Lead gen spend: Agent’s top prospects already in house

Real estate agents and brokers subscribing to Zillow and Trulia premium services spent more than $33 million in the latest quarter to secure new leads, but a new survey revealed that brokers view leads that their agents already have in their address books as being far more valuable.

“A real estate agent’s best lead is organic,” said Renwick Congdon, chief executive officer of Bellevue-based Imprev, a real estate technology company that conducted the study. “It comes directly from his or her sphere of influence, company or personal website, and through local marketing, such as yard signs, flyers, and open houses.”

The 2014 Imprev Thought Leader survey asked which leads were most valuable to more than 270 broker-owners and top executives at leading franchises and independent brokerage firms that were responsible for nearly half of all U.S. residential real estate transactions last year.

Eighty-six percent of those responding said organic leads from an agent’s sphere of influence-past clients, and referrals-offer exceptional value (based on quality of the lead or return on investment), compared to only 8 percent citing Zillow, 7 percent citing Realtor.com, 5 percent citing Craigslist and 4 percent citing Trulia.

“Real estate leaders are telling us their agents already have the gold-they just need to mine it,” Congdon said. “The nurturing of organic leads from capture to transaction is crucial, and an area that I believe is not adequately embraced by the typical real estate agent.”

The Imprev Thought Leader Survey showed that organic lead sources dominated the list of most-valuable lead sources: An agent’s sphere of influence ranked first, followed by the broker’s website, with 32 percent of the real estate leaders rating the quality or ROI as exceptionally valuable; in third place was local marketing, (flyers, walk-ins, signs, open houses) with 27 percent.