Two months of Inman Intel Index survey data show that confidence in real-world business-building activities is waning, but interest in buying leads online is growing.
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As the spring home-buying season gets underway, agents’ confidence in the real world appears to be wavering.
This is at least the conclusion of the last two months of Inman Intel Index survey data. Specifically, the data shows that from January to February, agencies were leaning toward digital lead generation practices while cooling off on things that were traditionally done in person.
how so?
In both January and February, we asked agents to tell us the “business development investment” that “has the best return today.”
Most of the respondents in these two months pointed out that “network/sphere of influence” is the best investment. But strangely, the proportion of agents who consider the Internet as their primary investment actually fell from 73.7% in January to 67.3% in February.
Likewise, the proportion of agents who listed “open houses” as their top current investment also declined, from 6.6% in January to 5% in February. That’s not a huge drop, but considering February is already the start of the spring buying season in some markets, it’s a notable drop.
At the same time, agencies are leaning towards digital business opportunities; in January, 6.6% of respondents said that the best investment they can make currently is “social media.” Another 5.9% pointed to “purchasing leads.”
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But a month later, both numbers were up: 9.3% of February’s respondents ranked social media investments as the investment with the highest return. Purchase leads accounted for 7.3% of responses.
In other words, while open days and online have lost some of their appeal, agents’ confidence in online events has increased.
Photo credit: Jim Dalrymple II
Both the January and February surveys received approximately 500 agent responses. (Respondents in other areas, such as PropTech Leadership, were directed to a different set of similar questions).
In addition to asking about the best ways to invest time and money right now, we asked agents what investments they will be investing more in the next year, and some familiar patterns emerged.
In this case, the web remains largely unchanged – 53% ranked it as the best investment in January, and 53.8% did the same in February.
But the biggest winner in future investing is buying leads. In January, only 3.5% of respondents ranked it as a top investment for the future, but by February this number had jumped to 7%.
Photo credit: Jim Dalrymple II
The conclusion of all this is that buying leads online is the biggest winner. Its popularity as an investment of time and money rose by multiple percentage points in two different months and on two different issues focusing on the past and the future.
It’s hard to say why agents might be more confident in online leads, but the real estate industry is facing a series of potentially significant changes. Those changes include growing commission lawsuits, expectations that mortgage rates will soon drop significantly and the ongoing portal battles.
Or, perhaps the explanation is that buying online leads is just a way to cast a wider net where the existing field may be a bit exploited. Regardless, what we are seeing is a changing balance in the way agents prioritize real-world and online activities.
What is Inman Intel?
Inman Intel is the data and research division of Inman. Intel leverages Horizon Scan data insights and regular surveys of real estate professionals and consumers to help industry decision-makers, proptech founders and investors navigate the changing market. Learn more and subscribe.
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