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Let’s face it — a healthy pipeline of leads is the lifeblood of any successful real estate business. Buying real estate leads is one of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to build a new business or breathe life into a long-established one. If you’re looking to expand your client list quickly, buying real estate leads is the fast track you need. Some providers on our list even offer a guaranteed monthly volume of exclusive leads.
We’ll show you how and where to buy real estate leads based on our in-depth evaluation of dozens of providers. As experienced agents, we’ve spent money on high-quality, exclusive leads — and we’ve wasted money on cold leads that didn’t pan out. We want you to learn from our experience so you can avoid unnecessary spending. We considered lead quality and exclusivity, affordability, ROI, practicality and ease of use. Let’s get started!
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From $189 / month + $30-$50/lead
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~$500/month
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A la carte w/ lead packages from $50
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$300 – $1,000+ / month + lead costs
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From $899 / month for solo agents
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Set up is free; you pay at closing
From $189 / month + $30-$50/lead
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~$500/month
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A la carte w/ lead packages from $50
Jump to details ↓
$300 – $1,000+ / month + lead costs
Jump to details ↓
From $899 / month for solo agents
Jump to details ↓
Set up is free; you pay at closing
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Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Market Leader has a reputation for being an industry-leading tool suite for real estate marketing. It dishes everything from email and SMS marketing to effective lead capture forms and an integrated CRM system. Market Leader’s in-house ad experts help generate exclusive real estate leads through social media and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.
Market Leader’s all-in-one system offers a comprehensive real estate lead generation solution, including a lead-generating IDX website, CRM, and marketing automation. Market Leader focuses on nurturing leads for long-term client relationships, making it great for a solo agent just starting to build their book of business.
The best thing about Market Leader is that they guarantee exclusive leads are delivered to you each month. Market Leader takes the reins, generating the leads and delivering them directly to your CRM each month without you lifting a finger. And they do it at a price even a relatively new agent can afford. You can even opt in for Market Leader’s social media ad program, Network Boost, to generate affordable, top-of-the-funnel leads and let the automation keep you top-of-mind until those leads are closer to a transaction. Market Leader’s exclusive lead guarantee, automated lead nurturing tools and affordable social media leads offer excellent value for newer and mid-career agents.
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Market Leader Review
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5
SmartZip uses predictive analytics, big data and a scoring system to predict potential sellers likely to move within the next 18 months. It aggregates data from more than 25 sources and uses its predictive analytics to determine the homeowners most likely to move, maintaining a 72% accuracy in its predictions. It’s an ideal solution for agents who want purchase large numbers of affordable, high-intent seller leads and automated marketing tools to nurture them for the long haul.
Pricing for SmartZip can be customized to fit your budget. Whether you’re a solo agent or a growing team, you can choose the number of leads that will work best, from 350 to more than 7,000 leads per month. The average cost per lead (CPL) is $0.35, plus a one-time setup fee of $396 and a monthly platform fee of $99. Marketing Add-ons include social media ads, print mailers and handwritten notes. Many agents report an average monthly spend of over $1,000 on qualified leads.
SmartZip is a platform designed to make seller lead generation easy for agents. When combined with its SmartTargeting product, SmartZip can potentially elevate any agent’s game within their geographic farm. Choose as few as 350 leads per month to get started and easily scale over time as your business flourishes or your farm area expands. SmartZip’s automated print and digital marketing tools help nurture leads on autopilot until they’re ready to speak with an agent.
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SmartZip Review
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5
REDX is a lead platform that helps you take control of your business. With REDX, you only pay for the type of leads you’re interested in, and they’re delivered to your lead management system every time you log in. REDX gives you complete control over your lead supply without a commitment, so you can scale your business at a comfortable pace. While experienced prospectors and cold callers will get the most from REDX leads, the affordable, à la carte lead packages make it a solid option for hungry new agents as well.
Agents can buy REDX leads individually at $60 per lead type, per month, or choose bundled packages that include all lead types starting at $199 per month ($50 per lead type). Optional software upgrades, like the single-line dialer, are available à la carte starting at $99 per month.
A la carte lead packages
A la carte software pricing
Bundled leads + software packages
REDX is a straightforward, pay-for-what-you-want lead source. And the leads are decent for any agent willing to put in the work to convert them. To be clear, these leads haven’t come through a pipeline or been nurtured until they’re warm. These are the leads you need to pick up the phone and call, and then put into your CRM to start the nurturing process. They will take more work to convert, but any agent who has developed those muscles will appreciate the inexpensive lead source and the pipeline they can quickly build.
We also love how REDX’s lead packages come with enhanced lead data, including home equity, neighborhood demographic information, mortgage status and auction dates for pre-foreclosure leads. REDX’s extensive online training resources round out the package for newer agents or those new to cold calling.
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Zillow Premier Agent is still the biggest game in town when it comes to buyer leads. The program is designed to help agents connect with buyers, improve their brand recognition and convert leads into clients. As a Zillow Premier Agent, your display ads appear next to listings in your chosen ZIP codes. Many Zillow users are actively seeking both a property to purchase AND an agent to represent them. Unlike generic Facebook or Google ads, the leads you’ll get from Zillow are further along in their buying journey.
Note that price per lead can vary widely based on location and the number of other agents in your area. Leads are also shared among agents who share your zip code. This makes Zillow Premier Agent a better fit for teams and brokerages with a substantial marketing budget (and even better follow-up skills) who need a large volume of leads for their agents.
Zillow Premier Agent is a powerful tool for real estate professionals looking to boost their online presence, as long as you know how to use it to your advantage. Beyond lead generation, Zillow Premier Agent offers a suite of tools, including a CRM with a mobile app, analytics to measure your results, an ROI calculator and a direct integration with Follow Up Boss. It’s an excellent way to increase exposure and steadily grow your lead volume, connecting you with Zillow’s partners like Trulia, Streeteasy and RealEstate.com.
We also love Zillow’s lead quality. In our experience, Zillow leads are generally closer to a transaction than leads from other sources. Agents love to complain about cold leads from Zillow, but those who prioritize speed to lead and personal touches tend to have much higher conversion rates with Zillow leads.
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Zillow Premier Agent Review
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5
CINC is an all-in-one real estate lead generation and nurturing platform focusing on hyperlocal leads. If you want to be the go-to agent in your farm area, CINC might be an excellent option for buying real estate leads in your specific location.
Like Zurple and Market Leader, CINC offers agents an end-to-end solution, including optimized IDX websites, a robust CRM, automated follow-up and lead generation for both buyers and sellers. CINC features agents as the go-to experts in their hyperlocal area through pay-per-click (PPC) and social media advertising. While CINC’s price per lead is often lower than Market Leader or Zillow, the higher minimum monthly spends make CINC best suited for experienced agents and teams.
Unlike other platforms, CINC leads are included in the price. So you’ll always know how much you’re spending each month with no surprises.
CINC stands out as a powerful all-in-one IDX website, lead generation and nurturing platform delivering high-quality, hyperlocal leads to agents using the service. When agents sign up for their designated geographic or property-type niche, they instantly look like neighborhood experts thanks to the extensive marketing initiatives and content provided on the CINC sites.
Though CINC might not be affordable for every agent, pricing is comparable to providers that charge a flat monthly fee and charge extra for leads. When you break down the price per lead, CINC’s pricing is competitive with most providers on our list.
We also love how seriously CINC takes helping agents improve their lead conversion and nurturing skills. They offer extensive in-person and online masterminds and webinars to help agents maximize their conversion rates with CINC leads.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5
Sold.com is a pay-at-closing referral lead generation system. It entices would-be sellers by promising a cash offer on their home. When a prospect enters their information into the lead capture form, they’re matched up with a real estate agent to help them through the home-selling process.
For agents, they’re connected with hot seller leads they can work with without any upfront cost. They only pay for the referrals when the deals close.
Setting up a profile on SOLD.com is free. When you close a lead from Sold.com, you pay a 30-35% referral fee based on your gross commission from the deal.
Sold.com is a pay-at-closing real estate lead generation company so agents can take advantage of all the leads, work them for however long it takes and not have to worry about paying for the leads until they actually get to the closing table. For agents looking for a cost-effective way to get deals, you can’t get much easier than Sold.com. Sold.com’s pay-at-closing leads are ideal for experienced agents who want to pad their CRM with warm referral leads.
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When determining which sources for buying real estate leads are best for real estate professionals, HousingWire’s team of experienced agents and brokers evaluated dozens of platforms, weighing the pros and cons of each alongside both quantitative and qualitative data like price, special features, ease of use, return on investment, client support and customer reviews.
We crawled the web so you don’t have to, analyzing a broad sampling of reviews across social media, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and online discussion forums. Our goal is to arm you with the best place to buy real estate leads, no matter what type of leads you’re looking for.
It really depends on the sales style of the real estate agent as to where they get most of their leads. An effective real estate lead generation strategy blends leads from several sources.
For example, you can buy real estate leads from one or more platforms alongside traditional strategies like networking, tapping into your sphere of influence and seeking out referrals. Don’t forget to consider some free lead-generation techniques like social media and YouTube videos.
Experienced agents generally purchase a mix of affordable high-funnel leads with long nurture times, and pricier warm leads they can work right away. This strategy ensures a stream of leads who are close to a transaction without breaking the bank on expensive warm leads.
The way to determine if buying real estate leads works for you and your business is to evaluate your monthly return on investment. If you spend $500 monthly on lead generation but close one or more transactions each month from the leads you purchased, your return on investment will be positive. But it’s also important to scrutinize each lead source to ensure you’re getting the best return from all of your lead generation efforts.
For example, if you are getting leads from multiple paid sources, it’s important to keep track of how many leads from each paid source you close so you can decide if your budget could be maximized with a different lead source.
How much real estate professionals spend on buying real estate leads depends on their business level. Mid-career agents often spend upwards of $1000 each month on leads, while more experienced agents spend less since they almost always rely on referrals for the bulk of their business.
If you’re just starting out, you don’t want to overspend because you will have a harder time converting and closing each lead.
It makes a lot of sense to diversify your lead generation to include some free and low-cost options until you get a couple of transactions under your belt. There’s nothing wrong with starting out by sitting open houses, cold-calling FSBOs and expireds, or networking in your community.
Couple that with a solid and consistent social media campaign to get the ball rolling. You can consider scaling your business with paid leads once you build enough cash reserves for a bigger marketing budget.
You can scale your business once you get some processes in place to handle the influx of paid leads without letting too many slip through the cracks.
Believe it or not, many Realtors never pay for leads. They rely on referrals and repeat business from their past clients. That will come once you’ve been in the industry for a few years. In the meantime, you’ll most likely start with the people in your sphere of influence who already know, like and trust you. That’s the fastest and easiest way to drum up your first few deals.
Think of places you go regularly or local groups you interact with online. Do you attend church? Do you participate in volunteer work, hobby groups or social networks? Are you involved in sports or your children’s school? Get in the habit of telling everyone about your career path and encourage questions about the industry to show off your growing local expertise.
Once you have some experience working with buyers, you can slowly add paid leads to the mix. Many new agents start with buyer leads from Market Leader or Zillow, while others practice their cold-calling skills with affordable expired listing leads from REDX.
Honestly, yes. Zillow is the single greatest source of hot buyer leads. It’s the most searched database for homes in the U.S. and beyond. If you want to get in front of all those buyers, Zillow is where you need to be. You might get a lot of leads that are not quite ready to buy, but they’re looking ahead and anticipating (and maybe dreaming about) their next move. Regardless, nearly all buyers and sellers start their journey on Zillow.
Many leads from Zillow could have a lead time of six to 12 months, so you’ll want to set up an effective (and ideally automated) system to stay in close contact with them. Check out our favorite lead-nurturing strategies and marketing tools.
The secret is not to lose touch with your network of leads or rely too heavily on automated tools. To stay top of mind, it’s a great idea to reach out with a friendly phone call every so often.
According to NAR, real estate agents convert leads at a rate of 0.4% to 1.2%, which isn’t a heartening statistic. But this goes back to what I mentioned earlier about honing your conversion, nurturing and closing skills. Get comfortable talking to people about real estate and converting them from someone you know into a potential client. The better you are at having these conversations and converting leads into clients, the higher your conversion rate will be.
Having said that, not all leads are created equal. Some leads will be easy to turn into clients, ready to make a home-buying decision this week. While others may be looking 12 months out.
You won’t convert all your leads, but aim for one to two out of ten listing appointments and one to two out of 100 top-of-funnel buyer and seller leads (like those from social media or lead sources such as REDX) who may need a longer nurturing period. There are immediate pay-offs, and there’s also a long game. Get good at your long game!
Buying leads can complement traditional lead generation strategies like hosting open houses or first-time homebuyer seminars.
There are so many ways to generate leads — including many free ways. Start by telling your friends, family and former colleagues that you’re embarking on a new career in the real estate industry. Then, make an announcement on all your socials about your new career.
If you’re an experienced agent, remind your friends and followers on social media and in person that you’re open to referrals and looking to help people reach their financial goals.
Raise the topic of real estate in conversations, go to networking events and talk about your market, answer homebuyers’ and sellers’ questions with social media posts, and ask for referrals from people you know or meet.
If you need more great ideas, don’t forget to check out our article on how to generate leads here.
Real estate is evolving. You need a source for high-quality leads to stay ahead of your competition. Relying on a paid real estate leads source can be crucial for your success in 2026.
Market Leader, a comprehensive real estate lead generation system, is suitable for solo agents, offering features like email and SMS marketing, lead capture forms and an integrated CRM to manage your leads. It focuses on nurturing leads for long-term client relationships.
For those who want to focus their energy on buyers, Zillow Premier Agent provides major brand recognition and exposure on the Zillow platform while offering tools and resources to connect with buyers and convert leads. However, Smartzip focuses on potential home sellers interested in cash offers.
Experienced agents seeking pay at closing leads will generate significant returns from Sold.com. Meanwhile, REDX is an option for individual agents who prefer phone prospecting and a provider that offers affordable a la carte seller leads, script templates and software to help convert them into clients.
No matter which source you buy real estate leads from, weighing the pros and cons of paid leads is a must. When it comes to real estate lead generation, make sure to diversify your strategy and don’t overlook organic methods like referrals and traditional networking. Get out there and meet new potential clients and build relationships, too. The investment in conversations with new people will prove invaluable down the road.
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