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In the world of marketing, there are no shortcuts. The way to any successful marketing campaign has always been paved with hard work. Of course, this does not mean that you cannot have occasional and sporadic successes once in a while when you are not putting any significant effort into it. However, if you are looking for longer term and sustainable breakthrough, you have to expend considerable amount of effort in order to reap accordingly.

It is all-to-easy for one to always gravitate towards what seems like the easiest solution to any circumstance. Unfortunately, many real estate investors have fallen into this trap by expecting lead generating companies and web site companies ( think Web 3.0)  to provide them with hundreds of quality, ready-to-buy leads virtually at the drop of a hat, and that will take them towards the echelons of real estate success. At a time when the market has taken a slight downturn, many investors, and more so new investor’s, quickly turn to the Internet in order to generate profitable leads. This is not a bad idea in theory.

The hard truth however is this; there is no magic pill when it comes to reliable real estate leads. A daily commitment to growing the business and aiming for success is something that is required of the investor. Persistent effort is of fundamental importance. The old fashioned approach of generating and building leads at a personal level is still fundamental today. Trying to build on hundreds of leads simply forwarded to your email address by a link building firm is not something that is sustainable.

But is using lead generation firms really that bad? Well, at first glance, a lead generation firm would appear enticingly convenient and sweat free. These companies will correctly or otherwise claim to have the ability to make available to you hundreds or even thousands of solid leads for your choosing. However, taking a deeper look (before you sign up hopefully!) at these firms will start to reveal the reason for the growing dissatisfaction with their service.

One of the most brazenly absurd issues you may discover is the listing of either false names or persons that have completely no interest in real estate. All this is done under the guise of “pre-screened” names with the generous supply of phone numbers, and addresses from people within your area of business. You will be lucky to get away with a tongue lashing if you end up being the umpteenth investor to give someone a call that has not interest in buying real estate nor did permission to be contacted on the same.

To be fair to the lead generation companies, one of the problems inherent with the lead generation firm’s internal process is that sometimes they are unable to either identify or define the actual motive of the persons who are giving over their contact information; and it sometimes has a lot to do with how the information is collected. For instance, they could have provided their contacts just to get past a web form and access certain information for free. You could almost view this as the extraction of information under duress. Therefore, when you as the real estate  investor make the call, you will find someone that is not only interested but cannot even remember when and why they provided their contact information. At the end, you will be left with wasted telephone costs and probably an earful of vitriol from the ‘potential client’.

Lead generation in the real estate market should not just be a way of building a list of names as is wont of contemporary lead generation houses. True leads must be built on clear communication and unambiguous declaration of intentions by both parties i.e. the investor as well as the potential buyer. It will demand the commitment of significant resources including time in order to bring out its true authenticity.

This is one of the main reasons why if you want leads that work, the buck will stop with one person and one person only: you. Why should you pay and rely on someone else to get you good leads whereas all they will do is generate a lot of spam email and eventually forward you a legion of probably already irate contacts that will add no value to your real estate agency? In any case, it does not take any effort to generate such redundant information. You can just as easily go into a directory and do so yourself if it is just contacts that you needed!

Therefore, start to employ the strategies and tools that are already easily accessible to you and that will enable you to start to quickly build the requisite and legitimate leads. For instance, you can take advantage of social networking sites to put the word out there on your business and providing information on the kind of real estate you are selling or buying. Most of the largest social networking sites are absolutely free. This will also be a great opportunity to demonstrate what value potential buyers and sellers can derive from using your services as opposed to dealing directly with either party.

Then hit the pavement or get members of your team to do so. Participate in professional forums (not necessarily on real estate), trade exhibitions, recreational events and other such forums that allow you to interact with a crowd. You can use this setting to provide distinctive and yet not necessarily expensive gift items that will keep you at the back of people’s minds.