One of NYC’s top real estate agents Ryan Serhant has said “Through listings, you get buyers. That’s what makes the world go ’round.”
But you already knew that and we certainly don’t need to even talk about why every agent and agency wants to have their own listings and represent sellers.
It’s no wonder why listing sites like StreetEasy have been thriving. Essentially StreetEasy is that powerhouse agency who “owns” all the listings. They have also capitalized on this even further by implementing Zillow Group’s Premier Agent program, adding lead generation into the mix on top of their impressive database of listings. You have to pay for these leads of course.
That’s the thing. All of this sounds great…. for the listing sites, but what about for the agents and agencies?
So we have to ask, are listings the best way to generate leads?
Let’s think about some of the issues with leads that are generated by listings.
PROBLEM 1: POOR QUALITY OF LEADS
Unfortunately, online lead generation is a numbers game and with it comes the trash. Most of the leads are bogus/fake, non-responsive and full of prospects who are not interested enough, not in a rush, already has an agent, and the list goes on.
Why is that?
First, these leads are not qualified. Or a better way to put it is that the only criteria for qualification is the fact that the prospect showed an interest in a particular listing.
But that is just the baseline criteria. We don’t know their level of interest, their timeline, their financial status, their expectations or if there is an urgency.
It’s requires very little to inquire about a listing, and as we all know people change their minds very often.
Maybe the worst part is that not only are agents and agencies paying for these leads they are the ones who have to spend time qualifying them.
PROBLEM 2: NO CONTROL PLUS COMPETITION
You ultimately have no control over most of the lead generation process. You are at the mercy of the platform. Not only that, you need to respond to these leads within 5 minutes or so because if you don’t, you can consider them gone.
And some believe that these leads are diluted, where the listing sites sell the same lead 3-5 times.
Which brings me to another point, the competition. Aside from ethical questions that arise, you are constantly competing with…. well, everyone.
Who is going to pump more money into this? Who is going to respond faster?
PROBLEM 3: COST VS CONVERSION
What happens when there is a lot of competition or when a lot of people want the same thing?
Things get expensive.
This is already happening in Premier Agent where the price per lead gets more and more expensive.
At a point you have to consider whether it’s worth it for you financially. Quite simply, what is your ROI?
All in all, this sounds like a pretty cushy gig for listing sites. They just get to collect without doing much work at all. They certainly don’t make it any easier for agents and agencies.
And in return what the agents get is a low conversion rate of roughly 3% (According to Premier Agent).
Now imagine if you got to set your own criteria for qualification, and someone discarded all the trash leads for you. If instead of rushing to respond to leads, the prospects scheduled calls with you, leaving all your competitors in the dust. Oh yes, and a positive ROI!
Well, don’t imagine. This is all possible! Discover the new lead generation method that is changing the real estate game!
As you may have guessed, we don’t generate leads through listings. Click here to learn more about our high converting lead generation method.
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