If you’ve spent more than five minutes in real estate, you’ve heard this complaint: “The leads are sh*t.”
As the owner of a real estate marketing agency, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard it. It comes up on sales calls, in client reports, or in casual conversations with agents frustrated by the follow-up process.
It’s such a common refrain that I even launched a podcast with Taylor Hack called The Leads are Sh*t (you can join us live on Thursdays). Not because we agree with the statement, but because it needs to be unpacked.
Let’s do that here.
What you think you’re getting vs.w what you’re actually getting
The problem usually isn’t the leads. It’s the expectation.
Agents often think they’re buying prospects. They expect people who are ready to move soon, likely to respond and open to working with them.
But most of the time, what they’re actually getting are leads. That might include a name, email and phone number. Sometimes less.
And that’s a big difference.
In the B2B world, they use terms like MQL (marketing qualified lead) and SQL (sales qualified lead). An MQL is someone who downloads a guide or fills out a form. They’ve shown interest, but they’re not ready to buy. An SQL is someone who has been vetted. They have clear intent and are closer to making a decision.
Real estate doesn’t use these terms often, but it should.
Because when an agent says “these leads are garbage,” what they’re really saying is, “I expected SQLs. I got MQLs.”
Leads are cheap. Prospects aren’t.
You can get leads for a dollar or less. That low cost comes with low intent. These kinds of leads are closer in experience to cold calling. They don’t know who you are. They may not remember clicking the ad that captured their info.
Still, those leads can turn into deals. But only if you treat them the right way. That means:
- Following up consistently
- Building trust over time
- Figuring out their intent, timeline, and needs
If you’re skipping those steps, you’re not nurturing leads. You’re just collecting names.
You want prospects? Start sooner
A lead is someone who has given you their contact information. A prospect is someone who is going to move soon. If you want more prospects, your marketing has to work harder. It needs to build trust before someone ever reaches out.
You have to show up in their feed or inbox often enough that they know who you are, what you stand for, and why they can trust you.
When you do that well, the people who reach out are further along in their decision-making process. They’re not cold. They’re warm and ready to take action.
Final thought: Know what game you’re playing
This isn’t a “bad leads” problem. It’s a misalignment problem between your expectations, your marketing, and your follow-up strategy.
Are you playing the lead game or the prospect game?
And are you doing the work before or after you get someone’s contact information?
That’s the difference between chasing names and closing deals.
Andrew Fogliato – The G is silent – is the owner of Real Estate Magazine and Just Sell Homes. He mostly talks about marketing but sometimes ventures into other topics in the real estate world. Sometimes he also writes bios in the 3rd person.