How to Buy Leads for Real Estate Professionals (Step-by-Step Guide)
If you’re trying to figure out how to buy real estate leads, then the chances are high you no longer need convincing that buying leads is totally worth it (which I fully agree with).
At this phase, you may even know which provider to buy leads from. If that’s not the case, no worries.
I wrote a separate article that covers where to buy real estate leads for those who are still in the lead provider research phase.
In today’s article, I’ll show you how a typical lead buying process works and even looks like.
So, let’s dive in.
Since there are dozens of different lead selling systems out there, I’ll demonstrate how to buy real estate leads through our own Pay Per Lead platform.
While different platforms have different interfaces, rules, and pricing, the overall concept of buying real estate leads online is pretty much the same.
Therefore, understanding how to buy leads through Real Estate Bees (REB) Pay Per Lead real estate marketplace will give you a clear idea what to expect.
Okay, so here is how it works.
#1 Create an Account
First, you will need to create an account on the platform you’re planning to buy real estate leads from.
Most of the real estate lead generation companies will let you sign up to their system on your own by simply creating username and password.
Here is how REB’s account creation process looks like.
1. Go to our signup page.
2. Select the way you want to sign up. You can sign up with your email address, or opt for signing up via Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
3. Once you do that, you’ll need to select your business category and you’re ready to rock and roll!
Unlike most of the lead providers, some (very few) will create an account on your behalf and then provide you with the login credentials to access their platform.
Either way, you’ll need to have an account to start purchasing leads.
#2 Choose Lead Purchasing Mode
Generally, there are two main lead purchasing modes available to you to choose from when buying leads.
Yes, it’s true, the lead acquisition models can vary from platform to platform. But they all largely work based on the following two lead purchasing modes that I’m going to describe below.
I also want to point your attention to the terminology I’m using. You’ve probably noticed I used the following terms: “lead purchasing modes” and “lead acquisition models”.
These terms sound very similar but I don’t use them interchangeably. They are indeed similar but they mean different things.
Let me explain.
While other real estate lead providers may have different perspectives on this terminology, I personally break it down the following way.
When it comes to lead buying in particular, there are only two lead purchasing modes available:
- Manual: Lets you buy leads one by one on your own.
- Automated: Lets lead providers buy leads (based on your intake criteria) on your behalf automatically.
Now, what do I mean by the lead acquisition models then?
Well, according to my philosophy, each of the listed above lead purchasing modes can be used with a different lead acquisition model.
Here is what I mean.
Let’s say you decide to opt for an automated lead purchasing mode. With this mode, you can use the following two main lead acquisition models:
- Fixed-price model: Lets you buy leads for a specific unchangebale price.
- Bid-based model: Lets you set a maximum bid you’re willing to spend per lead which will dynamically determine the price of every lead you purchase based on other buyers who bid on the same type of lead.
Hopefully, this clarified the difference between “lead purchasing modes” and “lead acquisition models”.
In this article, I don’t want to get into the lead acquisition models because these are the variables that depend on each and every lead provider’s platform.
Whereas the two most common lead purchasing modes are offered almost by every lead provider.
So, let’s dive into each lead purchasing mode to better understand how they work and their pros and cons.
Buy Leads One-by-One Manually
Generally, more advanced platforms will give you access to a marketplace with constantly updated lead inventory.
In other words, you’ll be able to browse real estate leads in real time and purchase them on demand one by one.
We also call this purchasing mode Cherry Picking. Meaning, you browse the real-time inventory and buy only those leads that fall under your very specific lead intake preferences.
This allows you to pay only for the leads that meet your very specific criteria, which is a considerable advantage of this lead purchasing mode.
Here is how REB’s real-time lead marketplace looks like:
You can set specific filters to only see the types of real estate leads you’re looking for to fine-tune your search.
That said, less advanced lead providers won’t usually have the real-time marketplace option available.
Most of the time, after creating your account, you’ll simply need to set your lead intake preferences (also known as Autobuy) to enable automated lead delivery.
While the automated lead intake criteria feature is essential, the downside of having only that option at your disposal is quite significant.
The reason being is that you can miss out on many good leads simply because they are slightly off from your specified lead intake preferences.
For instance, let’s say that one of your lead intake preferences is to receive leads with a property price range between $250k to $350k.
When you specify such a filter through the automated lead intake feature, you’ll surely receive leads that match the respective price range.
However, what if there are properties that match all your other criteria perfectly but their price is either slightly lower or higher than $250k to $350k?
In this case, you’ll miss out on what could have been perfectly good leads!
Fortunately, if you had access to a marketplace where you could browse real estate leads in real time, you would see those leads you missed out on through the Autobuy feature and could buy them right from the marketplace.
With all the great benefits I’ve just described the real-time marketplace has, it doesn’t lack downsides either. Its major disadvantage is speed-to-lead, so to speak.
By ‘speed-to-lead’, I mean the timeframe from the moment a lead was generated to the moment you get in contact with them. In other words, the sooner you can get a hold of a lead, the more likely you’ll get a new client.
Unfortunately, it’s physically impossible to personally monitor 24/7 all the incoming leads on a marketplace, which makes it challenging to quickly get in contact with the leads.
This is where the automated lead intake feature, also known as Autobuy, comes in super handy.
Enable Lead Autobuy Functionality
Unlike browsing real estate leads through a marketplace and manually buying them one by one, the Autobuy feature automatically purchases leads that match your acquisition criteria on your behalf!
In other words, you simply specify your lead intake preferences, set a budget, and wait for qualified leads to start rolling in without you needing to buy leads manually through the marketplace.
It’s important to note that with this purchasing mode, you’re authorizing the lead provider to keep purchasing leads on your behalf according to your set parameters until your budget limit is reached.
For instance, let’s say you set your budget to $1,000 and the leads you’re interested in purchasing cost $200 a piece. This means that your lead provider will purchase 5 leads on your behalf and then stop.
Of course, there are extra features that allow you to set certain protocols of what you want to happen once your initial budget is used.
Do you want your lead provider to automatically charge your credit card another $1,000 once the first one runs out? Or, do you want them to wait until next month?
Depending on the situation and phase of every person’s business, the answer to these questions will be different.
However, these are all important aspects for you to think through if you decide to use the Lead Autobuy Purchasing mode.
While automated lead intake feature doesn’t usually let you set as granular filters to cherry-pick the leads as with the marketplace option, this purchasing mode does offer a few significant advantages.
In fact, there are three major benefits of using the Autobuy feature:
1. First of all, as I already explained in the previous section, the Lead Autobuy feature lets you get in touch with your leads faster by shortening the ‘speed-to-lead’ time frame.
2. Secondly, it allows you to get to lucrative leads before your competitors do by automatically purchasing them on your behalf, thereby making them unavailable to everybody else.
3. Finally, having an active Lead Autobuy feature often comes with an extra discount to the overall cost of the purchased leads. For instance, on our platform we offer a whopping 20% discount on your lead purchases simply from enabling the Autobuy feature.
As you can see, Lead Autobuy Purchasing mode can be very advantageous when compared to manual lead picking.
However, in my personal experience, I often see that real estate professionals are a little bit more skeptical about that mode in the beginning.
The vast majority prefer to start off by buying leads one by one through the marketplace to gauge the quality as well as familiarize themselves with the way the platform operates.
After they make a number of manual purchases and confirm the quality, most of the people transition to the Autobuy mode.There is simply no reason not to.
#3 Allocate a Budget
Depending on the platform and your preferred lead purchasing mode, at some point you’ll be prompted to allocate a budget for your lead spend.
Based on the price of a particular real estate lead type you are after, you’ll need to decide on the amount you’re comfortable to spend on leads each month.
For instance, let’s say you’re planning to buy motivated home seller leads where each lead costs $100, for simplicity’s sake.
Based on your current conversion rate, assuming that every lead is motivated, out of how many leads can you close a deal?
Let’s say your conversion rate is 10%. Meaning, you close 1 seller out of every 10 sellers. Based on this, you’ll need to allocate at least a $1,000 budget per month so you can close one deal.
However, everything I’ve just described mostly applies to when you have a Lead Autobuy option enabled.
If, on the other hand, you prefer to buy leads manually one by one, you won’t need to set a budget at all.
Instead, you will simply need to add your credit card on file so you can use it whenever you place an order.
That said, regardless of which lead purchasing mode you decide to use, you need to mentally come up with a certain amount you’re going to invest in leads.
The fact of the matter is that buying leads is a numbers game. If you want to make buying real estate leads worth it, you need to allocate a consistent budget.
If you don’t commit to investing an appropriate dollar amount over a long enough period of time, you’ll waste your money. The reason being even the most highly converting leads cannot have 100% conversion rate.
Can you get lucky and convert 100% of a few first leads you buy?
Sure. But that would be an exception; not the rule. In most cases, you’ll need to buy multiple leads to close a deal.
So, don’t approach lead acquisition thinking that you will give it a try by purchasing one or two leads. This is a bad approach which most of the time leads to disappointment.
As I already said above, it’s a numbers game.
#4 Set Up a Follow-Up System
While the follow-up system is not officially a part of the lead buying process, it’s undeniably a paramount component that makes or breaks it.
In other words, it’s not enough to learn how to buy real estate leads because it’s only one side of the coin. The other side is to successfully convert those leads.
This is where a follow-up system comes in. If you don’t have a follow-up system for real estate lead management set up in your real estate business, you’ll leave a lot of money on the table!
It’s a fact.
You absolutely must have a follow-up software if you’re serious about growing your real estate business, especially if you intend to buy leads. Because it will help you to maximize your ROI!
But I’m not going to get into available follow-up tools in this article. This article is about how to buy real estate leads.
So, if you want to learn more about the top real estate follow-up systems available on the market today, I invite you to check out the following guides below.
Choose a guide that’s best suited to your particular real estate profession.
- Best CRM for Real Estate Agents
- Best CRM for Real Estate Investors
- Best CRM for Real Estate Wholesalers
- Best CRM for Mortgage Brokers
Final Words
According to our nationwide real estate lead generation statistics report, 25% of professionals said that buying leads has produced the highest return on investment compared to other lead generation methods.
That means you’re on the right track. Hopefully, this article gave you a good idea of how to buy real estate leads and you now feel comfortable to get started.
You just need to pick your preferred lead provider and start buying leads to fill your pipeline with deals.
Finally, I hope this article was helpful to you. If so, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could share it on social media with your friends and colleagues.
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About the Author:
Oleg Donets is a serial entrepreneur, technology and digital marketing strategist with a solid track record. Since 2013, he has been successfully helping numerous startups and established companies from a wide range of industries to launch, grow and scale their businesses by utilizing his innovative technology solutions and progressive marketing strategies. Oleg is a founder of Real Estate Bees, a cutting-edge technology & marketing platform for the real estate industry. Oleg is also a proud business mentor at SCORE, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization and a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration.