5 Reasons Why Buying Real Estate Leads Sucks

What good is a lead if the person isn't interested? What good is a lead to an agent if the person doesn't live in your area? What good is a lead if the person isn't old enough to purchase a home?!

Realtors paying for real estate leads have experienced these problems time and time again. Essentially you are paying for a list of email addresses (maybe phone numbers) of people you don't know, who don't know you and are hoping that they have an interest in buying or selling real estate - let alone doing a deal with you! You can't even tell these people you obtained their information through your own work, you had to buy their private information from someone else!

An asset base is a list of clients (current or potential) that will generate business for you in the future. In purchasing real estate leads you have not obtained permission from these people to speak with them. You have merely rented their contact details from a third party in order to interrupt them. When you as a Realtor cannot state where you got someones phone number from without fear of rejection you are in trouble.

When you rent someones contact details you are not building an asset base. You are not building a relationship with these Realtor leads that might bring you business in the future. All you are doing is paying a high price to bother someone who didn't give you permission to speak with them.

Does the company you are buying your leads from only sell them to you? Or is there a chance they will sell them to another Realtor in your area? In fact, there is a good possibility that this company bought them from someone else who bought them from someone else! When you purchase real estate leads there is usually no guarantee that these are authentic, credible, and one-time leads specifically for you.

This is the digital age whether you like it or not. Over 90% of buyers and sellers of real estate go online before even considering working with a Realtor. When you purchase real estate leads you are not learning how to obtain them yourself online.

The days of flyers, just sold cards, and cold calling are over. The online world provides an unparalleled platform for you to do business. Leveraging technology you can reach vast amounts of potential leads all while building your brand. When you outsource your work you are passing on the opportunity to learn how to do it yourself. This is only a band-aid solution because there is a tech-savvy generation of Realtors who are waiting to surpass you - and they will do it online, by themselves.