Sooner or later, whoever sells you leads will ask: "Of the leads you've bought before, which ones turned into a signed listing or a closed sale, and how do you know?" Most agents and small brokerages can't answer that cleanly. They remember a good month, or they remember being annoyed by a bad batch. This page starts from that question and works backward, so you have a real answer before you sign anything.
Why the question is about closings, not leads
Pay per lead real estate models charge you when someone fills out a form, calls, or is handed to you by a vendor. The vendor gets paid at that moment. You only get paid much later, if the person answers, meets with you, signs, and closes. Everything between those two points is where the money is won or lost, and it's the part the invoice doesn't show. A vendor who asks about your closings is trying to learn whether you can tell a lead that pays from one that only costs. If you can't, the safest thing for them to sell you is volume.
Build the answer from deals you've already closed
You don't need a model. You need a short record of past deals and where each one came from. Pull your last several closings and write down the source, what you earned after splits and fees, and roughly how long the deal took from first contact to close. Then note how many inquiries from that same source went nowhere. That gives you a working figure for what a lead is worth and what you can afford to pay for one. Treat it as an estimate, and revise it as records come in.
| What to write down | Where you'll usually find it |
|---|---|
| Lead source for each closed deal | Your CRM, or the first email or call log |
| Net earnings per closing | Closing statements after splits and fees |
| Inquiries that never became a meeting | CRM status fields, or your inbox and phone log |
| Time from first contact to close | Dates on the first inquiry and the closing |
Define "lead" in writing before you pay for one
The word covers a lot. A lead can be a verified buyer who asked to see a property, a name and email from a home-value form, or a phone number that may belong to someone else. Vendors set their own definitions and their own return policies. Ask for the definition in writing, along with what counts as a bad lead you can send back, how fast you have to flag it, and whether the lead is shared with other agents. Shared leads mean you're racing competitors to the first call.
A small search, uneven by month, with pricey clicks
About 160 searches a month cover this topic across six differently worded queries, so it's a narrow audience: owners and agents actively weighing lead sources rather than browsing. The main phrase peaked at 140 a month in September and dropped to 90 in November, which suggests interest follows the market's rhythm and not a steady need. The highest top-of-page bid advertisers pay for these searches is $40.02 a click. That's the price of getting seen by someone comparing options, and it's part of why lead vendors charge what they do. Plan to buy or start a test when you can follow up quickly, not when a vendor's promotion ends.
Questions to ask back before you buy
| What you'll hear | What to ask in return |
|---|---|
| "Exclusive leads, just for you" | Exclusive to how many agents, and for how long after it's sent? |
| "High-intent buyers" | What action did the person take, and can I see the form or call source? |
| "Cheap per lead" | What share of past clients closed, and what's the cost per closing? |
| "We'll manage your ads for you" | Whose ad account and tracking are these, and do I keep them if I leave? |
Where an outside team fits
You can run this yourself: keep a simple record, define a lead, and start with one source you can stop at any time. Outside help makes the most sense in two places. One is the tracking, meaning connecting the ad or form to the phone call and the eventual closing so the answer to the vendor's question shows up in a report, not just in your memory. The other is buying leads through your own ad account instead of a vendor's, so the data stays with you. An agency can set up either, but the first step is still yours: know what a closing is worth. Keep in mind that a shared-lead vendor will rarely give you that data on their own.