To all the agents in the house,
I have a bread-and-butter question today about how real estate agents do business: How do you generate leads and how much money do you pay for the leads?
My colleague Brooklee Han wrote about how several agents use social media as their primary way to solicit home buyers, potential home sellers and even builders. Brooklee's story takes a closer look at the fact that now 52% of agents describe social media as their top lead-generating tool, according to an October National Association of Realtors' survey.
"Instagram and LinkedIn have become paramount for lead generation," Boston-based Coldwell Banker agent Ricardo Rodriguez told Brooklee. "They have been really effective in the market and new construction segments."
Agents like Keller Williams' Becca Summers have generated 21,000 likes on their Facebook page, and curated the page to include mostly listings content, but also to display their personality to prospective clients.
Whatever social media agent's prefer, the common link is that, unless they pay for advertising or to boost posts, it's free. This raises the question of what paid services provide that free ones do not.
Companies like HomeSnap Pro charge agents for $49.95 a month for services such as website building and helping to find interested buyers in an area. The value add of Zillow Premier Agent is more cut-and-dried. For various per-month rates, individual agents and agent teams at a brokerage can be a home shopper's first point of contact.
Agents, what are other lead-generating tools that you pay for, and, literally, what is the worth of those tools? Also: What is your brokerage providing, either by providing lead generation programs or expensing your tools?
Please send me what information you can provide on this - the more excruciatingly detailed the better! You may respond anonymously at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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