19 Lead Generation Tools for Real Estate Agents [Your Guide for 2023]

Most real estate agents can’t afford to miss out on leads and deals. They don’t know it but having the proper lead generation tools for real estate agents is the holy grail of their business growth.

You probably became a real estate agent because you’re a bit of a “people person”… because you’re great at sales and know how to talk to clients.

But if there aren’t leads to convert into clients, your business can’t grow.

No matter how good you are at sales — no matter how convincing, charismatic, or persuasive — none of that matters if you’re not consistently generating leads for your business.

Consistent, high-quality, and high-volume real estate lead generation is the secret to dominating your market and building the business of your entrepreneurial dreams.

More leads mean more closings, which means a more successful business.

Of course, that’s easier said than done.

So how do you get leads in real estate consistently?

19 Lead Generation Tools for Real Estate Agents

Here are 19 of the best lead generation tools for real estate agents to help!

1. Carrot Website

Many real estate agents start out by joining a larger real estate group or franchise. Their face gets added to the company website, and they receive a particular share of the leads.

But it doesn’t take long to realize that if you want to grow your own business, you’re going to need your own website.

Unfortunately, most agents think their website only exists to represent their business — as a sort of digital business card.

The most successful agents, though, know that isn’t true.

Your website is probably your company’s biggest lead-gen asset.

There are two ways that you can use your website to predictably generate high-quality leads for your business.

The first is paid traffic. Running ads on Facebook or Google is a great way to drive traffic to your website. But here’s the thing: that paid traffic isn’t worth a lick if your website doesn’t consistently convert that traffic into leads for your business.

(In fact, driving traffic to a low-converting website is expensive and usually a waste of money)

And our Carrot websites are built to convert and drive leads right out of the box therefore, can be one of the most productive lead generation tools for real estate agents.

We start with a compelling homepage header, which transitions into two separate CTAs for buyers and sellers. And we always include the agent’s phone number in the upper right corner for people who want to take action right away.

Take a look: the entire format is crafted to make taking action as easy as possible for visitors.

The trick to building a high-converting website is to give visitors exactly what they want, as quickly as possible… and to build trust along the way.

That’s exactly what Carrot sites do.

But that’s not all they do.

While paid ads are a great way to drive traffic to your website, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is just as powerful. SEO is working to rank in search engines (like Google and Bing) for keyword phrases that your target market types into Google. That way, those people click on your website and become leads.

And SEO leads are usually even higher quality and more consistent than paid leads.

SEO is a bit complicated but can be one of the best long-term lead generation tools for real estate agents.

This is why our Carrot sites make search engine ranking as simple as possible. Check out some of our best lead-generation features in the second point.

2. Carrot Features

Our Carrot sites convert better than any other websites in the industry.

We’ve generated more than 2 million leads for our members with conversion rates between 10% and 20% (most real estate websites convert at 2%)!

That means more leads and more closings for your business.

And you can sign up for Carrot risk-free for 30 days over here.

But what else do you get by signing up?

Here are some of our coolest real estate lead generation tools

• Carrot Lead Manager — When you get a Carrot site and start generating leads, you need a way to keep track of those leads and organize them all. That’s why all Carrot members have access to our Lead Manager, where you can view mission-critical information, categorize prospects, and see how many leads you’ve got in the pipeline.

• Campaign Tracking Links — When you run advertisements or post on social media, it’s nice to know how much traffic that content is driving to your website. With our Campaign Tracking Links, you can create a custom link with a single click, and we’ll track clicks and conversions from that link. This is super easy and a great way to test the effectiveness of your advertisements.

• Visual Editor — All AgentCarrot sites are built to convert right out of the box. But you can still customize the site however you like, adding your logo, brand colors, and images and changing the copy to fit your business. Our visual editor makes this process super easy. It’s the best of both worlds: lead generation and website customization.

• SEO Ranking Tracker — Want to know how your SEO rankings are performing? Just tell us what keyword phrases you want us to track for you, and we’ll give you regular updates on how your website is performing. That way, you can celebrate once you break through to page 1!

• VideoPost — One of the most challenging parts of getting your website ranking in search engines is consistently creating content or blog posts. Because the more content your website has, the more keyword phrases you’ll be able to rank for. And with VideoPost, you can record a quick video and then, with just a few clicks, transcribe that into a long-form blog post that can rank on Google. SEO doesn’t get easier than that!

• Carrot SEO Tool — There are a lot of rules to creating a new page or post for SEO. You should include the target keyword phrase a very specific number of times, you should have a certain amount of links, and you should use a certain number of images… all depending on the length of your content. It’s hard to remember everything, which is why we give all of our members’ access to our Carrot SEO Tool, which acts as an SEO checklist every time you create a new page or post. Just keep at it until the light turns green, and then you’re good to go!

• Carrot IDX — IDX is useful because it allows real estate agents to automatically upload MLS listings to their websites. This saves a lot of time. And Carrot IDX allows you to upload listings and then customize those listings however you like.

Check Out Our FREE AgentCarrot Demo Now!

3. Silver Street Marketing

Running Google and Facebook ads is much more complex than it probably sounds… especially if you’ve never done it before.

If you have tried your hand at paid ads, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

You choose the targeting and craft the copy as carefully as possible, then hit launch with your fingers crossed.

But those ads end up far less effective than had hoped.

The truth is, it can take years to learn how to craft high-converting advertisements.

This is why we highly recommend delegating that part of your business to the marketing experts over at Silver Street Marketing if you have the budget for it.

They will manage every aspect of your PPC and Facebook marketing strategy so you can focus on closing clients and growing your business.

4. Citation Building Service

If you want to start building your SEO and website rankings to drive traffic passively to your website, then citations are a great place to start.

What are citations?

Well, first, you have to understand backlinks. Backlinks are the term used when another website links to your website, and they’re a critical indication to Google that your website is trustworthy. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more that Google will trust your website (which means better rankings).

And citations are a type of backlink that’s easy to get.

You just go to sites like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc., and list your business information. Doing this on 40 or more sites will typically give you an SEO advantage over your competitors.

But it can take a while.

With our Citation Building Service, we’ll go build 40 citations for you so you can keep your attention on more important business matters.

5. Ballpoint Marketing

Direct mail is one of the most common lead generation tools for real estate agents.

Any real estate agents in your market who are trying to grow their business are probably sending direct mail.

That’s for good reason — direct mail is a great way to build brand awareness and generate leads.

The problem is, everyone is doing it.

Which makes it difficult to craft mailers that stand out from your competitor’s mailers. Because of that, many mailers end up in the trash before even getting looked at.

But Ballpoint Marketing is solving that.

They offer robot-written mailers that look hand-written (the ink even smudges and indents the paper).

And these mailers get an exceptional response rate.

It creates a personal touch that feels authentic and is difficult for people to ignore.

Why not give it a try?

6. Mailchimp

Your email list should be the backbone of your marketing strategy.

By consistently growing your email list and interacting with those prospects on a weekly basis, you expand your reach, build brand awareness, and nurture leads.

It’s like this: your ads and SEO leads to your website, which leads to your email list, which leads to follow-up and eventually closing clients.

It might not always be a straight line, but that’s the general flow.

And perhaps the easiest tool for building your email list is Mailchimp, which won’t cost you a dime until you’ve reached more than 1,000 subscribers.

Plus, Carrot easily integrates with your Mailchimp account!

7. DocuSign

The real estate business includes a lot of reviewing and signing documents.

Fortunately, DocuSign allows you to upload, edit, and send documents for review and even digital signing.

Carrot members love to use DocuSign for contract signing because it’s so much easier and faster than trying to coordinate in-person meetings.

You might also consider HelloSign, which is a similar service.

8. Canva

Marketing requires a lot of design work.

Whether you’re creating a logo, designing your website, or posting on social media, graphics are an important element.

They draw the eye better than text and consistent colors, fonts, and graphics create a sense of continuity, making your brand easier to identify.

But being able to design graphics is an uncommon skill for real estate agents.

Well, Canva is changing that.

With Canva, even real estate agents with no past design skills can create eye-catching graphics. And it’s free to try out.

Our member love using Canva to spice up their social media posts and create grahpics for their website.

9. Realvolve

The bigger that your business gets, the more cluttered internal processes becomes.

It’s a natural part of hte process. Promising leads slide under the radar and important tasks don’t get finished… all because your business is growing.

Remember the old saying: what go you here won’t get you there.

And when your business gets to new heights, you’ll probably find that you need software to help organize and coordinate your leads, workflows, and other internal processes.

Many of members love using Realvolve for that. You can schedule a demo on their homepage to check it out for yourself.

10. HARO

What if you could easily get your business and website mentioned on local publications?

With HARO — which stands for “Help a Reporter Out” — you can.

And the benefits are twofold. First, local and even nationwide publications will mention you as an expert at real estate. This will grant you credibility and even give you the chance to put a trust-building bar like this on your website…

Just add the logos of the places that you’ve been mentioned and voila! You’ll build immediate trust with your website visitors.

The second benefit is in regards to search engine optimization, which drives traffic to your website when people type certain keywords into Google.

One of the biggest factors of SEO is how many reputable backlinks your website has — a backlink is when another website links to your website.

And when other sites quote you as an expert, they’ll almost always link to your website.

Win, win.

So how does HARO work, and how do you get leads in real estate from their services?

Well, you can sign up for free as an expert source for journalists. Then every day, you’ll receive an email with potential articles you can contribute to. Just follow the intstructions and you’ll start getting mentioned in no time.

HARO is most effective when you consistently and quickly respond to prompts over a long period of time.

Even dedicating 10 minutes per day to can help to win HARO backlinks, improve your domain authority, and enhance your brand’s visibility.

11. Craigslist

Craigslist? How do you get real estate leads on Craigslist?

Craigslist probably isn’t the first site you think of when you’re working to generate leads for your real estate business.

But it can certainly help… especially if you’re trying to generate leads in a new market for the first time.

You can look under the housing category for people who’ve listed as for-sale-by-owner and send them a message like the following…

Hey,

I saw your house listing and I was wondering how much interest you’ve got in your home?

I know the market can be a little tough right now and I’m a new real estate agent in the area who’s looking for people I can help.

Would you have time for a five-minute chat about the home and how we might be able to work together?

Mike

Or something similar… (adjust it to fit your style!)

Similarly, you can message people who are looking to purchase a home with something like this…

Hey,

I saw that you’re looking to buy a home… is this your first home?

I’m a real estate agent in the area and I’d be interested in learning more about what kind of home you’re looking to purchase.

Would you have time for a five-minute chat?

Mike

Once your business is off the ground, this probably isn’t a strategy you’re going to keep using… but it can definitely help to get things moving.

12. Aircall

Answering the phone is one of the biggest, most unexpected challenges of growing your real estate agent business.

If you don’t answer the phone when it rings, then your chances of losing the lead skyrocket. At the same time, you obviously can’t spend all your time on the phone… between negotiating contracts, house showings, and client meetings, you’re busy enough.

So what do you do?

Well, one thing you can do is hire a salesperson to answer the phone for you and make follow-up appointments.

Once they’re trained, you can use a service like Aircall to create multiple phone numbers, ensure that the phone gets answered when it rings, record conversations, and even assign different leads to different salespeople.

You probably don’t need this service when you’re just getting started, but it’s something you might want to consider when your team grows and the phone won’t stop ringing (’cause that’s a good thing, after all).

13. CRM

Following up with leads is an extremely important part of running a real estate business.

Not just so that you can do more closings, but so that you make the most of each lead.

The fact is, most closings happen during the follow up… people don’t decide to work with you after the first call or even the second call… but after the 5th call.

And while that might sound discouraging, it really just requires a little restructuring to be able to follow up consistently and effortlessly.

Really, it takes an effective CRM.

A CRM helps you organize your contacts, your leads, and your touch-points with them. You can keep track of how many times you’ve contacted each lead, when you contacted them, and tons of other person-specific details that make having a CRM one of the best real estate lead generation tools out there.

The first choice for most of our member is Realvolve.

Check it out!

14. YouTube

Like other social media sites, YouTube is a great platform for growing your real estate audience, building brand awareness, and even generating leads.

But you know what really sets YouTube apart from other platforms?

Video.

More than any other media type, people love video content. It’s easier to consume and more entertaining than written content.

In fact, 54% of people want to see more video content from brands and businesses that they follow.

And by creating consistent video content on YouTube, you can establish yourself as a real estate expert in your market and encourage people to reach out to you when buying or selling a home.

But what kind of content should you create?

For inspiration, check out the Farr Group’s YouTube channel. They create videos about their listings, their business purpose, and they even offer educational advice.

Building your YouTube channel isn’t going to change your business or your life overnight, but it can make a big impact over the long-term.

The main key to building a following on any platform like this is to be consistent with your content creation schedule (publish at least once per week).

The more often that people see your videos, the more that they’ll view you as a real estate expert.

But YouTube isn’t just great for generating attention organically… you can also run YouTube ads.

And one of the greatest parts about YouTube ads is that your competitors are probably not using the platform at all (they’re probably just running Facebook ads). Additionally, you can target people based on location.

Which means that you can create a “YouTube commercial” that only targets people in your market.

Why not give it a try and see how it impacts your lead generation?

15. IDX

IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange and it’s the tool real estate agents use to bring listings from the MLS to their own website.

This is really important for a few reasons.

First of all, if people see house listing that they like on your website… they’re going to call you and maybe work with you.

(Especially if you have a high-converting Carrot site!)

If they see that same listing on Zillow instead… then who knows who they’re going to call for help? It’s just a roll of the dice.

And second, putting listings directly on your website gives you an excuse to drive people to your website, building brand awareness and generating leads.

Every you add a new listing, you can post on social media and email your list about it… just like the Farr Group does.

Having IDX on your real estate website allows you to build a real estate business disassociated from big corporations and their listings.

That way, people will call you when they find a house that they like.

16. Facebook

Facebook is one of the most popular places for real estate agents to do their online advertising… and for good reason.

It’s an extremely powerful platform with billions of people and remarkable targeting.

With just a few clicks, you can create an advertisement that targets first-time homebuyers, people interested in selling their home, or pretty much any other demographic that you can dream up.

And not only are Facebook’s advertising options versatile, but it’s also relatively inexpensive, costing between $1 and $3 per click.

Of course, before you run Facebook ads, you’ll want to make sure that your website is ready to convert that paid traffic.

Carrot sites are built to convert, but you’ll still want to make some minor customizations.

The best way to find out whether your site is converting as you want it to is to do a test run.

Use this calculator to determine what your budget should be in order to get a single closing, set that money aside, and run some advertisements.

If you’re getting closings while staying within your budget, then you have a winning system. If not, then tweak your ads and/or your site until you’re in the green.

It might take some time to get profitable with your Facebook ads, but stick with it and, eventually, you’ll figure it out.

17. Instagram

You might be suprised at just how effective Instagram can be for growing your business and doing more closings.

At first, it seems like just another social media platform that’s easy to get distracted by, but it’s more than that.

Since Instagram is so visual and so full of images, it’s a great place to show your listings and to encourage buyers to buy and sellers to sell… through you.

In fact, that’s exactly what Krista and Aaron of the Farr Group have done.

Their organic Instagram posts are so booming that they don’t even use Facebook or Google ads for their business.

(Here’s their Instagram account so you can look for yourself)

As you can see below, their Instagram posts aren’t all that complicated, but they are quite effective lead generation tools for real estate.

They share new house listings, cool photos, and buying and selling advice.

And it’s working really well.

When I asked them about this, they even mentioned that some of their posts don’t get a ton of engagement, but then people will mention those posts as the reason that they reached out.

So your social media posts build brand awareness and might be having a bigger impact than you think.

And Instagram is a great place to get started.

18. 99designs

We already talked about Canva, which is a great place to go design your own graphics.

But since you’re a real estate agent — and not a graphic designer — it might be safe to say that… well, you just don’t want to design your own graphics.

In that case, 99designs is a great website for hiring a high-quality designer.

Your first option is just to post a job, check applications and reviews, and then hire someone who you think fits the bill.

But another great option is to “host a contest”, which allows multiple designers to compete for the job. Each designer creates a graphic for the project, you review them, and then choose which one you like the most.

Pretty cool, huh?

That means you can see the designers work before you pay for it.

19. Planoly

Social media is an extremely powerful tool for building brand awareness and marketing your business.

Unfortunately, it can easily turn into a time-sucking machine.

Posting turns into scrolling and scrolling turns into wasted time.

Why not avoid social media altogether — but still get all of the business benefits — by using a tool like Planoly to schedule your social media posts on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

This ensures that you won’t get distracted by social media when you’re trying to work.

And plus, it also allows you to create and schedule all of your posts at one time, so you don’t have to return to social media throughout the week.

Good for your business… good for your productivity.

Which of these lead generation tools for real estate agents is right for your business?

Hopefully, you now know of several lead-gen tools that you’ve never considered using before.

And more hopefully, you’ll give some of them a try.

Which ones do you think will be the most helpful for your business? Which ones are you going to use right away?

Which ones are you still considering? And which one do you think is the best lead generation tool for real estate?

Let us know in the comments!