In the ever-evolving world of real estate, mastering lead generation is the key to success.
But it's not just about finding leads—it's about understanding what drives sellers to take action. In this guide, we'll dive deep into what makes someone a "good lead," how seller motivation impacts your marketing efforts, and practical strategies to help you stand out in a competitive market.
Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, this guide will equip you with the insights and tools you need to connect with motivated sellers and close more deals in 2024!
What Makes Someone a Good Lead?
The term “good lead” is often used in real estate to describe prospects with the highest chance of working with you. Who qualifies as a “good lead” will vary depending on the type of real estate professional that you are.
For example, if you’re a real estate investor specializing in fix and flips, your ideal lead may be a homeowner in financial distress (signaling that they can’t afford to keep the property, as they may be in pre-foreclosure, facing bankruptcy, etc.). The property may be disheveled, as you plan to fix it up anyway.
Or, if you’re a mortgage loan officer, your ideal lead may be a homeowner who took out a mortgage with a fixed interest rate when interest rates were higher (meaning they may want to refinance for a lower rate).
To determine what makes a good lead in your niche, perform research, speak to seasoned professionals in your industry, and study your market to determine which segments need your assistance.
To get you started, we created an infographic highlighting several examples of lead types for various niches within the real estate industry:
How Does Motivation Impact Your Marketing Efforts?
Understanding why a homeowner makes a good lead is only a piece of the puzzle.
After getting an idea of who may want to work with you and why, you’ll need to determine how motivated they are. To help you understand, here’s an infographic laying out common motivations for working with real estate pros from least urgent to most:
The level of motivation will impact how you market to your prospects. Let’s explore this further.
High Motivation: Increased Chance of Finding Someone Who Will Work With You + Higher Competition
Congratulations! You’ve found a homeowner with high motivation to sell their property or work with you. The kicker—this homeowner is likely on several other local real estate pros’ lead lists.
Because the competition is higher for this lead type, you’ll want to ensure your marketing methods stand out if you want to work with them.
5 Tips for Standing Out Amongst High Competition
- Craft your pitch with your prospects’ needs in mind. Where some real estate pros will have their eyes on what they stand to gain from the relationship, you’re more likely to stand out if you lead with how you can help them.
- Do your research. Before approaching your lead, you’ll want to do a deep dive into their property, transaction history, etc., to ensure that you understand how to help them and can promise the best possible outcome. If you go into the pitch without enough information, their confidence in you may be little to none.
- Mix your marketing methods. Everyone prefers to be contacted in a different way. Some people prefer email, some text, and some prefer more old-school marketing techniques, like postcards. Try a variety of marketing methods to ensure your recipients receive communications that will resonate with them.
- Make sure you follow up. Many entrepreneurs are guilty of a one-and-done approach. Just because a homeowner didn’t answer on your first try, doesn’t mean they’re not interested in working with you. They may have been busy when they received your initial contact and forgot to respond or you may have contacted them in a way that caused them to miss the communication (e.g., an inactive phone number or email). Keep reaching out periodically until they respond to you, mixing up your communication methods.
- Have a well-thought-out plan ready to present. Before you reach out to a prospect, you should have a clear action plan with steps on how you can help them. This way, instead of telling them you can help them, you’ll have a clear roadmap on exactly how to reinforce the idea that you’re the most qualified pro to help them.
Lower Motivation: Lower Chance of Finding Someone Who Will Work With You + Lower Competition
On the flip side, there are some homeowners who may be motivated to sell or work with you, but they may not be as motivated as others who are in a more critical position.
In this case, you may have less competition but may need to work harder to sell your services or expertise.
3 Tips for Standing Out When the Homeowner Has Lower Motivation
1. Focus on how their situation can improve. Homeowners in this situation may not need to sell or use your service urgently, but doing so may improve their lives in some way. For example, a senior homeowner may have a huge house in a region that’s far from family. While the financial aspect of the home isn’t a problem, their lifestyle and location may not live up to their expectations.Example: I see your property is free and clear. By running comps, I determined you could sell for $450,000. This would allow you to buy the home of your dreams near family! Imagine being just two minutes away from your grandchildren and being able to host family barbecues in a larger backyard with a pool.
2. Use data to show what they stand to make from a home sale or what they could save by using your services. Some homeowners play around with the idea of moving, refinancing, etc., but they may not have had the time to look into it. By running comparables and studying data for their property, you can present a number, which may be what they needed to finally take the leap. Or, if you’re another type of real estate professional (like a loan officer or a property manager), use data to show how much time and/or money they could save by working with you to solve a problem.
3. Offer a solution to a minor financial problem before it becomes a major one. For some homeowners, financial distress begins with liens, tax delinquencies, or a higher-than-necessary monthly payment dictated by interest rates. Depending on their financial situation, they could potentially settle debt and avoid damaging their credit score too much or sustain a higher mortgage. However, if they don’t have a way to pay these debts and the monthly mortgage is too high to sustain, their situation may spiral, leading them to foreclosure or bankruptcy.
Let PropStream Drive Your 2024 Lead-Generation Efforts
Now that you know how to determine how motivated a lead is and how to shape your outreach to reflect the situation, start finding leads with PropStream!
With PropStream, you can apply hundreds of filters (or choose one of 19 Quick Lists) to find an exact niche in seconds. From there, perform a deep dive on the property by analyzing our in-depth property data, run comps, collect homeowner information, and more on one, easy-to-use platform.
