You've heard the dismal statistics. Between 55-70 percent of Internet leads are never picked up by real estate agents, according to the NAR, leading to the number one complaint by Internet homebuyers against agents - that they don't answer email.

Are you leaving business on the table in cyberspace? If you are, there are plenty of agents ready to pick them up.

Other Realtors are learning how to get the business that you leave on the table, and if they don't, lead generation companies, designed to engage the Internet consumer, will.

Deadliest to your business is the experienced top agent who does both - works their own Internet leads and accepts leads from third-party companies.

Top agent competition

One million Realtors are members of the nation's largest trade organization. Another million aren't. With the country on track to sell approximately six and a half million homes this year, including new homes, that's a little over six sides per licensee annually. If Realtors command 85 percent of the market, the numbers get better for them - five sides for every Realtor annually.

But the economic reality is far worse - Most Realtors don't do one transaction a year. Using the Pareto Principle, top Realtors would average only about ten sides per year. That may be enough to put you in a Mercedes in Beverly Hills, California, but not in most of the rest of the country.

Lead generation company competition

Knowing that many agents are either too busy or too uncomfortable with the Internet and/or cyberconsumers to spend time on buyers and sellers who may not quite be ready to act, a new breed of lead generation management companies are springing up to incubate Internet leads, qualify them and then turn over to agents in their networks to close.

Some charge a referral fee on the back, some don't.

HouseValues spends millions of dollars on TV and online ads each year, all in an effort to generate leads for Realtors, without costing Realtors a referral fee, says a spokesperson. The company targets homesellers and has a portal for buyers called Justlisted.com. HouseValue agents, says the company, make twice as much money as the industry standard.

The top agent who uses lead generation - your worst nightmare

California Century 21 Realtor Staci Dancey, a 26-year real estate veteran, was going through a divorce, and offered a compromise to her husband-partner. He took the book of business, she took the HouseValues subscription. She says she has pocketed more than $700,000 off HouseValues leads since June 2001 - some $455,000 of it coming in 2003 alone. Eighty-four percent of her business came from HouseValues last year - 63 transactions directly attributable to following up on contacts.

"We're already on a track to beat last year's total," she said.

Dallas Keller Williams Realtor Mike Miller has been a fixture in East Dallas real estate for years. He has a team to help bring in buyers, but he also enhances his listings on Realtor.com, making them stand out from other agents who have their listings on the site for free but with no extra photos or other information. Consider this East Dallas property listed by Miller which, while modest in price, is presented as if it cost a million bucks. Between Miller's site and Realtor.com, the new listing has been viewed 114 times already.

Miller tells Realty Times, "Many of my competitors don't use the Internet, but I get a lot of buyers that way."

Examples of brokers and agents who use the Internet successfully are numerous.

The moral of the story is that an agent can answer email inquiries now, or let someone else answer them later. As more experienced real estate agents like Dancey and Miller are turning to the Internet to pick up the sellers and buyers, they aren't letting Internet leads slip through their fingers, which means there are less available leads for other agents.

So can you really afford not to answer that email inquiry?

Published: April 29, 2004

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Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. For more articles by Blanche, click here.