What conversion rate should real estate agents expect when they purchase leads?

No matter how experienced a real estate agent is, he or she relies on leads for business growth. And, since a National Association of Realtors survey showed that 53% of buyers in 2019 used an agent that was either referred to them or was someone they used in the past, that means that about half of all buyers (47%) are available to any agent willing to compete for them.

But industry professionals report that there’s a misconception among agents about conversion rates. “There’s a preconceived notion in the industry that when a consumer crosses the anonymity barrier online – they’re interested in a property and want to receive more information – the expectation is that 100% of those consumers are going to be ready to purchase or sell within a matter of days or weeks,” said Prem Luthra, CEO of Elm Street Technology, a real estate technology and marketing solutions provider based in Dallas. “What we typically do to manage expectations on behalf of our lead generation customers is to tell them that if we generate 30 leads for you in a given month, you should expect anywhere from 1% to 3% of those leads to do some sort of transaction within 120 days.”

What about the other 97% to 99% – the consumers who expressed interest but aren’t ready to purchase right now?