September 28, 2012 | Author: Randy Pickard
The question of how much should a real estate broker or agent pay for Internet leads is a frequent topic of conversation.
The answer is “it depends”. The quality of leads vary dramatically from lead generation firm to lead generation firm. In addition to the charge from the lead generation firm, there are the costs incurred and time involved in working the leads. For a low quality lead that is being resold to numerous real estate professionals and that has a liklihood of closing of under 0.5% (1 out ot 200), one dollar may be too much tp pay. On the other hand, a fresh lead that is requesting a showing of a specific property on a specified day may be worth over $100.
Ben Roberts, TheExitPro, has researched the cost of leads from a sampling of the top lead generation firms. With his permission, his research is being republished here. We are publishing an except from Ben’s article on the prices of some of our competitors in the lead generation space in part because we are very confident that the quality and the pricing of the leads Broker Dynamix provides to our clients compares favorably to the lead generation service of these competitors:
Realty Generator (market leader) – $15-$30
Is generally on a small brokerage basis and pricing starts with $1500 a month ‘maintenance” plus whatever PPC advertising you’re going to do through them. I will say, their system does work but it takes several months to see leads coming through the funnel turn in into closed business. A 12 month contract is required for a minimum of $18,000 without advertising. You’re paying some major bucks in the meantime so make sure you have cash in reserve. You can also drive the price per lead down if you can drive your own traffic to the site via organic search.
GetMyHomesValue.com -$225-$400 (per month) Average is 4-7 quality clients a month
GMHV is a service that calls it’s lead generation efforts referrals… that’s fine I guess since that’s what they are. They give their clients exclusive access to a zip code or designated area for a monthly fee. The contract is month-to-month. They claim 4-7 quality leads per month but some agents get as many as 60 quality leads.
HouseValues.com (market leader) – $30-$50
HV (I had HV in 2006 so I know this one intimately) provides similar lead generation as GMHV but they don’t ‘vet’ their leads the way GMHV does. Leads are sold in blocks with a guaranteed minimum ($99 gets you 3 minimum, etc). You can get HV in a 6 or 12 month contract. Let me know before you sign up (if you do) and I can make a $250 referral off you… which I will promptly send to you in the form of a cashier’s check. There’s sticking it to the system
Lead to Realty – $49.95 ($39.95 for EXIT Agents)
At least LtoR spells it out. $40 bucks. That’s what they charge EXIT agents for a lead. Converted or not. You can return leads based on your ability to contact, the lead working with another agent, or they aren’t buying or selling. That’s not bad. They have 18 different ‘landing pages’ that target specific buyer and seller targets like Luxury Buyers, Foreclosures, Tax-Credit, etc.
Tags: cost of real estate leads, paying for real estate leads