Whoever you hire to find motivated sellers will ask you this before anything else: "What does a closed deal put in your pocket, and how many conversations does it usually take to get one?" If you can't answer, the campaign gets built on guesses. The lead vendor, the ad account and the dashboard all end up measuring the wrong thing. This page works backwards from that question, so you can answer it before you spend anything.
Start with what a signed deal is worth
Pull your last several closed deals, or your best estimate if you're new. For each, write down what you kept after repairs, holding costs, commissions and your own time. Use the typical result, not the best one. That figure sets your ceiling. You can't pay more for a seller conversation than the deals it produces will support, and any quote should be checked against it.
Then count backwards. Of the people who raised a hand, how many turned out to have a property you could actually buy or list? Of those, how many agreed to a price? Even rough answers turn a vague hope for more leads into a cost you can compare, deal by deal.
Define "motivated" before anyone counts it
Vendors use the word loosely. To one seller of lists, a motivated seller is anyone with a late tax bill. To you, it may be a landlord tired of a bad tenant, an heir holding an inherited house, or an owner facing a deadline. Write your definition in plain words: the situations you want, the property types, the areas, and the conditions you'll walk away from. A clear definition is the fastest way to stop paying for names that were never going to sell to you.
Also decide what counts as a lead. A name on a list is not a lead. A person who filled out a form or answered a call and said they want to talk about selling is. If a provider blurs the two, their counts will look better than your results.
Where the names come from, and what each one asks of you
| Source | What you get | What it demands from you | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchased lists | Names and addresses flagged by a situation such as probate or vacancy | Outreach by mail, phone or door knocking, plus list cleaning | Old data, shared lists, and phone rules that limit cold calls |
| Direct mail | Owners who respond to a letter or postcard | A clean list, a clear offer, and steady repeat mailings | One mailing rarely works; response builds over repeated contact |
| Paid search | People typing a need such as sell my house fast in your area | Ads, a landing page, fast call answering, tracking | Broad terms pull in curious browsers and other investors |
| Local site and profile | Sellers who find you while researching their options | Content, reviews and patience | Slow to build and slow to prove |
| Purchased exclusive leads | Contact details for a person said to want to sell | Vetting each one and quick follow-up | Ask who else received the same lead and how it was generated |
Notice the right-hand column. Every source costs more than its price tag, because someone has to answer the phone, sort real sellers from tire-kickers, and keep following up. If a source only makes sense when you ignore that time, it doesn't make sense. Our guide on pay per lead arrangements covers the ownership question in more depth: /guides/pay-per-lead-real-estate.
A small search topic with an uneven calendar
The exact phrase is a modest one. The whole cluster, with four distinct queries merged together, adds up to about 70 searches a month. For the exact phrase, the past year swung from 10 a month in October 2025 to 110 a month in March 2026. That tells you two things. Few people are searching for this in those words, so a search ad on this phrase alone won't run your pipeline. And the interest comes in bursts, so a single month's results can mislead you in either direction.
Most sellers won't search for the term investors use. They search for their own problem: an unwanted house, an inherited property, a pending move. Any paid search plan should be built around those words, which is where a specialist can earn their fee.
Turn your answers into a one-page brief
Write down your deal value, your definition of a motivated seller, your service area, how quickly you can return a call, and how you'll record where each seller came from. Bring that page to any provider. A good one will use it to test your numbers and tell you which source fits. A weak one will skip it and quote you a package. The same page also lets you compare offers on equal terms.
Tracking is the piece owners skip. If calls, forms and texts aren't tagged to the ad or letter that produced them, you'll never know which source paid for itself. Fix that first, even if your spending is small. For the broader picture, see /guides/seller-leads-for-realtors.
Handing the question to someone else
You can run all of this yourself, and many owners do, especially with mail and local outreach. Outside help becomes a sensible option when you're running paid search and can't tell which clicks led to real conversations, when tracking is broken, or when your time is going into managing accounts instead of talking to sellers. A good agency will ask your deal-value question first and will show you the reporting before you commit. If they don't, keep looking.