Yes “lead capture” is a numbers game. I just talked to a telemarketer from one of the big third party sites. It is estimated that the site gets less than 9% of the real estate traffic which I think is a percentage of all of the people who look at real estate content on line.
That 9% includes aunt Sally who wants to see pictures of the house down the street because there isn’t any way anyone will ever let her inside. The traffic also includes Jerry who has a paper route and a lot of college debt but as he sits in his parents basement he dreams of owning a home one day.
I digress. I was told that this particular site had 6,000 inquires in one zip code in one month. I looked up the zip code in our MLS and discovered that 6 homes received offers last month and 36 homes were listed in that zip code.
There were likely a total of 70,000 inquires if we calculate that 6000 is about 9% of the total traffic the other 91% comes to 70K . . this is a crude and not totally accurate calculation but I wanted to use nice round numbers like 9%, 91% and 70K.
Based on my calculations if an agent can capture 70,000 leads he or she could end up with 36 listings and 6 sales. If I bought a zip code that translates into 6K leads and 3.24 listings and half of a sale.
A half a sale a month is better than no sale a month. However we really have no way of knowing if any of the estimated 70K people who made an inquiry bought or listed any home at all in that zip code or in any other zip code.
It could be that the site attracts the 9% of the traffic that is composed of nosey neighbors and people who like to look at houses and never buy one or of people who buy a home but not in that zipcode.
Should I buy a zip code?