7 Sources of Unlimited Free Real Estate Leads

Whether you are new to the real estate market or have been an agent for decades, there is one thing that never changes- you need free real estate leads. Leads are vital for every stage of the sales process from the first contact you have with a potential client to the moment they convert into an actual client. There are some agents who will buy leads but there are a few issues and concerns with this practice. Let’s look into free real estate leads and how to get them.  

What’s The Problem With Buying Real Estate Leads? 

The seemingly endless search for leads may leave a lot of agents desperate. In these instances where agents get frustrated by a lack of incoming leads, they will often be significantly more inclined to purchase leads. However, there are some serious concerns with buying leads outside of the financial aspect.  

They’re Cold  

Leads generated from your website, social media presence, or seminars are considered “warm”. This is because the interest is coming from the lead, rather than you hunting down bought leads. Buying leads results in cold emailing and cold calling. Often it will take many attempts before you establish contact with these potential leads, if anything comes at all. Connection is an important aspect of transforming leads into clients and bought leads lack the connection of warm, organic leads.  

They’re Unreliable 

When you buy leads, you are essentially purchasing a list of potential buyers and sellers. These leads are strangers and the validity and reliability of these potential leads is not guaranteed. In many cases purchasing leads ends up being a waste of time, energy, and money.  

They’re Unsafe 

Another negative part of buying leads is the potential risk involved. When you cold email strangers from a list of bought leads, your email may get marked as spam. This will not only prohibit your emails from reaching potential leads but it will also cause your reputation to suffer. In extreme instances, your ability to email may even be suspended or reduced.  

Sources of Free Real Estate Leads 

Since buying leads is not the way to go, you may wonder how to keep the leads coming in for your real estate business. Finding free leads is actually much easier than you think. Most sources of free leads are available on platforms you already use. If you’re not using these platforms, your general online presence may be suffering resulting in a drastic reduction in traffic and potential organic leads.  

Social Media 

Social media is the name of the game nowadays. Everyone is on some social media platform. Making your real estate agent presence known as these platforms is imperative to staying relevant and accessible to potential leads. Find the platform that works best for you. If you have high-quality photos, use Instagram or Twitter. If you are more into writing, Facebook may be a better option. If you like to create videos of the properties you are selling, YouTube or TikTok may be your best bet.  

Pick the one you feel most comfortable to ensure you stick with it and keep the content flowing to generate traffic. Social media is also a great way to generate organic traffic to your official website through links and the sharing of blog posts or listings from your social media account.  

Facebook Marketplace 

Many buyers are now searching through Facebook marketplace to see what listings are available in their region. Use Facebook marketplace to promote your listings. Add your available real estate listings to Facebook to attract leads. To generate traffic back to your website or official listings, provide a link in the listing description.  

The key to successful Facebook Marketplace listings is to provide a snippet of the information and attract the lead towards contacting you. Provide contact information to establish that very valuable connection with potential leads to help convert them into clients. It helps to insert a link to a sign up sheet where leads can input their information to get more information on the property. This helps your mailing list and sphere of influence spread for future listings. Adding them to your mailing list will help them to see everything you have available as it becomes available which will help secure more clients from these organic and free leads.  

YouTube For Free Real Estate Leads

Video content is a fantastic way to connect with potential leads to turn them into clients. To be successful with YouTube, you must post frequently and consistently. Strive to post once a week to keep engagement and interest active in your account. Content can range from 30 seconds of you describing real estate tips or selling ideas to money saving tips for both sellers and buyers.  

It helps to have the videos and content on your YouTube channel line up with the content and blogs you have available on your website. Consider taking the guides or blog posts already on your website and making quick videos about the content. Then provide links back to the full posts on your website to generate the traffic back to your website. This will make it significantly more likely for these potential leads to sign up for mailing lists or initiate contact.  

As we said before, consistency is key to success with YouTube. Keep an eye on comments and respond to all of them. Engagement is key. The likes, views, comments, and shares on your YouTube videos will help your channel succeed. Taking steps to help your YouTube channel grow will help increase your sphere of influence and the number of people you are reaching with your business.  

Your Community 

Community events are very important for generating warm leads for real estate agents. Setting up seminars, meet and greets, and public forums are fantastic ways to connect with potential leads. The face to face factor is extremely valuable for establishing good connections with potential leads. Trust in you is going to be one of the most important factors in finding leads for your real estate business. Being able to see you talk about real estate and show your experience and knowledge in the industry are incredibly valuable for growing the amount of leads you have. 

Another way to use your community to generate free real estate leads is through simply getting out there. Being social and going to community events will help you meet people. Networking in this way allows for word of mouth to work for you. Getting out there and becoming a known and respected member of the community will help people feel confident in choosing you as their real estate agent when the time comes to buy or sell a property in the area.  

Your Sphere Of Influence 

As a real estate agent, you may have heard of the concept of your sphere of influence. This term refers to all the connections and relationships you’ve fostered throughout your life. This includes groups you’re a part of, family and friends, co-workers, groups that you provide services to, and more. Anywhere that you make yourself known and meet people are within your sphere of influence. Whether it’s PTA meetings or your local gym, you have connections there that can help grow leads.  

Let the people in your life know that you are an experienced and skilled real estate agent. You never know if the person you are talking to is in the market to buy or sell or if they know someone who is in need of a real estate agent. Use your sphere of influence to spread information on your skills and abilities to help those looking to sell their property or buy a property.  

Craigslist 

Believe it or not, Craigslist is another great way to generate free leads for real estate agents. Despite its reputation for sketchy posters and spam, many people still use Craigslist to look for properties and post their properties. Real estate coach Kyle Handy has a great Craigslist strategy which he covers in depth on his website. Handy talks about how many people who are looking for properties will search Craigslist so as to avoid working with a real estate agent.  

How To Attract Free Real Estate Leads From Craigslist Posts 

1. Create a Craigslist Account
2. Create a Craigslist Classified Ad like you would with a normal listing.  
3. Add enticing images and videos to the post. Walkthrough videos are especially valuable for these types of ads.  
4. Make sure to add appropriate contact information to the post. This includes links to social media, your website, email address, phone number, and your physical office address. This gives potential leads many different avenues for contacting and connecting with you. 
5. Add links to your other ads in all of your postings. This creates a connected sales funnel where each listing points to all of your other listings  

Taking these steps will motivate those scrolling through Craigslist to contact you and establish that valuable connection you need to transform leads into clients. It’s important to note that Craigslist organizes posts chronologically. For this reason, it is very important to refresh postings and repost ads once they have expired to make sure they still show up in searches for potential leads. Keep an eye on your content and try to work out a rhythm based on how much others are posting. This will help make sure that your postings aren’t getting lost in the mix of all the other postings on Craigslist.  

Other Craigslist Tips For Free Real Estate Leads

• Add your Craigslist leads to your CRM to keep in regular contact with them.  
• Work on pitches for sellers for greater success in connecting with them.  

• Look specifically for postings where the seller is looking for other avenues to sell their property.  
• For more tips, check out Kyle Handy’s video guide for using Craigslist to attract free leads.  

Your Real Estate Website 

Your real estate website is a valuable resource for attracting free real estate leads. Content driven marketing like video content, dedicated pages for calls to action,  and blog posts are excellent avenues for connecting with potential leads. This also helps with motivation for leads to contact you so you can establish valuable connections to turn them into clients.  

Just like with social media, it’s important to find content material that is sustainable for you to post consistent and high-quality material. Find what you like to do whether it is video editing, writing listings, writing blog posts, or taking high-quality and attractive pictures. This is incredibly important because you are more likely to stick with making content that you enjoy making. Like any other way of attracting leads, making content is hard work. However, it can replace the mundane routine of cold calling or knocking on doors. It also helps to generate potential leads from those who are actually interested in what you have to say and the services you offer.