Lead Generation with out the Cold Calls

Every Real Estate Agent is in the business of Lead Generation.

One common way for a Realtor to generate leads is to make cold calls to Expireds, FSBOs, Withdrawns or circle prospecting new listings.

Let's face it though, cold calling sucks... no one likes to make cold calls and interrupt people during their day. If you're the one receiving the call you probably hate it even more.

There's nothing worse than answering the phone and being sold to, well maybe someone knocking on your door to sell you. It's one of the very reasons I don't like opening my mail box, because it's either someone trying to sell me something or bills

So how do you get lets in real estate without cold calling?

There are a ton of different lead generation strategies that don't involve making cold calls, here are a few:

Blogging

Some of the best Real Estate Blogs can create leads by helping people. Buyers and Sellers often have questions and are seeking advice for their home sale... there is a good chance they are researching this information online so a great blog will help create a connection!

Blogging about your real estate business offers a lot of other opportunity as well. It gives you the ability to be seen as a real estate expert online. Once you become the online expert people will ask to work with you when buying and selling houses. Your real estate website can also be a great place for them to shop homes for sale online.

Blogging is one of the best forms of lead generation in my opinion because content creation works for you, even when you're sleeping or on vacation. It compounds!

Today, we receive 30,000 monthly visitors to our website and it is thanks to our real estate blog. 

Open Houses

One of the most popular forms of lead generation in real estate is open houses. Open houses allows Agents to theoretically 'open a storefront' for potential buyers who may be shopping homes for sale. Sometimes these buyers also have homes to sell, which means there could be the potential for two transactions.

The Agent will hold the house open with the Seller's permission and typically use a sign in sheet to collect the prospect's data (phone, email, etc).

Open houses has and always will be a great form of lead generation because it gives an opportunity to create a connection with people. They can decide right away whether or not you are someone they want to work with. If the answer is 'yes' than there is a good chance they will stop searching for an Agent and start using you.

Online Marketing

Similar to blogging, online marketing is a more general form of generating leads online. Understanding some basic online marketing skills is important, especially if you are using pay per click strategies, social media or a blog.

You want to convert your web traffic at a high percentage whether it's through landing pages, opt in forms, or sign ups.

There are billion dollar companies that have been built through online marketing. Look at Zillow and Trulia for instance. These two mega sites are using online marketing as a way to attract consumers, generate leads, and then sell them back to Realtors for a price.

If you can master online marketing you will never have to make a cold call again!

Paying for leads

One of the other ways to generate real estate leads without making a cold call is to pay for leads.

You can go to Realtor.com or any other national website and sign up for their plan that will send leads directly to your phone.

When someone asks about this lead generation I strongly discourage it because you're not learning the right skill set. Instead, you are paying someone else to do it for you and you become subject to price increases, etc.

Not to mention you're not the only Agent who is going to receive the lead... The lead typically goes out to a number of Agents who have 'purchased' the information.

Referrals

This is the ULTIMATE lead generation strategy.

You don't have to do anything. Instead you have built and cultivated a relationship that is going to do the work for you. There are people out there who will hear the words 'we are selling our house' and jump at the opportunity to refer them to your real estate business!

These are the type of referrals that go along way. They make lead generation a bit easier since someone else is vouching for you... it gives you social validation and the consumer confidence when they hear about the great job you did selling someone's home.

Social Media

One other great way to build a real estate business without cold calling is to master social media marketing.

Some of my friends have built million dollar real estate businesses using social media alone!

It takes time, so learn, understand, and then execute. Chances are it will be years before you get to the million dollar level through just social media, and you may never get there... most people don't. You have to work your ass off.

If you learn social media and can execute at a high level you will not have to make cold calls in order to generate real estate leads.

Final thoughts on Lead Generation W/O Cold Calling

One of tips we left out was local SEO marketing in real estate ... The reason we left this tip out is because it deserved it's own blog post which we linked to.

If you are making cold calls in real estate and want to stop, pick up these other lead generation strategies and see if you like them better!

Hopefully you found this article helpful... if so, you can check out more great real estate tips and content from Ryan Fitzgerald of Raleigh Realty by following him on social media!