Getting your real estate license is fairly easy. Yes, it requires some studying, but with enough time and effort, you can do it. The challenging part starts once you get your license.
Finding your first several clients may prove quite difficult. But there are things you can do to speed up the process and get better results.
3 Real Estate Lead Gen Tactics
Every real estate agent has to find a strategy that works for them. If you’re still in the beginning stages of trying to feel out what works for you, you may find it helpful to try the following:
- Purchase a Mailing List
This is one of the tried and true strategies for real estate lead generation. The trick is finding the right mailing list for your budget and niche. While you can technically build out your own lists, it’s much more efficient to work with a company that specializes in building out lists and sending customized marketing collateral on your behalf.
Wise Pelican is one of the top real estate mailing list providers. According to them, you have three options when building a mailing list:
- Build a mailing listed based on a specific radius around an address
- Build a mailing list based on specific subdivisions and neighborhoods
- Build a mailing list by tracing a specific zone(s) on a map (like you would with the MLS)
Once you have a mailing list, you mail out simple postcards that let homeowners know who you are and what services you provide. Mailing postcards is a numbers game. You’ll mail out hundreds and only get a very small percentage of people who follow through on the call-to-action. However, all it takes is one bite to justify the expense.
- Leverage Your Current COI
You might not have any real estate leads or existing clients, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build a list of clients or gather referrals. One option is to leverage your current circle of influence (COI).
Your COI is anyone you know (personally or professionally) who knows, likes, and trusts you. They don’t have to be your best friend, but they should be someone who knows your name and is willing to do you a small favor.
Set up coffee or lunch meetings with at least 15-20 people in your COI and explain what you’re doing. Let them know that you’re actively looking for referrals. (If appropriate, you might even incentivize them if they bring you a lead who ends up being a client.)
- Use LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great tool for networking and personal branding. Take some time to optimize your LinkedIn profile so that it’s evident who you are, what you do, and the types of clients you serve.
When optimizing a LinkedIn profile, there are a few key areas to pay attention to:
- Profile picture: Use a professional headshot – no selfies or pictures with other people in them. Definitely no cropped pictures from that time you were in your best friend’s wedding.
- Banner: Your banner image should be clean, simple, and branded. Feel free to include a slogan and anything else that instills authority.
- Personalized URL: By default, your LinkedIn URL is a long string of random characters that are impossible for anyone to remember. Take the time to personalize it to something like this: linkedin.com/in/yourname. This makes it easy to direct people to your profile.
- The headline: Rather than saying you’re a “real estate agent with XYZ company,” use this space to add a unique sales proposition (USP) or value statement. For example: “I help first-time homebuyers in the Salt Lake City area purchase the perfect starter homes for their growing families.”
- The summary: This is where you describe who you are, what experience you have, and further flesh out your USP. Keep this section benefits-focused. In other words, find a way to make it about your target clients.
As long as you stay active on LinkedIn and selflessly engage with other people, you’ll discover that this platform is a great place to build authority and generate leads.
Cast a Wide Net
If you talk to anyone who is successful in real estate, they’ll tell you that there are riches in niches. In other words, it pays to focus on a very specific target market (rather than trying to be a generalist). However, in the early days of marketing yourself, it often pays to cast a wider net.
The idea is that you cast a wide net in the beginning to see what works, which types of clients you’re attracted to, and which types of transactions you do/don’t like. Then, based on the feedback and results you get, you can gradually shrink that net until you land on a couple of lead generation tactics that work for you.
The 80/20 rule usually applies to real estate lead gen. In other words, 80 percent of your leads and clients will come from 20 percent of your methods. The sooner you figure out what your 20 percent are, the better your results will be.