If you want more deals and outgrow your competitors, you need real estate follow up scripts proven to close.

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You want to own one of your market’s most successful real estate businesses (whether agent or investor).

There are a lot of things you could do. Sending paid ad traffic to a high-converting website, optimizing your ad campaigns for a better click-through rate, and creating sales scripts can make a massive difference in how many leads you generate and how many deals you close monthly.

Following up on your real estate leads is one of the biggest determiners of success.

If an agent or investor has a rigorous and consistent follow-up system, they are far more likely to be successful than those who assume a lead is dead if they don’t get a signed contract after the first phone call.

But you don’t have to take our word for it.

Hone Your Follow-Up Skills & Close More Deals

Cover seller objections, use high-converting warm and cold touch scripts, and follow an easy touchpoint schedule to increase your lead-to-deal conversion.

Download Now: Free Follow-Up Scripts

Is Follow Up Worth Your Time?

We’ve mentioned this in other blog posts before, but the data is pretty clear about whether follow-up is worth your time or not…

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Think about that for a second…

80% of sales are made between the fifth and twelfth contact.

Let’s pretend that that is true for your business but that you only follow up once with each lead.

That would mean that you’re giving more than 80% of your potential deals to your competitors — just outright handing them over.

Because those leads aren’t just sitting at home waiting for you to pursue them, they’re calling other investors and agents in the area and examining their options.

If you stop contacting them, they’ll forget about you and work with someone else.

Over 80%!

Sound crazy?

Well, even if that percentage is 50% for your business, isn’t that too much?

Even 10% is too much!

Especially in real estate, an industry where one transaction often amounts to tens of thousands of dollars in profit.

Look — you know there’s money in the follow up, but you still have some limiting beliefs about building a follow-up system for your business.

So let me walk you through 3 of the most common myths of follow up in real estate.

Three Real Estate Follow Up Myths

Myth #1: “I need to have a complex CRM before building my follow up system.”

Yes. Having a super fancy CRM will help you organize your lead flow, assign tasks to different team members, and ensure that you follow up with every lead, with the same messages, a pre-determined number of times.

CRMs allow you to organize and automate your follow-up system, making the entire process much simpler.

But CRMs aren’t always cheap.

And they also aren’t always easy to use (some are better than others).

If you think your lack of a CRM or your hatred of technology is an excuse not to follow up with your leads, think again…

Just keep it simple, use an ESP like MailChimp or InvestorFuse (both of which integrate with your Carrot website), and schedule an automated follow-up campaign.

Remember, some sort of follow-up strategy is better than no follow-up strategy.

Myth #2: “Most deals come from first contact, not follow-up.“

Whether you’re an agent or investor, it’s easy to assume that most of your deals come from first contact.

A motivated buyer or seller calls you on the phone, ready to take action now (they might even already know who you are and trust you), and that call effortlessly turns into a closed deal.

That’s how many of your transactions happen now.

But we have to ask the question… do most of your currently closed deals happen like that because if someone isn’t motivated from the get-go, then they won’t be motivated down the road?

Or because you’re not following up and thus not capturing leads that might require more time and effort?

The answer is clear.

After all, no matter how motivated someone is to buy or sell their home, a reasonable person likely won’t just decide to work with you right off the bat — they’ll need to process, think about it, examine other options, and speak with you some more.

And if you’re following up during that decision-making process, they might work well with you.

Myth #3: “I don’t want to follow up too much or annoy my prospects.“

This “myth” isn’t false.

Some real estate follow-up sequences are downright annoying to prospects.

Suppose you’re sending the same thing every time — “Hey! I want to buy your house right now!” — then that’ll get old quickly.

But this belief is a myth in that the follow-up sequence you create doesn’t need to be dull and drab — it can be interesting, engaging, and trust-building.

How?

Well, we think that one of the best ways to build trust and engage prospects with your follow-up sequence is by providing free value.

Send them a link to an article on your website that might help them solve a problem. Give them a piece of advice specific to their situation. Or even offer to get on the phone and discuss their options.

The better the relationship you build with them, the more dividends that relationship will pay you down the road.

Hone Your Negotiation Skills & Close More Deals

Get the fool-proof strategies & step-by-step scripts used by real estate investing’s top closers — all in one resource.

Download Now: Free Negotiation Playbook

What Is The Goal Of Follow Up?

Sometimes, a lead follow-up system’s goal is to get your lead to take the next step for conversion — getting on the phone with you, receiving their cash offer, or going to an open house.

Sometimes, though, the goal will be to get them to accept a cash offer you already made or to stay in contact with them if they become ready to use your services.

Each business is different, and each prospect is different.

What your follow-up system should look like depends on when you’re following up with prospects (what stage they’re at) and what action you need them to take.

Typically, though, the goal of mastering following up is to get the prospect on the phone again so you can work your sales magic — a phone call can serve all purposes.

The 3 Mediums Of Your Follow Up Strategy: Text, Email, and Phone Calls

How you follow up with your prospects — whether through text, email, or phone calls (or, even better, all three) — will partly be determined by your target market and how they like to communicate.

More than one investor, for example, has gotten on the phone with an elderly person looking to sell their home fast, only to find out that they have no idea how to work email.

So adjust with your market’s tendencies.

If you know, they don’t look at their emails and texts, then call them. If they don’t answer the phone, send text messages and emails.

The more you adapt your follow-up strategy to the communication style of each prospect, the better.

(But remember, progress, not perfection)

Oh! And here’s the best time to email…

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And the best time to send a real estate follow up email…

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In other words…

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Real Estate Follow Up Timeline Calendar

Following up is, of course, easier said than done.

You need to figure out what to say and how to say it (covered in the next part of this article) and determine when you will follow up.

So to help with the decision-making process, we’ve put together this free follow-up timeline calendar that you can steal if you like.

Try it, see how it goes, and adjust it as necessary.

When we put it together, we’d tried to put logical spacing between each text, call, and email so that you’ll sometimes need to use free-value-based follow ups…

“Hey! I found something you might be interested in.”

and sometimes, you’ll just be checking in…

“Hey! Just calling to see if you’re still interested in my services.”

Hope it helps!

Note: This calendar is one month’s worth of follow-up for a given prospect who opted-in to your website on Sunday, the 1st. You can follow up more or less than the calendar suggests, but this is a good starting point.

Free Real Estate Follow Up Scripts

To make your follow-up strategy even easier to implement, we will provide you with 3 follow up scripts whether you’re an agent or an investor.

These scripts are written as if for an automated email campaign, but they can be adapted to fit any medium (including text and phone calls).

One of the primary ways we recommend reaching out to your prospects is by offering value rather than just asking for the sale each time (which can get annoying quickly).

How can you provide value?

Well, if you have a blog on your website (check out our Content Tools add-on where we’ll provide you with expert-written blog content every month), then you can send over links to helpful articles that you’ve recently published, making you look like the expert that you are and keeping you top of mind.

For agents and investors, here are 3 follow-up scripts you’re welcome to steal. :-)

1. Hard Ask — Use When Trying To Close The Deal
2. Soft Ask — Use When Trying To Get Prospect To Take Next Step
3. Free Value — Use When Trying To Stay Connected With Prospect Simply

6 Free Real Estate Follow Up Scripts For Agents (3 For Buyers & 3 For Sellers)

FOR BUYERS

Hard Ask

This depends a bit on what you’re trying to do with the buyer. Here, I assume you want them to choose to work with you rather than another competitor.

Hey [name]!

Great chat the other day.

I’ve spent some time thinking about your situation and I know that I can help you find the perfect home. If you’re okay with it, let me find some listings that I think are within your budget and we can go take a look.

What do you say?

Soft Ask

Hey [name]!

I hope you’re doing well.

I know you mentioned that you’re interested in finding the perfect home for [purpose]. I’d love to help you with that. Do you have time to swing by my office this week?

Free Value — Use When Trying To Stay Connected With Prospect Simply

Hey [name]!

I just published this article on my website and it’s all about [topic] — super relevant to what you’re going through.

Anyways, I thought you might find it helpful!

Hope you’re well. :-)

FOR SELLERS

Hard Ask

Hey [name]!

I was just doing some research on your home and I’m confident we can sell it for [$XXX,XXX] — want me to get started listing it?

Soft Ask

Hey [name]!

I’d love to help you get top-dollar for your precious home so you can get moving with your big plans. How can I help you?

Free Value

Hey [name]!

I just published this article on my website that talks about [topic] — I thought it’d be super relevant to your situation and you might get some value out of it.

Hope you’re well!

3 Free Real Estate Follow Up Scripts For Investors

Hard Ask

Hey [name]!

Are you ready to sell your house fast for cash? I’m prepared to give you cash for what I offered you the other day.

Money in your pocket and stress off your shoulders…

Let me know!

Soft Ask

Hey [name]!

I would really like to buy your house for cash. Want to hear my offer?

Free Value

Hey [name]!

I just published this article on my website about [topic] and I thought it might help with your difficult situation. Give it a look.

And call me if you think I can help you out. :-)

Conclusion

These nine real estate follow up scripts should help you get started down the path to more deals.

Remember, some follow up is better than none. And this is going to get you moving in the right direction.

Create a follow up system that works for you, your business, and your prospects. Then, you’ll reap the benefits of being a business that consistently follows up with its leads.

If you’d like more real estate marketing materials like this, click on the link!

Whether you’re at the gym, running errands, or going for a walk, listening to real estate podcasts is great for learning on the go.

And in business, learners succeed.

But of course, not all podcasts are equal in the value that they provide or even in the format in which they provide it.

So that you don’t have to roll the dice, we’ve listed our 13 favorite real estate podcasts in 2025 below with descriptions of each, their iTunes ratings, and a few recent episodes for you to check out.

Enjoy!

1. The CarrotCast Podcast

We couldn’t put together an article about the best real estate podcasts without mentioning our own! On the CarrotCast, Trevor Mauch discusses tried-and-tested online marketing strategies for investors and agents. He also interviews investors and agents who’ve built successful businesses — you can expect to learn about the mindset behind real estate and entrepreneurship as well as marketing strategies for building a business that’s predictable, sustainable, and profitable. Click Here to listen on your device.

Apple Podcasts Description

“There’s a better way to profitable real estate business. Pull up a chair alongside the top real estate investors & agents as we dive deep into their unique stories, break down their best deals, marketing tactics, and ultimately, their mindset. Whether you’re grinding away or on a beach vacation, learn how to create consistent & predictable lead flow, and close more deals, so you can finally build a business of real freedom and real impact.”

iTunes Rating: 4.9/5

Episodes

• Top 1% Agent Reveals Her Simple Strategy For Closing 12+ Homes Per Month w/ Krista Mashore‬
• Don’t Blow It! The Psychology of Negotiation: How To Talk With A House Seller to Close More Deals + Help More People w/ John Martine‪z‬
• Real Estate Marketing Mastery: The 10 Marketing Tactics & Concepts Responsible for Nearly $10 Million in Annual Revenue – 10 Episodes for Investor & Agents

2. The Tom Ferry Podcast Experience

The Tom Ferry Podcast Experience is easily one of the most popular podcasts among agents and investors. Tom is a real estate coach who believes that everyone has greatness inside of them. The goal of his podcast is to help real estate entrepreneurs unlock their greatness so that they can fulfill their potential. Check out his most recent episodes below!

iTunes Description

“Greatness lives within us all. But have you tapped into yours – or is it stuck inside you? Top-ranked real estate and business coach Tom Ferry’s life’s work is all about helping people fulfill their vast untapped potential. The Tom Ferry Podcast Experience will give you the knowledge, support, motivation, and tools to succeed in business and achieve your true potential.”

iTunes Rating: 4.8/5

Episodes

• It’s All About the Tiny Habits | Mindset Monda‪y‬
• 7 Powerful Steps to Grow Your Business | #TB‪T‬
• EP. 107 How these Rockstar Agents Generate Listings and Trust with Their Client‪s‬

3. BiggerPockets Podcast

BiggerPockets isn’t just the top place for investors to gather online and chat about their real estate businesses, it’s also home to one of the best podcasts in the industry. The founders of BiggerPockets are notorious for sharing heavy-hitting advice about how to manage and grow an investing business… and their podcast is no different. Check out their most recent episodes below!

iTunes Description

“Imagine you are friends with hundreds of real estate investors and entrepreneurs. Now imagine you can grab a beer with each of them and casually chat about failures, successes, motivations, and lessons learned. That’s what The BiggerPockets Podcast delivers.“

iTunes Rating: 4.8/5

Episodes

• House Hacking as an NFL Player? How Former Tight End Hakeem Valles Grew His Real Estate Portfolio‬
• How a 25 Year Old Bought $1M of Real Estate in 1 Year with Daniel Ile‪s‬
• How Are You Marketing Yourself? with BiggerPockets Producer Kevin Leah‪y‬

4. The Close Weekly

iTunes Description

“The Close Weekly Podcast provides actionable advice about today’s real estate market for real estate agents. Hosted by top producing agent & broker Sean Moudry, this podcast features industry leaders who offer marketing and lead gen tips.”

iTunes Rating: 5/5

Episodes

• Can iBuyers Generate More Listings for Real Estate Agents
• How to Get More Listings with Divorce Leads the RIGHT Way
• How Would a Recession Affect Your Market? Barry Habib’s Award-Winning Real Estate Forecasts

5. Rental Income Podcast

On the Rental Income Podcast, Dan Lane talks with successful real estate investors and landlords about how they’re generating passive income with rental properties. This is a great podcast to subscribe to if you’re interested in building a rental empire to acquire long-term wealth.

iTunes Description

“Inspiring interviews with landlords who are generating passive income by investing in real estate. In each episode, we talk to guests about how they generate cash flow with their rentals, and issues they face with property management, and managing tenants.”

iTunes Rating: 4.8/5

Episodes

• Buying Rentals For Cash Flow And Appreciation With Ashley Wade (Ep 300‪)‬
• Buying Rentals With No Money Using the BRRRR Strategy With Brady Myers (Ep 299‪)‬
• How To Make Your Rentals More Profitable With Lee Blackburn (Ep 298‪)‬

6. Bare Naked Agent

In Bare Naked Agent, Pat Hiban, New York Times International Best Selling Author of 6 Steps to 7 Figures, answers questions from his audience about building, growing, and managing a real estate business.

iTunes Description

“Bare Naked Agent is a show created for you: the Real Estate community. If you find yourself searching for answers, keys to success, or just new information, you need to tune in! Pat Hiban, a New York Times Best Selling Author, delivers in his biweekly show to help answer any questions that come his way.”

iTunes Rating: 4.7/5

Episodes

• The Anxiety of Making Call‪s‬
• Real Estate: Doing The Right Thing or Doing Things Righ‪t‬
• Real Estate: How To Go From Rookie To Rocksta‪r‬

7. The Max Maxwell Podcast

Max Maxwell’s podcast is equal parts inspirational storytelling and practical real estate advice. He hosts a new guest every week who’s quit their W-2, grown their wholesaling business to 7 figures, or done something else significant. He drills them with questions about how they did it and you, the listener, benefit from their answers.

iTunes Description

“Max Maxwell is a Serial Entrepreneur and Real Estate Investor. In this podcast, we talk industry, from real estate to general investing practices and methods.

Weekly guests ranging in backgrounds will show you there are endless ways to be successful in today’s society. Starting on the term of Wholesaling is common, but after you get your money from these deals, what do you do with it?”

iTunes Rating: 4.9/5

Episodes

• She BECAME HER OWN BOSS! Quit Her 9-5 Job | Max Maxwell’s One Deal Away #‪2‬
• He WHOLESALED his Way from BROKE to RICH! Max Maxwell’s One Deal Awa‪y‬
• The Max Maxwell Podcast | Mastering the Phones w/ Steve Tran‪g‬

8. Keeping It Real

On Keeping It Real, D.J. Paris interviews the top 1% of realtors, breaking down their stories and advice into practical lessons. Some of his most recent episodes discuss how to successfully run paid ads, how to perform tasks via Zoom, and how to brand a real estate business in 2025. Check out those episodes below!

iTunes Description

“We interview top 1% real estate REALTORS, brokers, and agents and have them share how they have built their realty practice!“

iTunes Rating: 4.8/5

Episodes

• How To Increase Real Estate Production Through Paid Advertising • Shayne Hillier & Matt Crame‪r‬
• How To Perform Almost ALL Real Estate Agent Tasks On Zoom • Social Bootcamp • Gogo Bethk‪e‬
• Branding For Real Estate Agents • Dana Bul‪l‬

9. The Real Estate Guys Radio Show

Since 1997, The Real Estate Guys Radio Show has been broadcasting (originally via radio) investment advice to its listeners. It’s hosted by Robert Helms and Russell Gray, who try to deliver lots of value and entertainment in every episode. Check out their most recent episodes below!

iTunes Description

“Fun and informative, this real estate investment talk show has been broadcasting on conventional radio since 1997. Hosted by professional investor Robert Helms and financial strategist Russell Gray, the show delivers no-hype education and expert perspectives in a fast-paced, entertaining style. Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki says The Real Estate Guys are wild and crazy, but they really know what they are talking about. The Guys talk investment strategy, economics, tax and asset protection planning, market and property due diligence, international diversification, and much, much more! Gain valuable insights from interviews with notable experts, industry leaders, and real-life investors. Discover proven strategies for making money with real estate in any market, how to avoid common and costly mistakes, and what is working in the real world right now.”

iTunes Rating: 4.6/5

Most Recent Episodes

• Market Manipulation – How to Profit Now with Real Estate‬
• The Predictions Panel‬
• Ask The Guys – Cashflow or Equity, Social Investing, and Prepping‬

10. Real Estate Rockstars

On Real Estate Rockstars — a podcast that’s on its 953rd episode as of this article’s writing — Pat Hiban interviews expert real estate investors. Past guests include Robert Kiyosaki, Barbara Corcoran, and Ryan Serhant. The podcast has received more than 4 million downloads in over 100 countries. Check out the most recent episodes below!

iTunes Description

“Make more sales and earn higher commissions by learning directly from real estate’s top performers! Counting more than four-million downloads from over 100 countries, Real Estate Rockstars is the industry’s most trusted, most popular podcast. With a new guest on each episode, you’ll learn from up-and-coming agents, seasoned brokers, real estate investors, and more. Robert Kiyosaki, Barbara Corcoran, and Ryan Serhant are just a few of the many notable guests who have shared their industry expertise with the Rockstar Nation. Billion-dollar agent and best-selling real estate author Pat Hiban asks the questions that matter and uncovers actionable answers – no filler and no clichés. Implement the strategies you learn by listening to this tri-weekly podcast and start making more money in real estate. It’s that simple.”

iTunes Rating: 4.6/5

Most Recent Episodes

• 952: Close One Deal per Week as a Part-Time Real Estate Agent with Garrett Maroo‪n‬
• 951: RERR Highlights – The Best Real Estate Podcast Clips
• 950: Real Estate Marketing Principles to Live By – Jess Lenouve‪l‬

11. Real Estate Coaching Radio

On Real Estate Coaching Radio, Tim and Julie Harris, best-selling authors, experts real estate coaches, and entrepreneurs, share real-life advice from building their own businesses. Check out their most recent episodes below!

iTunes Description

“Listen Now To The #1 Daily Podcast For The Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Coaching Radio. Hosted By #1 Real Estate Coaches And Best Selling Authors Tim And Julie Harris. Recognized By The Motley Fool, Inman News, Google (And Countless Others) As One Of The Most Influential Podcasts In Real Estate. When You Listen Now You Will Learn All The Closely Guarded Secrets of the Nations Leading Real Estate Professionals. Expect Drilled Down, No BS, Fast-Paced Practical and Tactical Information to Get You Into Action Now Helping Others and Making Money.”

iTunes Rating: 4.3/5

Most Recent Episodes

• Podcast: Why Most Lead Generation Efforts Are A Waste Of Time (and Money‪)‬
• Podcast: 10 Simple Step Lead Generation System‬
• Podcast: Is EXP Realty The Amazon Of Real Estate‪?‬

12. GSD Mode

GSD Mode shares the stories and advice of people who’ve built successful businesses, particularly real estate agents and health experts who “dominate their space.” This is a great podcast to check out if you’re a real estate investor, agent… or even if you’re just an entrepreneur. Check out their most recent episodes below!

iTunes Description

“GSD Podcast is where we interview Top Real Estate Agents, Top Entrepreneurs, Top Fitness and Health Experts and people that DOMINATE their space! These are people that do not accept mediocrity, they have clarity on what they want in life and they take massive levels of action to create their dreams into a reality! They create epic lives!”

iTunes Rating: 4.8/5

Most Recent Episodes

• New Realtor Makes $100K+ In 1st Year | GSD Mode Interview with Kristopher Esqued‪a‬
• Individual Realtor Sells $91Million + In 2020 | GSD Mode Interview with Anne Lusk and Joshua Smit‪h‬
• REO Initial Property Preservation Steps & Top Tips | Success In REO & Short Sales Part 6 w/ Ben Barber & Joshua Smit‪h‬

13. Cash Flow Guys Podcast

On the Cash Flow Guys Podcast, Tyler Sheff teaches “busy people how to use what they have” and “get what they need in order to accomplish what they want.” Listeners will learn about real estate investing and increase their financial fluency. Check out their most recent episodes below!

iTunes Description

“The CashFlowGuys Podcast teaches busy people how to use what they have, to get what they need in order to accomplish what they want. Using tips and techniques from industry leaders in Real Estate Investing and Financial Services, the CashFlowGuys are on a mission to educate the public on all things involving real estate and financial services. Your host, Tyler Sheff interviews experts from around the globe to help people improve their financial intelligence.”

iTunes Rating: 4.8/5

Episodes

• The 1031 Tra‪p‬
• How To Avoid The Fear of Eviction Ban‪s‬
• Are Turn Key Rentals A Good Investment‪?‬

Conclusion

There you have it — those are our favorite real estate podcasts. Try them and see what you think.

Do you have a favorite podcast that wasn’t on this list?

Let us know in the comments and we’ll give it a listen!

For more resources and real estate marketing materials, click on the link!

Video Transcription

What’s up y’all!

As you’re planning out your marketing for the year ahead, you might have a couple of questions popping into your mind. You might be asking, how the heck am I going to reach my goals?

You might even be asking what are your goals as a real estate agent or an investor?

What I’m going to be walking through in this video is a simple five-step process, I use it here at our company, and I suggest you use it as an investor and agent as well, to plan out exactly what you need to do in your marketing in the year ahead to be able to reach your goals.

The cool thing about this is, a lot of people, they’ll look at the goals, write a goal number down, it might be an income goal, it might be a deal number goal, and then you pull back and you say, what are the things that are going to help me get there?

You might write down a few different projects, and I ran my businesses like this for years. I’d have a goal, and I’d go to the whiteboard and I’d say, what are some of the cool, exciting, fun things I might need to do this year?

I’d write them down and then that would be my plan. The thing I would forget to do is what I’m going to teach you today, which is mapping down to your marketing channels, so you have an exact clear, ABC step-by-step plan to reach your goals in a fail-safe way.

As soon as I started deploying this in my own businesses and teaching other investors and agents how to do it as well, you start to get more clarity on your plan.

The cool thing is, I actually did a podcast on this, the cool thing is this becomes your strategy. The definition of a strategy basically, is a strategy is as much what not to do, as it is what to do.

What we’re going to be diving into here on my iPad, is we’re going to show you exactly what you should do, so you can say no to so many other things in this year ahead. Work less, gain more freedom, make a greater impact.

Let’s dive into the iPad now.

The first thing I want you to do here is, there are five steps.

The first step is we’re going to set your goal, and if you have to pause this video throughout, as you’re doing your annual planning, or if you’re watching this sometime in the midyear, amazing.

You can still do the same thing if you’re not clear on what you need to do in your marketing to reach your goals as an investor or an agent.

The first step is setting your goal.

Okay, we’re going to pick an income goal, because deal numbers don’t really matter if you’re doing a bunch of low volume or low dollar deals versus if you do some high dollar deals.

I always pick an income number because you can map that to the lifestyle that you want, or the freedom or impact you want to make.

Next, we need to ask what is working? This is a big step a lot of people miss… they set a goal and then they just go, hey, what do I need to do next? We need to first ask what’s working.

I’m going to give you a framework in here for exactly how to track and show what’s working in your business in a crazy, crazy, simple way.

Then what we’re going to say is, what’s the difference between where we currently are to the goal that we’re going for?

I call it the Delta.

Next, we’re going to say cool, now that we know the difference in what we need to make up, what are the biggest opportunities that we see, the one, two, or three max, to be able to hit our goal.

Then last, we’re going to craft the plan in a really crazy simple one-page thing that you can use each and every quarter.

Let’s go back up to the top.

For this example here, I’m going to be working with one of our clients who is an A player. They’ve already started to do some deals. They’re a hybrid agent investor, which is what we specialize here in at Carrot.

The people who have their license, and their investor who can offer cash offers, maybe even flip homes. This person’s been doing deals for two or three years, and they want to get to a $750,000 profit goal.

Okay, so that’s a big goal. If you are trying to get to your first $100,000, it doesn’t matter.

Next what we’re going to do, is I want you to write down every marketing channel that you’re currently using to get leads and to close deals.

In this example here, you might have SEO or Google pay-per-click, or Facebook Ads, or direct mail, or cold calling, or whatever it’s.

You might be doing referrals as an agent, or you might be big, big, big on cold calling as an investor agent, whatever it is, write down the channels that generated your leads in deals this past 12 months.

If you have to hit pause in this video, go ahead and do it. Write down the channels on the left side and come back.

Next, I want you to pull back into your data. This might be one of those things where you might be going, I don’t know what the channels did, but one of the biggest keys that you can do as a marketer is you have to know and have clarity on what each marketing channel is doing for your business.

One of the biggest mistakes that I find with people is they end up investing $5000, $10,000, $15,000 a month, and they say, I’m getting deals out of this, but I don’t know which channels are working and which channels aren’t working.

So they keep on putting more and more money into the marketing, not knowing which half of their marketing’s working and not.

This is going to help you save tens of thousands of dollars potentially in marketing every year, and help you grow your income in a more predictable way with less work, which is what we’re about here at Carrot. Helping you get more freedom.

What I want you to do next, is now write down what are your leads. How many leads did you get with that channel?

In this example, we’re going to say the SEO channel got 115 leads this past 12 months, Google PPC, 75 Facebook Ads, 63, you get the idea. Write those down.

Then we’re going to say with each channel, how many deals came out of those?

Now you might be saying, I don’t know how to track how many deals came from the channels.

Well, what we can do is if you’re using a system like Carrot, our system will actually tell you which leads came from SEO. It’ll tell you which leads came from a Facebook ad, or from a Google ad. It’ll tell you all of those things.

You can leverage a tool like Carrot to use our campaign tracking links or to use our lead source tool, and it’s going to tell you all that.

Now you’ll be able to know which leads and deals came from direct mail and cold calling because you want to use a different tracking phone number with each one of those marketing methods.

You can always say if anyone called from this phone number, it’s from my direct mail, so you can track the leads and deals.

Okay, now what I want you to do is dive even deeper.

If you’re looking at this going, man, I don’t have this data.

What I want you to know is number one, it’s simple data to track so you can get it, but number two, this is critical data if you want to grow your business, work less, make a greater impact.

With each one of the channels, say, I’ve got 115 leads at the SEO this past year, 12 deals out of it. How much did you invest in doing SEO that year? Did you pay someone to do it? Did you do it yourself?

Just take the entire amount of money you invested in the SEO that year and divide it by the number of deals that you did. In this case, we’re just going to say it was about $600 a deal, which was the average cost when we took that amount.

If it was Google pay-per-click or direct mail same thing, take the entire cost of what you spent on direct mail this year, Google pay-per-click this year, or cold calling, or whatever it is, and then divide it by the number of deals you got to come up with your cost per deal.

This can be an important number.

Next, it’s the profit per deal. Do the same thing. Look at the lead sources. What were the profits on those?

What were the total profits for the year for that channel, divided by how many deals you did, and fill out the profit per deal column.

We’re going to end up coming up with these numbers down here in this section down here which is… what was our total profit for the year?

If we add those up, our total gross profit in this example is about $439,000.

If we take out the cost for those deals, let’s say it was about $401,000. We netted $401,000, that’s amazing. That’s a huge huge year.

If your goal is $750,000, and we currently brought in about $439,000, the difference between those two numbers is $348,000, about $350,000.

That’s the Delta we’re trying to make up in this next year with our plan.

I’m going to show you guys exactly how to do that in about three to five more minutes in this video.

The next step I want you to take here, is with each one of your channels, now the way that we decide what we need to do in the year ahead, is we look at each channel and we ask ourselves, let’s kind of give it a grade rating, an A through an F.

An A means we’re executing it insanely well, and there’s probably no room for growth in this channel. We’ve maximized the channel.

If you’re doing SEO, and you’re just in one market, and you’re dominating Google for all of your keyword phrases, you’re ranked number one in Google for all your keyword phrases, that’s probably going to be an A.

There’s probably not a lot of room for improvement there if you’re dominating ranking number one in Google for all of your phrases.

If you’re not ranking number one in Google for all of your phrases, you’re number six, number seven, number eight, you might be getting a couple of leads here or there, maybe that’s a C.

Okay, give yourself whatever that rating is. Do the same thing with all of those.

I’m just going to make up some numbers here. Let’s say we’re a B with Google PPC. It’s working pretty good.

Let’s say direct mail, we’re a D on that, we tested it out, but we’re not really doing too great. Let’s say cold calling is an F, we got one deal, but man it wasn’t predictable. Let’s say, this is a B on the Facebook ads.

What we’re doing is we’re asking ourselves, where do we see an opportunity for growth? If it’s an A, we’re saying we’re doing the best we can possibly do, expanded it at the best we possibly could, there’s no opportunity for growth.

If it’s an F, it means we definitely haven’t maximized it, so it might be on the docket there okay.

Now, let’s say Google pay-per-click and Facebook ads look awesome, and then I really want to get this direct mail thing working better, so I’m going to go I see an opportunity for growing Facebook or Google pay-per-click.

Let’s say direct mail number two, and Facebook number three. If I think that there’s a lot of room for growth and we have the skillset to do so.

Okay, I’m going to come down here now, with what we had just done with those ratings. We’re going to rate those out, and now we’re going to come up with some new goals for these.

Let’s say the Google PPC, what we had been doing in the past was 75 leads, let’s say we want to increase that now and grow that to 150 leads.

We want to double this so we can help to start to make up that Delta of about $350,000.

We know with Google pay-per-click that we’re closing about one in 10 leads into a deal that gives us $20,000.

That was six deals, now if we can double our Google pay-per-click if we see opportunity there, because we haven’t really stepped into it too much, or we can expand our keywords, that’s going to then take it to 12 deals.

Let’s say the cost per deal stays about the same, and the profit per deal stays about the same.

Now that’s going to make it to, rather than us bringing in about a $120,000 in Google pay-per-click that year, that’s going to bring in far more, that’s going to bring in, shoot, about $240,000 with Google pay-per-click that year.

I’m just going to delete that puppy and let’s make this the goal.

Let’s say $240,000 total is what we’re going to bring in, and we’re going to bring in $120K extra.

What we’re determining is how are we going to make up this Delta of $348,000 bucks? Well, now we’ve made up right there $120,000 of it with the Google side of it.

Now let’s look at Facebook. If we closed three deals last year from Facebook, and an average of about $20,000 profit per deal, how many more deals do we think we can get out of Facebook?

How many more leads do we think?

Can we double that? I don’t know. That’s for you to determine, go talk to someone who’s an expert, or you dive into it. Let’s say this doubles to six, and that goes from $60,000 to $120,000 now.

It goes from $60,000 to $120,000 now, and that is in total. So the extra, the Delta that we’re adding is another $60,000. $120,000 plus 60, that’s about $180,000. You guys know where I’m going with this, right?

Now let’s say direct mail. We see a lot of opportunities. We just did one test and we want to expand it out. Let’s say we want to take this and see if we can’t expand this to 10 deals this year. We want a 5x this year.

How many leads do we need to get the whole thing? I’m not going to do all the math here, but you guys see where I’m going with this.

The things that we want to focus on here, doing some quick behind-the-scenes math, is we want to figure out what channels do we need to expand it by, how much do we need to expand them to get to this number here? The $348,000 bucks.

We’re going to speed up through TV time, and now let’s assume that we had picked our three or four channels, we’d worked the numbers and we have a plan.

Let’s say the number one plan is the Google pay-per-click.

We worked the numbers. We say, I think there’s more opportunity there, maybe we can bump this to 200 leads, and maybe we can bump this to 15 deals, and that’s a couple of extra deals. That’s $160,000, $170,000 there. Bam we found out our plan.

Q1 now, I want you guys to do this.

Pick one new idea per quarter and two improvements per quarter. One thing that we oftentimes do is plan way too many projects. Just start one new thing per quarter, and two improvements per quarter.

This here might be a new idea of direct mail. We barely dabbled in direct mail. We’re going to launch a new direct mail campaign. That’s the big new thing we’re going to do this year.

Improvement number one is we’re going to expand Google PPC into the second market.

That’s our improvement. We’re going to expand there. Improvement number two might be expanding Facebook’s audience.

Then our goal, if our total goal is $348,000 in extra revenue, and our total goal for the year is $750,000. If we divide that out, how much money, how much revenue do we need to bring per quarter?

I’m just going to grab my fancy calculator here really fast and show you guys this last little thing and we’ll wrap this video, and you’ll have a plan essentially. $750,000 divided by four equals $187,000 a quarter. $187,500 a quarter; $187,500.

You don’t have to make these all exactly the same per quarter, you can make them so you ramp up or whatever you want to do. It’s your plan. Each quarter I’m going to be planning out this.

Then we say, hey our goal is $187,500 per quarter. You can break it down per month, and then you say, okay how much of this is going to come from our direct mail campaign?

How much of it’s going to come from our expansion of Google pay-per-click and Facebook ads.

Then spend the next 10, 15, 30 minutes going, if we did those in the first quarter, what do we need to do in the second quarter?

It might be launching something else new here. It might be hiring an employee over here because now you’re having more leads.

It might be now getting a dispositions manager or something like that. It might be adding Carrot in here is that big new project.

Then each quarter you pick two things you can improve, one thing you can grow on that’s brand new.

All right, guys. Let me recap this right now, block out about an hour to two hours possibly, as you’re heading into this next year, and this can help you get insane clarity in exactly what you need to do with your real estate marketing as an investor or agent.

The first thing is you pick your revenue goal for the year. The second thing is you break out a scorecard like this that I’m showing you on the iPad, and ask what is working and break it down by channel.

Dig into those numbers. If you don’t have them you really need them to grow.

Then figure out what your profits are, and ask yourself what’s the difference between my goal and what I did this past year?

Next, we need to say, what’s our greatest opportunity? We need to kind of grade our channels. An A is you’re doing the best you could possibly do, no more room for growth. An F is it’s terrible, and there might be room for growth.

Then craft your quarterly plan, one new thing, two improvements per quarter, and then map those to your scorecard, which would be bringing in $187,500 per quarter or whatever your number is.

Guys and gals, we’re going to have some amazing resources for you that are going to help you to do your planning better, that is going to help you to grow your business better.

If you’re looking to expand your evergreen marketing and buy back more of your time, go to Carrot.com/evergreen, and check out our latest webinar on this topic so you can step into evergreen marketing, win more leads that are the highest margin, highest profit deals while you’re stacking your marketing with your other channels.

Guys have an amazing rest of the week, plan your marketing, hit it hard, but buy back your time this year.

Thank you!

It’s often said that more millionaires are made through real estate than any other type of business. But what real estate business models do they use?

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While it’s difficult to measure the validity of that claim, one thing’s for sure: there’s a lot of money to be made in real estate.

Questions often raise about whether you should become a wholesaler, a flipper, an agent or broker, or even a hybrid agent/investor. As the real estate market changes and fluctuates (like it has in recent years), how do you make sure you choose the right investment specialty?

But one thing’s for sure: People will always buy or sell houses.

And investors who put their money into real estate — buying assets rather than liabilities — can create a lucrative future for themselves and their families.

So the question is, how should you get into real estate?

Here are nine popular real estate business models to consider.

Table of Contents

1. The Diversity of Real Estate Business Models
2. The Main Challenge of These Real Estate Business Models
3. Real Estate Agents
4. Wholesaling
5. Wholetailing
6. Buy-And-Hold Investing
7. House Flipping
8. Remote Investing
9. Listing Service For FSBO
10. BRRRR
11. More real estate investment business models (& a free planning template!)

The Diversity of Real Estate Business Models

There used to be just a few different real estate business models.

If you had access to a lot of capital, you could place big bets with the fix-and-flip system and hope the market didn’t dip at the wrong time. You could also buy-and-hold real estate, steadily expanding your portfolio and net worth.

You could become a real estate agent or broker without big money, netting 3% to 6% per transaction.

Those were the options.

Now things are much more diverse.

Here are the real estate business models we will cover in this article…

• Real estate agents
• Wholesaling
• Wholetailing
• Buy and hold investing
• House flipping
• Remote investing
• Listing service for FSBO
• BRRRR
• Hybrid agent/investor

The good news is… there’s a real estate business model that works with any budget. So long as you have the discipline to get started and keep going, you can win at real estate.

The Main Challenge of These Real Estate Business Models

While the business models below present a ton of opportunity for entrepreneurs — we’ve seen many agents and investors build thriving businesses in just about every market — they’re not free of challenges.

These challenges include hiring the right people, mathematically approaching every transaction, and building trust with buyers and sellers.

But one challenge stands above all the rest: consistently generating leads.

For agents and investors, having a consistent flow of leads makes your monthly income more predictable and allows you to grow your business more quickly.

How do you do that?

At Carrot, we specialize in helping investors and agents create simple, effective websites that rank in Google (and thus drive traffic) and systematically convert visitors into leads.

We’ve generated over 2.5 million leads for thousands of investors and agents nationwide. Take a Carrot demo to see how it works!

1. Real Estate Agents

When someone thinks about getting into real estate, being a real estate agent or broker is usually the first business model they consider.

Real estate agents make money by helping people buy and sell homes, usually pulling in between 3% and 6% of the sales price. A $250,000 home would net between $7,500 and $15,000.

To become a licensed realtor, you’ll need to research the requirements and processes in your local market — typically, this will include taking some courses and passing a test. You might also need to get sponsored by a real estate brokerage.

Pros

• Low barrier to entry. Anyone with enough time, determination, and sales savvy can become a real estate agent.
• Good profits on high-ticket homes.

Cons

• Requires expertise in sales.
• It takes time to build a name for yourself.
• The average transaction takes about 3 months to complete.

2. Wholesaling

Wholesaling is a real estate investing business model that’s cropped up over the last decade or so.

As a wholesaler, rather than flipping real estate or buying and holding your properties, you work as a sort of “deal finder” for other cash buyers. Your job is to find good deals (motivated sellers) and get them under contract for a price you and your cash buyer can afford. When you pass the deal onto the cash buyer, you’ll typically make a $5,000 to $20,000 assignment fee.

The most significant benefit to wholesaling real estate is that you don’t need a massive amount of money to get started — just a few thousand dollars to find and secure your first deal.

Pros

• May not require a license (check the state you’re wholesaling in).
• Requires just a few thousand dollars in startup capital.
• Good opportunity in most markets. (See the wholesaling opportunity in your market!)
• Can make up to $20,000 or more per deal.

Cons

• Wholesaling has become highly competitive in many markets.
• New regulations are being introduced in many states to regulate wholesaling.

“Six wholesale deals this month if all goes through. $124k… 4 ppc, 1 organic, 1 Facebook retargeting. One has closed, the other 5 are under contract with a buyer and the last one is waiting on a buyer. Carrot system is still rockin!”

– Brian Rockwell

3. Wholetailing

The word “wholetail” is a combination of “wholesale” and “retail.” In a wholetail deal, the investor buys a house for a low-ball price, makes just enough repairs so that it’s capable of selling on the MLS, and then sells it to a traditional buyer.

It’s not unusual to make $50,000 to $100,000 on a wholetail deal, but without nearly as much work as flipping takes.

We recommend wholetailing real estate when you’ve found a house that needs very few repairs, you can get it for a price that’s significantly under market value, and you have the cash (your own money or someone else’s) to purchase the home and make small updates.

Pros

• Wholetailing requires less work than a full flip, but has a big payoff.

Cons

• Wholetail deals are hard to come by.
• Wholetailing works better as a supplemental investing strategy than it does a primary business model.
• Requires access to large amounts of cash.

4. Buy-And-Hold Investing

Buy-and-hold investing is probably the best business model for increasing long-term wealth and net worth. In the buy-and-hold strategy, the investor buys properties (ideally ones that are a good deal), fills them with tenants to create cash flow, and holds.

Buy-and-hold investing aims to collect as many properties as possible and build as big of a portfolio as possible.

The hardest part of this business model is securing the cash to purchase properties consistently. We recommend seeking out private money or hard money to fund your deals.

Pros

• Great way to increase net worth.
• Creates a ton of passive cash flow.

Cons

• Need to manage properties and deal with tenants.
• Need access to a lot of capital to maintain momentum.

5. House Flipping

House flipping is the HGTV method of real estate investing and perhaps the most popularized way to make it big.

What these TV shows don’t talk about, though, is how house flipping is also one of the riskier real estate business models. During the time between when you buy a house and when you sell it (often 6 months or so), you’re just crossing your fingers that the market doesn’t take a hit.

Still, house flipping is a great real estate business model to add to your repertoire. It has higher risk, but also a higher payoff — often upwards of $100,000 for a single deal.

Pros

• Bigger cash payoff than any other investing model.

Cons

• Requires a lot of fixer-upper work.
• Has a higher risk.
• Requires a lot of upfront cash.

6. Remote Investing

Remote real estate investing has only become possible for the everyday investor in the last decade.

Technology has advanced so that investors can generate leads, find deals, inspect homes, purchase properties, and more… all without even being in the same state as the property they’re purchasing.

Check out our guide to learn more about virtual real estate investing.

This is a great option for people who don’t want their businesses tied down to a single location.

Pros

• You can operate anywhere in the U.S., accessing the most profitable markets.
• Gives you more time and freedom.

Cons

• It requires a lot of research before entering into a new market.
• Requires you to buy properties site unseen.
• You must build a business with clear-cut systems and hire trustworthy people you can depend on.

7. Listing Service For FSBO

What’s great about this business model is that once it’s set up, it can be almost entirely passive. Just hire a VA to manage some basic tasks and keep up with customer requests.

Here’s how it works: you get your real estate license, set up a website attracting for sale by owner (FSBO) sellers who want to list their house on the MLS, and offer to do it for a flat fee.

You can charge upwards of $250 per listing, for instance.

And as mentioned above, you can train a VA to do a lot of the heavy lifting. So once you’ve built the website and found ways to drive traffic (paid ads and/or SEO), this will run almost entirely on autopilot.

Pros

• Easy to set up and easy to manage.
• Decent money maker with very little work.

Cons

• Need a real estate license.
• Will be competing with other FSBO listers.
• Requires a good chunk of upfront work to get everything set up.
• Need to find ways to drive traffic consistently.

8. BRRRR

The BRRRR method (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) is a modified version of the buy-and-hold business model.

BRRRR is an ongoing process by which real estate investors can purchase multiple properties with very little capital relative to the growth of their portfolios. First, the investor finds a good deal and buys the property using cash, private money, or hard money. Then they rehab the property and fill it with tenants to start the cash flow.

After a seasoning period of 12-24 months, the investor does a cash-out refinance on the home — this is where a financial institution provides a new loan on the property and returns the cash that they used to purchase the property in the first place.

Then the investor repeats that process with their original funds. If the investor plays their card right, they can purchase many properties with the same funds.

Pros

• Allows for faster portfolio growth.

Cons

• Requires the investor to secure upfront funding.
• Requires very accurate math.

9. Hybrid Real Estate Model

The hybrid real estate model is a strategy where an agent is also an investor. As a hybrid agent/investor, you can offer sellers different options based on their need and your evaluation of the property.

For instance, you can offer:

If they’re looking to sell fast for speed and convenience and are willing to take a bit of a shave in equity, offer to buy the property yourself with a cash offer.

Or, if they want top dollar, you can be their seller’s agent and list the property for a traditional sale.

When you act as both the agent and investor, you can save yourself agent fees and avoid splitting your profits with an agent or investor partner.

“I’ve always worked with wholesalers and investors from the sales side. I decided to start generating those leads myself since I already had the network.”

– Mark St. Peter, a hybird agent/investor
Learn how Mark generated $75K+ in deals on a shoe string budget

Pros

• Flexibility to work with different types of sellers.
• Easier to adapt to market shifts.

Cons

• Requires agents to be open to learning more about investing.

Carrot member, Anthony Beckham, is a hybrid agent/investor. His average profit per deal as an investor is around $20,000 to $30,000. His average agent commission is around the $7000 to $12,000 range.

More real estate investment business models (& a free planning template!)

There you have it! Nine of the most popular real estate business models.

If you don’t have much starting budget, wholesaling or becoming a real estate agent are wonderful options. If you have more capital, then you might consider flipping or BRRRR.

But they’re far from the only ones. With real estate investing, you can get as niche as you want. Other popular investment options are:

• Investing in rental properties
• Short-term rentals
• Land buying and/or land selling
• Mobile home selling
• Rent-to-own/tenant buyers

Whatever you decide, there’s plenty of opportunity in each business model. Before jumping in, be sure to research any local regulations (especially with wholesaling or short-term rentals) and the overall competition in your market so you understand what you’re up against.

When you’re ready to take the next step, snag the real estate business planning template to help you sort out your thoughts and set your business up for success.

Good luck!

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