What question should a newsletter survey ask to sell real estate leads?

One question, placed right, is the whole product. A partner of mine sells each yes to a realtor for $30, and about one in 50 new subscribers says yes.

I learned this from a realtor friend whose newsletter I helped launch. He asked about real estate in his survey selfishly, because he's a realtor, and the response opened my eyes. Now my newsletters ask it too.

What exactly should it ask?

Are you planning to buy or sell a home in the next 12 months?
  [ Yes, buying ]  [ Yes, selling ]  [ No ]

(If yes) Are you already working with a realtor?
  [ Yes ]  [ No ]

The second question is the disqualifier. If they already have a realtor, stop asking. The realtor is paying for people who don't have one yet.

The version I've run most on my own brands is broader and catches investors too:

Are you exploring real estate in [your town]?
  [ Looking to buy/sell now ]
  [ Planning to buy/sell in the next 12 months ]
  [ Interested in investment or flip opportunities ]
  [ Not at the moment ]

A homeowner's insurance quote is a natural companion question for people who already own.

Put it mid-survey. Not first. By the middle, the person has answered a few easy questions and committed to finishing.

Should you screen people out, or show everyone the realtor?

Lately I show everyone. Codex gave me this idea: if you want the realtor in front of as many readers as possible, why add friction by asking whether they're thinking about buying or selling first?

Now the survey just asks if you own or rent. Owners get a card that says, "Have you thought about selling that home you own?" Renters get an almost identical card asking if they've thought about buying soon. There's also a soft option for people who are just curious what homes are doing in the area.

Either answer shows the realtor's photo, brand and message. That matters for pricing, because every single survey taker now sees your real estate partner.

The same pattern works for other businesses. Swap the card for a home insurance quote, or ask "any kids at home?" and follow with "need a tutor or daycare?"

How many subscribers actually say yes?

Across my own newsletters, about 2% say they want to buy or sell right now. More say "in the next year" or "investing." Some real counts from my brands:

Newsletter	Buy/sell now	Next 12 months / investing
About 2,400 subscribers, three weeks old, $5 to $10 a day in ads	14	56 / 36
Another brand (7% exploring real estate)	16	100 / 42
A third brand	32	160 / 99

That last one was roughly 250 real estate leads I had done nothing with yet.

My realtor friend's numbers were bigger. Once I helped get his Facebook ads down to about 15 cents a subscriber, he added five or six thousand subscribers in a month, and 600 to 700 of them said they wanted to buy, sell or invest. Those are his results, not mine.

Be honest about what these are. A click on a survey isn't as good as someone searching for a realtor on Zillow and filling out a form. It's another benefit on top of the ad exposure.

What does the realtor get, and how do you follow up?

Name, phone number and email. That's it. Keep it clean and fast.

Ask first. In my current flow the card says she's our recommended partner and asks, "Do you want us to send her your info? We'll only send it to her." A yes pre-fills the email and phone they just gave, asks for a name, and the agent gets the lead by email.

Before that, my rule was to keep the data and email on the partner's behalf instead of handing over the list.

"You don't send them an offer five minutes after they click they're interested in selling a house."

1. Wait. Let at least two newsletters go out first so they've gotten value. I set it to about 14 days after signup, and on one brand I dropped a 28-day delay to 21.
2. Give before you ask. The first email shouldn't ask for anything. Send a guide or tips on local real estate. Offer a call in email two or three.
3. Keep the wording soft. Something like: we never sell your information, we know the best real estate people in town, happy to make an introduction, no worries if not.
4. Space it out. My sequence is three emails, five to nine days apart, on different days of the week.
5. Stop on a reply. If they reply, they stop getting the sequence immediately, interested or not.

You can't pound these people. But most operators play it too safe.

How do you price it for a realtor?

One vertical, one buyer, per market. Exclusivity is what makes the lead worth paying for, and it makes the sale easier: "every real estate lead from our readers in this town goes to you."

The close rate is the realtor's to prove, so don't promise one.

Per-lead is the floor. One partner of mine gets $20 a lead and another gets $30. Since everyone who takes the survey sees the realtor, I now think it should be part of a $1,000 to $1,500 a month package instead. More in what to charge a realtor.

Are there better deals than cash per lead?

• Get licensed and take a referral cut. If you're in the US and don't already have one, I'd get a real estate license. Instead of charging agents, you take a referral cut. My understanding is a normal referral is around 25% of the commission, which on a million-dollar home is a lot of money. Rules vary by state and I'm not a lawyer, so check yours.
• Trade leads for referrals. Not in real estate? Ask the question anyway. Give a realtor the sellers for free and ask them to send you anyone who needs what you sell. I added it to my own survey for exactly this reason.
• Trade ads for leads. If you're a realtor with a newsletter, run ads for your mortgage partner in exchange for their leads. It costs you nothing, and they now have a reason to send business to you instead of someone else.

The full flow, with costs, is in how a signup flow pays for its own growth. I built mine in greetform.