Is Buying Leads Worth It for Real Estate Pros? (Myth Busting Perspective)

If you’re reading this, then you’re most likely caught in a dilemma of whether you should buy leads for your real estate business but don’t seem to find a concrete answer anywhere online.

And rightfully so. There is so much controversial information on this topic online.

No surprise it confuses anyone trying to find out whether buying real estate leads worth it or not.

But let me tell you something. Believe it or not, this is a wrong question to ask to begin with!

Yes, you read it right…

I said, the “Is buying real estate leads worth it?” question is not the right question you should be asking because the answer to this question is clear as day.

And the answer to this question is – Abso-freaking-lutely!

There is no downside in buying leads; only upside.

You’re probably thinking now that I’m biased, or I have something to gain from saying that, right?

Well, you’re right… I’m biased.

My company generates and sells real estate leads for a living through our cutting-edge Pay-Per-Lead Real Estate Marketplace. And in all honesty, I’d certainly love to have your business one day 😊

However, I’m saying that the “Is buying real estate leads worth it?” question is not the right question to ask because for many years I’ve been witnessing how buying leads can transform one’s real estate business big time!

I really believe that buying leads is absolutely crucial for any type of business (including real estate) especially at the early stages.

For God’s sake, my own wife was buying leads through the Zillow Premier Agent program for years. When she just started her real estate career, we allocated $3.5K per month for her Zillow leads.

We kept investing for at least three years until she built a large enough client base, she could no longer handle new business.

By the way, fun fact, during those three years, we moved places several times. But make no mistake. I don’t mean moving from one neighborhood to another or some nearby city.

We literally moved several states. First, from Texas to California and then from California to Ohio. I don’t even mention the numerous moves we made while living in each of these states.

If you’ve been in business for some time, you know very intimately how detrimental changing locations can be for some real estate companies.

Unlike lending, real estate wholesaling or other business models that give you the freedom to operate from any geographical location, changing markets for Realtors means starting over from scratch.

As a real estate agent, you’re literally uprooting your entire business and starting it over from scratch every time you move to another area.

You might be wondering why I’m telling you all of that.

Well, I’m saying that to you to demonstrate how buying leads throughout this time allowed my wife to restart her business almost effortlessly in each new location we moved to.

Yes, you read it right…

In a three-year time frame, she relaunched and ramped up her business successfully three times in a row in completely different markets, thanks to simply buying Zillow leads!

Just that alone validates that buying real estate leads worth it. Without her buying leads, it’d take her years to rebuild the business in each new market.

But wait, there is more!

According to the data collected from over 50,000 active industry professionals in our recent nationwide real estate lead generation statistics report, 25% indicated that buying leads has produced the highest return on investment compared to other lead generation methods.

Considering that lead buying was the second largest lead generation channel (after the front runner – direct mail 29.2%) that has produced the highest ROI, this pretty much seals the deal for me personally.

But if those arguments for buying leads is not enough for you, how about many other professionals who buy leads from my company or other real estate lead providers?

We have numerous professionals, ranging from realtors to investors to lenders, that have been buying real estate leads from us (and/or from other providers) who managed to build successful companies over the years by doing so.

How would you dispute that?

I don’t think you can. Buying leads for your real estate business is as instrumental as getting financing for many companies.

Think about it. Can you launch a company without financing? Depends on the type of company, of course.

But let’s say you can.

Think how much faster a company can grow and more likely become successful with financing. Oftentimes, it’s the difference between success and failure.

If you had the opportunity to get financing for your company, you’d almost always do it. Wouldn’t you?

The same exact analogy can be used for buying leads. There is no reason why NOT to buy them. They can’t hurt; they can only help accelerate growth.

Anyways, I believe you already got my point. I also hope my first-hand, yet arguably biased, testimony has offered you another perspective.

More importantly, though, hopefully now you see why I believe that asking the “Is buying real estate leads worth it?” question is irrelevant!

I fully believe that if you take your real estate business seriously, you must allocate a budget for marketing. Believe it or not, the fastest form of marketing to get some business through the door is to buy leads.

Therefore, for me personally, the answer to the “Is buying real estate leads worth it?” question is always – YES!

All that being said, a more important question you should start asking is: “Where to buy real estate leads?” This is the real question, not whether to buy leads or not.

In fact, I think all the confusion in the industry originates exactly from there.

Let me explain…

Many people, after trying out a particular lead source and not getting a satisfactory experience (which oftentimes is created by unrealistic expectations), start making blanket conclusions that buying leads is not worth it.

You can see how such statements can mislead and affect your judgment when you’re looking for accurate information.

Don’t get me wrong, however. I don’t minimize or dismiss someone’s experience.

This was their personal experience, and they communicated it online (however way it came across). What I’m trying to say is to always apply critical thinking. Try reading between the lines, so to speak.

In other words, whenever someone says buying leads is not worth it, dig deeper. Look into the context trying to find out which lead source exactly they’re referring to.

Nevertheless, once you find out which lead source they were talking about, very often the negative experience was created by unrealistic expectations.

For instance, I hear so many times Realtors dodging Zillow leads saying that their leads aren’t worth it. Then I ask them a simple question: “How much money did you invest?”

And they proudly say $300, $400, $500, etc.

Well, let me tell you something, as a person who generates leads for a living. Depending on a market, lead type and other lead characteristics, often you can’t even buy a single lead for $300.

In other words, even with a 100% conversion rate (which doesn’t exist), it would be quite challenging to build a successful business. Yet they expect tens, if not hundreds, of leads for that amount.

That’s simply not realistic. If someone tells you that it is, they are lying to you or trying to sell you something that is not!

I can tell you that if a company says you’ll get hundreds, or often thousands, of leads for that amount, it’s 99.99% an aggregated list of contacts.

While there is definitely a way to work those scraped contacts to generate business, their quality doesn’t come even close to those real-time, inbound leads that you get from Zillow or other similar lead providers like Real Estate Bees!

I could have given you a bunch of other examples. But I believe you’ve got the idea.

To make an objective decision for yourself, not only do you need to understand exactly which lead source someone is talking about but also find out the specifics of why they are dissatisfied with the results.

Only after clearly identifying those two crucial aspects can you confidently make an educated judgment whether a particular lead source is worth it for you or not.

In concluding this article, since I hopefully persuaded you that the “Is buying real estate leads worth it?” question is irrelevant, I invite you to explore the real important question, which answers where to buy real estate leads.

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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.