Is there anything worse than working a new lead, only to have them straight up ignore your calls and emails? After all, you’re getting leads, so your lead gen strategy seems to work just fine. They just don’t seem to want to talk to you. What are you doing wrong?

Well, you’re probably doing a lot wrong … or maybe you’re doing nothing wrong. After all, getting a lead on the phone is hard work. Getting them to return your call is even harder.

That’s why I put together this guide to help you increase your odds of actually getting your calls returned by leads, customers, or even listing agents.

1. You Waited Too Long to Follow Up

This is the biggest reason your leads aren’t calling you back. You’re waiting too long to reach out to them. In fact, an MIT study found that your odds of reaching a lead decrease more than 100 times after half an hour.

It makes perfect sense when you think about it. If your lead is reaching out to you at 2:00, they probably have at least a few minutes of free time after that to take your call. After that? All bets are off. How many times have you had to screen calls when you’re on a showing? Do you call your leads back with your client right in front of you?

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Get back to your leads as soon as humanly possible. You may even want to tell your buyer clients that you may have to pick up your phone occasionally while you’re on a showing. If you’ve established a rapport, most of them won’t mind at all. In fact, they’ll be rooting for your to get that new client.

Make Sure You Use a CRM That Has Workflows to Schedule Outreach

While it can be tricky to figure out the best time to reach out to your leads, an easy-to-use, relationship-focused customer relationship manager (CRM) like AgentLEADS makes the process much easier. AgentLEADS lets you micro-segment your leads, automate relevant follow-up messages, and build blended workflows that include text messaging, calls, emails, and more to help you build relationships faster.

Visit AgentLEADS

2. You Didn’t Sound Confident Enough

Everybody has off days. Even if you’re a social butterfly who’s a voice coach on the side, chances are you’re not always going to be “on” every time you call a lead. For competitive FSBO or expired listings, you may never recover from that first nervous impression.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Beyond a really, really, good follow-up email and a prayer, you’re probably out of luck here. Better to try and avoid this in the first place. Here are a few tips to sounding confident on the phone.

1. Call your important leads after warming up first on a few others

You’re going to be rusty for the first few calls, so building up confidence is key. You’ll also remember that rejection won’t kill you.

2. Stand up when you make your calls & pace if you have to

When you’re hunched over, sitting down, your diaphragm is compressed, which makes it very difficult to project your voice. Standing up will trick your brain into feeling more confident.

3. Recite your script out loud a few times in the mirror before calling

Yes, it’s cheesy, but practice makes perfect. It’s the only way to get better!

4. Try a ‘power pose’ before making your calls

You might feel cheesy doing this too, but power poses can help you build confidence. Here’s Amy Cuddy on the psychological power of power posing.

5. Be good at your job

Real confidence only comes from knowing what you’re talking about and having the right answers to the inevitable objections that will come up. So study the market as if your job depended on it. Because it does.

6. Memorize common objection handlers

If you do manage to get someone on the phone, if you don’t have good objection handlers ready to go, your confidence will fade as soon as your lead stumps you with a common question. I put together an excellent article on objection handlers here.

3. You’re Not Getting Through Receptionists or Other Gatekeepers

While a work phone number is far from ideal, sometimes that’s all you can get. For leads who work in a corporate environment, this can be fatal. After all, any receptionist or administrative assistant worth their salt is trying to save their boss from the dreaded cold caller.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Experts agree that the absolute best thing you can do to get that coveted sticky note from reception on their monitor is super-easy. Be very, very nice to any receptionist you encounter. Creating a sense of urgency can work as well, but be careful not to overplay your hand here. Experienced receptionists will sniff out your hard sell and you’ll NEVER get through.

If you’re pitching a company for relocation referrals, then you should send over a nice gift as well in order to get in front of a decision-maker for a pitch. Cold calling alone isn’t going to cut it.

“Hi, this is Nick with Keller Williams Realty. Joe inquired about a home for sale and I’d love to chat with him further. It’s a hot property in a desirable town and I don’t want him to miss out if he really wants to get in there and see the home. Can you put me through?”

4. Millennials Don’t Realize That iPhones Can Also Make Phone Calls

Well, not really, but if you’re over say, 40, then working with millennials requires some adjustments. First and foremost, millennials grew up with text messaging. For a lot of them, a phone call is reserved for dire emergencies, and even then they might just send an emoji instead of calling you:

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Hmmm. Not sure how to break this to you, but unless you’re calling them to let them know their car is on fire, you might as well give in. After all, you should be sending a follow-up email (or better yet text) along with your calls anyway.

5. You Didn’t Make a Personal Connection

The idea that real estate is a relationship business is such a well-worn cliche at this point that it hardly bears repeating. Sadly, many newer agents still don’t get the message. They work hard at “selling” and never try to build an actual relationship built on reciprocity and selfless work.

Of course, there are always people that you’re not going to click with for one reason or another. For example, at a busy open house, the odds of being able to connect in the 15 seconds you have to chat is pretty much zero.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

If your first call or email was detail-heavy, a more personal message might work to get them on the phone. I’ve had luck with follow-up voicemails that acknowledge just how busy they are and offer a specific call-back time.

Something like:

“Hey________, I know you’re really busy, so sorry for that long message yesterday. I just wanted to give you as many options as possible. I’m free today at 3:00 or tomorrow from 2:00 to 7:00 for a call. Which works best for you?”

6. You Didn’t Have a ‘Call to Action’ in Your Voicemail or Follow-up Email

Here’s one from Enrique A. Huerta, an agent at Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty in Laguna Beach:

“Oftentimes, agents don’t leave a ‘call to action’ in the voicemail that is compelling enough to return a call. If someone signs up on a website to browse properties, and the agents just call to ‘check in,’ what does that mean? The prospect may think that the agent is just doing his job by following up, but since the lead may not be in a hurry to do something, there’s no reason to return the call. Thus, agents should always include a compelling ‘call to action’ in their voicemails.”

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Simple. Always remember to include a call to action in your voicemails, emails, and texts. Your leads have to know both how and when they should reach out to you. Here are a few examples of effective calls to action for voicemails:

7. You Pronounced Their Name Wrong

As someone who grew up on Long Island with a very French name, I will almost always give someone cold calling the benefit of the doubt before hanging up when they mispronounce my name.

That said, if they’re not even close, my finger is reaching for the end call button.

People with more common names that you still manage to butcher are not as likely to be as forgiving. After all, you can find out how to pronounce most names with a quick Google search. If you can’t find a good pronunciation or are a bit unsure, then skip their name entirely. The point is that you need to make an effort here, so winging it is not an option.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Well, there’s no easy way to say this, but if you butchered their name on a voicemail, there’s not much you can do here beyond normal follow up. You just have to hope they didn’t take offense or hear from an agent who took the time to learn how to pronounce their name properly.

8. They’re Already Working With Another, Better Agent

For hot leads, working with another agent is a very likely reason they won’t call you back. If you can get them to admit it, great. Just mention that you’re there to help if they ever need a second opinion.

How to Get Them to Call You back

You could always try telling them something like “I have an important market update for you that could drastically affect the price of your home,” but if they just started their relationship with another agent, coming across as too aggressive might backfire. Of course, you would also need that “important market update”—and it better actually be important!

9. You Told a FSBO That You Had Clients That Wanted to See Their Home

OK, time to come clean. How many of you have left a voicemail with an FSBO telling them about all the great clients you have for their listing? While it may have seemed like a great idea at the time, most experienced listing agents will tell you this is a surefire way to ensure you NEVER get their business.

After all, you just proved to them that their FSBO strategy is working! All they need to do is list their property on their own, and eager-beaver new agents will call and offer up their buyers. Why on earth would they hire you to represent the listing? Worse, DO YOU have clients for their listing?! If you don’t, you’re starting out your relationship on a lie.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Well, this is not all that difficult. Don’t leave voicemails telling them about your buyers. Instead, be honest. Take the time to figure out what they’re doing wrong and tell them you have a way to get their home sold faster and for more money.

10. You Didn’t Mention How You Got Their Number

Let’s face it. No one likes to get cold called. Even if they really, really need your services. That means not mentioning how you got their number can be a huge red flag.

Even if you didn’t cold call, they might not have remembered who the heck they reached out to on Zillow. A random call from a random real estate agent means instant delete for most people.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Simple. Make sure to tell them exactly how you got their number right away. For example,

“Hi, this is Jessica from XYZ Realty, just following up on your online inquiry for 1234 Broadway.”

OK, OK. Leads you got from the AgentLEADS or another lead service might not be thrilled to have their information out there. Well, there’s nothing you can really do here, but rest assured that you’re not the only one calling, so you might as well be honest.

That said, “I got your number from the internet” won’t cut it. Instead, try something like “I got your number from a database of people from XXX who might benefit from our services.”

11. You Didn’t Even Leave a Voicemail

The odds of your lead dialing a random number that left them a creepy half-second of silence on their voicemail is zero. Since almost literally everyone screens their calls these days, that means no voicemail = no call back. Maybe they’ll get your follow-up email, maybe they won’t. So why not leave a message? What are you afraid of anyway?

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Leave them a friendly, concise voicemail that lets them know who you are, how you got their number, and hint at your value proposition.

Of course, you’re going to want to leave messages for some leads, but not others. Generally speaking, I would avoid leaving messages for FSBO or expired listing leads. They’re going to have a TON of people calling, and unless you have an amazing voicemail script, a call back isn’t likely. Instead, send a follow-up email.

12. You Called Too Late at Night

Playing phone tag with your leads is hard enough, but trying to figure out when they’re going to be most receptive to your call is even trickier. A lot of newer agents make the mistake of reaching out in the late evening, with the idea that the lead will have some free time away from work.

While this makes sense on paper, put yourself in their shoes. You just had a 12-hour day of showings, cold calling, and working feverishly on your website. You eat dinner standing up over the counter answering emails, then you collapse on the couch to scroll through Netflix with what’s left of that rosé you opened last night … your phone rings … do you answer it? Of course not.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

While some people might get offended that you would call so late at night, most people won’t. All you really need to do here to get them on the phone is reach out again during a more sociable hour.

Of course, you won’t have to deal with this problem if you address it with your leads on your first contact. Make it a point to talk about the best times for calls, emails, or texts during your first meeting to ensure never reaching out when they’re not receptive to calls.

13. They Didn’t Get Enough Social Proof to Take You Seriously

Anyone who gets a ton of calls, which your leads WILL BE if they’re any good, is going to take a minute or two to Google you before calling back. What are they going to find? Does your personal website or Zillow review page show up under searches for your name? Can they even spell your name?

Don’t have a good personal website? Now is the time to start building one and getting it to rank for your name. Check out our guide on the best real estate website builders here to get started.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

If you don’t have much of a social footprint yet, either tell them exactly where to look on your voicemail or skip leaving messages entirely and focus on emails or texts where you can link out to the social proof you want them to see most.

14. You Gave Away Your Hand in a Voicemail

“Hey Jennifer, I just spent a few hours running the numbers and I think I can get you $850,000 for your listing. Call me back so we can discuss. My number is 555 ….”

Meanwhile, smarter agents have already told her that your number is either way too low or maybe way too high in their initial calls. Then they backed it up with a solid comparative market analysis (CMA). They’re going to wait until they get a listing presentation before (trying!) to prove the cold hard evidence to convince them of their listing’s market value.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Well, there’s really not a whole lot you can do here besides trying again. When you do, maybe try an email that carefully breaks down how you came up with the price that you did. If you’ve got a ton of relevant experience, mention that as well.

You should also do your homework and actually have a CMA ready for hot leads. This way, when you mention you have a CMA for them, you can offer to send it immediately. This proves you’re not just trying to sell to them, but are already working on their behalf.

Don’t have a solid CMA strategy? Check out our guide to writing CMAs here.

Read the Article

15. They’re Dreamers, Tire Kickers, or Time Wasters

OK, let’s pour one out for the tire kickers, dreamers, and time-wasters out there. Even though the odds of them pulling the trigger this year are close to zero, they’re great for practicing your pitches. Of course, just because they might never buy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and knock it out of the park.

How to Get Them to Call You Back

Why would you want them to call you back? Instead, put them on a drip campaign, and try to nurture them. The goal here is to get them to stay in reality, but they might have friends who don’t live their lives in the clouds. But at the end of the day, maybe you don’t really need these jokers to call you back.

Over to You

Have a great strategy for resurrecting leads from the grave? Let me know in the comments.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

“All my leads have bad phone numbers!” Stop right there! I hear this all too often within my Inside Sales Agent (ISA) training sessions. My immediate response? Don’t throw them in the trash just yet. My goal is to change your perspective—from “bad leads” to massive opportunities!

In this article, I’ll share my highly effective Bad Phone Number Email Campaign. Use it to encourage your “bad leads” to respond with a good phone number and hopefully provide you with an explanation of where they are in their home buying process.

Step 1: Be Quick to Confirm a Bad Phone Number

Fact: 30% of your leads are going to the wrong phone numbers.

Think about it. If ALL agents react by trashing these leads, there is virtually NO competition for them. Are you with me? As a result, these leads are actually highly valuable.

I continue to work multiple sources of leads in the most common customer relationship managers (CRMs) within the real estate industry, and the percentage of bad phone numbers across the board hasn’t changed since I started.

When I train dialing leads, my main focus is on efficiency. Working more leads in less time. Think of every dial being 23 seconds for each lead. That adds up to approximately four rings. If you are not eliminating the bad phone numbers from your call list, how much time are you wasting?

For every 100 dials, 30 will be a bad number. That is approximately 11 minutes of wasted time calling leads that you’ll never reach if you’re not eliminating them from your call lists.

How to Verify Bad Phone Numbers

Your very first dial will be longer than the 23 seconds because you are looking for a few things on that first initial attempt. These are:

1. Does the dialer disconnect? (Attempt a manual call from a phone)
2. Does the dialer ring through and NOT go to a voicemail? (Attempt a manual call)
3. Does a voicemail pick up with the lead’s name as the message?
4. Is it an automated voice message?
5. Is it a landline? (i.e., “You have reached the Smith residence.”)

Taking the extra time with the first dial saves you a tremendous amount of time when dialing through the entire database.

Third-party dialers do not detect most bad phone numbers; it will just continue to ring or simply disconnect immediately. When this happens, have your ISA make a manual dial from an actual phone to verify if it is genuinely a bad number.

Action tip: When the voicemail picks up and confirms a lead’s name, make a note in the lead profile—good # name on VM. If it is a different name, make a note of their name from their voicemail. That way, if they do eventually pick up, you can address the lead by the name on their voicemail. If the phone number is a landline, tag it as a landline and remove it from texting.

Step 2: Separate the Bad Phone Leads

Use your CRM tools to remove bad phone leads from your call list. I have compiled a list of ways to do this, depending on your system.

1. Utilize a tagging system: If you don’t already have a tag, create a “Bad Phone” tag to apply after confirmation and make a note as to why the number is bad.
2. Mark the number as a wrong number: In some CRMs, when a lead revisits their website, the lead is asked to reconfirm their phone number, increasing your chances of getting a good phone number.
3. When building your call filters, remove bad phone leads by eliminating all leads tagged or marked as bad: Doing so will ensure a more efficient dialing experience, and you’ll be reaching out to leads who might just answer their phone.
4. Build an automated bad phone number campaign.

My Highly Effective “Bad Phone Number” Email Campaign

Here it is—the campaign you have been waiting for! Remember, not every lead is going to respond. However, when ONE does, the quality of this lead is valuable because they have agreed to communicate by offering their correct phone number or explaining their situation.

This campaign is only my suggestion—copy it, use it, or tweak it to make it work with your personality. My style is setting my communication apart from other traditional emails. I want to be remembered and stand out for being different.

Pro tip: Use REDX as an affordable source of leads with accurate contact information. REDX provides accurate phone numbers of homeowners with expired listings and FSBOs, connecting agents to qualified sellers. REDX even offers training to help you convert warm leads into listings. Click here to signup.

Notice square brackets in the action areas of the email. Review your CRM’s FAQ section to determine how your database automatically adds these fields to personalize or customize emails for mass action.

SEND IMMEDIATELY

Subject: Oops—I think we got something wrong!

Hello [First Name],

Is [CELLPHONE] your correct number?

We want to make sure we are sending suitable properties for you to review.

[Agent First Name] [Agent Last Name]
[Website]

DAY 1

Subject: Where is your favorite location?

Hello [First Name],

I am just checking in one more time. Is [CELLPHONE] your correct number?

We still wanted to make sure of your property search and the area you are looking in. Do you have plans to purchase a property?

[Agent First Name] [Agent Last Name]
[Website]

DAY 3

Subject: Just wondering…?

Hello [First Name],

I’m just wondering what your situation is, and when you might be interested in looking at homes?

[Agent First Name] [Agent Last Name]
[Website]

DAY 7

Subject: We keep missing you!

Hello [First Name],

We/I don’t want to be a pain. We are just trying to get in touch with you, so we know what your situation is.

Call or text us AT [AGENT CELLPHONE]. We/I just want to be a helpful resource. When would you like to make a move? Next month? Next year?

Are we sending you the right properties?

[Agent First Name] [Agent Last Name]
[Website]

DAY 11

Subject: Another quick check-in

Hello [First Name],

You may just be looking, and that is great. We just want to make sure we are sending you properties that appeal to you.

Happy to have a conversation. Is your phone number [CELLPHONE]?

It is important to us that while you are just looking, we are sending the proper information.

Have a great day!

[Agent First Name] [Agent Last Name]
[Website]

Day 16

Subject: Still viewing homes in [FAVORITE CITY]?

Hello [First Name],

This might be a stretch, and I may be sticking my neck out, but are you ready to look at homes? Looking forward to hearing from you!

Are you still viewing homes in [FAVORITE CITY]?

Have you checked out our Facebook page yet?

[Agent First Name] [Agent Last Name]
[Website]

Have fun with this! This sequence reflects how you may want to set up your email campaign, beginning with the first outreach, and followed by five more emails sent over the course of 16 days.

Step 3: Review the Bad Phone Lead’s Activity

I have to laugh when I hear agents complaining about THAT ONE LEAD who is always looking at properties but who never seems to reply.

It’s OK, really. You are offering a service to help them look at homes on the market. This is nothing more than a restaurant offering their menu online. Do you think restaurant owners get upset when you view their menu and go somewhere else to eat? No, right?

Hello [First Name],

I saw this home on the market, and based on your criteria, I thought you might be interested in this one. If you are interested in seeing it, I can schedule a tour at your convenience. What do you think?

[Agent First Name] [Agent Last Name]
[Website]

Action tip: You now have a list of the most recent active leads. Now sort your list by those who haven’t received an email from you recently. Your filter should consist of: bad phone, most recently active, last recently emailed.

Hey [First Name],

I see you have been looking at some great homes. When would you like to schedule a tour?

[Agent First Name] [Agent Last Name]
[Website]

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

If you’ve ever rolled your eyes whenever a tech-savvy real estate agent starts talking about digital marketing and rapidly fires jargon like real estate keywords, SERP, PPC, CTR, CPM, CPL, or ROAS, you’re not alone. Well, I’ve interviewed people for digital marketing positions who couldn’t even define the jargon they themselves were using in the interview! Not real estate agents mind you, but digital marketing professionals. Clearly there’s a problem here.

So in order to demystify some of the jargon and strategies you’ll face when you start learning how to promote your real estate agent business online, I put together this in-depth article explaining what keywords are and how to find the best ones to generate home buyer, seller, renter leads for FREE.

Since keywords and keyword strategy is surprisingly complex, let’s start with the basics:

What Are Real Estate Keywords?

Real estate keywords are words or short phrases that Google and other search engines use to categorize content online. Generally speaking, the real estate keyword(s) used in an article will represent the main subject of the article or webpage. Keywords on their own are useless because they need to reside in content in order to be meaningful for users. A blog post is the VEHICLE that builds up your inventory of keywords that real people SEARCH for.

What Are The Best Real Estate Keywords?

Unfortunately, finding the best real estate keywords for your geographic farm area is going to take a lot more work than copy/pasting a list from a website. There are two very simple reasons why keywords from a generic list like this will not get you any leads from your website:

1. Generic keyword lists only show what the most people are searching for. They DO NOT mention that most of them are almost impossible to rank for. Even PropertyGuru & Zillow have trouble ranking for some keywords!
2. Even if by some miracle you manage to rank near PropertyGuru, Zillow, Trulia, your local MLS, or giant chain brokerages like Keller Williams and ERA, getting traffic outside your farm area is not going to help you close more deals. Period.

Still, it’s important to get an idea of what kind of keywords rank in Singapore, so all caveats aside, here’s a list of some of the best performing real estate keywords.

List of 14 Best Real Estate Keywords in Singapore

Understanding Search Volume & Keyword Difficulty Estimates

Since the goal of your website is to get traffic and leads, the main criteria that professional bloggers use to measure the editorial value of a keyword is the number of searches it gets per month on Google.

Search Volume: Potential Monthly Traffic

This number is called the keyword’s search volume. As you might imagine, the higher the search volume the more potential traffic you can get from writing about it, but search volume alone only tells us how many people search for a term.

As you can imagine, the higher the search volume, the more websites trying to compete for the top spots in Google for that term. The reason why is clear; if you rank No. 1 for a very high volume keyword, your site will get a ton of traffic.

Keyword Difficulty: How Hard it is to Rank For a Keyword

Luckily, SEO software companies like Moz and Ahrefs came up with a way to measure how hard it is to rank for specific keywords. This is called keyword difficulty. Generally speaking, the higher the search volume, the higher the difficulty since there will be more competition, but some keywords with relatively low search volume can have very high difficulty.

Understanding EAT Signals & Domain Authority

Before we dig into how to research and use keywords, let’s take a quick look at other factors Google uses to rank websites.

EAT Signals

EAT is an acronym coined by Google that stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness—three criteria that Google uses besides keywords in order to decide which article from which website gets ranked highly. How Google measures EAT is a bit too complicated to get into here, but it’s still important to understand that Google values EAT highly. Much more highly than keywords!

Domain Authority

Domain authority is less about the EAT of your company and more about the trustworthiness of your website. Things like age of website (older is better), the quality of writing, other high quality sites linking to yours, and low spam scores all contribute to a site’s domain authority.

Here’s a quick example: The National Association of Realtors has been online since the mid-nineties and is pretty much the most trustworthy source for real estate information in the country. Therefore, Google ranks content from NAR very highly. If NAR decides to write an article on dual agency, chances are it will rank very well and very quickly.

Why These Real Estate Keywords Lists Won’t Work.

Hopefully by now if you’ve been paying attention, you’re starting to realize that while keywords are crucial, ranking on Google is a lot harder than just having the right keywords. Believe it or not, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how Google picks search results. They even use artificial intelligence, and their exact criteria for ranking remains a closely guarded and always-changing secret.

Even if you are writing for a site like PropertyGuru, Zillow or Inman, your goal for your website is not just traffic. You only want relevant traffic that has the potential to convert into leads and deals. That means ranking No. 1 for a real estate keyword in Florida might get you some traffic, but it will be useless to you if you live and work in Michigan!

Don’t worry though, luckily you know us, and we have firsthand experience building huge six figure monthly traffic sites by ranking articles on Google… In fact, chances are you’re probably reading this because you found us on Google, right?

DIY Keyword Research Tools You’ll Need to Find The Best Real Estate Keywords

OK, if generic keyword lists like the one above won’t help you rank higher on Google, how can you find the keywords that will?

Simple. With a lot of research, a lot of time analyzing Google search results pages (SERPs), and patience, you’ll come up with a list of relevant and targeted keywords that you can use to plan the content you’ll create for an entire year.

Unfortunately, effective keyword research requires proprietary tools in order to get the best data quickly. Since Google doesn’t really publish their search criteria and only offers search volume for customers who buy their PPC ads, a handful of SEO software companies have swooped in to fill this void for a fee.

Here are the top three paid keyword research tools I use every day in order to plan our evergreen (traffic comes mostly from Google searches) content for YKC and our clients.

Ahrefs

What it does: Search volume & keyword difficulty, site audits, rank tracker + more
Cost: Starting at USD $99 per month
Ease of Use: Easy, Beginner

My favourite SEO tool for keyword research is Ahrefs. Ahrefs has very similar tools that competitors like Moz offer, but its data is much more accurate (according to my own research, that is). It also gives you questions people ask along with the keywords. You can even set automated email alerts for keywords, backlinks and unlinked mentions. Plus, I find the Ahrefs interface super easy and their blog is chock-full of amazingly helpful training and resources. If given a choice to pick only 1 SEO tool, I will always choose ahrefs over the rest any day.

Moz

What it does: Search volume & difficulty, domain authority, page grader, local market analytics + more
Cost: Starting at USD $99 per month ($79 per month if paid annually)
Ease of Use: Medium, Advanced

One of the earliest SEO tools, Moz actually invented its own domain authority metric which is widely used in the industry. You can also use Moz to find what other sites are ranking for, as well as who is linking to them.

SEMrush

What it does: Competitor research, keyword analytics, backlink tracking + more
Cost: Starting at $99 per month
Ease of Use: Hard, Professional

SEMrush is the go-to tool in the SEO industry for spying on your competitors’ websites to see and track what keywords they rank for as well as getting lists of other sites that link to your competitor’s site. However, the interface is extremely cluttered and very unintuitive, which makes it very hard to use, even for someone as experienced as me.

Cheaper Alternative: Hire a Freelance Keyword Researcher on Fiverr

Why it might make sense: SEO software is expensive and takes time to learn, use and get results
Cost for keyword research: $5-$150 (may not be one-time)

Of course since writing evergreen content and optimizing it for Google is not your main gig anyway as a fulltime realtor, shelling out for expensive SEO software you don’t really know how to use might not make much sense either. There’s also the fact that even once you’re an expert at the software, finding great keywords still takes a lot of time, patience and effort.

By hiring someone on Fiverr to do your keyword research for you, you can get a simple spreadsheet of keywords and article ideas that will give you a road map for the year for less than the price of a month of SEO software. More to the point, the person you hire will probably find the good stuff much faster than you can on your own.

Just make sure to ask them if they’re using the software listed above, and get a list of keywords with search volume, keyword difficulty, and maybe some lists of what keywords your biggest competitors already rank for.

Click below to head over to Fiverr and find someone to do your keyword research starting at just five bucks.

Visit Fiverr

How to Research & Find The Best Real Estate Keywords for YOUR Farm Area

OK, now that you have a better understanding of why generic lists won’t work and the tools you need, let’s take a look at finding and evaluating keywords to use for your blog.

1. Understand That The Days of “Tricking” Google are Long Gone

Before we get started, we have one more important caveat for you. While it might have been possible to “trick” Google by stuffing a bunch of keywords on one page, or ranking for keywords that are not real estate related, those days are long gone. Instead, focus on finding keywords that will get you local traffic, and will also be of interest to your potential leads.

Read 6 Risky Black Hat SEO Tactics to Avoid (And Their White Hat Alternatives)

2. Research Keywords Your Competitors Already Rank For (DIY or Freelancer)

The first step to doing keyword research is the research your local competitors. Are they ranking on Google for local keywords? You might be surprised to learn that many real estate companies, even very successful ones, don’t bother trying to rank on Google.

While you can always gather a list of keywords and run Google searches to see who ranks for which keyword, there is a much easier way to figure out what your competitors rank for: SEMrush.

All you need to do is plug your competitors domain name into SEMrush, scroll down to the ‘Top Organic Keyword” section, then click on “View Full Report.”

Now you have a list of all the keywords your competitors rank for on Google. You can even sort by an estimate of how much traffic they get from ranking certain keywords, the article that ranks, and of course the search volume and difficulty rankings.

Once you have lists run for your competitors, you can either save as a spreadsheet or save in SEMrush. If you’re working with a Fiverr keyword researcher, be sure and ask for a spreadsheet like this from competitors.

One caveat here is that SEMrush’s search volume and difficulty ratings are not quite as accurate as Ahref’s or Moz’s. Since most hyperlocal keywords will only have a handful of searches per month, accuracy is pretty important. Go for ahrefs data.

Read How Accurate Are the Search Traffic Estimations in Ahrefs? (New Research)

3. Research All the Keywords You’ll Need for One Year of Content (DIY or Freelancer)

Fire up Ahrefs Keyword Explorer and start plugging in some general search terms about real estate, then try and drill down to local and hyperlocal searches.

Ahrefs will of course give you pretty accurate search volume and keyword difficulty, as well as an estimate of cost per click for social media advertising, parent topic, related questions, as well as keywords using similar terms and SERP features.

Once you find keywords or groups of keywords that have relatively high search volume and relatively low difficulty, then save as a spreadsheet to use in Excel or Google Sheets, or save to Ahrefs as a keyword list. Just remember that hyperlocal keywords with search volume of only 20 or 20 searches per month might only get you 10 page views, but since these will be “down funnel” results (people who are closer to making a purchasing decision) that traffic will be worth its weight in gold. Even better, difficulty should be low enough that ranking quickly is possible.

What to Search Ahrefs for

One of the tricky things about Ahrefs is that the results you get back are only as good as the information you plug in. Here’s some tips for what to look for to get better results:

• Hyperlocal keywords
• Keywords that offer specific types of local property (waterfront, landed, etc.)
• Common questions your leads ask
• Real estate search terms + your farm area name
• Instructional keywords (how to buy a house, how to get approved for a mortgage etc.)
• Questions about your farm area
• Questions about working with a Realtor
• Questions about types of homes
• Questions about common home repairs
• Questions about home values and what affects them

If you’re working with a keyword researcher, ask them for keywords using similar criteria.

See How to Do Keyword Research for SEO

4. Research SERPs for Your Keywords (DIY or Freelancer)

While you should get this automatically when you run keyword searches in Ahrefs, sometimes you might want to check for yourself. One reason why checking the SERPs yourself is important is that Google changes its algorithm regularly and frequently, which might change who ranks for your keyword, or what SERP features there are like snippets, local pack, “People also ask” drop downs, videos, and more.

Search Intent

One thing you should pay particular attention to when looking at SERPs is trying to figure out what the search intent is for people searching for those keywords. For the most part, Google will try and rank articles, videos, or other content in order to provide the “best” answer to the question searchers are asking.

For example, if someone searches for “How to Sell My House,” and you find lots of how-to guides on the front page, then it’s likely that searchers are clicking on how-to guides (and you should put up a how-to guide as well if you want to rank for this keyword). If someone searches “Best Realtor in Singapore” then you’ll be more likely to find list posts. Take note of what kinds of articles rank well for your keywords, and remember to bookmark the top five to take a deep dive into later when you're ready to write.

4. Plan Your Content For the Year (DIY)

OK, by now if you’ve followed along with our keyword research strategy, you should have a list of keywords with search volume and difficulty from Ahrefs, a list of what your competitors rank for and an estimate of how much traffic they get, as well as a basic overview of what kind of content is ranking for those keywords.

The next step is to sit down and prioritize the content you think will have the biggest impact on your audience. There are two main strategies for prioritizing content. Prioritize the content that has the highest search volume and lowest difficulty, or prioritize the content that is most important to your audience.

For beginners, I recommend prioritizing content that is important for your audience. You will probably not rank right way, but you can also blast this content out via email, social media, paid ads, etc.

How SEO Experts Use Real Estate Keywords in Their Content

Of course even if you spent a ton of money or time finding amazing keywords, they will be useless for your business unless you know how to use them. While this topic will be covered in more detail in later articles, here’s a quick best practices guide for using real estate keywords.

Useful Tool:

ahrefs free SEO tools

What it does: This selection of free SEO tools will help you with various SEO tasks, such as keyword research, on-page SEO, link building, and more. 
Cost: While limited compared to a paid Ahrefs account, they’re still immensely valuable for anyone who’s just starting out in SEO. USD $99 monthly cost for premium version (recommended)

1. Write for Your Audience First, Google Second

Always remember that your main goal here is to educate your reader first, and show up on Google second. In fact, if your article is spammy, it won’t rank on Google for long as Google regularly tests how many people click on articles on the front page and even how long they stay on the page. If everyone bounces from your article right away, Google will rank other articles above yours.

Remember, the customer is not a moron. She's your wife.

2. Pay Specific Attention to Titles, Meta Descriptions & Sub Headings (H2, H3, H4 etc.)

There are three key places you want to add keywords to your blog posts. In order of importance: The title, the meta description, and the H2s of your article. Try to use the keywords naturally in all three places. Don’t jam them into sentences or articles that don’t match the search intent of the reader you spent so much time researching in step 4!

3. Use a Table of Contents to Make it Easy to Read

Adding a table of contents (like how I've done in this post) is not only a best practice, it helps users quickly get to the sections they want and helps Google structure your data as well. Notice how adding a table of content makes a post more readable and compelling? So, always organise your posts.

4. Don’t Use a Real Estate Keyword For More Than One Blog Post

If you download the Yoast plugin for WordPress, this is one of the first warnings you’re likely to get. Generally speaking, it’s a bad idea to write more than one article targeting the same keyword. Even worse, NEVER try and rank subtle variations of the same keyword in different articles thinking you’ll trick Google. You won’t. You'll end up cannibalizing your own keywords and traffic. It's far better to write a new blog post for another real estate keyword.

5. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

The idea here is to use keywords naturally in your articles which should give you something like a 1% keyword density. In other words, if your article is 100 words long, you should use the keyword one time in the body copy. As long as you have the keyword in the title, meta, and H2s, then you don’t need to worry about how many times you use the keyword in the body copy. Just use it whenever it’s natural to use it in a sentence or paragraph.

6. Remember to Include EAT Signals

Since you want your articles to signal EAT (Expertise, Authority, Trust) to Google, you should always include EAT signals in your articles. At a minimum, your WordPress author biography should have your credentials including industry designations, and you should quote and link to other real estate experts in your articles.

7. Write Blog Post Content Above the Fold

Users want to get to your post RIGHT NOW. Therefore make sure your blog post is visible above the fold, which is the area immediately below the url. Notice how this post is also configured to appear above the fold.

See How to Rank Higher On Google In 2022

8. Get Backlinks to Your New Blog Post

If all you do is create new content (even with high traffic keywords), you run the real risk of not growing your organic traffic. That's why you need backlinks. Make sure you do email outreach to request backlinks from others. (Just don't be patronising or self-centred. Really.)

Read "I Just Deleted Your Outreach Email Without Reading. And NO, I Don’t Feel Sorry."

9. Link to Your New Blog Post From Older Blog Posts

Linking to your new blog post from your older blog posts can help you rank better as it helps Google “read” and categorize the content on your site. This is another thing the Yoast plugin will recommend and make it quite easy for your do this by yourself. I've done exactly this in the previous point above.

See Real Estate SEO: The Ultimate Guide for 2022 (10 Steps to Fast Ranking)

10. Review Keywords & Update Your Blog Post Once per Year

Finally, if you want to rank on Google long term, you’re going to want to update your blog posts at least once a year, more often for important pages. Go back and change the date, add relevant new information of news, and try and make your article more readable and useful for your readers. You may opt to click on 'Republish', which will publish it as a new post.

Read Republishing Content: How to Update Old Blog Posts for SEO

Your Turn

What did you think of my guide to researching and using real estate keywords? Let me know in the comments.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

Looking for more real estate lead generation ideas besides cold calling and door knocking? Generating quality leads is how every real estate agent sustains their business, and this requires never ending effort. The fact that good real estate lead generation ideas can significantly impact your business is nothing new. In fact, the true reason behind why some real estate agents may not make a lot of money or even quit the industry is because of not having a consistent pipeline of incoming real estate leads. And this can often be easily fixed by trying out new ideas and ways of getting home buyer and seller contacts, on top of what you are already getting right now.

The Ultimate List of 200 Ideas to Get Real Estate Home Buyer Seller Leads in 2022 and Beyond

Check out this special guide featuring 200 different marketing ideas you can use to advance your real estate marketing strategy, and — over time — more easily and efficiently attract new listing website visitors, turn those individuals into workable leads, move those prospects through your marketing and sales funnel, and convert them into new clients.

I've strived to make the core idea behind each list very simple and very easy to understand, without lengthy explanations.. Take each item on the list at face value and go ahead to implement the ones you think will give you better returns.

Remember, there are no bad ideas, only bad implementation.

1. Build strategic partnerships with other professionals.

2. Throw a housewarming party.

3. Become a restaurant regular.

4. Send a handwritten note.

5. Improve your copywriting.

6. Learn and master making better offers.

7. Improve your story telling skills.

8. Leverage the internet to advertise at scale.

9. Advertise through more traditional media.

10. Build websites for your team members.

11. Invest in digital name cards that use NFC technology.

12. Develop a niche in real estate.

13. Use 'Coming Soon' signs.

14. Head to an open house.

15. Generate leads via LinkedIn Groups.

16. Organise educational events.

17. Don't neglect calling and following up with leads.

18. Target 'For Sale by Owner' FSBO listings.

19. Target 'For Rent by Owner' FRBO listings.

20. Reach out to expired listings.

21. Reach out to friends and family.

22. Rely on satisfied customers to generate referrals.

23. Work with divorce leads.

24. Partner with divorce lawyers.

25. Follow Facebook pages and Groups specific to your city.

26. Join LinkedIn groups specific to real estate.

27. Find in-person or online networking events on Meet Up.

28. Answer real estate questions on Quora.

29. Join real estate communities on Slack.

30. Research Instagram hashtags to uncover new ways to reach home buyers or sellers.

31. Build your website dedicated to your own personal brand and several real estate sites for real estate.

32. Add photos of the listings you represent on the homepage image slideshow.

33. Incorporate explanatory copy over the slideshow photos displayed.

34. Write in-depth copy for your homepage that briefly explains your brand.

35. Feature at least one insightful testimonial on your website homepage.

36. Design branded images and photos you can use it on your slideshow too.

37. Showcase a dozen of the best local marketing listings on your homepage.

38. Link your social media accounts to social sharing buttons on each page.

39. Sync your blog with your homepage to feature the latest posts published.

40. Include a mortgage calculator at the bottom of your website homepage.

41. Implement a homepage form that allows visitors to contact your agents.

42. Mention your certifications and designations on your about page.

43. Note your sales history on this page as well to show your record of closed deals.

44. Detail the specific real estate niche or market you serve on the about page.

45. Relay your local housing market knowledge to prove your expertise.

46. Make your headshot prominent on this page for visual branding.

47. Include the total number of homes you’ve sold or helped buyers purchase.

48. Demonstrate your success by noting the total value of closed deals too.

49. Be human — that is, personable and relatable — in your about page copy.

50. Link to an explainer video or guide that offers more brand information.

51. Promote your brand with a modest sales pitch for your real estate agency.

52. Highlight all of the members of your agency on a dedicated team page.

53. Provide brief job descriptions for each person at your real estate firm.

54. Ensure you have professional headshots of each employee for this page.

55. Spotlight a few testimonials of each sales rep on their agent subpages.

56. Link to your portal profiles (e.g. Zillow, 99.co) and those of your agents.

57. Make sure each agent’s business background is shared here as well.

58. Create a recruitment page to secure applications from potential hires.

59. Post a graphic to this page that provides an agency history timeline.

60. Accentuate the company culture by publishing agent profile videos.

61. Embed an interactive map showing where your firm has sold listings.

62. Develop an area page that goes into detail about your entire market.

63. Craft community pages that outline what’s going on all around town.

64. Generate neighbourhood pages that discuss micro areas in your market.

65. Find several links to local establishments you can add to these pages.

66. Interview influential locals and feature their insights here as well.

67. Produce videos about your market to embed them on these pages.

68. Take photos around town and incorporate those on the pages too.

69. List out notable facts about your market on your main area page.

70. Note what makes each part of your market unique neighbourhood pages.

71. Detail schools, businesses, restaurants, et cetera in your market here.

72. Set a reminder every few days to promote the new listings featured on your LISTINGS page.

73. Test different types of listings to add to LISTINGS pages to see which earn more.

74. Implement Map Search on your LISTINGS pages to offer a modern search experience.

75. Add the Natural Language Search bar to LISTINGS pages to simplify buyers’ searches.

76. Create different LISTINGS pages for different niches (e.g. for various price ranges).

77. Include a dozen or so photos of each LISTINGS listing on each property details page.

78. Ensure all relevant MLS data is featured on all of your property detail pages.

79. For your listings, make the MLS listing descriptions as appealing as possible.

80. Embed a school map here that shows all educational institutions in your market.

81. Let visitors know when showings are happening with an open house calendar link.

82. Develop a dedicated testimonials page featuring short-form client reviews.

83. Generate a separate reviews page featuring some long-form client feedback.

84. On both pages, add headshots or other photos of the clients in question.

85. Create a PDF case study compiling all client reviews to offer as a download.

86. Get some clients on camera to shoot review videos you can embed site-wide.

87. Mash up all of that footage into one mega-testimonial video you can promote.

88. Add links to these pages and videos in your email marketing campaigns.

89. Post some of your reviews and similar content to your social media accounts.

90. Feature other client insights on other pages of your website (e.g. blog posts).

91. Design an infographic compiling the best testimonials provided to you.

92. Put together some infographics highlighting local housing market data.

93. Create checklists and reports for your particular home buyer or seller audience.

94. Conduct Q&As with local influencers and turn them into attractive guides.

95. Shoot and publish several videos spotlighting brands around your market.

96. Craft videos that explain general buying or selling concepts for visitors.

97. Post videos featuring your agency staff to humanize your brand online.

98. Review local restaurants and shops and share your thoughts via video.

99. Embed your Twitter timeline on your website to spark social engagements.

100. Publish a graphic that shows your sales numbers versus the local agent average.

101. Develop a monthly or quarterly digital magazine to share company news.

102. Research popular, long-tail, locally focused keywords to add to your site.

103. Segment those keywords into distinct groups for each website page.

104. Download SEO Guides to better rank your website.

105. Include pertinent keywords in the URL.

106. Add keywords to your pages’ meta data (e.g. title tags, meta descriptions).

107. Integrate subject-specific keywords into all of your website blog posts.

108. Only publish content your audience wants (e.g. posts about your market).

109. Keep visitors on your website longer by linking to other site pages often.

110. Link to other reputable, relevant sites to enhance your search ranking.

111. Ensure your UX is stellar by offering clean site navigation on each page.

112. Add Call To Action button at top of your page.

113. Adjust pages with “weak” keywords by replacing them with new ones.

114. Double down on “strong” keywords by creating new pages using them.

115. Capitalize on local trends and events by adding related keywords to your site.

116. “Own” brand keywords by using them on your homepage and about pages.

117. Examine your keywords’ popularity weekly in Google Keyword Planner.

118. Get other websites (e.g. local blogs) to link back to your AgentLEADS site.

119. Avoid linking to “low-quality” sites (e.g. spammy sites, shady brands).

120. Revamp the copy and multimedia for pages that fail to grow organically.

121. Fix broken links, images, and videos ASAP to avoid an SEO rank drop.

122. Survey leads to see what they want you to write about on your blog.

123. Identify common questions buyers and sellers ask, then write about them.

124. Create an editorial calendar to map out your ideas and schedule posts.

125. Research other real estate agents’ websites to learn what they blog about.

126. Blog about your market: housing data, design trends, new construction, news.

127. Write roundups of fun things going on in and around your community.

128. Offer home decor and maintenance advice for your local audience.

129. Share the occasional opinion piece on the state of your local market.

130. Mention other top vendors and businesses in your area (e.g. lenders).

131. Do a blog post series on up-and coming neighbourhoods around town.

132. Curate other content you find online you think your audience would enjoy.

133. Develop real estate-oriented listicle articles (a la BuzzFeed).

134. Create a “best-of” post series about interesting aspects of your market.

135. Share your real estate wisdom with tips-and-tricks and how-to posts.

136. Promote the homes you represent by creating “new-listings” articles.

137. Recommend locals you think your visitors should follow on social media.

138. Recap the homes your agency closed in the last 30 days in a monthly article.

139. List out several resources to help your buyer or seller audience in a post.

140. Spotlight the best schools in your area and reviews others have written.

141. Provide a summary of an event you conduct or attend (e.g. local meetup).

142. “Boost” organic Facebook posts to drive even more traffic to your site.

143. Launch Facebook ad campaigns that link back to various site pages

144. When hosting Facebook Live events, direct viewers back to your website.

145. Share links to your blog posts and website resources on Facebook.

146. Link to website pages with lead capture in local Facebook Groups.

147. Tweet links to your real estate listings early and often on Twitter.

148. Automate shares featuring links to blog posts on your AgentLEADS site.

149. Conduct Twitter Q&As with your audience, then share links to your site.

150. Pin links to high-converting pages atop your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

151. Post photos and videos of your listings daily on these social network

152. Add your real estate website homepage link to each social media bio.

153. Update your brand’s Pinterest board with blog post links regularly.

154. Schedule daily updates to LinkedIn featuring recent blog entry links.

155. Include your site URL in all social media banner and header images.

156. Implement social “share” buttons for each blog post on your website.

157. Follow others on all social media to attract more attention to your accounts.

158. “Like” and “favourite” several shares daily to drive awareness to your pages.

159. Engage with those who interact with your shares to increase site traffic.

160. Hold social media contests to generate more brand buzz and site visits.

161. Join the most important Real Estate Groups & follow inspirational Instagram accounts.

162. Track your real estate leads’ activity on your AgentLEADS website.

163. Organize, segment, and score the leads in your CRM system accordingly.

164. Set regular tasks and reminders to keep in touch with your leads.

165. Add detailed notes to each lead’s profile as new details emerge.

166. Update your CRM database while on the go with AgentLEADS Mobile.

167. Import prospects from other lead generation sources (e.g. Zillow, PropertyGuru).

168. Use your CRM reporting to see where your leads are coming from.

169. Schedule drip email campaigns for each of your lead segments.

170. Allot time each week to refresh your drip email marketing campaigns.

171. Include links to your hottest and latest listings in drip emails to leads.

172. Make sure your website and your agents' websites are consistent with your brand's visual identity.

173. Contact our sales department if you want us to build your website from scratch.

174. Make AgentLEADS your main lead management system with an Advanced subscription.

175. Choose Office Builder Subscription if you want to offer and manage digital marketing for their agents.

176. Pay $5 only for Agents who have active (launched) AgentLEADS website.

177. Have quick access to your agents' websites.

178. Collaborate with Ride Hailing Apps like Uber, Ryde, Grab etc. to feature you for a fee.

179. Find popular apps for ad placement on the App Store or Google Play Store.

180. Get popular online forums to feature you.

181. Get ad placements on free classifieds portals like Craigslist.

182. Advertise on local newspapers and hobby magazines.

183. Collaborate with renovation portals to showcase your services for a flat fee or a percentage.

184. Reach out to Contractors and building professionals.

185. Negotiate a referral fee with mortgage brokers.

186. Place hanging flyers in trains, taxis, buses and other forms of public transportation.

187. Distribute flyers.

188. Showcase your sales and results on your flyers

189. Author a book about  real estate topics you are an expert in.

190. Sell your book on Amazon.

191. Give away free copies of your book to past clients.

192. Give away free copies of your book to prospects in appointments.

193. Use AgentLEADS integrations to connect with leads across the web, market your website, promote your content, and much more.

194. Order a free copy of my book Property Agent Secrets

195. Download my entire Marketing Library of all the member's ads that I wrote.

196. Sign up for an 'Ad Clinic' where I troubleshoot all your ads.

197. Sign up for my Coaching Program

198. Check other Training Resources and Downloadable materials from YKC.

199. Outsource your website marketing projects with YKC Services.

200. Get regular online marketing advice from YKC by signing up for my email newsletter.

RELATED ARTICLE

100 Viral Real Estate Blog Ideas for 2022 (+ Examples and Expert Tips)

Looking to set up a new real estate website with built-in Listings/MLS search/ Property Portal, premium themes, and indexable property pages? Head to agentLEADS.sg and get started with a 30-day free trial.

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, Get More Listings, Close More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here https://www.yasserkhan.sg/

YASSER KHAN

Author, Coach & Trainer

Yasser Khan earned less than $1,000 in his first year as a full time property agent. With no money for the $2 train fare to his Broker's office, he was forced to walk 25 kilometers on foot. Worse, he got evicted at midnight with his wife and baby son by the roadside. Desperate, he bought a $16 Sales book and took massive action. That single investment in himself gave him an OBSCENE ROI of $160,000 in just 11 months. Today, Yasser is on a mission to make the real estate great career again and helps ambitious agents quadruple their commission income within 90 days.

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach at YasserKhan.SG, trainer at PropertyAgentUniversity.com and the author of Property Agent Secrets Book who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S. plaguing the industry today.  

Yasser Khan’s approach to coaching is highly personalised, holistic, no B.S., and for “PROS ONLY… amateurs not allowed.” He believes that true success means winning in every single area of your life (like Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Fun).

When Yasser isn’t coaching, he loves playing GOTY PC Games with top-of-the-line Razer products and being a kid again with his 3 naughty children (actually, boss babies...), traveling to and across scenic Pakistan, enjoying hot & spicy food, taking pictures of the Milky Way with his favourite Canon DSLR and reading up all about Dinosaurs (especially T. Rex)

Do you know why so many agents struggle with getting a lot of leads?

The number one reason actually has nothing to do with the agent themselves but the fact that they are running outdated, old school prospecting methods and that's the reason why they are not having enough leads!

Based on my personal experience working with so many agents over the years, and even my own experiences as a realtor, the reason why so many property agents struggle with getting enough leads, getting enough inquiries, is because of the fact that their lead generation process is outdated.

What do I mean by process?

A process is a consistent, systemised way of getting leads without using your time and this is critical to understand because what most agents do is, they use their time…

• They throw flyers personally or they go out there and do door knocking, which involves their own time…
• They do cold calling… that involves their time and they go out there and chase people on social media…
• reply their messages….
• pick up their phone and just message them one by one by one …and that involves their own time right?

And this is precisely the reason why old school methods cannot be scaled…

And by scaling, I mean multiply the number of leads coming in because your message is being shown to more and more people without YOU, and that is called leverage.

That's the whole idea behind scaling advertising right, because as property agents, what we learn when we join the real estate industry (and what we see everybody else doing) is that everybody invests their own time into prospecting and that is not the way to go if you want fast results… that's not the way to move forward quickly because when you invest your time, you will always run out of time using old school method…

1. There's no continuity… leads stop when you stop
2. there's no way to clone yourself… you'll always be bound by time

So, you have to think as a businessman… as an entrepreneur…

As an entrepreneur, your time is valuable...

And your time is best spent in front of a prospect in a meeting or in closings…

But not by doing

1. cold calling,
2. door knocking,
3. prospecting,
4. networking…

Stop doing all that!

And the number one reason why so many property agents struggle is because suddenly a shiny new kid comes along and he learned some digital marketing which cost seven dollars somewhere else and now he thinks he's a real estate marketing expert and he starts teaching property agents without having sold a house himself!

And because of this lack of real-world, practical education, so many property agents are actually wasting their time… wasting their money… wasting their effort… and all these amateur marketers, they don't know anything about home buying or selling process!

They've never even sold a house in their lives before!

And this is dangerous!

So what you just need as an agent?

What you need to understand is that you need to optimise your time!

You need to use methods of lead generation… methods which do not cost you your time! You can recover your money, but never your lost time!

Yes, these lead generation methods will cost you money!

But even if this lead generation method costs time, that time investment should only be one-time! You shouldn't be doing every single time that you have to get the lead!

If you want to invest your time into cold calling, remember,  you have to pick up the phone, and call them one by one, again and again right?

So it's not scalable right?

Sure, you can close a few deals from there… fine no problem… Yes, you can get deals… you can…

But the volume of deals from manual prospecting is not enough to give you a good living!

You can't retire like that!

You will always be struggling with a few deals!

One deal a month is barely struggling to cover all your costs and all…

Because you do not have enough time, so you must understand the most important thing to get leads, you must use reverse prospecting… you must use lead generation methods which compel prospects to reach out to you, rather than you chasing them with all these old-school methods…

What you're doing is, you are the one chasing them right?
So the better way, the smarter way, the more enlightened way in 2021 and beyond, is to get prospects to call you first!

You know you have to do all the new methods that are coming up…

• You have to do video marketing…
• you have to do blogging…
• you have to do all these new latest social media….
• Facebook…
• google…

But then again, when you do all these, make sure that you do not copy what every other agent out there is doing!

Because that’s a recipe for mediocrity!
Seriously!

Because if all you do on those new channels, you're burning your money… you're just wasting your money if all you do is just copy other agents...
And what other events are saying… they're saying “oh sell 1 HDB, buy two condos…” right?

They're all saying the same old thing!

So if you keep saying the same old thing, what prospects have already heard before…. the chances of your message sticking to them and the chances of them asking you or becoming a lead are very low…

They will IGNORE your message!

Because right now, what is happening is that your message is the same as everybody else’s! That's not marketing! That's just blindly copying!

So you can't do that!

So the most important thing, earlier on I mentioned you have to do prospecting that is fully automated and doesn't involve your own personal time…

• stop doing calling,
• stop door knocking,
• stop networking

And when you do, then you want the newer methods of lead generation… you have to do it in such a way that you're not copying other property agents… so if you want a shortcut, if you want a faster way, if you want to compress your learning curve, then my advice is to come to one of my coaching program or courses where I give away all my winning ads… you just have to plug and play, that's it! That's how easy and how simple it is! I’ve done all the work!

I’ve worked with different agents for the past five to six years and before that I was involved as a property agent and you know for the last 10 years I have been busy building a marketing library of all the ads that work right now and in the past… You can use it again, anytime that you want… it's so simple…

You can find out more about details over at yasserkhan.sg. If you have any more questions or if you want me to answer your concerns or give you an example of a winning ad, just hit me up… just ask me a question or comment or just inbox me and I'll be happy to show you!

See also: 200 Ways to Get Real Estate Home Buyer Seller Leads

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 http://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, More Listings, More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach, speaker, and trainer at YasserKhan.SG who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S.

Which is important? Leads or appointments?

Given a choice, which would you choose?

So, a lot of agents do not know whether they want more leads or more appointments and this problem is made worse by the fact that so many amateur marketers out there are now selling leads.

So the focus is on leads… But given a choice, which would you choose?

Would you be willing to choose appointments or leads?

And this is my personal experience, based on agents that I work with…

Obviously, appointments always beat leads!

Because more appointments equals more money and more leads do not necessarily equal to more money!

Here's why! Because when you have a lot of leads, when you speak to a lot of people and you even all the experienced agents may tell you that not every single lead is the same! Right?

Not every lead is the same, but in general, a lot of appointments have much more potential to close than all the leads that you have to speak to, right?

In my personal experience, I’ve never seen any agent get out of business because of too many appointments, but I have seen agents get out of real estate because they had too many leads!

So this is a very important point for you to understand that leads are not necessarily better than appointment…

But appointment in general are a money producing activity and they give you money because you can you can close the appointment, then you get a cheque right?

So, this is how it works…

This business real estate business is all about appointments!

Anybody can get leads!
Anybody can sell you leads!

And if anybody tries to tell you that it's all about the leads, then this is bs!
It's not true! It's all about appointments!

Because when you get a lead, what do you have to sell them?
You have to sell them an appointment right?

Over the phone you can't sell them a house!! Right?
This is simply not possible… Over an ad that you show them, you can't sell the house as well right?!

So, it's all about appointments… and it's all about becoming better at getting appointments…

You know, the skill of getting leads is good… But the skill of getting appointments will actually feed you!
This is a much more important skill to master! The skill of getting appointments!

And for your information, all these marketers out there promising you a ton of leads are making easy business off of you!
If anybody can generate a lead or get inquiries, but who is the one they sell that? Do these people sell appointments? I don't think so!

And who is the one who ends up actually booking the appointment? You the real estate agent right!!

So, you must understand that all these amateur marketers do not understand the business!

They've never sold a house in their life before!! And they're trying to sell you based on what they think you need!

Is the thing that you need is more leads?
No my friend! You need more appointments!

And more appointments means only the most qualified prospects who are ready to buy right now, are ready to invest right now, who are ready to sell right now… they are the ones who get to see you! They are the ones comfortable to meet you in person!

They are the ones who want to see you!
That is an appointment and these are the most qualified prospects that you should be looking after… you should be going after… you should be searching out for… Right?

So get this point straight!

More appointments!

Less emphasis on leads!

Yes, you need leads, because appointments come from leads right?

You need to be able to generate a huge number of number of leads! You need to generate an overflow of leads coming to you…
From there, then you just follow up with them…

Assuming you follow up in a timely manner and assuming you improve your appointment getting skills and the best way to master your appointment getting skill is to master the script!

As simple as that!

Master scripts! Get better at overcoming objections… and convince them to meet up with you… and that is the skill of appointment booking!

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 http://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, More Listings, More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach, speaker, and trainer at YasserKhan.SG who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S.

What is the best way to find out something? Asking questions!

The successful habit of asking questions

No matter how cliched and tired it sounds, questions are the best way to move forward in sales.

In fact, the ability to find out information and the skill of gathering intelligence only comes from mastering the art of asking the right questions.

Questions:

• tell you what you need to find out
• uncover issues
• probe

But few property agents develop this powerful habit.

Because this habit is critical to our success in Sales, what separates mediocre salesmen from super salesmen is the ability to ask the right kinds of questions and get as much critical information as possible from prospects' answers.

This ability can be developed

The good news is that asking good questions can be developed.

And like most things in life, it takes PRACTICE.

I learnt from my mentor T Harv Eker

"Practice Makes Permanent!"

The BEST real estate script

So, ready to learn the two simple questions you should be asking every real estate prospect?

Here we go:

1. "What is your timeframe for making a move?"
2. "Are you working with an agent?"

That's it! Super simple!

Don't let the simplicity fool you. It just works!

What you're doing by asking these questions is:

• determine whether or not that prospect is serious
• find out whether or not that prospect is worth your time and effort

Keep to this script and you should see improvements in your closing!

Read This: Should You Use a Script as a Real Estate Agent?

Check this out: How to Handle Objections from Prospects and Clients

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 http://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, More Listings, More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach, speaker, and trainer at YasserKhan.SG who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S.

Nowadays, everything and everyone seems to be online. It's all the rage now.

The pandemic and lockdown may have forced many to adopt newer solutions over old fashioned ones.

Yet, I still see some agents desperately clinging to outdated methods.

5 outdated methods realtors still use in 2020

And I'm going to talk about 5 methods in detail that many agents find the hardest to let go of.
These are:

1. Cold Calling
2. Door Knocking
3. Networking
4. Manually throwing flyers
5. Blasting SMSes

1. Cold calling

Making unsolicited calls to strangers is cold calling. It's kinda like marrying someone without knowing them.

But why is it so hard to stop? Cold calling is used by people who do not know how to generate leads.

I absolutely abhorred making cold calls. The damage to my self esteem was too disastrous to sustain this horrid activity. I'm positive nobody loves cold calling. I also found the only people who love cold calling are the ones who have never made a single cold call in their entire lives!

2. Door Knocking

Nothing shouts a hungry salesman more than knocking doors at strangers' houses to beg for their business.

To me, door knocking is the basest form of begging. Nothing comes close to humiliating a salesman more than banging a door loudly in his face and watching him wilt.

The first time I did door knocking, the owner called the police. I was so traumatised that I never knocked on another door in my life again. After learning the right marketing methods, I didn't have to.

3. Networking

When I first joined as a realtor over 12 years ago, I was told to go talk to strangers.

And I was terrified!

Being a shy person, chatting up total strangers in the hopes of getting them to engage my services was absolutely nerve-wracking.

To make matters worse, I was not even born with the gift of the gab. So I was never good at small talk.

4. Manually Throwing Flyers

Before I tried my hand at cold calling and door knocking, my direct upline told me to throw flyers to get business.

But over a period of a few weeks, all I found was the rubbish bins full of my discarded flyers.

5. Blasting SMSes

This is something no agent wants to admit, but getting unsolicited SMSes is a pain.

Everybody thinks SMS has the highest open rates at 100%.

But what nobody realises is that the rejection rates (and prospect annoyance) completely eliminates this perceived advantage.

It's not an advantage at all.

Plus, sms companies have their own agenda for keeping agents dependent on them for lists and numbers; they want agents' business.

Be careful of these vendors.

So, I talked about how and why these were outdated methods. Now. I'll explain much better alternatives that help you keep your sanity, wallet and dignity intact.

5 Newer Methods to REPLACE the outdated ones:

Here are the more enlightened, modern solutions to each of these:

1. Cold Calling = Getting prospects to call you first (aka Reverse Prospecting)
2. Door Knocking = Converting prospects to appointments by presenting benefits (using my Benefits-rich Presentation Systems)
3. Networking = Using automated Referrals to send an increase in business to you consistently.
4. Throwing Flyers = Using Automated Direct Mail to build customer loyalty
5. Blasting SMSes = Using automated Messenger bots to keep clients informed

That's it!

If you want to know these new strategies in detail, I suggest you get a copy of my book Property Agent Secrets. I explain these in much greater detail at https://www.propertyagentsecrets.com/. I'll buy the book for you, but you cover the shipping.

Fair enough?

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 http://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, More Listings, More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach, speaker, and trainer at YasserKhan.SG who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S.

Every property agent out there is offering a free consultation nowadays.

So it seems to be pretty common and routine. Because prospects appear to be overexposed to this.

But do consultations work?

I have the opportunity to work with many agents every day and I get to see what they're offering to prospects (in my Ad Clinics).

And I also get to hear directly from prospects. Things they're saying to agents.

And some prospects are being very blunt and very hesitant. They're telling agents that they don't want a consultation and prefer to do things at their own pace from the comfort of their own home.

So, prospects are telling agents they don't want consultations.

But is that the full story?

Well, not entirely.

Here's the thing. Not every prospect is ready for a consultation.

You need to be more flexible in your strategy. Because if you copy whatever other agents are doing, your results are bound to be mediocre. At worst, you're just wasting your money on ads that don't work.

Prospects naturally resist sales messages.

And Property Agents are obviously viewed as just another type of salesman.

Here are a few pointers to help you:

• Not all prospects are equal. Some are too early, while others are just signing a contract. Therefore, your message must be in line with where a prospect is.
• People HATE to be sold, but they love to buy.
• You need to become a farmer, rather than a hungry hunter.
• Agents' neediness of wanting to close a deal turns off prospects.
• Think longer term. Wait for prospects who will become ready soon.
• Get them to come to you instead of you doing all the chasing.

In my book Property Agent Secrets, I explain all of the above in much greater detail.

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 http://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, More Listings, More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach, speaker, and trainer at YasserKhan.SG who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S.

How to Get Real Estate Leads In 2020?

Leads are the foundation of your realtor business and having a constant flow of leads will help you get appointments and closings.

But many agents still struggle with getting inquiries.

How do you get more traffic and more people to reach out to you?

There's a popular misconception out there.

Many realtors think that they need to create more traffic to get more inquiries.

But the fact of the matter is, traffic is already out there. You just need to channel it back to yourself.

People are already out there searching for homes. Your job is simply to find out where they are and direct them to your website (which is a must) or mobile.

I'm going to be talking about several of these traffic sources.

There are two ways to get inquiries and leads

1. The old fashioned way (which I do NOT recommend) is to do door knocking, cold calling, canvassing and networking.
2. The smarter way is Inbound Marketing, which is to get prospects to reach out to you first. This means you become the hunted, instead of the hunter.

When you do marketing the right way, you get prospects reaching out to you. The offer you make has to be a no brainer. What this means is that the prospects love it so much that they will go out of their way to leave their contact details to get it.

Read Evergreen Guide to Real Estate Lead Generation in 2022

Which Platforms are best for traffic for realtors?

There are several platforms you can use right now to get started with Inbound Marketing.

The best and easiest way is to use Facebook ads. It tends to be the most affordable too. And you can get leads pretty fast from Facebook. In fact, one of  my agents Raama, closed a deal in just 6 hours of his ad going live online.

Then there is Social Media Marketing, which is free but kinda like SEO. It takes longer and many agents seem to spam the platforms. That's a sure fire way to get banned.

Then there is Google Ads, if you have the budget to invest $1,000 to $2,000 a month.

 Another way is to do videos on YouTube. YouTube is in fact the largest search engine after Google and everyday people are searching videos for answers. You do not need a full professional set up to do quality videos. In fact, your smartphone is good enough for the job.

Check out: 200 Ways to Attract Real Estate Home Buyer Seller Leads

How to get traffic from YouTube?

You can simply use your gmail account for the associated YouTube account to get started.

You can record yourself on camera talking about things you care about in the home buying process.

• Tell stories.
• Talk about your experiences.
• Share your own experiences of buying a home
• Explain why you are a realtor
• Demonstrate results

The key with YouTube, as with all platforms, is CONSISTENCY.

Yes, life happens, but you should get back on track and post when you're able to do so.

Make it a point to be consistent, share stories and provide value.

The downside of getting traffic from others

Here's something from my personal experience that will save you a lot of time.

The traffic that you get from Google or Facebook, whether free or paid, is ultimately theirs.

It's not yours. You can only direct it to yourself.

It can dry up. Quickly.

When I was  starting online marketing in late 2009, I got Google Slapped. Hard. Literally thousands of businesses went bust overnight.

You're always at their mercy. Their platforms, their rules, their agendas. Not yours.

The sooner you realise this, the faster you can protect yourself.

The best way to protect yourself

The absolute best way that I know of is to build your own LIST.

This is something almost no realtor is willing to do.

They keep on buying sms lists from vendors whose only goal is to keep agents dependent on them.

But when you build and grow you own list of buyers and sellers, you have an asset that keeps growing.

It will keep giving you business for years and you will never be at the mercy of platforms whenever you need to get leads and business.

That is the secret to how you can get more real estate leads, in 2020 and beyond.

Check out How to Get Real Estate Seller Leads for Less Than $20 a Day?

Get more exclusive real estate agent training here 👉 http://www.yasserkhan.sg/👈

Learn How To Get More Real Estate Leads, More Listings, More Sales, with Less Resistance AND still have a LIFE!

Yasser Khan is a real estate coach, speaker, and trainer at YasserKhan.SG who teaches Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom without all the B.S.