Author: Jamie Saine

  • Real Estate Investors: The State of Marketing 2025

    Real Estate Investors: The State of Marketing 2025

    Real estate investing is an interesting industry…

    Some investors are all in, doing it as their full-time job. Others do a deal or two a year on the side. Some invest in marketing to generate leads, some rely solely on referrals. While there’s no right or wrong way, it’s always insightful to learn what others are doing and where they’re finding success.

    Key Takeaways

    • Most real estate investors do their own marketing, and they use an average of three strategies (mainly a website, social media, direct mail, and cold calling.
    • Real estate investors spend anywhere from $2,000 annually to more than $100,000 annually on their marketing budgets! The median budget for real estate marketing is $12,000 annually.
    • The average cost-per-click for a real estate ad was $25.20 in 2024.

    Whether you’re brand new to real estate investing or a seasoned pro, this report gives you good insights into what your peers are up to, industry standards, and how you stack up.

    Table of Contents

    1. Who are Real Estate Investors?
    2. How Much Time Do Investors Spend Marketing?
    3. Where Should Investors Focus Their Marketing?
    4. Marketing Budgets in 2025
    5. What to Expect from PPC & Paid Ads
    6. Your 2025 Playbook for More Deals

    Carrot icon
    Lead generation, at its best
    Attract, convert & close more motivated leads
    Try Carrot Today

    Who are real estate investors?

    To help shine some light on the state of real estate investment marketing, we surveyed 90 REI professionals — both Carrot members and non-Carrot members — to learn what marketing strategies they’re using, what their most effective lead generation channels are, their annual marketing budget, and how 2025 will be different from 2024. Investors of all experience levels and a variety of real estate investment specialties responded, providing valuable insights no matter where you are on your REI journey.

    Real estate investors mostly handle their own marketing…

    For real estate investors, marketing is still very much a DIY endeavor. Fifty-seven percent of survey respondents report handling all marketing activities themselves, while 31% have some outside help. Only 12% of investors have agencies or freelancers handle all their marketing.

    Marketing activities make up only a fraction of a busy investor’s schedule though. More than 85% of survey respondents spend less than 10 hours per week on marketing activities, with nearly a quarter of respondents dedicating less than one hour per week. Things may change this year though, as an impressive 71% of investors plan on increasing their marketing time. Only 8% plan on decreasing the amount of time spent on marketing in 2025.

    Where should investors focus their marketing?

    With so little time dedicated to marketing, it’s important for investors to find strategies and tools that work well and fill pipelines. With a seemingly endless number of marketing solutions available, deciding which to focus on can be difficult. Most investors report using only a few solutions, with nearly 50% of investors using two to three marketing services. The most common are a CRM and website. Investing in a real estate CRM is a smart move in 2025 to keep all your leads (online and offline) organized and streamline follow-up. Investors still relying on spreadsheets for lead management risk falling behind their peers.

    Marketing tools support a range of lead generation strategies. The average investor works with three strategies to actively generate leads, but some use upwards of eight. Websites and social media are the most common, followed by direct mail, cold calling, and SEO, indicating that both online and offline lead generation tactics still work a successful investment business. The “tried and true” lead generation approaches aren’t fading, but successful investors are also expanding online to ensure they capture the maximum number of leads.

    While referrals and networking are the No. 1 source of leads for many investors, social media and direct mail are also top lead drivers. When planning your marketing strategy in 2025, a healthy mix of networking plus online and offline marketing has the best chance of driving success. Channels like direct mail & paid social media ads still work in 2025, but judging by the numbers, there’s low-hanging fruit in SEO.

    Note: The important part is to treat your website as the “hub” of your marketing — funnel your direct mail, social, PPC, etc., to your website so you can capture those leads more easily!

    To capture more leads in 2025, 65% of investors plan on adding additional marketing strategies. Only 3% intend to decrease their number of outreach channels. For those interested in increasing marketing, SEO, paid advertising, and pay-per-lead solutions are popular and effective for many successful investors. Having a high-converting website is also a key piece of the mix, as you need something to optimize for SEO and somewhere to point paid advertising. It’s also good practice to add a website to any offline outreach so potential leads can research you and verify your authenticity before deciding to reach out. When was the last time you worked with a company without checking them out online first?

    Marketing budgets vary wildly in 2025

    How much real estate investors spend on marketing annually ranges from less than $1000 for the entire year up into six figure sums. The median marketing budget amongst survey respondents is $12,000 annually, though investors who run online advertising likely have higher budgets. Eight respondents plan on spending less than $1000 on marketing this year, while 12 will spend more than $100,000. Three respondents report having a $500,000 annual marketing budget!

    And those budgets are only growing for many. Sixty percent of survey respondents are increasing their marketing budget in 2025, while 28% are keeping their budget the same. 

    How much investors spend corresponds somewhat to how long they’ve been in real estate. Newer investors naturally have a lower budget as they work to close their first few deals. Annual marketing budgets increase as investors become more seasoned, but stay relatively flat for investors with 1-9 years of experience.

    Interestingly, there isn’t a consensus on the primary lead source among the top spenders, nor on their most effective marketing strategy. While investors who spend more than $100,000 do utilize more marketing strategies (an average of five instead of three), some top spenders only rely on paid ads or cold calling. The most commonly used marketing strategies for this high-budget cohort are websites and direct mail.

    Meanwhile, those with the smallest annual budgets ($2,500 or less) rely on an average of two marketing strategies, mainly a website, social media, or cold calling. Their primary lead sources are more manual and low-cost options, such as referrals and social media.

    What to expect from PPC & paid advertising

    While only 8% of survey respondents invest in online advertising, it can be a lucrative lead source. To help investors who already run ads or those interested in expanding to PPC in 2025 understand what the investment looks like and what to expect, we asked our friends at Motivated Leads, a digital marketing agency specializing in online advertising for real estate investors, to share some insights.

    How much to spend on ads

    Last year, the median spend on Google Ads for Motivated Leads clients was $3,000 to $5,000 a month and the average cost-per-click (CPC) was $25.20. Investors running regular Google ads saw an average click-thru rate (CTR) around 5%, leading to an average cost-per-lead (CPL) of $250 or lower.

    Ads targeting Illinois, Kentucky, and Delaware had the highest conversion rates, with CPLs dancing around the national average:

    • Illinois: $207.18
    • Kentucky: $241.03
    • Delaware: $279.11

    However, things changed slightly for investors who used Google’s Performance Max advertising option. Performance Max can lower your CPC and CPL, however, it may result in less qualified leads without proper campaign optimization.

    Performance Max is harder to run and has broader targeting, leaving the algorithm to place ads. With this approach, your ads may appear on display, search, YouTube, Gmail, or other places and may appear to web surfers outside of your local area. This broader approach can impact lead quality because you have less control over who you’re targeting ads toward.

    Google’s “regular” search advertising gives you more control over who you’re targeting and where your ads appear, allowing you to specifically target searchers who are more likely to become leads. The cost per lead is higher in this case because you’re focusing on more qualified leads. Investors with smaller advertising budgets should focus on Google search ads and targeting the right keywords to get the most value from their investments. 

    The most effective advertising

    Focusing your ad budget on the right keywords and running ads at the right time can make your advertising dollars go further.

    In 2024, the highest-converting keyword themes for real estate investors were:

    • Sell my house fast
    • We buy houses
    • Home buyer

    Localizing your target markets and adding local terms to your keywords helps focus who sees your ads, improving lead quality. When adding a location name to keywords remember that your city name may not be unique. Are you trying to reach buyers/sellers in Portland, OR or Portland, ME? Make sure your ad account is properly set up to target the right area and that the landing pages your ads point to include the city AND state.

    Once your ads are set up, give them a better chance of being seen by running them at the best times. In 2024, online ads converted best on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday between 1pm and 5pm local time.

    Understanding online advertising trends from the past 12 months can help you plan your strategy for this year, but it’s important to remember that the world of online advertising can change quickly. Google algorithm updates and changes to the Google Ads platform can happen at any time and may impact how ads are set up and their performance.

    For example, Google Ads performance and strategy underwent notable changes between 2023 and 2024. The cost-per-click increased by 36%, while the click-through rate improved by 17%. Despite these shifts, the cost per lead remained virtually unchanged, with only a slight variation according to Motivated Leads.

    A major strategic difference lies in keyword usage. In 2023, marketers focused on phrase and exact match keywords. However, in 2024, Google’s updated keyword match type (leveraging signals and a searcher’s intent) prompted a shift toward broader but still highly relevant keyword themes.

    If you run your own ads, pay attention to any shifts or noticeable updates to make sure you maintain optimal ad performance. If you’re not comfortable running your own ads (or simply don’t want to become an online marketing expert), consider working with an advertising agency like Motivated Leads. (Need help finding a PPC service? Check out the Carrot Marketplace.)

    Your 2025 playbook for more deals & more revenue

    This survey proves there isn’t one right way to generate real estate investment leads. Find what works for you and your budget. If you’ve been avoiding certain marketing strategies, 2025 may be a good time to expand your reach and try something new. If you don’t have a website yet, this is the year to get online. A strong website serves as both a lead generation machine and a central hub for the rest of your online and offline marketing.

    Need help knowing where to focus this year? Here are some tips from Carrot CEO Trevor Mauch:

    🔥 1. Invest in Your Online Presence – Your website isn’t just a “nice-to-have.” It’s your 24/7 conversion hub. Make sure it’s optimized, fast, mobile-friendly, and ranking in Google. If you’re on Carrot, you’re already ahead of the game. If you’re not — it may be time to consider a switch.

    🔥 2. Optimize for Conversions – Most investors waste traffic. Don’t be one of them. Your website should be built to convert visitors into leads at the highest possible rate.

    🔥 3. Get Your Follow-Up Dialed In – Leads are ready to act NOW. If you’re not following up fast, you’re leaving money on the table. Carrot CRM helps you track, nurture, and close leads effortlessly.

    🔥 4. Take Action — Before Your Competition Does – 71% of investors are increasing their marketing in 2025. If you’re not doubling down, you may find yourself struggling to get the leads and deals you were used to getting last year.

    Take inspiration from these findings and double down on your marketing to make 2025 the biggest year yet!

  • Efficiently Manage Real Estate Leads & Deals with the NEW Carrot CRM

    Efficiently Manage Real Estate Leads & Deals with the NEW Carrot CRM

    Effectively managing leads and deals is one of the most critical elements of a successful real estate investing career. If you let leads slip through the cracks or don’t follow up on a potential deal in a timely and consistent manner, that deal will quickly disappear.

    Unfortunately, proper lead management and follow-up can be challenging or expensive. Either done manually with spreadsheets and direct outreach or with expensive tools.

    But not anymore!

    Introducing Carrot CRM for Real Estate

    We’re proud to announce an affordable real estate CRM designed to grow with your business, from just starting out to managing millions in deal pipeline. Carrot CRM is a robust lead management and outreach tool with the right features for every level of investing.

    carrot crm pricing

    No more relying on spreadsheets, paying for an expensive CRM before you need one or worrying about switching to a more robust solution as your business grows. Carrot CRM offers a free plan (no “free trial” … just free) and lets you upgrade as your business scales.

    This isn’t a half-built “add-on” feature, and you don’t need a Carrot website to access the CRM. Carrot CRM is available to anyone. It is an independent, world-class CRM incorporating the proven technology and features of InvestorFuse.

    Meet the All New Carrot CRM - Live demo & Q&A!

    Why You Need a Real Estate CRM

    There are many CRM solutions on the market, but the truth is that managing real estate leads and deals is very different than managing leads in other industries. Basic CRMs include fields like company information and budget, but they don’t give you space for factors critical to a real estate investor. Spreadsheets are customizable, but by the time you add all the information, they can become monstrously overwhelming.

    To adequately manage your real estate deals, you need a solution designed to surface information that’s actually important … without a lot of manual customization. Carrot CRM gives you the sophisticated tools and features needed to run a successful real estate business right out of the box.

    Key Benefits of Carrot CRM

    1. Real Estate-Specific Features: Carrot CRM is designed specifically for the unique needs of real estate investors, offering features like property data, occupancy status, and reasons for selling.
    2. Automation: The platform automates tasks like follow-ups and lead nurturing, saving you time and increasing efficiency.
    3. Integrated property data: Detailed property data directly in the app helps you make more informed decisions and better offers.
    4. Customizable Workflows: Tailor the CRM to your specific needs and preferences, ensuring it aligns with your business processes.
    5. Intuitive Interface: The user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate and use the platform effectively.
    6. Comprehensive Data Insights: With detailed analytics and reporting, you can gain valuable insights into your lead generation and deal closing activities.

    By leveraging these features, real estate professionals can improve their lead management, boost productivity, and ultimately drive more revenue.

    Get Ahead of the Competition With a High-Performance CRM

    Join Now!

    Carrot CRM Feature Highlights

    The InvestorFuse team spent years perfecting the features real estate investors find most useful to tracking, nurturing, and closing deals. They brought those key findings into the Carrot ecosystem, putting critical lead management tools at your fingertips in Carrot CRM.

    Action-Based CRM

    Improve your follow-up habits with an action-based CRM that hyper-focuses on the most important next step. Designed specifically for real estate investors, Carrot CRM makes it easy to set a next step that makes the most sense for that lead, whether that’s making a call or sending an offer.

    Easily see what needs to be done in the “Actions” tab so you can quickly check off your to-do list. You can also filter by “Pinned Opportunities”, giving your hottest opportunities the most attention. Missed a task? Overdue tasks are highlighted in red to get your attention. No more forgotten follow-ups!

    Automated Outreach Sequences

    Speaking of forgotten follow-ups, wouldn’t it be nice to automate follow-up actions so you don’t have to personally make every phone call, leave every voicemail, or send every text message or email? Think of all the time you could save and how many more leads you could work. Every level of Carrot CRM comes with Sequences, allowing you to automate your most successful outreach campaigns.

    Just set the type of outreach and the timing, add leads to the sequences and Carrot CRM does the follow-up for you. This is ideal for cooler leads who need a bit of nurturing or might not be ready to make a deal quite yet. Add them to a sequence so they’re not forgotten while you focus on more promising deals. Whether they’re ready in a few weeks or a few months, your outreach keeps going without taking up your precious time.

    Property Data Reports

    Having detailed property data lets you make informed offers. However, too often, real estate investors have to piece this information together from public records and expensive data solutions. Carrot CRM’s in-app Property Data reports show you key information about your opportunities, like:

    • Nearby comps
    • Ownership information
    • Property and lot specs
    • Tax information
    • Mortgage information and history
    • Sales history
    • Local demographic information

    These reports offer more nuanced details than public listing sites like Zillow or Redfin, giving you a true understanding of the property and the ability to target the right opportunities.

    Carrot CRM Property Report

    Opportunities Details

    All the details you need, all in one place. Carrot CRM is your opportunity action hub, from key opportunity and property information to notes and documentation storage. Set tasks and keep track of the results, see contracts and offers, and more in this all-encompassing view.

    Everyone has their preferred way of working, and we want to make it easy for you. Carrot CRM isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Choose from more than 35 data points to customize your opportunity view and see the details you care about most at a glance. Add custom tags for easy sorting and pin your hottest opportunities so they’re always at the top.

    Metrics Dashboard

    As your company grows, there’s more to keep track of. That’s where a robust metrics dashboard comes in. Carrot CRM’s dashboard surfaces anything you want to know about actions, opportunities, campaigns, sequences, and even team efficiency.

    Know exactly how many actions are due over the next week, how many are already overdue, which of your marketing campaigns lead to the most opportunities, how many leads are in automated sequences, and more. Choose the metrics and sections you want to surface to customize your dashboard experience. Knowing the current status of leads, opportunities, and actions keeps you on top of critical tasks so you can close more deals.

    Carrot CRM Dashboard

    Finding Success with Carrot CRM

    How does real estate CRM software change your day-to-day? It makes your lead flow simpler, your outreach more efficient, and tells you where you’re most successful. Having everything in one place, easy access to critical property details, and the ability to automate outreach lets you nurture more leads while giving more one-on-one focus to your hottest opportunities.

    With Carrot CRM, these efficiencies and insights are no longer restricted to large investors or companies with big budgets. Any investor at any stage in their journey now has access to critical CRM features that can help catapult their business to the next level.

    Transform Your Business with Carrot CRM

    Get Started Today!
  • Want to make your website stand out? You’ll love block patterns!

    Want to make your website stand out? You’ll love block patterns!

    There’s a fine balance between ensuring your website performs well and stands out. We’ve spent the past 10 years refining website templates for real estate investors, making them excel at ranking well in search engines, building your credibility, performing lightning-fast, and turning visitors into highly motivated leads.

    Carrot has expanded website customization options with new block pattern designs that allow real estate professionals to easily create unique, professional websites that reflect their personality while maintaining high performance.

    Key Takeaways

    • Block patterns are pre-designed webpage sections organized into categories like Call to Action, Content, Credibility, and Data that can be easily implemented without design expertise.
    • The patterns come pre-loaded with your brand colors for seamless integration and allow for customization to create visually appealing pages that stand out.
    • Using different block patterns helps break up text-heavy pages, making information more digestible for visitors and creating a more engaging user experience.

    With ongoing design improvements planned for the future, Carrot members can now better differentiate their websites from competitors while maintaining the high-converting, SEO-optimized foundation that drives lead generation success.

    Table of Contents

    1. What’s a “block pattern?”
    2. Block Pattern Categories
    3. Find your design
    4. More to come
    Carrot icon
    Lead generation, at its best
    Attract, convert & close more motivated leads
    Try Carrot Today

    But that doesn’t mean we don’t care about how your website looks. Your website is your online business card and should reflect your personality.

    That’s why we’re excited to announce that Carrot members now have even more website customization options! Did you know that Carrot has a team of in-house website designers dedicated to improving your site and Carrot experience? Well, they recently added 50 new block pattern designs so you can easily customize your website and make it look as unique as you are.

    What’s a “block pattern?”

    Think of each webpage as several sections stacked on top of each other. You have the “hero” section at the top of the page (usually with an image and the page title), then maybe a section of text or an image gallery, probably a “call to action” section that lets visitors easily contact you, a section that shows off your customer reviews, and so on. We pre-built many of these key sections as “block patterns.” It simply means a section pre-designed to serve a specific purpose. 

    We know it’s important to you that your site “doesn’t look like every other website.” Using block patterns is a great way to do that! Carrot offers a variety of block pattern styles for the most important sections of a site. All you have to do is pick your favorite style and add your information. You can use any block pattern on any page. The beauty of pre-built patterns is that you can customize the look of your website without being a web designer. With just a few clicks, you can quickly transform key pages from the out-of-the-box template into something that stands out and fits your style.

    Block Pattern Categories

    Finding a design to meet your needs can be difficult if you’re searching through a seemingly endless library of options. What if you use one and then find something you like better? Pattern Categories solve that problem.

    You can easily browse pre-built sections that meet your needs by deciding what you’re trying to accomplish with that webpage section.

    Block pattern categories included:

    • Call to Action
    • Content: FAQs
    • Content: How It Works
    • Content: Situations/Niches
    • Content: Solutions
    • Credibility: Bio/About Us
    • Credibility: Meet Our Team
    • Credibility: Reviews
    • Credibility: Videos
    • Data: Experience Stats
    Carrot block patterns

    The patterns you see are pre-loaded with your brand colors, so they’ll seamlessly blend into your website’s look and feel. Feeling creative? You can edit these patterns and add content, then save them to “My Patterns” for easy use on other pages.

    Find your design

    Using different block patterns is a great way to break up a page and make it easier for visitors to process information. For example, you can replace a block of text with icons and short blurbs that draw attention and make a big impact. Select from over 500 pre-loaded icons across a dozen categories and customize your icon color so your site truly reflects your business.

    Whether you like sharing maximum information or prefer a sleek design, the block patterns give you options. Some patterns are text-heavy, others are very streamlined, and others stylishly mix images and text.

    The “Content: How it Works” and “Content: FAQ” patterns, in particular, offer a wide array of styles. If you have those sections on your website, now is a great time to revisit them and refresh your site design.

    Not sure exactly which block pattern you like best? Add the section to your page and scroll through the different pattern designs to see how they each look in real life.

    More to come

    That’s just the latest update. The Carrot design team is working on even more block patterns and other design options to let you customize and differentiate your site further. You can expect to see more features roll out over the next few months, so stay tuned!

    Take a free Interactive Carrot website demo and see how we can help you stop losing deals to an underperforming website!