Social media remains Realtors’ top lead-generating technology tool, with 46% of respondents reporting it was their number one technology powered lead generation source, according to a new survey report from the National Association of Realtors.
The most popular social media app among the random sample of Realtors surveyed was Facebook, with 89% of respondents reporting they used the app, followed by Instagram at 59%, LinkedIn at 53%, YouTube at 26%, Twitter at 19% and TikTok at 12%.
Other top lead generating tools included local MLS tools (30%) and their CRM (26%). Listing aggregator sites were found to be the least helpful, with only 16% reporting these sites as their top lead generation tech tool.
In addition, nearly half of the agents surveyed do not spend a lot on lead generation, according to the survey results, with 24% spending less than $50 a month and 25% spending between $50 and $250 a month. Just 18% spend more than $500 a month on lead generation.
Despite social media being named as the top lead generation tool, only 36% of respondents reported that they use social media to find leads. According to the survey, the most popular uses of social media were to promote listings (63%) and build and maintain relationships with existing clients (57%), while 59% of respondents said that they were on social media because they expected to have a presence.
Although social media was found to be a valuable tool for agents, respondents reported that the technology tool most impactful to their business over the last 12 months was eSignature, with 79% of respondents reporting this as the most impactful, followed by lockboxes (67%) and local MLS applications/technology (67%).
When looking ahead to the next two years, 31% of respondents stated that cyber security tools will be very impactful, followed by 5G (30%), drones (27%) and artificial intelligence (15%).
The majority of respondents reported that their brokerage provides them with all the technology tools they need to be successful, with 35% of agents agreeing with this statement and 26% strongly agreeing. Just 15% of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement.
Of the tools provided by their brokerage, it was no surprise that 67% of respondents found eSignature to be the most valuable, followed by lockbox/showing tech (53%), transaction management tools (45%), video conferencing (40%) and CRM platforms (35%).
In addition, nearly half (47%) of respondents reported that the technology fees charged by their broker are worth the value, while 12% responded that the price paid is not worth the value. An additional 38% of respondents stated that their broker does not charge of the technology provided. Overall, 55% of respondents reported spending between $0 and $250 per month on technology tools.
On the MLS side, respondents reported that technology provided by their local MLS included property data and history (85%), sales statistics (81%), public records search (75%) and listing syndications (72%).
While the majority of respondents (72%) reported that they were extremely satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their MLS’s technology offerings, 12% were on the dissatisfied side of the spectrum and 2% stated that they do not use any of the technology tools provided by their MLS.
