Whether you’re a seasoned real estate agent looking to expand your reach or a newcomer eager to establish your digital footprint, ahead we delve into the best real estate lead generation websites for 2023.
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), some 96% of homebuyers use the internet in their home search. Increasingly, real estate agents understand the significance of optimizing their online presence to attract leads. After all, nearly all real estate agents have a website, and reports show that credibility is built through multiple modes of digital communication — from mobile-friendly property pages to responsive emails and real-time listing updates.
5 must-have website lead gen features
Placester
PropertyBase
Sierra Interactive
iNCOM
BoomTown
Zillow Premier Agent
CINC
Conclusion
Our methodology
FAQs
5 must-have features for real estate lead generation websites
Before we dig into the best real estate websites for lead generation, we want to highlight some of the key features and functions that will turn your real estate website into a lead-generating machine. These include:
Email capture capabilities: Ideally, you’ll want to have the ability to capture leads (get visitors’ email addresses) using pop-ups, gated content or gated listings search. You can also offer downloadable lead magnets like your list of preferred appraisers, lenders, handymen or home stagers. The goal: to stay in touch with any and all visitors to your website.
Buyer and seller-specific landing pages: You’ll want a site that offers visitor-specific content pages. For example, buyers will want to browse listings while home sellers visiting your site will appreciate your free home valuations. Don’t simply direct traffic to your homepage — give prospects and leads what they’re looking for right away.
CRM Integration + Automated drip campaigns: A solid CRM that can leap into action and contact site visitors via text or email immediately after they’ve shared their contact information on your website, ensuring you never lose a prospect by waiting too long to make contact with them.
Excellence in branding: Your real estate website can generate leads by effectively communicating your brand and value to every site visitor.
Mobile-friendly design: Like many of us, homebuyers are constantly on the go. Your target client is likely a busy professional juggling personal and work responsibilities and hopping from one Open House to the next on the weekends. Real estate agents today must be able to attract real estate leads where they live — on their phone, where most browsing, researching, sharing and home comparisons occur.
Best real estate websites for lead generation: At-a-glance
Real estate websites for lead generation
Starting Price
Best for
$79/month
Done-for-you support team and marketing services
$79/month
Lead scoring and creating “sticky” customer relations
Advanced IDX feed integration
$49.95 per month plus $249.95 setup fee
Cost-effective IDX integration
No minimum monthly fee
Matching with buyers
$900 for solo plans to $1,500 for up to 49 users; brokerages of 50+ users inquire for custom pricing
Hyperlocal leads
1. Placester
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Starting price: $79/month
Notable features:
Marketing support team to help with daily tasks
IDX integration
CRM tools
Pros:
30-day free trial
Offers a marketing support team
Unlimited page creation
Content creation services included in the highest package
Interested agents can book a demo from the button
Cons:
Do-It-For-Me services have a $500 setup fee and higher monthly subscription
Templates lack customizability on their homepage
Placester is a real estate agent’s key to exceptional lead generation. It comes with a hands-free, Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) package that helps any agente craft a custom website in just 48 hours – no matter how tech savvy you are (or aren’t). This innovative service is great for the individual agent looking to level-up their online presence, and it also offers significant advantages for teams and brokerages.
Looking at the pros and cons, Placester stands out as a fast and affordable real estate website builder, especially with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) discount. It allows code-free site editing, which provides a good number of customizations, even in the less expensive Do-It-Yourself (DIY) package.
Yet, for lead generation specifically, Placester’s templates provide built-in lead-generation functionality, such as custom landing pages, hyperlocal community pages and testimonials.
There’s also the seamless integration of a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, which helps you nurture your email list with features like auto-response, email drip and blast campaigns.
Additionally, Placester’s DIFM + Content plan boosts organic traffic through search engine-optimized blogs and social content. All in all, Placester’s DIFM package is a compelling solution for real estate professionals looking to supercharge their lead generation efforts with a hassle-free website.
2. PropertyBase
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Starting price: $79/month
Notable features:
Salesforce-based CRM
Transaction reporting
Contact forms, pop-ups and landing pages
Pros:
Custom client CRM pipelines
Built-in hyperlocal SEO features
Interested agents can book a demo from the button on their homepage
Cons:
Minimum of 10 users (ideal for brokerages)
IDX integration comes with an additional fee
Inconsistent customer service
With pricing starting at just $79 per user, per month, Propertybase offers an accessible all-in-one marketing solution for real estate lead generation.
Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of PropertyBase is that it merges top-tier IDX integration with a Salesforce-based CRM. This dynamic combination helps agents and brokers keep their pages updated with the latest MLS listings and direct all interested website visitors to a database where their lifetime relationship (and value) can be documented.
Additionally, PropertyBase packs some serious SEO power, along with built-in lead capture tools that collect email addresses through contact forms, gated pop-ups, and landing pages. There’s also an extra feature for “agent stickiness,” which ensures that once a lead’s information is captured, they are assigned to one of your team members in the CRM, allowing for more consistent, personalized interactions.
Finally, PropertyBase’s CRM provides a lead scoring tool, helping agents better prioritize their incoming clients. For example, if listings are scarce, you can filter for listing leads over buyer leads. Through BoldLeads, a proprietary PropertyBase tool, you also have the flexibility to toggle paid leads on and off, depending on your budget and business requirements.
3. Sierra Interactive
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Starting price: Must inquire
Notable features:
Standout SEO features to improve organic traffic
Specific IDX filter tags (attract better qualified leads)
Pros:
Book a demo from the button on their homepage
Reports high conversion rates
Unlimited pages
Allows multiple MLS feeds
Cons:
Limited marketing automation
Lack of personalized onboarding
Spotty customer service
Though priced slightly higher at $499.95 per month, Sierra Interactive stands as an all-in-one lead generation solution catering to real estate agents in higher-end luxury markets. Its top-quality websites are not only sleek, upscale and elegant, but are expertly designed for SEO, driving organic traffic and providing a competitive edge.
The integrated CRM suggests automated action plans for incoming leads, guaranteeing timely and strategic communication. In addition to SEO, Sierra Interactive’s lead generation power is fueled through ad tooling. Your monthly subscription grants you up to $1,000 in free Google Ads management, access for five users and the ability to use hundreds of templates for your website, whether for property pages or community pages, buyer pages, seller pages and blogs.
4. iNCOM
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Starting price: $49.95/month + $249.95 startup fee
Notable features:
No commitment
Personalized ads targeting
Pros:
Affordable with no commitment
Great SEO functionality
Call or fill out their online form to get to a sales agent & demo
Cons:
Limited design options
Less-than-stellar CRM
At just $49.95 per month, iNCOM presents a budget-friendly solution for real estate professionals, particularly suited for those looking to attract more real estate leads. It offers unmatched affordability with no long-term commitments, unique IDX search options like foreclosures and recently sold properties, and easy lead export to other CRMs. However, the CRM options are somewhat limited, and there are relatively few website templates.
iNCOM offers a basic package for a typical single agent at $49.95 per month, along with a $250 setup fee. Additional services for paid Google or Facebook ad management are available at $100 per month, plus ad spend.
It also earns a nod for stickiness: its notable ReCall Marketing feature periodically re-targets website visitors with personalized ads on other sites, helping your business stay top-of-mind during your clients’ home search.
5. Zillow Premier Agent
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Starting price: Free to join, but pay per lead
Notable features:
Plans for individual agent, small teams and brokerages
Improve discoverability and brand recognition with a Zillow profile
Access to Zillow and Trulia’s audience and data
Pros:
User-friendly dashboard
Easily connects agents to buyers
No minimum monthly spend
Cons:
Cost per lead is comparatively high
Lacks all-in-one marketing tools other platforms have
Targeted at real estate agents and brokers, Zillow Premier Agent is particularly well-suited for those focused on representing buyers. It’s also a valuable choice for agents who don’t already have an extensive sphere of influence for referral leads.
The platform provides a dashboard for tracking team performance and custom lead routing through its agent CRM. Users praise the concierge features of the Zillow platform, such as call vetting before transferring leads to agents and access to a buyer’s previous search information upon receiving the lead.
That said, Zillow Premier Agent’s cost per lead can be steep, influenced by the competition and ZIP code. Negative reviews primarily revolve around this cost, combined with poor lead quality and low conversion rates due to window shoppers.
Agents who use Zillow Premier Agent should expect to consistently nurture the leads they receive, as exclusivity is not the norm. Smaller teams may face challenges for this reason, especially when competing with larger brokerages with more extensive budgets and potentially long-standing relationships.
6. CINC
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Starting price: $900
Notable features:
Google and Facebook integration
Automated workflows
Team trainings, masterminds and live workshops
“Guaranteed Sales” program
Pros:
Comprehensive CRM
Advanced demographic targeting
No contract required
Guaranteed return on investment in the first year
Cons:
Not ideal for solo agents
Slightly more expensive than other options
CINC is one of the top choices for real estate lead generation, with many professionals in the industry considering it a powerhouse. While other platforms cast a wide net, CINC sources leads primarily from Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram), thereby targeting your desired demographics with more precision.
Hyperlocal marketing is the name of the game when it comes to landing real estate leads. It’s more than simply knowing a future client’s desired zip code, but also their favorite delis, coffee shops and grocery stores. Such street-by-street client behaviors provide more insights into where someone may buy a home than meets the eye.
CINC is an all-in-one solution that seamlessly integrates these hyper-local, targeted marketing strategies with IDX websites and a comprehensive CRM system. CINC’s AutoTrack feature also provides helpful marketing automation, taking lead nurturing a step further with behavior-driven follow-ups. In addition to automated email and text campaigns, the system provides smart suggestions after each communication with potential or former clients to optimize conversion strategies.
While CINC’s subscriptions can be on the expensive side, the value it offers still makes it an attractive choice. And for those concerned about the cost, CINC’s Guaranteed Sales Program helps ease some of that worry by offering a risk-free return on investment. Unveiled in August 2023, the program ensures that participants fully recoup their investment and attain six-figure earnings within 24 months.
CINC will even provide the platform for free until the minimum transaction requirement is met if such earnings aren’t achieved within the first year. While all business investments inherently involve some risk, CINC’s guarantee offers a small safety net for those interested in taking the leap.
Conclusion
In today’s fast-paced real estate market, staying ahead of the tech curve is not just a matter of choice, but an imperative for success. With the digital landscape evolving at breakneck speed, real estate professionals are continually seeking the most effective tools and strategies to generate leads, connect with potential clients and close deals.
Thankfully, the world of real estate lead generation has evolved significantly over the years, and the digital landscape now offers an abundance of opportunities to connect with prospective homeowners and homebuyers online. The best lead generation website ultimately depends on your unique circumstances and objectives. It’s important to assess your specific requirements, budget constraints and the nature of your target audience before making a decision about the best real estate website for lead generation for your business.
Our methodology
HousingWire is the destination for industry leaders and decision makers to stay informed and stay ahead of what’s going on in the constantly evolving U.S. housing industry.
To determine which real estate lead websites are best for lead generation for industry professionals, HousingWire analyzed dozens of products and platforms, viewed demos, and spoke with agents on our team, weighing the pros and cons of each alongside both quantitative and qualitative data like price, notable features, ease of use, return on investment, client support, and customer reviews.
We crawled the web so you don’t have to, analyzing a wide sampling of reviews across social media, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and online discussion forums.
Best real estate lead generation websites: FAQs
What is the best website for real estate leads?
Determining the absolute best website for real estate leads can be a subjective matter, as it largely depends on the specific needs and preferences of real estate professionals. Several platforms excel in lead generation, such as Zillow Premier Agent, PropertyBase, Sierra Interactive and iNCOM, while other companies focus on designing the best-looking real estate websites.
To find the right fit, real estate agents should consider factors like their target audience, budget and preferred lead sources. Ultimately, the best website for real estate leads is one that aligns with your objectives, that’s easy to set up and use, and that offers effective lead generation tools.
Where do real estate agents get most of their leads?
Real estate agents obtain leads from various sources. Traditionally, agents have relied on referrals from past clients, word-of-mouth recommendations, and networking. In the digital age, online platforms like Zillow, Realtor.com, and real estate websites have become significant sources of leads. Social media, paid advertising, and search engine optimization (SEO) also contribute to lead generation. Finally, real estate agents may partner with lead generation companies or purchase leads from these companies to bolster their pipeline. The key is diversifying lead sources to maintain a steady flow of potential clients.
How do you generate real estate leads online?
Generating real estate leads online involves a multifaceted approach. Some essential strategies include:
Website and SEO: Create an attractive and informative real estate website optimized for search engines (SEO). This helps attract organic traffic and potential leads.
Social media marketing: Utilize platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn to reach a wider audience. Choose the platform that best reaches your ideal buyer and demographic. Share engaging content, run targeted ads and engage with your followers so that you’re always top-of-mind whenever they’re ready to buy or sell a home
Paid advertising: Invest in online advertising campaigns, such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads, to capture leads actively searching for real estate information.
Email marketing: Build an email list and send regular updates, newsletters and property listings to potential clients.
Content marketing: Publish blog posts, videos and other content that provides valuable information about real estate. This can establish you as an industry expert and attract leads.
Lead generation companies: Partner with lead generation companies that specialize in providing qualified leads to real estate professionals.
