How to Process an Incoming Real Estate Lead

You pay good money for your leads. The last thing you want is to let any slip through the cracks and go to waste. 

While you don’t have to follow our exact procedure for processing leads, you do need to come up with a systematized process that you follow every time, for every lead. Aim for a systems-based approach, that anyone on your team can follow. Even if you’re currently a solo real estate investor, create a scalable system that new team members can step into at any time. 

Here’s how we process our incoming leads — and how you can set up your business to automatically do the same. 

Missed Calls, Minimal Information

Often leads arrive by voicemail, leaving you with little or no information other than the prospect’s phone number. 

When leads come in via voicemail, automatically start them on a “Missed Call” drip campaign. (If you don’t know how, read up on how to create a drip campaign on REsimpli.) 

The campaign should start with an automated, immediate text message acknowledging that you received their voicemail, and asking them to text you back with a few key pieces of information so you can start working on your offer. Ask them to text you with their full name, email address, the property address, and any alternate phone numbers where you can reach them. 

Ideally set up different drip campaigns for different marketing sources. You can automate this by using different tracking phone numbers for different marketing campaigns. For leads that came in from a direct mail campaign, for example, your automated SMS message could reference that they received your letter.

We give our prospects five minutes to respond to that initial text message. If they reply with their details, you can spend a few minutes pre-qualifying the lead. That includes looking up first-glance comps, and perhaps looking up the liens against the property on public record.

Automated drip campaigns give you a competitive advantage. Not only do they send automated text messages and emails to prospective sellers, but they also remind you when to follow up with them. Remember, your goal is to avoid any leads slipping through the cracks!

Initial Phone Conversation

Your “Missed Call” drip campaign starts with an instant text message — followed by a reminder for you to call them back five minutes after that. 

If they responded by text and provided some details, you can spend a few minutes looking up the property. Either way, you want to call them back right away. 

Prospects are most engaged the moment that they call you. Every hour that passes after that, they start forgetting about you, and forgetting the urgency that led them to call you in the first place.

When you first reach them by phone, ask open-ended questions about their intentions with the property. If they have no interest whatsoever in selling to you, now or ever, you can mark them as a dead lead. But before you cross through the lead with a red marker, make sure you’ve explored every eventuality. 

Are they open to selling in the future? You can instead put them on a long-term contact drip campaign, that simply follows up with them every other month or so. 

Do they want to continue living in the property? Perhaps they’d be open to a lease-buyback, as a distressed homeowner.

In addition to the property’s address, ask about its condition. Also ask about any liens against the property and loan balances. These will help you pre-qualify the lead. 

Pre-Qualify the Lead

If you just now got the property address, run initial comps on it. You won’t know the precise value, either as-is or after repairs, without having seen the property, knowing the exact condition and how it compares to others nearby. But for now it helps to have a broad sense of the property value. 

In our business, we only look at leads with combined mortgage balances under 80% of the after-repair value (ARV). If the combined lien balances are below 80% of ARV, we can dig deeper to see if there’s a way to structure a deal. 

Otherwise, we refer the lead to a real estate agent. 

Refer to a Realtor

When the numbers just don’t make sense, you can potentially earn a referral fee by connecting the prospect with a real estate agent. Or referring them to a bankruptcy attorney or other service provider, for that matter.

Set up a drip campaign on REsimpli called “Agent Referral” to automatically follow up once a month or so with your Realtor partner. It might send an automated email to the real estate agent in 30 days, and then 30 days later remind you to call them, and so on. 

Again, you want to make sure these leads — and possible referral fees — don’t fall through the cracks. 

Call the Lead Back, Schedule an Appointment

If the loan balances add up to less than 80% of the ARV, call the lead back to learn more. 

It’s at this point that you fully qualify the lead. 

Ask probing questions to dig into the details of a potential deal. You want to fully understand the seller’s situation, including any distress they’re experiencing. Use tact, discretion, and empathy in these qualifying conversations. We follow the SPIN technique of asking questions to qualify the lead: Situation questions, Problem questions, Implication questions, and Need-payoff questions. These not only uncover all the information you need, but they also lead the prospect to their own conclusion that selling to you serves their best interest. 

If the deal sounds promising, schedule an appointment to view the property. Schedule it for the soonest possible time, to keep the prospect’s attention and keep the deal moving forward.

If you can’t get ahold of the prospect again, put them on a follow-up drip campaign. This will stay in contact with the prospect through a combination of automated emails, text messages, phone call reminders, and eventually direct mail. 

No lead left behind!

Final Thoughts

The key to capitalizing on every lead that comes in is building a series of drip campaigns for each scenario. Automate the outreach as much as possible, with reminders for you to call the lead when appropriate. 

The greater the percentage of your leads that you can convert into appointments and offers, the more deals you’ll close. That keeps your profits high and your cost per closing low, which in turn lets you expand your marketing campaigns — and bring in more leads. 

Maximize your profits per lead, and you’ll quickly scale your real estate investing business.