting contact information (and the power to make connections) into the hands of real estate agents, teams, and brokers.
REDX users choose the lead types (such as expired listings, FSBOs, and preforeclosures) they want to target, and REDX provides contact information. With a constantly updated system, you’ve always got a fresh list of real estate agent leads in your area, so you can decide how much time you want to spend reaching out, following up, and converting them into clients.
Real Estate Lead Generation Companies FAQs
What are real estate lead generation companies?
Real estate lead generation companies leverage technology, including predictive analytics and AI, advertising skills, and professional staff, to generate leads for Realtors, teams, and brokerages. The most common way these companies generate leads is by placing ads on social media platforms and search engines to capture a buyer or seller’s contact information. They then sell this contact information to real estate agents who work to convert them into clients.
There are three main categories of real estate lead generation companies:
- Full-service lead generation companies that run all advertising, prequalifying, and lead nurturing campaigns for you.
- Companies that only provide lead generation websites, CRMs, and other tools to help you generate leads independently.
- Companies that sell leads without websites, CRM, or nurturing tools.
Regardless of which kind of lead generation company you choose, the goal is to fill your database with leads.
How do I find the best lead generation company?
Every agent is different and has unique needs for lead generation. I’m giving you a lot of information about several lead generation companies in hopes it will provide enough information to decide which is best for you based on your specific needs and desires for your business.
First, decide your budget and level of confidence in your ability to convert leads. Then, evaluate the pros and cons of each real estate lead generation company to find which ones fit your needs vs your budget.
Analyze your existing tools and processes to evaluate whether keeping your current tools is a priority or if you’re willing to ditch everything to learn a whole new, all-in-one system. Once you decide on this part, you can narrow down your search.
Then, choose which one fits your needs best. Many of these companies require a minimum commitment of six months. So, once you take the plunge, give it a solid try for the duration of the contract. In fact, most of these platforms take time to see any real ROI from your investment. So, be patient and ensure you’re using the software as intended. Take advantage of all the training to take the system for a true test run.
And if the platform doesn’t work for you after a six- or 12-month commitment, you can always re-evaluate your options. Just know that there is no one right answer here. Many agents succeed with all of these software, while others don’t. What works best will depend on you and your team.
How much do real estate leads cost?
In 2024, when purchased from a lead generation company, real estate leads cost anywhere from $5 to $100 each. Since solo Realtors only close a small percentage of the leads they buy, most pay between $300 and $1,000 monthly for leads. Teams and brokerages using the lead team model often pay $5,000 monthly to purchase enough leads for their agents.
Here is a quick breakdown of the seven factors influencing the price of leads:
- How quickly does the lead need to buy or sell a home
- The cost of software and services that lead generation companies bundle with their leads
- Whether the lead is exclusive or non-exclusive
- The price point of the home the lead is trying to buy or sell
- The state, city, and neighborhood where the lead is sold
- Whether or not the company prequalifies the lead
- The number of other agents competing for the same lead
What are exclusive leads?
An exclusive lead is a buyer or seller that a lead generation company sells to only one agent. Of course, this doesn’t guarantee that the lead has not already been contacted by, or worse, is already working with another agent. It also doesn’t guarantee the lead is not being sold to multiple agents by other lead generation companies. It just means the individual company selling the lead is not selling it to other agents. This is a crucial distinction that too many agents miss.
Some lead generation companies take the time to prequalify each exclusive lead they sell to understand their real estate goals, verify their contact information is correct, and make sure they are not working with another agent. As you might imagine, these companies charge much higher prices than those that sell unverified leads.
Is it better to buy high-funnel or low-funnel leads?
I recommend agents buy a mixture of high-funnel and low-funnel leads to grow their businesses. High-funnel leads might not need to transact for six to 12 months, while low-funnel leads might need to buy or sell a home much faster. But that doesn’t mean low-funnel leads are better than high-funnel leads. In fact, most experienced agents prefer high-funnel leads because there’s less competition. This allows the agent to be the first agent these leads talk to—a crucial advantage in today’s sluggish market. However, since low-funnel leads will get you to the closing table faster, it’s vital to have them in your database too, so you can generate income while waiting for your high-funnel leads to warm up.
That said, your optimal ratio of high-funnel to low-funnel leads may depend on your experience as an agent. If you’re a newer agent, we recommend buying more low-funnel leads. Yes, they are more expensive, but since you won’t have an extensive database of leads to nurture or referrals to work as experienced agents, low-funnel leads will help you generate income and experience quickly. Experienced agents have the luxury of buying more affordable high-funnel leads since they are far more likely to have large databases filled with leads and referrals.
How do most Realtors get leads?
Most successful real estate agents diversify lead generation so their businesses don’t live or die by a single source. Paid lead generation, referrals, repeat business and organic social marketing are great examples of where real estate agents get leads.
Having a plan for your overall real estate lead generation strategy is essential. If you need help with this, check out our article on creating a custom real estate lead generation plan. It even has some helpful templates to get you started.
Are real estate lead generation companies worth it?
If you can get a high enough return on your investment, paid lead generation strategies are absolutely worth it. Think about this: If someone told you that you could earn a $15,000 commission by writing a $5,000 check, you’d do it, right? Assuming the number of hours you must put in to get that commission won’t be worth more than $10,000 of work, the numbers pencil out.
For most agents who invest in real estate lead generation, the commission from one closing can cover the total investment for the year. The upside is if you’ve covered the annual cost of your lead generation with one closing, then any additional commissions for the year are additional profits. Since lead generation is continuous, you can do the math to determine, with some degree of certainty, how much GCI you will make in a year.
What’s a good price per lead in real estate?
In most markets, the maximum price a real estate agent should be comfortable spending per lead is $200. That seems high, but let’s do a little math together.
Let’s say you get 10 leads in a week from a real estate lead generation company and convert one into a client. Let’s assume you’re converting 75% of those clients into sales. This means that you’re closing three transactions every month out of 40 total leads.
For 40 leads a month, you’re paying $8,000 (40 x $200). With the typical home selling for more than $300,000, those three sales gross you $27,000 in GCI (assuming a 3% side). That nets you $19,000 before splits and taxes.
Of course, this price changes based on your conversion rates, the typical sale price of a home in your market, and your commission percentage. But for most agents, $200 per lead is a great benchmark.
Methodology: How I Chose the Best Real Estate Lead Generation Companies for 2024
To evaluate the real estate lead generation companies in this article, I leaned on our team of licensed real estate pros, writers, and editors who created a weighted rubric to evaluate each company. Our team has spent hours researching dozens of companies and evaluating each one on the most impactful elements for agents and brokers. Here are the criteria we based our evaluations on.
- Pricing 20%
- I looked at the average price per lead for buyer and seller leads, monthly ad management fees, the minimum required ad spend, onboarding fees, and pricing for mandatory tools like CRMs, IDX websites, and automated lead nurturing. I also included whether or not a contract is required.
- Features 25%
- I evaluated each company’s main features, like lead capture tools, lead management, integrations, and ease of use. If a company required features like a built-in CRM, IDX websites, or automated nurturing, I included those features in my analysis.
- Advanced Features 20%
- I evaluated whether the leads generated were high-funnel or low-funnel, lead exclusivity, how leads are qualified, lead quality, and how difficult the leads are to convert.
- User Experience (UX)/Customer Service 10%
- The dashboard and user interface are important factors to consider. If it’s difficult to use or to find your way around in the platform, you’ll be a lot less likely to use it.
- Customer Rating 10%
- I read reviews of software after I’ve taken it for a test drive to evaluate others’ experience compared to my own. I take that additional feedback into account when assessing any software.
- Expert Score 15%
- I give extra credit for any standout features that aren’t covered in the above categories.
Your Take
Did we miss a real estate lead generation company you want to learn more about? Have experiences with the ones we’ve selected? Drop me a line in the comments!
Tell us about you so we know what to send.
