Coming from a society used to instant gratification, the time-honored saying, "patience is a virtue," must grate on the nerves of business-hungry real estate agents. But, as anachronistic as it sounds, patience is its own reward when it comes to online lead generation and incubation, according to HouseValues customer, real estate agent Jesse Vasquez .
In February 2004, Vasquez, an agent with RE/MAX Reflections in the red-hot Tampa, Florida, market, bought subscriptions to lead-generation services provided by HouseValues. Seller leads come from HouseValues.com and buyer leads come from HouseValues subsidiary, JustListed.com . Officials say the company was founded on the premise that building a pipeline of business from prospective home buyers and sellers is the lifeblood of the industry.
At the time, Vasquez thought this sounded great. He signed up for a one-year subscription for HouseValues.com and Justlisted.com, and then watched as the leads flowed in. But several months passed before any of them came to fruition.
"I was very negative at first because sometimes I didn't get complete phone numbers or some information was not valid," Vasquez said. "Looking back, I realize I was really just focusing on the negative and had a 'me, me, me' attitude."
Despite his skepticism, Vasquez continued his subscription with HouseValues in early 2005. The leads continued to flow in, but Vasquez said he closed only a couple of them through last June.
"I stuck it out and had a couple of closings but I was just impatient and decided to close out my account. I took my prospects, about 80 of them, with me when I closed my account."
But then, something interesting happened that Vasquez hadn't expected.
"I kept working those leads and found out that out of 80 leads, I closed more than 20 buyer and seller transactions, or about 25 percent of the leads I had received online," says Vasquez. "So I said to myself, 'Hey, I need to get back with those folks -- HouseValues and JustListed -- who got me those more than 20 closings.'"
Vasquez said the experience did two things for him: One, it reinforced that maintaining an online presence is critical for the simple reason that it's where potential customers are, and, two, it helped him rediscover that, when it comes to leads, you can never be too patient.
His advice to other agents who may be thinking nurturing leads is a waste of time (If they want to buy, they'll buy, right?) -- "Work your leads to death. Don't give up on them, because many of them will come true and become closed transactions. Hang in there, don't get impatient, and just keep working your leads and the system. It will pay off."
Vasquez also said that Internet leads can also balance out his business during traditionally slow months.
"In December of 2004 and December of 2005, I had record months -- which is especially motivating considering that's traditionally the slowest month of the year for most agents. In those two months, I pocketed over $50,000 in commissions."
