As a real estate agent, having a steady flow of leads is critical to the success of your business, especially since only a small fraction turns into an actual client. That’s something that I struggled with immensely when I first got licensed as a real estate broker in California back in 2018 — and life would have been much better for me had I known about Market Leader back then.
Market Leader equips real estate professionals with powerful lead management, integrated marketing features, and custom websites — plus, it’s easy to use. Its training resources and branding features make it worth the cost and provide value-added help for agents to maximize productivity and efficiency.
While that may be the case, it can be expensive for solo agents or small teams, and some may find its customization options too limited. The other thing is that it is chock-full of different features, so using all of them will be a learning curve for anyone who isn’t so tech-savvy.
From exclusive monthly leads to its relationship manager, I’ll go through each aspect of what the Market Leader platform has to offer and what I think of its effectiveness, cost, and ease of use.
My verdict on Market Leader & why you should trust it
Market Leader promises to deliver a minimum number of exclusive leads per month. Given that leads are the lifeline of any real estate firm, being able to rely on how many leads to expect can allow you to focus your efforts elsewhere since some of the guesswork is taken out. Having exclusive leads also means you’ll have less competition with other firms and agents, making it more likely that your leads will choose you over the competition.
Market Leader also has a wide range of lead management and lead nurturing tools to further increase your chances of turning them into actual paying clients. Examples include automated lead follow-up, drip campaigns, automations to save you time, and value-added material you can provide to clients as a way to allow them to see your expertise and value in working with you.
So when it comes to ensuring you have a consistent flow of leads, and after having reviewed Market Leader, I can personally attest that me and many of my former colleagues would have benefited tremendously from a platform like this (had we known about it at the time we started). Because of this, it should come as no surprise that Market Leader also made our list of the best lead generation companies.
Market Leader pricing
You may be wondering how much Market Leader costs. While most competitors are quite upfront about their pricing, Market Leader does not transparently post its price on its website, nor is there a free trial or tiered pricing. Below is a breakdown of what you can expect for costs:
- Market Leader Professional (for individual agents): $189 per month (includes a $20 data services fee)
- Market Leader Teams (for small real estate teams): $329 per month for up to 10 users on the same account
- Market Leader Business Suite (for teams and brokerages): Custom pricing
Additional services you can purchase in addition to the above software products:
- Network Boost: $150 per month for every 10 leads you receive. Working in tandem with Market Leader’s newly optimized lead engagement platform ($189/month) and other real estate lead products ($35-$50/lead), Network Boost can make business growth consistent, quick, and affordable.
- Search engine lead products (HouseValues and Leads Direct): Generally $25 to $50 per lead, depending on your market. Leads in markets like Boston and Los Angeles are typically more expensive than leads in more affordable markets like Kansas City.
Key features of Market Leader
Market Leader is full of features geared towards improving your odds of closing more deals in a shorter period of time. It offers a well-rounded toolkit to help agents at each stage of their business, from lead generation and management to marketing automation and client engagement. These features are designed to help real estate professionals capture more leads, stay organized, and close deals efficiently.
- Lead generation & marketing automation
- Mobile CRM app
- Social media integrations
- Exclusive real estate leads
- Customizable website
- Engagement co-pilot
Lead generation & marketing automation
With Market Leader, you can get a stable stream of exclusive buyer and seller leads in your target market each and every month. No more guesswork or uncertainty when it comes to how many leads you might have.
The platform offers three unique solutions to help generate leads: Leads Direct, HouseValues, and Network Boost.
- Leads Direct: This platform is designed to drive more traffic to your real estate firm’s website. You’ll pay only for actual leads rather than just the number of clicks and visitors driven to your website. And, all data regarding these leads is sent to your real estate CRM.
- HouseValues: HouseValues focuses on capturing motivated sellers as early as possible by focusing on things like property details and expected listing timelines.
- Network Boost: Network Boost can help you more easily manage your pipeline by not only providing you with more leads, but by also automating lead follow-up. Free up more time to tackle other tasks by taking advantage of automated lead nurture tools, listing alerts, and drip campaigns.
Mobile CRM application
The mobile CRM application enables any real estate agent to continue working on the go. It facilitates the management of contacts, leads, and even marketing activities directly from your smartphone or tablet. Given the real-time notifications and the ease of access to data on clients, responding to queries, making appointments, and recording updates are easy without being deskbound. This flexibility ensures that agents can stay productive and be connected even when they are out of the field, enhancing the ability to deliver service to clients in a timely and efficient way.
Social media integrations
Exclusive real estate leads
One of the significant strengths of Market Leader is the ability to generate and manage real estate leads. One of its standout offerings is access to exclusive real estate leads through partnerships with HouseValues, Leads Direct, and Network Boost. These platforms enable agents to directly receive high-quality, targeted leads, ensuring a steady flow of potential clients. By leveraging these exclusive lead sources, real estate professionals can maximize their lead generation efforts and focus on converting prospects into successful transactions.
Customizable website
Agents can create custom Market Leader websites to engage and convert prospects into leads. Websites have built-in MLS integration and IDX functionality to allow visitors to easily find homes matching their criteria. Lead-capture tools are also available, such as automated listing alerts, targeted social media ads, and forms to allow visitors to request additional information. Integration with Google Analytics is also available so that you can gain valuable insights on how to improve your website’s performance.
With a professionally done website builder, agents will grow their online presence and be able to display listings, share market insight, and even provide relevant resources to prospects. This marketing opportunity adds credibility to the agent and helps enhance his lead generation and high-quality lead-capturing ability from online channels.
Engagement co-pilot
The engagement co-pilot in Market Leader has acted like a virtual assistant to the real estate agent in staying engaged with Market Leader real estate leads and clients through automated and personalized communication. It can send personalized emails, schedule follow-ups, and reminders for key activities to ensure agents have consistent, meaningful interactions with their contacts.
By automating routine engagement activities, the engagement co-pilot allows an agent to manage other strategic sides of his business and ultimately improve client relationships while increasing productivity.
Methodology: How I evaluated Market Leader
When it comes to the methodology at The Close, our team of licensed real estate professionals, writers, researchers, and editors created a proprietary rubric for this review of Market Leader. This rubric evaluated different areas of the Market Leader platform, each with varying weights to comprise the final total score.
Our team considered things like Market Leader’s pricing, features, support options, and reputation. Specifically, our scoring criteria included the following:
- Pricing 15%
- The value-add of the platform was evaluated in relation to its overall pricing structure. Deductions were made as Market Leader does not offer a free trial, and some competitors offer lower monthly prices for comparable services.
- Features 50%
- This category considered what specific tools and functionality were available to help real estate agents in their goal of generating leads and converting them to closed deals. Overall, Market Leader scored well here because of how effective its lead generation is, such as offering exclusive leads, lead management tools, automations, and more.
- Ease of use 10%
- Here, the expected typical timeframe for being able to use the platform with a high degree of comfort was considered. Specifically, whether you were expected to have advanced technical knowledge beforehand. Market Leader earned a perfect score here, given the easy-to-use interface combined with top-notch customer service.
- Customer support 5%
- The hours and avenues of support were considered, such as the availability of a live chat, phone, or email ticketing system. Market Leader scored well here as it offers multiple avenues of support, including email, chat, and phone. It lost just a few marks since its phone support is only available Monday through Friday.
- Customer ratings and reputation 10%
- Third-party customer reviews were taken into consideration, as it gave an added perspective into the platform’s ability to deliver on its promises.
- Expert score 10%
- This category is designed for The Close team to evaluate the Market Leader platform for stand-out features or other nuances that might not fit into any other category of the scoring rubric.
Market Leader alternatives
While Market Leader can provide a lot of tools within its comprehensive suite for real estate professionals, there may be some cases wherein looking at the alternatives that provide more pocket-friendly pricing, customization, or the ability to integrate with present systems in the best possible way would be necessary. Other real estate lead generation platforms can provide different strengths, such as affordable monthly fees, extended customer service support hours, or AI capabilities.
Leverages advanced AI capabilities to personalize follow-up communication and predict lead behavior | Zurple Review | |
Highly rated by customers for its robust predictive analytics and marketing automation | Smartzip Review | |
Extended customer support hours, providing more accessible and timely support | CINC Review | |
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
How can Market Leader help my real estate business?
Market Leader can primarily help your business by providing exclusive buyer and seller leads. In addition, it has tools you can utilize to improve the odds of turning these leads into closed deals. Some examples include lead engagement, task automations to free up more of your time, and lead intel to help you identify hot leads and those that are likely highly motivated to want to take the next steps.
What are some of the pros and cons of Market Leader?
As a platform designed specifically for generating quality leads, one big benefit of Market Leader is its commitment to delivering a minimum number of leads per month. Real estate is, in many ways, a numbers game, so having a predictable number of monthly leads can allow you to plan supplementary lead mining efforts should the need arise.
Who can benefit the most from Market Leader?
Market Leader can be great for newer agents or businesses that don’t yet have a regular flow of repeat clients. Similarly, it can be a great fit for businesses looking to expand more rapidly. This is because Market Leader provides a minimum number of exclusive leads per month, along with lead nurture and management tools that can simultaneously save you time and bring in higher quality leads.
The bottom line: Is Market Leader worth it?
Overall, Market Leader is suitable for people with a budget looking for an all-in-one solution to help them in multiple aspects of their real estate operations, with a focus on lead generation and management. However, if the Market Leader pricing is a principal factor in your decision or you need further customizations, it pays to shop around. Ultimately, your CRM should align with your business needs and resources.
The social media integrations provided by Market Leader enable real estate agents to seamlessly integrate their CRM with popular social networking websites like Facebook and Instagram. It gives the agent an automated way of marketing their listings and interacting with potential clients across various social media channels. With this integration, agents can attract more leads without much manual effort by increasing their reach and building an online presence.