I am interested to know what percentage of the leads you get would you say close?

These leads can be from anywhere, word of mouth, SOI, referrals, websites, newspapers, etc

VacationGuy made me think about our conversion rates as agents. many of the coaches that I know say that agents have horrible lead conversion rates. i know that to be true from personal experience, however i disqualify most leads that come in as i try and be particular about only working with truly qualified people.

I've been tracking this since I re-entered real estate in February by using index cards. Everytime I get a lead, I write down their name and basic information on a card (simple & lo-tech, I know) and then go through the stack of cards every week or so. I'm amazed how many people I forget about, very quickly, and the cards help me remember to follow up, when appropriate.

But here's the thing... Only a few of the names on my cards are dead prospects - maybe 20%; most are still out there and probably will buy or sell (with me) at some point.

However, since most of my business comes directly or indirectly from my SOI, or people who have tracked me down (as opposed to my going after them with advertising, farming, lead generation, etc.), there is already a relationship between us. I'd suspect that my lead conversion rate (thru the years) is around 50%. They just always don't buy or sell right away.

That's fine - I like a full pipeline!

I hope that more people complete this survey. It is a very interesting theory. My wife does all of my marketing and profitablitily from the marketing. She is always telling me that my goal should be at minimum 10%. Of course we work strictly from the internet right now. 10% would be AWSOME, I think she said it is more like 2-3%. This year is showing to be a bit better than last!

Paul

For the purposes of this survey, what's the definition of 'lead?'

For instance, if I signed up for an aggregate lead referral system online, I could track to the decimal point how many of those 'leads' resulted in a sale.

However, would a friend of a friend be considered a lead?

How about the neighbor down the street who mentioned they might want to sell in the next few months?

How about a referral from a past client?

How about an Internet referral from the office that leads to a dead email and phone number?

See where I'm heading with this?

how about if we consider a lead to be, someone who calls or emails you specifically stating that they are intrested in buying or selling real estate?

I couldn't possible give you a percentage of 'leads' closed personally. Though I can tell you which leads are more valuable than others, and I rank and prioritize them in my database accordingly. A past client is best. A referral from a past client is next best. A 'solid' office referral is usually very good... such as a relocation. A referral from one of my preferred lenders is general VERY good. A member of my direct SOI is pretty solid. A referral from my SOI is also usually good. After that it gets pretty dicey. Face-to-face meetings are next best... an open house can bring good prospects... but now we're WAY under 50% conversion. I'd be happy if I had a 5% conversion for open house visitors. Sign calls, internet leads, floor duty or phone time calls have a very low percentage. Though I did get my very first career listing off the office phone!

Dead on accurate. My lowest conversion rates are floor calls, open house visitors and web inquiries.

The best source of leads for me is online classified ads in major cities. I convert between 15 and 20% of those. But the online classifieds aren't very popular in my immediate market so phone leads are the best at 2-4% conversion.

Interestingly I listened to the Mike Ferry interview with Karen Bernardi posted in that OTHER thread... she mentioned that about 56% of her business comes directly from past clients. Now THAT'S a report that I don't doubt for one moment!

That client base is gold. Assuming we did a decent enough job that they'd want to hire us again, that is.

This is good stuff

I'm looking for ways to increase the amount of closings from leads off of my websites. I was intrested to know if my conversion rates were in line with everyone elses.

My conversion rates have been what I feel is extremly low this year, but i'm probably getting more leads than ever?

Perhaps its the current economic conditions of my local market?

Are you getting mostly buyer leads from your web site?

Since the lending requirements have tightened up so dramatically it wouldn't surprise me that Internet lead generation is UP while conversion rates are way down. Many of those folks who could get pre-approved for the home of their dreams six months ago are now wandering around loanless with no agent... but probably doing a lot of Internet searching on their own... leaving their contact info all over the place to be picked up by these great 'lead generation' sites.

actually both buyer and seller leads. But more buyer leads than seller leads.

I agree with you I think a lot of these people are agent less, but probably are loanless too

We can give the percentage based on the communication procedure an agent has with the client or a buyer. If everything goes good, then, it turns out to 100% right?
We at Sharpe Properties have not calculated the percentage but, I can surely say that the communication helps a lot in every case.