Why Do My Realtors Waste Internet Leads?

My IDX technology company handles about 200 Internet buyer leads per day. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that many Realtors still don't understand the importance of responding to an Internet lead immediately. People that search on the Internet are doing so because they want information right now! Not tomorrow, not this evening, not after lunch, but NOW!

I had one referral partner respond to a lead five days after receiving the lead and then mentioned something about the poor response from the leads we sent to him. Worse yet, he emailed the guy rather than calling him. I hardly knew what to say at the time, since it was blatantly obvious why he hadn't been having much luck. It required oh so delicate maneuvering to point out that perhaps the lead may have moved on with a Realtor that had responded in a timelier manner. I have since come up with an entire page dedicated to lead response time to post on our company website for our clients.

Internet leads deteriorate rapidly after the first five minutes have gone by. If a client has to wait 24 hours for a response, it is almost guaranteed that the lead will never respond to any attempts at contact. Why? Because the lead was snagged by the fastest Realtor! It is understood that there are many "tire kicker" leads, but today's tire kicker can turn into tomorrow's homebuyer. Working in today's real estate market is certainly not for the faint of heart. But I know for a fact that our Realtors that respond immediately and simply get a rapport going with the customer end up closing on about 5% of the leads they get and that's a happy return on investment for a relationship that starts with a phone call.