Better Lead Processing, Better Profits

Real estate leads cost you money. Even more importantly, lead generation systems cost you time to set up. 

Don’t waste your leads. 

Today, I’m going to share with you our exact lead processing system — so you can steal it for your own real estate investing business. 

Use it for good, not evil!

A lead reaches out. Now what?

You get a voicemail or text message from a lead interested in selling their home. But they don’t give you much information to go on. What do you do first?

Trick question — you should have already set up automated drip campaigns using a CRM platform. (If you don’t know how, read up on how to create a drip campaign on REsimpli.)

You can even set up different automated drip campaigns for different marketing channels. To do this, simply use distinct tracking phone numbers for each of your marketing campaigns.

In our business, we send an automated SMS response, asking for the following data:

• Full name
• Email address
• The property address
• Any alternate phone numbers where you can reach them

You can set your drip campaigns to not only follow up with the lead periodically but also alert them, follow up with you, and remind you when to call them. 

We give our leads five minutes to respond to the initial automated text message. If they do, we can run some initial numbers on their home’s value, any liens they have, how long they’ve owned it, and so forth. 

Either way, we aim to call them back within a few minutes.

The first phone call

The sooner you get your lead on the phone, the more likely they are to work with you. 

Every hour that passes after they initially contact you, they lose interest, forget the urgency, and talk to other buyers. 

When you call them back, start with the basic property details if the lead didn’t reply to your SMS message. 

Then you can start edging closer to their situation and motivation — their true reason for calling you rather than a Realtor. We use the SPIN technique to ask probing questions. We covered it in detail in last week’s newsletter, but if you missed it, read up on the SPIN questions here.

Initial lead research

You might know within 90 seconds of speaking with a lead that you can’t work with them. Or it might take more research on your part, after you hang up the phone.

If you can’t help the property owner, refer them to someone who can. 

That doesn’t mean the lead is a total loss. You can arrange referral fees from real estate agents, bankruptcy attorneys, and other professionals who could help your leads. We then set these leads on a referral drip campaign on REsimpli, which follows up with the service provider later. 

Alternatively, your pulse might quicken when you have a hot lead. 

If you discover the property has equity in it and the owner is looking to sell, it’s time to go into overdrive.

Watch: How I Process Incoming Leads

Move fast to close the deal

Your lead looks promising — so get to the property ASAP.

Schedule an appointment for the same day if you can. If not, then tomorrow morning. 

Evaluate the property’s condition, its current value, the cost of renovations, the after-repair value (ARV). 

Then make an offer. 

If you have the experience to run these numbers and make an offer on the spot, go for it. Otherwise, do your due diligence back at the office, and try to make an offer the same day. 

Couldn’t schedule an appointment? Put the lead on a separate drip campaign for unresponsive leads. That will keep reaching out to the lead periodically to resurrect seemingly dead leads. 

The more leads you convert to appointments, the more you’ll convert into offers, and the more you’ll convert into sales. Get the most value from your precious leads with an automated series of drip campaigns — so you can close more deals and earn more money.