Real Estate Lead Conversion: How to get leads in 2024 [Expert Guide]

If you’re an agent, all you may be thinking about is how you can convert a lead in 2024. A real estate lead is a prospect that can be converted.

Without leads, we can’t get customers. When a lead you generated turns into a customer, that right there is conversion. And yes, conversions should be your main goal.

So if you’re wondering how to generate real estate leads online in 2024, you’re in the right place. 

Table of contents

1. What Is the Conversion Rate in Real Estate in 2024?
2. Reasons Why Your Real Estate Leads Aren’t Converting
3. Converting Real Estate Leads into Clients
4. Convert Online Leads
5. Real Estate Lead Conversion Scripts
6. Real Estate Conversion Plan

What Is the Conversion Rate in Real Estate in 2024?

You may be a busy agent and at times it may feel practically impossible to understand the numbers behind your marketing efforts. So, calculating conversion rates for real estate leads is crucial in 2024.

The conversion rate is the rate at which your real estate leads eventually turn into clients. So how do you convert real estate leads?

To calculate the conversion rate, you need to know the number of leads generated and the number of leads who became clients.

You would typically get the conversion rate by dividing the number of generated leads by the number of customers gained. So if you generated 500 leads for June and 25 of them became clients, the conversion rate is 5%.

The big decision shouldn’t be on how to spend your marketing finances to get better conversion rates. Instead, you should focus more on improving your lead conversion rates in 2024.

Different marketing channels (such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads) have different conversion rates. To determine which lead is worth more, you should divide the total revenue gained from a specific marketing channel by the number of leads gained.

Improving your conversion rate by just 1% can have profound effects on your business.

So you should invest more in a marketing channel that has better lead conversion rates. You need to work on your follow up, communication, and relationship-building to improve converting leads to customers.

You may be wondering what the average real estate lead conversion rate is. Well, most report a customer conversion rate of 3-5%. This however is based on the agent’s market. As realvolve.com reports, the National Association of Realtors disclosed that the average rate is closer to 0.4%-1.2%.

Reasons Why Your Real Estate Leads Aren’t Converting in 2024

Most agents may think converting real estate leads is easy in 2024.  You may be getting plenty of leads coming in but if that’s where the action stops, then you are in trouble. Here are some common mistakes you might be making.

1. Your follow up is dreadful

   Real estate coach Travis Robertson asserts that “It isn’t your online leads that suck- it’s your follow up and follow-through that suck. Plenty of people make money converting the same leads you’re calling crap.” 
   
   If after months of effort your lead nurturing tactics aren’t earning you clients, then it’s time you made changes to your approach. You should take a look at your process as a whole to figure out what you can do to improve.
   

2. You’re only focused on short-term success

   If you’re looking to get rich quick as an agent, then forget it. Real estate is all about long-term success. It involves gradually growing your sphere of influence, nurturing relationships slowly over time, and establishing yourself as a trusted advisor long after a sale is completed.
   

3. You’re neglecting the most valuable leads

   According to the NAR Research Report taken on 2020: “first-time buyers made up 31% of all home buyers, a dip from 2019 33% and for 43% of recent buyers, the first step that they took in the home buying process was to look online at properties for sale, while 18% of buyers first contacted a real estate agent”. 
   
   Referrals are the way most buyers find their agents too. You can generate real estate leads online, but it’s not nearly as effective as nurturing your past clients. The people you’ve already worked with are much more likely to convert again or provide referrals.
   
   So don’t neglect your most valuable leads. Follow up with clients after the sale. Also, there are different off-line ways of getting leads in real estate. Hosting a housewarming party is just one of them. 
   

4. You’re thinking of them as leads

   When working with a CRM, you can easily forget that names, emails, and mailing addresses are connected to real people. People are much more than a collection of information. 
   
   Remember that each lead is a real person. Get to know them, have a conversation, and really listen to them. Focus on building a relationship first and the business will follow.
   

5. You’re chucking money at the problem

   A larger marketing budget isn’t the solution. You should instead invest your time and diligence in doing follow up. What you need is a lead nurturing process and a CRM system that can help you systemize and execute the process of real estate lead conversion.

Converting Real Estate Leads into Clients in 2024

There are lots of tips for agents on the internet but perhaps none is more important than knowing how to convert leads into clients. If you don’t have a foolproof lead conversion plan, then nothing else matters.

You can either turn your leads into satisfied clients, or you lose them to competitors.

Fortunately, we’ve put together several tips on how to convert leads into regular clients in 2024. Most of these tips aren’t complicated but some will take a little more work to implement. 

Focus on timing

Most people will do business with the first agent they speak to. So the quicker you respond to a lead, the better. Your strategy should therefore include a plan for initial response to leads as well as ongoing contact.

Keep in touch

To be someone’s choice agent, you need to stay at the forefront of their minds. You can do this by being in constant communication with a prospective client, be it in real life or online. 

To convert real estate leads into clients, you really need to have a follow-up system in place.  A great way to do this is through e-newsletters. Email marketing is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to engage and convert your leads.

You can also do door-knocking and maintaining contact with your clients every 3 to 5 months. 

Have a distinctive value proposition

The best lead generation for real estate is a multi-pronged one that focuses on having a unique value proposition. After a brief introduction to your prospective clients, you should shift your focus to making them feel like the world revolves around them. 

You can do this by personalizing all forms of contact and communications. This way, you make your prospects special and secure their business.

Divide and conquer

While some of your leads may be close to buying and selling, most of them will be in the research and evaluation stage. So to effectively convert leads into clients, you need to segment your leads according to where they are in the sales cycle. 

An efficient sorting and distribution strategy can help you convert leads into loyal clients. You then get to focus on more qualified leads.

Showcase your neighborhood knowledge

Thanks to the internet, most people are proficient in finding information on their own. So impressing them will require you to put in more effort.

By providing relevant local information, you can establish lasting client relationships. Providing individual property information can help you demonstrate a level of expertise that few agents can match.

This can help you secure more clients in the long run.

Put testimonials on everything

When it comes to choosing an agent, potential customers hold testimonials in high regard. They are proof that you understand what you are doing. You need your leads to trust you and feel they have nothing to risk. 

You can place reviews on your website and social media profiles.

Convert Online Leads in 2024

So, once you have online real estate leads, then what? After receiving responses to your online campaigns or using real estate search engine optimization strategies, you may find yourself on a slippery slope. Here are some ideas for real estate leads for agents in 2024.

Follow up immediately

Never make leads wait. The interest level of a prospect drops dramatically after an hour. It’s important to follow up immediately with prospects. You can direct online leads to a company email to which several people have access.

This will ensure quick handling of leads and will increase the chances of converting them to clients.

Qualify the leads

Leads can either be ready to buy/sell, or they can be in the research stage. By knowing which stage leads are in you will know where and how to invest your resources to convert them to clients.

To provide a valuable first impression, you have to qualify the lead first. This can be done by the sales team. Do a quick google search of the lead and see what useful data pops up. 

Keep the leads warm

Even if you reach out to a lead quickly, they may not be ready to move to the next step. If the lead has shown interest in your service don’t lose the opportunity to keep them warm. 

You can ask to add them to your mailing list to nurture them until they are ready. 

Listen and pay attention

To convert leads into customers, listen to them! Instead of rambling on with your sales pitch, pay attention to their problems and needs. It’s your job to educate the prospect to become aware of the problem and how you can help them solve this.

Understand your conversion process

Use analytics software to show how many leads are entering your CRM system at each stage of the sales funnel and how many are converted to paying clients.

When data is presented clearly in a dashboard, you can see which levels of your sales funnel are leaking leads.

This allows you to reach out and focus on those leads. Finding out how to convert online leads to customers takes you one step closer to your goals. 

Real Estate Lead Conversion Scripts

You may benefit from lead conversion training in many aspects of lead generation. However, you don’t always need special training to come up with a good conversion script such as the ones use for door knocking. There’s no such thing as a perfect script.

Not every script works for every agent, but having a decent one can do wonders for your lead generation.

Scripts are good for several reasons:

• They help you gain confidence with leads.
• They let you learn new sales approaches quickly.
• They allow you to scale your real estate business, especially if you have a team.

It’s important to remember that today’s marketing isn’t about selling your business to your leads. It’s about helping solve the leads’ problems. Make sure you understand the customer enough to offer relevant solutions. Here’s some suggested wording for a script:

Hi ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­—–. This is James with —–. You said you are having challenges with ———. I have considered your situation and I believe ——– will help overcome this challenge and provide the perfect solution.

According to salesforce.com, focusing on helping the customer results in an increase in lead conversions by up to 70%. You should also try active listening. Simply ask a question and validate that you have heard the lead’s responses correctly by repeating it back to the buyer. It would sound something like:

I understand that you are looking for a 3-bedroom home in the ——- area as near as possible to —— school. Is that right?

Follow-up questions will ascertain more of the lead’s situation and needs.

Experienced agents know that it’s easy to score and convert leads from open houses. Open houses are also a good place to earn referrals. So you could curate a script inviting potential leads to an open house. The script would look like this:

Hi, my name is—– with —–. I wanted to let you know of an open house event we are going to be holding over on (address) ——- this —— from —– to ——–. Do you know where this is? (Proceed to entice them so that they attend the open house)

It’s also essential to make a personal connection with a lead. You can use an initial phone call script to achieve this. You don’t have to learn the scripts by heart. What’s important is that you understand the underlying principles that make them effective at converting online new home leads. 

Real Estate Conversion Plan for 2024

As much as 80% of leads are lost due to poor or no follow-up efforts. In this section, we will give you a foolproof real estate lead conversion plan. We will show you how to effectively establish contact without coming off as aggressive or salesy.

During the first 10 days, focus on following up on leads with phone calls, texts, and emails. Limit the ways you contact to 2 or fewer per day. This will prevent you from appearing too pushy.

Here’s how we recommend you go about it.

• Day 1

  Respond quickly once the lead contacts you. Introduce yourself. Let the lead know why you found them and why you’re qualified to be their agent.
  
  You want to make sure you come off as knowledgeable, helpful, and trustworthy. Avoid seeming too urgent or overwhelming. You can contact the leads through email or phone calls.
  

• Day 2

  If you don’t hear back from a lead, don’t worry. Keep an informative and trustworthy tone. Express how you can help the lead buy or sell their home. You can contact them through email and text.

• Day 3

  The way to convert unresponsive leads is to stay persistent! Most agents will give up after a day or two. But the lead may still be interested in buying or selling a home. 
  
  You should follow up while maintaining a trustworthy and knowledgeable tone. Phone calls can be agitating and emails are easily ignored. So on this day, a text message is a good idea to get a response without being annoying. 
  

• Day 4

  You may begin wondering if your conversion scripts are working. You should stay on top of your leads. Many simply need a reminder. Try switching up the time of day you send them messages.
  
  Reach out in the evening if mornings aren’t working and vice versa. Just send an email as a reminder that you’re still interested in helping them out.

• Day 5

  Maybe your prospect is busy or isn’t ready to start the buying or selling process. Either way, focus on staying at the forefront of their mind. You can call them on this day and send a text as well.
  

• Day 6 and 7

  Don’t pressure your lead too much. Give phone communication a rest for a couple of days. Stay positive and helpful. The plan is to send an email on this day.
  

• Day 8

  Remind the lead of your value. Keep an upbeat tone when doing this. Mention that you have useful information you’d like to share. Try sending a text message in the evening when the lead is settling down for the day.
  

• Day 9

  Try a different approach this time. This is a good time to showcase your unique skills as an agent. Mention to the lead how you can help them with the buying or selling of their home.
  
  Tell them how your negotiation skills can help the buyer save money and the seller net more money. You can do this via email.
  

• Day 10

  This is the final day in the conversion plan. Contact your lead by phone. You can send a text before lunch and call in the evening.

All in all, lead conversion is essential to every real estate business. Our seller landing pages will not only help you generate leads, but we’ll also help you on the journey of lead nurturing until they convert.

Check out all of our real estate solution features today and request a demo!