75 Brilliant Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas

Are you looking for some real estate lead-generation ideas to give your business a boost?

Whether you need new clients today or you’re looking to build a long-term lead-generation pipeline, you’ll find several solutions to your lead-generation needs in this giant list.

75 Brilliant Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas

We have a lot of real estate lead generation ideas is a lot to cover, so we’re going to group our ideas into the following categories:

• leveraging your sphere
• contacting key groups outside your sphere
• community improvement
• seminars, workshops, and teaching opportunities
• traditional advertising and publicity
• social media
• other online lead generators
• networking
• cross-promoting your other real estate services

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Leveraging Your Sphere

Your sphere is your group of friends, family, former colleagues, past clients, and acquaintances. Basically anyone you know. This is the best place to start finding real estate leads since these people already know you and, presumably, like and trust you. They’re easier to convert into clients than strangers since you already have a relationship. This group is an excellent source of both referrals and repeat business.

Here are real estate lead generation ideas pertaining to your sphere.

1. Contact everyone on your CRM.

2. Ask your sphere for referrals.

3. Thank your referrals by sending a thank you gift basket to their office, where their coworkers will naturally ask about the occasion and get to learn about you. 

4. Ask every buyer prospect the magic question: Do you need to sell your home before you buy a new one?

5. Send a Happy Housiversary Card to your clients each year.

6. Use closing gifts to generate leads by gifting something your clients will want to show off.

7. Leverage your listings for more leads.

8. Leave little drop-by gifts.

9. Provide regular market updates.

10. Use text message marketing to casually touch base.

11. Host a client appreciation event.

12. Send affordable, personalized holiday gifts.

Contacting Key Groups Outside Your Current Sphere

Unless you’ve been in the business a long time, your sphere probably isn’t enough to sustain a successful real estate career. You need to reach out to people outside your sphere.

But for heaven’s sake, don’t just pick up the phone and start cold-calling. Focus your prospecting efforts on these key groups that are more likely to buy or sell than the average person.

Here are real estate lead generation ideas for people outside your sphere.

13. Launch a Renter-to-Homeowner Program.

14. Contact FSBOs (For Sale By Owners) and offer a free guide so they can see how much is really involved in selling a home. 

15. Hold an open house.

16. Take over an existing client list. Retired agents may be willing to give you their client list in exchange for a percentage of the commission. 

17. Contact expired listings.

18. Brush off some old leads. If they have already bought or sold, start nurturing them for the next transaction.

19. Contact asset managers at banks to represent REO properties.

20. Contact large employers in your area to service new employees moving from out-of-area.

21. Invite neighbors to your open houses.

22. Contact owners in pre-foreclosure to see if you can help them get with the lender to refinance. If that doesn’t work, you’ll have earned their trust and the listing.

23. Create a killer offer and market it like crazy for immediate leads (something like free drone photos, staging, or moving).

Community Improvement Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas

Community improvement is one of the best ways to generate real estate leads because you’re able to give back to your community while earning your neighbors’ trust and growing your business. Here are several ways to generate buzz about your business (and leads!) by improving your community.

24. Sponsor a local youth sports team.

25. Host a charity event. Bonus points if you have luxury sellers who are willing to have the event in their listed home; this could bring potential buyers to the listing and get it sold more quickly.

26. Gather volunteers to spend one day each quarter helping senior homeowners with home repairs.

27. Sponsor a community improvement event (like a trash clean-up, graffiti removal, or community garden).

28. Sponsor school supplies for a classroom.

Seminars, Workshops, and Teaching Opportunities

Teaching people how to buy and sell real estate establishes you as the expert in your local market. And you get to connect with groups who are likely to buy or sell. Here are real estate lead generation ideas built around educating your prospective clients.

29. Host a first-time buyer seminar.

30. Teach a real estate investing course.

31. Offer a seller’s workshop to show people how to stage with what they already have on hand.

32. Host a FSBO seminar full of valuable information for anyone who wants to sell on their own. Include a disclaimer with facts about how homes listed with a professional sell for more money in less time, and share your contact info in case your FSBOs need help or decide to list.

33. Write a book for your real estate client niche.

34. Create an online course for your real estate client niche.

Traditional Advertising and Publicity

It’s time to talk about traditional advertising and publicity. You’ll surely be familiar with these real estate lead generation ideas, but some of them come with a twist for the 2020s.

35. Always wear your nametag to invite conversation.

36. Use localized audio ads on Spotify and/or Pandora.

37. Use “new school” advertising like clothing, mugs, water bottles, and laptop decals.

38. Consider print media ads. They still work in many markets, especially for older sellers.

39. Host regular market updates on your local TV or radio station.

40. Send inexpensive mailers.

41. Get your face up on billboards.

42. Distribute door hangers.

43. Set up lots of signs for open houses so the whole neighborhood sees your branding.

Social Media Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas

Whether you publish social media posts to generate real estate leads for free or pay for social media ads, there are lots of ways to find new business from your social media accounts. Here are some of the best options.

44. Publish valuable content on your social media platforms. If you don’t have the time or desire to make your own graphics, consider engaging an affordable service like DRIP by Key Real Estate Resources.

45. Create social media ads.

46. Publish a social media poll: Are you planning to sell your home this year?

47. Contact couples who announce their engaged status on social media to see if they’re in the market for a new home.

48. Check social media feeds for retirement announcements and offer those retirees information on downsizing.

49. Have a contest or giveaway with KingSumo.

50. Highlight local businesses to garner goodwill and maybe turn those business owners into clients.

51. Share your blog posts on your social media platforms to drive traffic to your website.

Other Online Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas

Social media isn’t your online option for finding real estate leads online. Here are several other ways to generate real estate leads online.

52. Launch your own website to create instant credibility.

53. Start blogging for organic leads from search engines.

54. Do virtual tours.

55. Incentivize website visitors to sign up for your mailing list.

56. Answer real estate questions on Quora.

57. Start a podcast.

58. Launch a YouTube channel.

59. Always ask for a review and publish your testimonials.

60. Create neighborhood pages on your website to capture people searching online for information about specific neighborhoods.

61. Pay-per-click Google ads.

62. Offer a free CMA on your website.

63. Guest post on other local blogs.

64. Do drive-around video tours of neighborhoods, pointing out parks, coffee shops, schools, etc.

65. Buy leads (not necessarily recommended, but this works well for some).

66. Set up your Google Business Profile so people can find you when searching for real estate agents “near me.”

Networking

Classic networking never goes out of style. Here are tips to help you generate leads with traditional networking.

67. Attend tax auctions to meet real estate investors.

68. Network with divorce attorneys so they can recommend you to their clients who need to sell quickly.

69. Network with estate attorneys so they can recommend you to a family who needs to sell a home after a loved one passes.

70. Attend real estate networking events.

71. Join Facebook Communities for real estate networking. You’ll often see referrals handed out in these groups.

Cross-Promoting Your Other Real Estate Services

Savvy real estate agents don’t simply facilitate real estate transactions; they offer multiple real estate services to diversify their income and meet the needs of their clients. This provides a golden opportunity to earn new business from multiple revenue streams by cross-promoting your other real estate services. Land new clients for one of these services, and they might just hire you to buy or sell for them as well!

72. Offer new home photo shoots for buyers.

73. Offer property tax reviews for homeowners in your area.

74. Help buyers qualify for a home with your credit repair services.

75. Offer your property management services to absentee homeowners.

Do You Have Any Other Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas?

Surely we missed a few brilliant real estate lead generation ideas, right? Do you have one to share? Let us know in the comments!

PS: This post was originally published in 2020. This is the new and improved version 😉