How to get real
estate leads.

NAR’s member survey says the typical REALTOR earned 20% of their business from repeat clients and 21% from referrals. Among agents with 16 or more years in, 40% said repeat clients were more than half their business.

So the first job is a clean list: everyone you have helped buy or sell, everyone you know by name, and how to reach them. Touch each one at least four times a year with something useful about their home, such as what sold on their street.

Median gross income for REALTORS with two years or less was $8,100, and $78,900 for those with 16 years or more. The typical member closed 10 transaction sides in 2024.

A new agent with no closings cannot buy leads and survive. Start with open houses for other agents in your office, your sphere and a farm of 200 homes. Buy leads once a closing can pay for them.

An open house puts live prospects in a room for the cost of an afternoon. Host for a listing agent if you have no listings of your own, sign in every visitor, and follow up within a day.

NAR’s consumer guide says a buyer signs a written agreement before touring a home with an agent, and that visiting an open house alone does not need one. So the open house is where you can meet a buyer with nothing to sign.

These are the two listing lead lists every trainer teaches, and both run through the Do Not Call rules. Check every number first. If it is on the registry and you are calling to win the listing, write or knock instead.

Keep your expectations straight on the FSBO side. NAR says FSBOs were 5% of sellers in 2025, and 60% of them knew their buyer, so many of those sales had a buyer before anyone could call.

LocaliQ’s residential agent row shows a median $157.59 a lead, at $3.19 a click and a 1.29% conversion rate. Clicks are cheap for real estate and landing pages convert badly, so the money is in the page and the follow-up.

If you close 1 lead in 30, that is $4,727.70 in ads per closing. Put your own close rate in that sum before you spend. A portal lead that you reach in two days is not the same lead as one you reach in two minutes.

NAR’s 2025 Profile says 88% of buyers and 91% of sellers used an agent, so the demand for an agent is not the problem. The buyer has to think of you first, which is what your list, your open houses and your paid leads are each for.