The state of real estate lead generation is constantly evolving. What brought in great leads at an affordable rate just a few months ago might not work today. That means many agents are constantly looking for new and innovative real estate lead generation strategies.
To help you think outside the box, here are 37 underrated real estate lead generation ideas to keep your phone ringing off the hook in 2022.
1. Increase Response Rates With Facebook Messenger Ads
Beverly Ruffner, Real Estate Coach
“While tons of agents are advertising on Facebook and Instagram these days, many skip over one of the best lead generation opportunities: Facebook Messenger ads. Sending ads to Messenger can get you open rates that are 242% higher than email, and offer much higher response rates than traditional Facebook ads.
“You can use Messenger to advertise hotlists of niche listings like waterfront homes, fixer-uppers, or hot new underpriced listings. One of my coaching clients even uses Messenger ads for old expireds with great results.”
2. Buy Exclusive Seller Leads From Market Leader
Susan Isaac, Agent at, Houlihan Lawrence, Greenwich, Connecticut
“Market Leader owns one of the largest and best home valuation sites online: housevalues.com. Homeowners use the site to check the value of properties they’re interested in selling. Market Leader then sends those exclusive leads out to agents who claim their ZIP code. This is one of the best ways to generate seller leads at the beginning of their buyer journey before other agents have a chance to pitch them.”
“If you want to check if Market Leader has exclusive seller leads for you, check availability in your ZIP code here.”
Get Exclusive Leads With Market Leader
3. Use a Smart CRM to Generate Leads While You Sleep
Sean Moudry, Real Estate Coach, Speaker & Author
“Most people think getting started is the hardest thing to do in real estate. But most people have never tried to scale a successful real estate business. Trust me, it’s much, much harder. I should know. Ten years ago, I scaled a brokerage to 100 people, but it didn’t last. The problem was that there were only so many hours in a day, and our leads and clients needed us ASAP, 24/7. Mere mortals couldn’t keep up … then the recession hit.
“Luckily, now it’s 2022, so we have apps like Zurple that use patent-pending software to analyze a lead’s behavior to figure out when they’re ready to transact, BEFORE they’re ready to transact. Even better, they generate those leads for you so you can actually focus on closing and generate leads while you sleep. It’s the software I wish I had 10 years ago.”
Generate Leads with Zurple
4. Use Slydial Broadcast to Circle Prospect Just Sold & Open Houses
Christina Griffin, Tampa Bay Realtor & Team Leader
Circle prospecting is one of the best ways to stake out your claim in your farm area. If you want to become the real estate agent in a neighborhood, you’re going to have to get in front of the neighbors as often as possible.
The only problem is that some neighborhoods are already blanketed with door hangers, flyers, and postcards from your competition. With a little creativity, you can beat the competition to the chase before they get their flyers printed.
Working with real estate coach Tom Ferry, Tampa Bay Realtor Christina Griffin came up with an ingenious strategy to reach homeowners in her farm area.
She bought lists of homeowners’ cell numbers, then, after cross-checking with the DNC, used a clever new app called Slydial Broadcast to leave them all voicemails advertising her next open house automatically.
The response was immediate and massive. She got 200 leads on her first day.
5. Use Predictive Analytics to Get Leads & Farm Your Local Area
Chris Linsell, Real Estate Coach & Staff Writer, The Close
“Predictive analytics has been waiting in the wings of real estate marketing for a couple of years now, but it stormed the stage and grabbed the spotlight with the emergence of SmartZip. SmartZip uses artificial intelligence (AI) to parse hundreds of data points from across the internet and from your local MLS to determine which property owners in your targeted geographic area are most likely to sell this year.
“That means rather than trying to market to an entire community, you can focus only on property owners who are most likely to sell and ensure you’re the first real estate agent they talk to. Lock down your territory with SmartZip here.”
Farm Your Area with SmartZip
6. Pick Up the Phone & Make Outbound Phone Calls Without Even Using Slydial
Leigh Brown, Realtor, CEO, Author, Coach & Speaker, Leigh Brown
“Calls to whom? The contacts in your phone. The people you actually know. Statistics show that an estimated one-third of the public does something related to real estate annually―renovations, updates, repairs, refinancing, buying, or selling―and savvy Realtors are there for all of those steps in the work of being the trusted Realtor adviser over time.
“Costs nothing. How to make it happen? Set a doable goal of one call per day. It will get done—and once you do one, you’re likely to make two.”
7. Work Divorce Leads
Kelly Lise Murray, J.D. Co-founder & CEO, DivorceThisHouse.com
“OK, let’s stop beating around the bush here. Competition for the low-hanging fruit leads in pretty much any farm area is usually fierce.”
“If you want to get and close more leads, sometimes it can help to think outside the box. Do you want genuinely motivated leads? How about leads that have a court order to sell their home? How about leads who really, really, really want to move?”
“If you’ve got reserves of patience and empathy, then working divorce leads might be the perfect lead-generation strategy to close a few more deals this year. There’s even a designation—RCS-D (Real Estate Collaboration Specialist – Divorce)—that you can get to show potential divorce clients that you know your stuff and mean business.”
8. Connect With Pet-loving Leads by Sponsoring a Local Adoption Event
Alisa Cunningham, Realtor, Douglas Elliman
“A great opportunity is to approach local animal shelters or rescue groups and offer to sponsor an adoption event. You give them money to pay for renting a space, tables, and canopy shelters, maybe hire food trucks to be there, do advertising for them, and then show up and work the event. People love their pets—most people consider them members of the family.”
“Being of service and finding a home for those abandoned pets is critical work and usually appreciated, plus you get to talk to people. Pet lovers bond with other pet lovers. ‘Creating home for you and your pets’ or ‘Finding homes for you and your pets’ or something like that. But you have to be a pet lover yourself.”
9. Attract More Opportunity by Building Referrals and Connections
Becky Brooks, Digital Marketing Manager , The Close
“NuOp is a simple and free platform for real estate professionals to track and exchange referrals with speed and accuracy. Members can post and search for direct and open referrals to grow their business. Best of all NuOp(link) does not charge a commission fee for connecting referring agents, instead it generates revenue in other more meaningful ways that add value to its members.”
Sign Up for Free
10. Meet Your Top 50 Contacts in Person Once per Quarter
Nate Martinez, Owner, RE/MAX Professionals
“Lead generation is about personal connection. At our office, we have created our ‘Top 50 program,’ where we designate the top people in our network who have the greatest potential to bring in one piece of business. From there, we look to meet with our contacts once a quarter face-to-face to learn more about their lives and develop a deeper relationship with them. We also host exclusive parties and events, which we invite our ‘Top 50’ to, including movie nights, parties, and so on. Leveraging your network is a great way to generate leads and in order to get those, you need to build strong personal relationships with them.”
11. Generate and Nurture Leads with an Automated Platform & Personal Assistant
Nicholas Thomas, Director of Business Development & Licensed Agent
“Getting leads is hard and time-consuming, but with Rezi Leads you can make your lead generation process fully automated so you can focus on closing more deals. With exclusive buyer and seller leads funneled through their AI-powered CRM system. Rezi Leads claim that agents are generating 398% ROI from their platform lead spend.”
Check Your Area’s Availability
12. Host a First-time Buyer’s Seminar
Sean Moudry, Real Estate Coach, Speaker & Author
“Even though the information is freely available online, many new buyers still have questions about buying a home … lots and lots of questions. Offering them a low-pressure space to get their questions about buying answered can be a great way to generate some leads.”
“The trick is to choose five or so common questions to answer in your seminar, and then include a few more not-so-common questions you can use in your marketing to draw people in. For example, you can talk about how to find hidden listing inventory or buy foreclosure listings to get people through the door.”
13. Real Estate Software Built for Trailblazers
Sierra Interactive
Don’t let all the time and effort you spend on lead generation go to waste. Make sure you use an intuitive system, like Sierra Interactive, to nurture your leads and build that know, like, and trust factor on automation. Sierra Interactive provides award-winning SEO-driven websites that generate high-quality leads, then drops them into an automated action plan to make sure you stay top of mind.
Easily track where all your leads come from and manage your ROI for all your lead generation sources right from the Sierra Interactive dashboard. With increased speed-to-lead tech plus ROI management, you’ll be able to focus your dollars where they count.
Maximize Your ROI With Sierra Interactive Website + Lead Gen
14. Sign Up to Do BPOs, Then Market to the Owners of Distressed Homes
Sebastian Frey, Broker & Owner, Realty World Virtuoso
“When a borrower starts to miss payments on a mortgage, a lender or loan servicer will often order a ‘broker price opinion’ (BPO) on a property in case they end up having to foreclose, do a loan modification, or short sale. They may do this before it is reported as a late payment to a credit agency, and well before they file a notice of default. This is an early indicator of a homeowner who may need to sell sooner rather than later.”
15. Pitch Your Listing (or Expertise) to News Outlets
Christian Petterson, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development & Realtor, iSella.com
“Most people do not think about pitching their listings to news outlets, but it has surprisingly proven to be one of the best strategies for getting a lot of leads extremely quickly. One of my listings was featured in a New York Times article last week, and I have been receiving at least five calls a day since publication—I had three showings just today. It’s amazing to see the response you get when backed by a reputable publication. Not only can I sell a property extremely quickly through the publicity, but I gain a lot of new clients for other listings as well. The response from media coverage has blown me away every time.”
16. Use the Power of AI to get Leads from People Receiving an Inheretince
Chris Linsell, Senior Writer, The Close
“Have you ever wondered what people do when they inherit properties? Catalyze AI has created a unique system to mine data of people who inherited a property in your local area. These leads are an untapped source of revenue from motivated sellers. Imagine receiving tons of exclusive leads that you can turn into a book of listings from people who need to sell their inherited properties. The Close readers will receive 50% off discount the first month with Promo Code “THECLOSE”.”
Get More Leads with Catalyze AI
17. Build & Advertise a Real Estate Brand Instead of Your Personal Brand
Kristina McCann, Founder, Off Market Homes
One of the most common misconceptions with online advertising is that you need to push your “personal” brand constantly. In reality, of course, most people are not looking for you. Many of them might not want an agent at all. Instead, build a brand that offers buyers and sellers in your area something they want.
That might mean IDX listings or, in East Bay San Francisco Realtor and entrepreneur Kristina McCann’s case, discovering that what buyers in her area wanted most was off-market homes.
After building and launching her site, she generated $40 million in buyer leads in her first month.
18. Send Sales Letters to Absentee Owners
Jason Pantana, Tom Ferry Master Coach, Speaker
“Good old-fashioned sales letters. There’s a difference between direct mail and drip mail. Most of the time in real estate, we call drip mail ‘direct mail.’ For instance, sending postcards twice a month to a geographic farm isn’t direct mail—despite calling it that—because it usually isn’t angling for a ‘direct response.’
“To the contrary, it’s more about creating top-of-mind awareness and branding. Direct mail has more to do with organizing a vetted and scrubbed list of ideal recipients and then delivering a calibrated letter—or a few letters in a row—that are designed to get the recipients to take action within a relatively short time frame.
“Given that the market is adjusting pretty much everywhere, we’re having some clients who are sending out kindhearted and well-reasoned letters to absentee owners in communities and areas where appreciation has been favorable and where it looks like selling now may be the best play in the foreseeable future.”
19. Master Cold Calling
Beverly Ruffner, Real Estate Coach
“While your competition is sitting back waiting for leads to roll in from Instagram or Pinterest, take the bold route, and pick up the phone.
“Sure, it’s a little intimidating to get hung up on, but there is no better way to build the thick skin you’ll need to become a top-producing real estate agent.”
20. Invest in Time-saving Prospecting Tools
Miranda Paquet, Licensed Real Estate Agent
Don’t waste your time driving around town looking for signs or scouring Craigslist and Facebook marketplace for FSBOs. Instead, consider a FSBO lead service like Vulcan7 for filling your pipeline with prospective listings. Vulcan7 takes all the leg work out of getting these leads to your desk, including collecting valuable contact information like names, phone numbers, and even email addresses.
Plus, they also offer expired listing leads, pre-foreclosure leads, and a fantastic neighborhood prospecting tool that is a true level-up for anyone who does geographic prospecting or real estate farming.
Get Vulcan7’s Best Trial Offer
21. Hand Out Free Seasonal Treats With Your Business Card
Nelene Gibbs, Broker & Owner, Nelene Gibbs Real Estate
“One suggestion I offered my newer agents was to go to the mall or shopping center during the holiday shopping season and hand out business cards attached to a candy cane to everyone walking by. No need to wait in line to see Santa to get a candy cane. Spread a little Christmas cheer with the candy canes and, hopefully, pick up a new client or two for the new year. Everyone loves a candy cane at Christmas.
“One other suggestion I had was to print water bottle labels, go to the shopping areas where the crowds line up waiting for the big Black Friday sales events, and pass out water bottles with your brand—business card—on them to the crowds waiting in line.”
22. Use Seasonal Leave-behinds
Nick Slocum, Partner, Realtor, The Nick Slocum Team
“Far and away, our two best unique leave-behinds are when we had place an American flag on each lawn just prior to the Fourth of July and when we place a pumpkin on each doorstep around Halloween. The response is incredible and the connection to the community is even better. In fact, over the years, the neighbors have come to expect it and often refer to us as ‘The Pumpkin Guys’ or ‘The Flag Guys.’”
23. Make a Plan & Work the Holidays
Courtney Poulos, Broker & Owner, Acme Realty
Since most of your fellow agents will head for the hills during the holidays, staying in the office can mean easy real estate lead generation. Here are a few tips from Los Angeles’ Acme Realty Founder, Courtney Poulos, on generating leads during the holidays.
“My advice to newer agents who are looking to work through the holidays would be to use the fact that you are present and available during the holiday season as the dominant messaging in your marketing. If you have listings that you are going to be showing during the holidays, have holiday-themed events, such as a holiday-themed broker’s open with spiced cider, or at your Sunday open house, have a jazz musician playing holiday music. You can also take new pictures of the property with some holiday decorations to use in your social media posts.”
24. Pitch Older Expired Listings
Dan Prud’homme, Owner, Carolina Realty Group
“I don’t just reach out to listings that are newly expired like everyone does, but I dig deeper and pay special attention to the ones that expired a year or more ago that never relisted. I figure that at some point these potential clients wanted to sell, so why not reach out to them to see what their plans are, how they may have changed, and how I could help them meet their objective. If their plan is to sell sometime in the future, I offer to assist them with a strategy so they’re ready to hit the ground running when the timing is perfect.”
25. Become a ‘Coffee House Consultant’
Justin Potier, Broker, Carrington Real Estate Services
Since you’re going to spend a ton of time in coffee shops anyway, why not advertise your services for free?
Justin Potier of Carrington Real Estate Services had an agent who set up their laptop to work, then put up a little sign, saying, “Free real estate advice.”
26. Network at More Non-Real Estate-related Events
Eseosa “Sosa” Eke, Marketing Consultant & Brand Strategist
“If you’re going to events where everyone else is just like you, your odds of meeting quality leads are slim to none.
“Instead of going to the same old real estate mixers or networking events, think outside the box and join some non-real estate-related local events. Your next client can be found at a community yoga workshop, a sip-and-paint night, a book reading, or even at a concert.
“Just be careful of trying to ‘sell’ to people you meet.
“Instead, go to an event you’ll truly enjoy, engage in the flow of conversation, and when you get the ‘what do you do?’ question, give them an answer that truly makes your real estate services shine. Even if you don’t get any new leads, you’ll spend time doing things you love. How can you go wrong?”
27. Try Ranking Articles on Google for Luxury or Historic Listings
Tristan Roberts, Lake Tahoe Realtor
“Too many people believe that the time has passed to rank organically on Google successfully—specifically targeting ranking opinion articles for individual property addresses and then providing ‘the rest of the story’ so the potential buyers can read your opinions of the property’s strengths and weaknesses. This works extremely well with very high-end or historic properties. The buyer gets to hear your tone and gets a feel for your personality as well as some honest insight about the property they’re considering buying.”
28. Get Some Fresh Air: Start Door Knocking
Emile L’eplattenier, Managing Editor, The Close
“While everyone else in your office is busy with the latest social media fad (TikTok, anyone?), why not head out into the fresh air and fill your customer relationship manager (CRM) the old-fashioned way? Go knock on some doors! It’s actually a lot easier than you might think, and is also a fantastic way to hone your elevator pitch and actually flex your sales muscles.”
29. Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce
Cynthia Emerling, Associate Broker, Finger Lakes Premier Properties
If you join your local chamber of commerce, you can get your name and business listed in newsletters and websites and get referrals and make valuable connections who are well established in your area.
“You can become members of the town and county chambers that your office is in, as well as nearby areas or counties that you serve or have offices in. Similarly, you can look into becoming a member of a destination marketing organization (DMO) or convention and visitors bureau (CVB). Sometimes these are the same as the Chamber and other times they are a separate entity.”
30. Learn to Rank Your Website on Google by Building Quality Backlinks
Shawn Breyer, Owner, Breyer Home Buyers
“When doing search engine optimization (SEO), focus on building links back to your site from sites that are relevant to your business. If you’re selling houses, then getting a link to your website from a blog on Realtor.com is going to drive your site up in the Google search rankings. Whatever you do, don’t perform shady backlink building practices, such as buying 500 backlinks for $20 on Fiverr. SEO won’t produce leads for your business immediately but, over time, your organic lead flow will increase, which will improve your ROI on your business drastically.”
31. Help Your Buyers Find an Investment, Not Just a Home
Rebecca Saenz, Realtor, RE/MAX Estate Properties Los Angeles
“I have found through the years that agents do not have enough knowledge of how to guide their clients through real estate investing from their primary residence. I work with business managers and accountants to share business and guide our clients together to gain wealth through real estate. Most people think you buy a house and live in it, sell it, and buy another one, but what if they kept that first house and bought another one, and gained passive income from the first? I have clients for life because they trust I’m guiding them on the right path of when and what to sell based on their needs and income desires in the future.”
32. Schedule Outreach With Your Sphere Every Day
Akos Straub, Top-producing Chicago Realtor
“In my opinion, the best underrated lead-generating technique is accessing and utilizing your current network. After all, unlike cold internet leads, these are people who probably already know and trust you. So, carve out time every day to reach out to your sphere and just ask for business. Lead generation doesn’t get much simpler or more effective than this.”
33. Become a Reliable Source of Real Estate Expertise in Facebook Groups
Bryan Bowles, Founder & CEO, Transactly
“You don’t need to create one, but get involved. For example, create a survey to find out ‘What’s stopping you from buying a home?’ and then engage people individually in a very casual manner. The key is coming up with creative content that makes people want to participate, remaining consistent, and measuring the results. I see too many agents who let these things go if they don’t see immediate results or start getting busy.”
34. Create an Avatar of Your Ideal Client & Then Target Them on Social Media
Kyle Alfriend, REMAX Hall of Fame Agent
“Create an ‘avatar’ of your ideal client—their income, interests, personality, age, family size, and hobbies. Then, post a steady stream of videos and blogs on all social media outlets—all about those things. If they are active, start running and biking, and posting updates on your activities. If they have school-age children, attend school sporting events, concerts, and plays, and post about them. Restaurants, wine enthusiasts, religious events, sporting events, hiking, swimming, and charitable causes—identify your ideal client, then post yourself being involved in the things they do.”
35. Reward Your Referral Sources With a Handwritten Note & Gift Card
Heidi Sutter, Sutter-Smith Group, Coldwell Banker
Even if they already love you, everyone loves getting presents, even small ones. That’s why Coldwell Banker agent Heidi Sutter’s system of rewarding referral sources helps keep a steady stream of referrals in her inbox:
“For me, one of the best lead generating tools has been to reward my referrals with a handwritten note and gift card. Doing so has been key for my business and proven to be one of the best ways to connect with clients, friends, and family who are kind enough to refer my services. Here’s my formula:
- $5 gift card and thank you note at introduction to the referral
- $10 gift card for gas, along with a handwritten note thanking them for the referral again and providing a quick update on the progress, once buyer or seller signs a contract or lists
- Hand-delivered $50 gift card to a local restaurant once the client closes
“This helps make and maintain a personal connection.”
36. Help Clients Work Through Non-Real Estate Financial Needs
Dane Galden, Coldwell Banker
As long as you have the expertise and steer clear of violating fiduciary laws, offering to help your clients with other financial needs can be a great way to stay top of mind and increase referrals. Here’s Coldwell Banker agent Dane Galden on how he offers other financial services to his clients.
“In addition to working with buyers and sellers, I have a background in helping clients work through their financial needs—anything from showing them how to save for a child’s college education to planning for retirement tax-free. This gives me a reason to talk to my clients every year to check in and update their goals as needed while building lasting relationships. The value that I bring to my clients allows me to be top of mind when they’re ready to buy or sell, and it works great for referrals as well.”
37. Call People in Your Sphere to Mark Milestones & Birthdays
Gina Guajardo, Sterling Johnson & Associates, a Leverage Global Partners’ Brokerage
“I do not cold call but I do call people in my sphere to congratulate them about their milestones—and that brings results, guaranteed. It’s a great way to stay connected and top of mind. Take birthdays, for example. Every day, Facebook will tell you whose birthday it is, so you just have to pick up the phone and call them. [Almost all] of the people you call will appreciate it, and guess who they will recommend or work with when the time is right? Same goes for milestones like a new job or pregnancy news. How awesome to get a call from your friend who happens to be a Realtor?”
Next Steps: How to Create a Real Estate Lead Generation Plan That Works for You
Now that you hopefully have some inspiration after reading our list of real estate lead generation ideas, let’s take a look at what the experts say about choosing which ones work for you. After all, not all lead generation strategies are created equal. Some work great for certain types of agents, while others fail miserably.
The trick is to choose which methods to spend your hard-earned time, money, and effort on strategically. Let’s take a look at a few general strategies that will help you choose a plan that works for you.
Related Article How to Create a Custom Real Estate Lead Generation Plan (+ Template)Understand How Pareto Distributions Work
Vilfredo Pareto was a 19th-century Italian civil engineer, economist, and sociologist who came up witha mathematical formulato explain power distributions in nature, society, and business. He discovered that in many cases, 20% of most systems produce 80% of the results. You might know this as the 80/20 rule.
You might notice this already in your business. For example, many agents find that roughly 20% of their customers might produce 80% of their gross commission income (GCI). When it comes to lead generation, you will likely find that 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. This is why choosing the real estate lead generation strategies that workfor youis so important.
Make a Plan That Gets You a Mix of Top of Funnel & Bottom of Funnel Leads
While getting customers early on in their home search is important, very few agents have the time to nurture leads forever without generating any income. Quick wins that bring in revenue are crucial for any business. So make sure you have a healthy mix of strategies that get you customers who need to move yesterday and customers who might not move for a year or more.
For example,home valuation landing pagesare more likely to attract sellers who are close to pulling the trigger, while cold calling landlords of distressed properties might get you leads that might sell six months from now.
So when choosing a new real estate lead generation strategy, make sure to ask yourself if it will generate more top of funnel or bottom of funnel leads. If you’re busy, then top-of-funnel leads are great. If you’re struggling to pay your mortgage, then you should focus on quick wins instead.
Create a Plan That Fits Your Unique Personality
One mistake that many agents make is trying to push themselves to generate leads using techniques that don’t fit their personality. For example, if you’re an introvert,cold calling FSBOswill probably only leave you frustrated and broke.
Close contributor and real estate coach, Sean Moudry, has developed a unique system that tests agents for their personality type using a variation of the Myers-Briggs test to help them find the perfect real estate lead generation strategy for them.
If you want to learn more about Sean’s system or sign up as a coaching client, check out his website:16 Strategies.
Useful Resources
Are you a new agent or an experienced agent who is trying to shake things up a bit? If so, check out some of our deep-dive resources to learn more about filling your pipeline with leads:
- Get More Real Estate Buyer Leads With These 11 Proven Strategies
- How to Get Listings: 18 Luxury Listing Agents Spill Their Secrets
- 11 Savvy Ways to Generate More Real Estate Referrals From Your Sphere
- 13 Clever Real Estate Prospecting Ideas to Boost Your GCI
- 5 Smart Ways to Buy Real Estate Leads
Over to You
What real estate lead generation techniques are you using for 2022? Still sticking with Zillow or have you discovered something new? Let us know in the comments.
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