Internet Leads - Are You Missing the E-Boat?

I read a post on another real estate coach’s blog today (http://richlevinblog.com/2006/09/14/wwwrichlevincom.aspx) about internet leads that caused me to start thinking about why some Realtors are more successful than others when it comes to closing internet leads.

In his post, Rich describes an agent who has closed 4 houses from internet leads, 3 of whom never even viewed the homes.  The agent isn’t by any means a tech genius, just a good solid agent who responds to leads immediately.  Many of the leads mentioned that she was the only Realtor who responded to them!  She can tell how interested the lead is by the questions they ask.  If they’re interested in a specific home, she usually emails them pictures of the neighborhood!

What does this post clarify?  Communication and Qualification of the internet lead are directly related to your success rate! 

Your intial communication should be as quick as possible and via email.  Many Realtors will be tempted to call the internet lead if they provide an phone number.  This could be seen as a breach of e-etiquette - they contacted you via email, which means that most likely is their preferred means of communication!  I would recommend that you wait until later in the relationship for phone use!  Timing is also very important.  Many internet leads send multiple emails to different agents or will move on to another Realtor website if they don’t hear back from the intial Realtor in a timely manner, so if you wait for a day to send a reply, you’ve most likely lost the lead!  I’m still amazed by the number of Realtors who still only check their email once or twice a day at the office between appointments.  With all of the various mobile platforms available for email (Blackberry, Treo, etc.), you could have your email on your hip or purse for less than the commission earned from 1 internet lead! 

Qualification of the lead is the second part of internet lead success.  Just like a lead from any other source, Realtors need to ask the right question regarding financial qualifications, motivation and timeframe for the buyer.  The challenge can be determining when to ask those questions.  If you try to ask about their financial qualifications in your inital reply you might offend.  My reccomendation is to try to tie it to additional services finding some other homes that they might also like information on, if they can reveal their price range to you.  Anyway you cut it, its a delicate dance - obtaining information without offending!

So, if you’re not closing your share of interent leads take a look at your communication and qualifying skills - maybe with some slight improvements you can increase your success rate and internet lead success!