Which lead sources provide Realtors® the best results?

Have you been paying extra for Zillow and Trulia premium services? Or scouring Craigslist trying to find new leads?

You’re not alone. In the latest quarter, Realtors® and brokers subscribing to premium services have spent more than $33 million.

However, according to the 2014 Imprev Thought Leader survey, brokers view leads their Realtors® already have as much more valuable.

In the survey, Imprev asked more than 270 broker-owners and executives to rate lead sources based on the quality or ROI of the lead.

Of those responding, 86 percent said an agent’s sphere of influence, like past clients and referrals, offers exceptional value, with the remaining 14 percent listing it as reasonable value. No responders cited an agent’s sphere of influence as having low or no value.

Meanwhile, for offering exceptional value, only eight percent cited Zillow, seven percent for Realtor.com®, five percent cited Craigslist and only four percent gave Trulia the highest marks.

“A real estate agent’s best lead is organic,” said Renwick Congdon, chief executive officer of Imprev. “It comes directly from his or her sphere of influence, company or personal web site, and through local marketing, such as yard signs, flyers and open houses.”

In addition to organic lead sources, 32 percent of responders rated a broker’s website as an exceptional value for business, and local marketing came in third with 27 percent of responders deeming that flyers, open houses, walk-ins and so forth are giving them an exceptional ROI.

Also worth noting is that 70 percent of responders found social media (such as Facebook) as having “exceptional” or “reasonable” value, compared to 58 percent for Zillow, 49 percent for Trulia and 46 percent for Realtor.com®.

“Real estate leaders are telling us their agents already have the gold, they just need to mine it,” Congdon said. “The nurturing of organic leads from capture to transaction is crucial, and an area that I believe is not adequately embraced by the typical real estate agent.”