{"id":2467,"date":"2016-10-25T15:48:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T22:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/streettext.com\/hub\/?p=2467"},"modified":"2017-11-29T14:31:34","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T22:31:34","slug":"how-3-real-estate-agents-grew-to-manage-thousands-of-leads-without-dropping-the-ball-full-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/streettext.com\/hub\/on-real-estate\/how-3-real-estate-agents-grew-to-manage-thousands-of-leads-without-dropping-the-ball-full-article","title":{"rendered":"How 3 real estate agents grew to manage thousands of leads without dropping the ball [Full Article]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real estate leaders Sydney Waits, Kevin Markarian and Keith Dunham all grew their businesses with internet leads. In a nutshell, these three smart agents shared their amazing insights with the online community either through StreetText’s Facebook Group or Active Rain. We’re releasing a multipart series to share these insights with you in an actionable format.<\/p>\n

\"Sydney
Sydney Waits closing deals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before we get started, here’s a quick introduction of who these agents are and the amazing results they are achieving.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Kevin
\nKevin Markarian,
\nMarker Real Estate<\/a>
\nReal estate leader since 2002\u00a0(Team)<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kevin Markarian, of Marker Real Estate, grew his real estate volume from $14 million in 2013 to $80 million in 2015<\/strong>. “I decided to go all in from 30 leads to 300 leads within a month,” Kevin says. “It forced me to build a team of agents to follow up and reach out to the inquiries and then assign those clients to people of our team.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nKeith Dunham,
\nHomeCity Real Estate<\/a>
\nReal estate leader since 2006 (Team)<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Keith Dunham, from HomeCity Real Estate, manages 2,000 realtor.com leads per month. He drove his business from $4 million in 2014 to a whopping $50 million in 2015<\/strong>. “If you are going to run your own business, you\u2019ve got to go all in,” remarks Keith. It is clear from the interview that Keith sees lead generation as an investment worth making and worth nurturing. “When you realize how expensive leads are, if you want to stay in this game you have to follow up and stay in touch with them.”<\/p>\n

\"Sydney
\nSydney Waits,
\nRE\/MAX HERITAGE<\/a>
\nReal estate leader since 2014 (Individual Agent)<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Finally, Sydney Waits, from RE\/MAX Heritage,\u00a0grew her real estate business from 15 transactions her first year to over 60 within her 3rd<\/a>. She believes in providing amazing value to her potential clients.\u00a0If she doesn\u2019t reach them, she\u2019s dropping off a gift \u2014 a box of brownies is her favourite \u2014 to win them over. That\u2019s the kind of zeal Waits has for her business.\u00a0\u201cFacebook is by far my most profitable marketing using StreetText,\u201d she notes. \u201cThe StreetText platform is amazing.\u201d\u00a0“There are certain neighborhoods where I really, financially, invest in. Because I want them to know my name. Even if they don’t plan to sell for 10 years. I send them stuff seasonally, or on holidays, or when I’m chasing down a listing.”<\/p>\n

Let’s begin.<\/p>\n

How are you turning leads from sources like Realtor.com, Trulia, Facebook and Google Ad Words into referrals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you read the reviews on Trulia leads<\/a> you get mixed stories.<\/p>\n

Kimshai S. Hooks, an Agent based in Los Angeles, CA posted, “When I first started out utilizing Trulia they were the greatest and [received a] vast response with buyer leads, but this was a few years ago. Now I may receive 1-2 buyer leads around billing time and I cover 20+zip codes at a 4% up=1200 views per month, I don’t care for the buyer lead service, as its just a large bill far outside of my budget in 2015.”<\/p>\n

Whereas, David Woods, an Agent from San Diego, CA writes “I have been very successful on Trulia for lead generation. My Team and I have received over 20 solid leads since Nov 2014 (and 50 less solid) and we are excited to continue working with Trulia in the busy season of 2015. With some online training provided free from Trulia we have learned how to cultivate the leads into stronger leads. It takes about 5 months for a lead to actually close. Perseverance, follow-up and tracking are key!”<\/p>\n

The same is true when you Google reviews on Realtor.com leads<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

Bary Stewart, an Agent out of Watertown, NY says, “I use realtor.com and it is probably my best source of leads other than recommendations from previous clients. Realtor.com is relatively inexpensive at $200 per month for a guaranteed 8 leads per month. When they send you a lead you are the only agent getting that lead and if that same person does a second, third, or fourth inquiry it will come to you since you started out with them on the first one. The quality of leads has been heads and shoulders above Zillow and Trulia and my conversion rate is way higher.”<\/p>\n

Yet,\u00a0Terry Dyer, an agent from San Diego, CA says, “I’ve been paying for Realtor.com leads for over a year. Am hoping to build a team so I’ve been investing a LOT of money…more than $5000 per month. After months of asking my account rep Mary Padilla sent me a spreadsheet of my leads. I deleted the duplicate e-mail addresses and found over 500 duplicates. […]\u00a0I’ve been billed $25,000 for the same information..the same buyers…..over and over…..Realtor.com says they consider one person can be multiple leads.”<\/p>\n

So how is that Kevin, Keith and Sydney\u00a0are able to grow their business so substantially from the same lead providers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It turns out that it has to do with the way they are following up with their leads.<\/p>\n

Keith Dunham, of HomeCity, Kevin Markarian, of Marker Real Estate, and Sydney Waits of RE\/MAX Heritage continued to follow up with their leads for over a year.<\/p>\n

“You can’t just say, ‘I didn’t get anything from [these leads]. You have to attack it from every angle,'” says Sydney.<\/p>\n

Initially, they respond with the information they inquired about. Whether it’s a buying wanting more information about a property or a seller curious about their own home. Kevin explains, “We give them info about the property. I saw you inquired about 123 Mainstreet, are you still interested?”<\/p>\n

They will\u00a0send them some more information that relates to their needs. Such as, new listings coming up in the area as well.<\/p>\n

But it doesn’t stop there.<\/p>\n

Mike, another real estate leader from HomeCity, continues, “We actually provide quite a bit of content. Anything from market days, from DIY tips, hot new restaurants. These are things we believe will keep them engaged.”<\/p>\n

But the key, Kevin says, is to base it around\u00a0starting a conversation. We send content with 1 or 2 sentences. “Hey, we are just checking in…”<\/p>\n

“Then we use email to track opens and clicks. We take that list and sort it by most opens, most clicks, etc,” says Kevin. That informs\u00a0them about who the most engaged prospects are.<\/p>\n

So you would attribute your results to your follow up activities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The leads aren’t loyal to anyone, they came through the internet. If you don’t follow up someone else will,” says Kevin. “We have a 32 day follow up schedule.”<\/p>\n

For example, “We had five inquiries that came in on the same day. Using our follow up schedule, within 17 days all of them had been touched with an email, text message or phone call 26 times. All five<\/strong> of those people, after they had been touched on the 17th day<\/strong>, all five raised their hand and finally responded<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Keith agreed and explained that you need to, “be consistent over a 30 day period of time.” Because ultimately, “that’s the person [the prospect]\u00a0wants to do business with.”<\/p>\n

“The majority of what you\u00a0mail out is going to be thrown in the trash. You need to be aware of\u00a0that. But I’ve gotten a listing appointment this summer and the client filled out the StreetText, I sent them a RPR, they never even opened it, because I track all my emails. Then I get a call later in the week. ‘We would love to meet with you and have you come look at our house.’ When I got to the house they said, ‘You know it’s so funny, I don’t know how you knew that we were wanting to sell our house. But we were just talking about wanting to sell our house and then we got your postcard in the mail. They requested a value, but they never even opened the report. But that post card got them to call me.” Sydney Waits<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How do you validate your leads?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s simple,\u00a0says Keith. There are 4 key attributes he looks for when having a conversation with his prospects.<\/p>\n