The 8 Best Real Estate Lead Generation Companies for 2023

Market Leader clinched the top spot in our rankings again this quarter because of their exclusive lead guarantee and their new Network Boost program that offers affordable top-of-funnel social media leads and automated nurturing tools. It might not have the bells and whistles that competitors like Real Geeks, Chime, or BoomTown offer, but since Market Leader’s customer relationship manager (CRM) and nurturing tools are a fraction of the price, we think it’s a better choice for most agents. If you just want affordable leads and basic but effective tools to nurture them, Market Leader should be at the top of your list.

Here’s a quick breakdown of why we think Market Leader’s exclusive lead guarantee and Network Boost’s affordable leads and automated nurturing tools can be game changers for your business this year:

• Exclusive Lead Guarantee: Unlike their competitors, Market Leader offers a guaranteed number of exclusive leads every month. This might not sound like a big deal, but it actually makes predicting your future performance much easier. Here’s why: Once you figure out your lead conversion rate and closing ratios with their leads, it’s easier to forecast how many deals you’ll close three months, six months, or even a year down the road. This makes your future gross commission income more predictable, and your business much easier to scale.
• Affordable Social Media Leads + Automated Nurturing Tools: Speaking of scaling your business, Market Leader also offers social media leads starting at just $6 each through their new Network Boost program. To be clear, these are mostly top-of-funnel leads who aren’t likely to transact anytime soon, but with Market Leader’s automated lead nurturing tools, you can fill your CRM with leads today and have warm leads to work a few months from now—without spending hours nurturing every day.

We think Market Leader is perfect for agents who want affordable leads and effective but basic tools to nurture them. Of course, like all internet leads, the money is in the follow-up. You’ll need some basic lead nurturing skills to get the most from Market Leader. So before you sign up for Market Leader or any lead generation company, take the time to read Beverly Ruffner’s lead nurturing guide: How to Build Rapport With Inbound Leads Quickly (+ Scripts)

To generate real estate leads, Market Leader takes the ad agency approach, placing targeted ads in places your prospects are already spending their time (Facebook and Google). These ads direct seller prospects to Market Leader’s landing page and HouseValues.com, and buyer leads to a personally branded, IDX search-enabled site.

Once a lead gives their information, it’s automatically populated in the Market Leader CRM, and then you take over with nurturing and conversion.

With its sleek and stylish IDX websites, advanced CRM, behavioral messaging, and artificial intelligence (AI) texting tool trained by top-producing agents, CINC is clearly a top-shelf lead generation platform with a price tag to match. But when it comes to actually generating leads and getting them to the closing table, we believe CINC is light years ahead of similarly priced rivals like BoomTown. Seriously. It’s not even close. Here’s why: CINC launched in 2011 with a laser-like focus on one simple strategy: drive the highest quality leads possible to agents and teams. 

Here’s how we believe CINC’s custom hyperlocal advertising strategy and advanced customer relationship manager (CRM) and AI nurturing tools live up to that lofty promise of better leads:

• Hyperlocal Advertising Generates Higher Quality Leads: Instead of casting a wide net for leads by advertising in ZIP codes—or worse, entire counties—CINC uses a hyperlocal approach custom-tailored for every agent who uses their platform. Here’s how it works: After you sign up, CINC’s onboarding team interviews you to find out the exact neighborhoods, school districts, or even gated communities where you, as a local market expert, know the best buyers and sellers are looking. These leads already know what they want—you just need to use CINC’s nurturing and follow-up tools to give it to them.
• Advanced CRM & AI Nurturing Tools Make Conversion Easier: Of course, even the best leads can fall through the cracks if you’re not careful. CINC’s advanced CRM and automated nurturing tools use a combination of technology and clever design to make sure that doesn’t happen. One tool in their CRM we really love is their behavioral property alerts, which can modify the type and even timing of the nurturing texts and emails it sends to your leads. For example, let’s say leads shift their search to a different neighborhood or tend to open alerts at night instead of in the morning. The system will modify the messages it sends to reflect their new behavior—instantly. This leads to more engagement, and if CINC’s 40% contact-to-appointment ratio is accurate, much higher conversion rates.Another tool we love is their artificial intelligence (AI) texting assistant, Alex. Instead of just blasting out the usual prequalifying questions and calling it a day, CINC actually hired top-producing agents to train their AI on the most important quality a Realtor can have: empathy. The intention here is that leads who chat with Alex feel listened to, rather than sold to. Who ever thought a robot could do that?

CINC is ideal for solo agents or teams who work in luxury markets, or those who have the money to spend on a high-end lead generation system.

Like most companies on our list, CINC uses a combination of pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google, Facebook, and Instagram to generate buyer and seller leads. However, instead of only advertising by county or ZIP code, CINC targets hyperlocal leads in specific neighborhoods, school districts, or even gated communities, depending on the preferences of the agent. They also offer Facebook retargeting ads to stay top of mind with leads who have already visited your website.

If you just want affordable, high-quality leads without the expense and velvet handcuffs of CRMs, marketing tools, and a long-term contract, try zBuyer. zBuyer sticks to the old-school “just give me the leads!” strategy that so many agents ask us for. Here are the top three benefits we think you’ll get from zBuyer:

• Affordable Buyer & Seller Leads With No Long-term Contract: One thing you’ll discover quickly when you get on a sales call with a lead generation company is that almost all of them require six- to 12-month contracts. Not zBuyer. If you don’t like the platform or leads, you can leave. No questions asked. Frankly, we’re surprised more companies aren’t doing this since the majority of complaints about them mention being locked into long contracts as a pain point.
• Free Prospecting Leads: Another feature that put zBuyer at the top of our list is its free prospecting leads. Yes, you read that right. For every dollar you spend with zBuyer, they will give you one four- to 12-month-old lead from their system—for free. Sure, these leads will be ice cold, but you can always warm them up with lead scoring software like Revaluate.
• You Don’t Have to Spend Money on a CRM You Don’t Want: The fact is, most Realtors who want to buy leads already have a CRM. Instead of forcing you to pay $200-plus per month for another one, like most lead generation companies do these days, zBuyer sends buyer and seller leads directly to the CRM you already know, love, and trust: your own. Want to switch from Follow Up Boss to LionDesk? Changed your mind and want to try Top Producer? zBuyer has you covered.

Thanks to its scaled-down, month-to-month approach, zBuyer is ideal for newer agents who just want to buy leads without paying for expensive CRMs or IDX websites. More experienced agents who are dedicated to their CRM and don’t want or need another one can also get an excellent return on investment (ROI) from this company.

zBuyer uses cutting-edge analytics to uncover early indications of interest in selling or buying. The company offers targeted potential sellers a chance to discover their home’s worth and potentially a cash offer. Buyer leads are captured through the company’s site, HousingNow.com.

Potential leads must confirm their interest at several points along the way, verifying their intent—which results in higher conversion rates. zBuyer then provides the agent with the lead’s contact information in real time via the zBuyer app, email, and your customer relationship manager (CRM) of choice. While the leads aren’t exclusive, zBuyer says they work hard to “limit their exposure.” All in all, zBuyer is a low-cost, low-risk option, with excellent customer service and a strong lead generation strategy.

SmartZip’s near-magical ability to predict likely sellers—and their suite of marketing tools to nurture and convert them—made them our clear choice for seller leads in 2023. Here’s a quick breakdown of the two biggest benefits we think you’ll get from SmartZip:

• Reach Likely Sellers Months Before Your Competition: SmartZip’s predictive analytics technology combs through millions of data points to identify likely sellers six to 12 months before they’re ready to sell. That means you’ll reach seller leads before your competition does. In tight inventory markets like we’ve seen for the last few years, that first-mover advantage is critical. And almost no other lead generation company gives it to you. We think this will be a game changer for Realtors.
• Best-in-class Marketing & Nurturing Tools: I also really love SmartZip’s marketing and nurturing tools. While its CRM might not be as sophisticated or customizable as tools like Propertybase, we think the lead data it includes makes it a more effective marketing tool. How many other CRMs give you a lead’s estimated equity, home data, social media profiles, or taxable value changes? That’s not to mention their CheckIn app that tells you who to follow up with every day.You also get home valuation landing pages, automated direct mail campaigns, a comparative market analysis tool, and even local trend reports. We also really love the design quality of their marketing materials—something too many lead generation companies ignore!

Experienced listing agents will likely see the biggest benefit from SmartZip, but any agent who takes the time to learn how to nurture seller leads for the long haul can also do well with the platform.

SmartZip combs through consumer data (from places like credit card companies), market data (from places like your MLS), and demographic data, and predicts which homeowners in your targeted region are most likely to sell.

Realtors who sign up with SmartZip immediately get access to the SmartZip CRM, populated with “Smart Data” for your areas. Essentially, this is a list of all the property owners in your targeted area, ranked by how likely they are to sell their home in the next year and a half.

Armed with this information, you can focus your outreach on only the most likely sellers, saving you time and money on marketing efforts and making your lead conversations more meaningful and fruitful.

Catalyze AI took the crown for best inheritance leads for one simple reason. They are the only company using predictive analytics and AI technology to identify highly motivated inheritance leads before they end up in probate court. They can also uncover inherited properties in trusts—something competitors like US Probate Leads and All The Leads can’t do. That means you can start marketing to highly motivated sellers before they end up getting sold as leads to other companies. Since so many agents are desperate for listings these days, getting there first gives you a massive advantage over the competition.

• Highly Motivated Exclusive Seller Leads: The beauty of the inherited listing leads that Catalyze AI offers is that many of them are highly motivated to sell. After taxes and upkeep costs are factored in, most people who inherit homes quickly realize they would rather get a cash windfall from a quick sale than pay to maintain a second home they’re not living in. Sure, if the property ends up in probate, the sales process might take a while, but the company says that, on average, 40% of Catalyze AI leads end up selling within 12 months. Since Catalyze AI lets you talk to these leads before other agents, you’ll be the first person they call when they’re ready to sell.
• Affordable Leads Allow You to Fill Your Database Quickly: Even better, exclusive seller leads from Catalyze AI start at only $12 per lead for homes worth less than $1 million and $15 per lead for homes valued over $1 million. That means you can fill your database up quickly and use automated nurturing tools to keep them warm while you work leads that need to transact faster. Yes, this is a longer-term strategy, but if you close just one $1 million-plus home per year with Catalyze AI, the system will pay for itself.

Like SmartZip, experienced listing agents will see the biggest benefits from Catalyze AI. Newer agents might have trouble with the long conversion time and complexity of the probate process, but with a little training, they can make it work too.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people inherit properties. Catalyze AI helps sort through more than 400 million data points to narrow these properties down to excellent leads—so excellent that Catalyze AI estimates this market represents $77 billion in property value each year.

With pricing starting at just $49.99 per month, REDX was our clear choice for most affordable lead generation company for 2023. If you just want leads and are willing to invest your time instead of your money, REDX might be your golden ticket to double your GCI this year. With REDX, you can choose between multiple lead types and use their tools, training, and scripts to convert them to clients. Even better, all of the leads REDX offers are seller leads. If you want to become a listing agent and are willing to pick up the phone and call them, REDX gives you the best bang for your buck.

• Vortex CRM & Power Dialer Make Prospecting Easier: REDX’s included VORTEX CRM and Power Dialer work together to simplify and speed up the cold calling process. Here’s how it works: Once you buy a package of leads from REDX, they are sent directly to the VORTEX CRM. In the CRM, you can then filter your leads by freshness, recent status changes, property information (such as year built or property type), or geographic information (like ZIP code, county, or even subdivision).Once your leads are filtered, they are sent to the Power Dialer. The Power Dialer automatically dials the lead’s phone numbers and only connects you if they pick up the phone. If they don’t, the system leaves a prerecorded message on their voicemail. When you get connected to a lead, the Power Dialer pulls up scripts and objection handlers to help you convert them.
• Included Scripts, Objection Handlers & Training Help You Convert More Leads: While similar lead generation companies just sell you leads and an auto-dialer, REDX takes it a step further by including powerful scripts and objection handlers right in the auto-dialer to help you convert them. They even offer live role playing and extensive lead conversion training with expert cold callers like LabCoat Agents’ Tristan Ahumada.

REDX is ideal for agents who want to target seller leads at an affordable price, but it’ll work well for anyone who is willing to put in the work to learn how to cold call. The included scripts will help, but it can take a few weeks of daily cold calling to see results. This platform requires more dedication than others on our list, but the results are worth it.

Instead of waiting for leads, REDX flips the script with an outbound real estate lead generation system, putting contact information (and the power to make connections) into the hands of agents, teams, and brokers.

REDX users choose the lead types (such as expired listings, FSBOs, and preforeclosures, to name a few) they want to target, and REDX provides contact information. With a constantly updated system, you’ve always got a fresh list of leads in your area so you can decide how much time you want to spend reaching out, following up, and converting them into clients.

We chose Real Geeks as our top pick for all-in-one lead generation platform for one simple reason. It comes jam-packed with the same bleeding-edge lead generation, marketing, and nurturing tools other platforms offer at a price individual agents can actually afford. You get a sleek IDX website designed for conversion, a sophisticated CRM, automated drip campaigns and texting, top-shelf training and customer support, and even a behavioral marketing tool called Reactive Responses that can give Zurple a run for its money.

• Includes Paid Leads & DIY Lead Generation Tools: One thing we love about Real Geeks’ platform is that it let you choose how you want to generate leads. You can buy into their Real Leads program and let their marketing experts run your Facebook, Google, and Bing ads for you, or you can use their Facebook Marketing Tool to create your own ads. You can use their home valuation tool to generate seller leads, or drive traffic from your Facebook ads to your IDX website to capture buyer leads.
• IDX Website & CRM Designed for Conversion: We also really love the powerful conversion tools Real Geeks offers in their IDX website and CRM. To convert seller leads, their home valuation tool allows you to create custom landing pages for specific neighborhoods and automatically send out a market report drip campaign to nurture them. You can even embed the home valuation tool as a widget on any page of your website to convert traffic from SEO or social media. For buyer leads, you can use Real Geeks’ standard lead capture forms or customize them for your audience.After you get prospects’ contact information, you can create custom workflows to nurture them or use available tools like SMS autoresponders, their AI chatbot Robin, or Reactive Responses, which sends automated text messages based on leads’ behavior on your website.

Real Geeks is ideal for any agent who wants a sophisticated IDX website and CRM but doesn’t have the budget for pricier platforms like CINC or BoomTown.

Real Geeks generates leads using a combination of Google and Bing PPC ads to drive seller leads to home valuation landing pages, or Facebook ads to drive buyer leads to an IDX website. You can also generate leads yourself with their platform using the Facebook Marketing tool to simplify the process of creating Facebook ads and save some money. Real Geeks users can also drive traffic to their IDX websites or landing pages through search engine optimization (SEO) or social media to generate leads.

Agents love to complain about it, but when it comes to generating buyer leads, Zillow Premier Agent is in a class of its own. In 2023 the platform accounted for a mind-boggling 44% of all real estate traffic online. Love them or hate them, the cold hard truth is that most of your future buyers will be on Zillow. It’s not a matter of if, but when. But we didn’t pick Zillow as the best source for buyer leads just because they happen to dominate the market. Here is a closer look at the three main benefits we think you’ll get from buying leads on Zillow:

• Captures Buyer Leads Before the Competition:Millions of buyers start their home search on Zillow’s website. An astonishing 57% of the company’s monthly visitors go directly to Zillow’s website—not Google—to search for homes. What does that mean for you? Well, since so many buyers start their search on Zillow, by the time they end up clicking on a Google or Facebook ad from another lead generation company, chances are they’re already talking to a Premier Agent. Advertising on Zillow gives you a first shot at these leads.
• Generates Warmer Buyer Leads Than Other Companies (Yes, Really): Even if buyers start their home search on Google, Zillow’s unique advertising strategy means you’ll get warmer buyer leads from the platform. Why? Unlike competitors who capture buyer leads while they’re looking at cute kitten videos on Facebook, Zillow generates leads when they are actively searching for homes. So does that mean every lead you get from Zillow will be ready to close in a month? Of course not. But the purchase intent is generally higher.

Zillow Premier Agent is a good platform for newer agents who just want to work buyer leads without getting locked into long-term contracts.

Zillow sells display advertising next to listings in specific ZIP codes to its clients (known as Premier Agents). Zillow transfers leads to the Zillow CRM or into whatever CRM you’re using, and the nurturing and conversion is up to you.