1. Offer Free Real Estate Advice – Demonstrate your knowledge by offering free advice to people, whether online or in person. For example, if you’re doing work or meeting with clients in a cafe, you can set up a small sign advertising your services or real estate advice for free.
2. Send Out Seasonal Cards and Gifts to CRM Database – A great way to stay top of mind with your sphere of influence and increase your chance of a prospective client and referrals is to send them cards and gifts for holidays, birthdays, and their home anniversary purchase date. You can use a service like SendOutCards.com  to send cards with attached gifts.
3. Wear Branded Clothing When You Go Out – Represent your brand or brokerage whenever you go out by wearing branded apparel. This way, people will take notice of what you do no matter where you go, and you may end up finding your next potential lead somewhere you don’t expect. Even a name-tag has been known to get results.
4. Host Open Houses – Hosting open houses is often overlooked as a source of lead generation, but it’s a great way to get people in front of you, where you can more easily convert them. To get the most amount of leads from your open houses advertise them by sticking up signs around the neighborhood, making sure to put one on every cross street.
5. Focus on Getting Good Reviews – Good reviews are the best way to boost your businesses’ reputation and get more leads. Make sure you ask your clients to leave reviews on all the major platforms, such as your Google business page, Facebook business page, Zillow profile, and Yelp.
6. Ask Your Clients For Referrals – One way to ensure you get referrals is simply to ask your clients for them. Some clients love your service but don’t think to give a referral. Let them know how much this would mean to your business and that you would appreciate it if they took the time to recommend you to their friends and family.
7. Always Answer Your Phone Immediately – Fast follow-up is essential when you’re a real estate agent. But what do you do when you’re in the middle of something and don’t have the time to have a conversation? Instead of ignoring the call, just answer and quickly schedule a time to call them back when you are free. The lead will appreciate you taking the time to answer the phone rather than just letting them go straight to voicemail.
8. Interact Regularly With Your Sphere of Influence – Form relationships with your sphere of influence and interact with them regularly. Just like with any other friend, you should celebrate and congratulate them on key milestones in their lives. Be sure to reach out for occasions like birthdays, weddings, engagements, and pregnancies.
9. Send Thank You Notes to Referral Sources – Referrals are valuable in the real estate industry. Whenever you get one, be sure to thank your referral source for their endorsement of your business. One meaningful way to show your appreciation is with a handwritten card and small gift or gift card.
10. Create a Buyer Persona of Your Ideal Client – If you’re having trouble identifying your target audience, you should create a buyer persona. Buyer personas are a great way to narrow down your ideal client, their interests, and how they spend their time.
Once you have a clear picture of your ideal client, you can use this image to target them in both the online and physical locations they frequent. For example, if you know your ideal client is a first-time homebuyer, you might try paid advertising or content marketing on platforms that tend to have younger demographics, such as Instagram or TikTok for real estate agents.
11. Create Content About Historic Listings in Your Area – If you live in an area with historic homes or neighborhoods, you can attract leads by creating informational blog posts or videos about those homes. Post this content on your real estate website and share it on social media to get organic traffic. As a local, you can provide visitors with unique knowledge and insight into these properties.
12. Leave Physical Handouts – Use door hangers, leaflets, and inserts to spread brand awareness of your real estate business. Leave these on homes in the neighborhoods you serve to stay top of mind and discover potential customers. Make sure these marketing materials have your logo, branding, color scheme, and contact information.
13. Work During the Holidays – Perhaps one of the more unpopular real estate lead generation ideas is to spend your holidays working. People are always looking to buy, sell, or rent, and just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean they don’t need the help of a real estate agent. So while your fellow agents take this time off, you can use it to your advantage to score new leads. But just because you’re working during the holidays doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun. This is a great opportunity to throw some holiday-themed events, such as holiday-themed open houses.
14. Hand Out Business Cards During the Holidays – Another traditional method of gaining leads is handing out business cards. In this case, you can do this during the holidays and use it as an excuse to hand out free incentives to people. For example, you can hand out business cards attached to candy canes in the winter months. During the summer months, you can hand out free bottles of water.
15. Host Events For Your Top Sphere of Influence Members – Host your own events for the top members of your sphere of influence to stay top of mind and get referrals. Try to do this regularly, at least once per quarter. These can include holiday-themed events or just community get-togethers such as movie nights or potlucks.
16. Old Fashioned Cold Calling – Cold calling has been a traditionally successful lead generation strategy for a reason. While it can be uncomfortable to call strangers and you’re bound to face rejection, you will also encounter many high-quality leads. In addition, real estate cold calling is a great way to develop your sales skills and a focused pitch. Still not into cold calling? Fortunately it’s possible to be successful without cold calling.
17. Old Fashioned Door Knocking – While door-knocking is not necessarily one of the most unique real estate lead generation ideas, it is a tried and true method of finding leads. Not only that, but you will make yourself known around your local neighborhood and members of the community.
And similar to cold calling, it’s a great way to hone your sales skills and elevator pitch. So even if you face rejection, you’ll still take away some valuable lessons.
18. Call Your Sphere of Influence – Your best leads are often the ones you already know. People are constantly engaging in real estate-related activities, whether it’s renovating, buying, or selling. Make an effort to interact with your sphere of influence regularly not just to stay top of mind, but in case they need your services or advice. Aim to call at least one person from your sphere of influence per day.
