Where Do Elite Agents Get Most of Their Listings? Top 5 Lead Generation Sources Revealed

Elite real estate agents consistently secure more listings than their peers. But what’s their secret? Where do top-performing agents find their seller leads and how do they get the majority of their listings? 

According to industry observations, the most successful agents typically generate listings through the following (these are estimated ranges. You may find that one of these areas works really well for your market and business):

• Sphere of influence (40%–50% of business)
• Geographic farming (15%–20%)
• Digital marketing (15%–20%)
• Strategic partnerships (10%–15%)
• Expired/FSBO listings (5%–10%)

In this guide, we’ll cover these primary sources of listing leads for real estate agents and provide actionable strategies you can implement in your business to help you become an elite agent too.

1. Sphere of Influence (SOI): Your Most Valuable Lead Generation Asset — 40%–50%

Sphere of influence remains the cornerstone of successful lead generation for elite real estate agents. 

Your sphere of influence is your circle of professional and personal contacts along with previous, current, and potential clients with whom you’ve cultivated a positive relationship. These are the people who will mention your name and capabilities to their own networks, consistently refer business to you, and turn to you personally when they need to sell or buy a property.

According to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), 66% of sellers found their agent through a referral from friends or family or used an agent they had worked with before. This makes your SOI a critical, cost-effective, and reliable source of seller leads. And it’s the strategy we’ll spend the most time talking about here.

Read how Fello engages your database — including your SOI — to get more listings →

Building, Nurturing, and Measuring Your SOI

Elite agents know the best lead source for Realtors® is their sphere of influence. As such, they relentlessly nurture their SOI, always finding ways to communicate and engage with their contacts while also knowing which connections to prioritize and which of their SOI activities work in their favor. 

You can emulate their efforts by doing the following:

Nurture Your Personal Connections 

Approach your personal connections like you would your family and friends:

• Check in with your connections by phone on a quarterly basis to ask about current life changes and discuss their current or future real estate needs. 
• Send handwritten birthday and anniversary cards and congratulatory messages for life events like a job promotion or a child’s graduation.
• Schedule coffee meetings with high-referring connections to catch up in person and reinforce the warmth of the relationship.

Watch Laurie Reader's webinar from our Titans Mini Masterclass on building relationships to get the listing →

Always Provide Something of Value

Don’t wrap up an interaction without offering something of value. At minimum, encourage your buyer and seller leads to sign up for:

• A monthly email with local market updates, including median home prices, average days on market, and number of homes for sale
• A quarterly digital newsletter featuring local economic, housing, and community news or announcements — such as a new school being built, green space development, or a major company closing or moving into the neighborhood
• Investment opportunity alerts so contacts can quickly learn about rental properties for sale or flipping investment properties
• Custom property valuation reports, or lead engagement platform Fello’s home value dashboard that can be personalized with current home value, recent home sales, and local trends.

Plan and Host In-person Events

People are social and love to gather. Take advantage of this:

• Host an annual client appreciation event or seasonal gathering, like a summer barbecue or holiday party. 
• Organize a community service event where you sign up volunteers to run a food or clothing drive or clean up a park or other public space. 
• Run an educational seminar on real estate investing with hired or volunteer experts who can speak on various topics. 
• Invite VIP clients to preview exclusive new housing developments or luxury properties for sale.

Engage Regularly on Social Media

Some of the best Realtor® leads come from social media. Knowing how to capture them means knowing what social media audiences want — juicy snippets, an insider’s view, and quick-but-helpful information hits:

• Consistently share your own market insights — such as economic trends, new regulations, or other industry shake-ups that could impact buyers and sellers.
• Share client success stories (with permission) — for example, who sold fast, who sold above the asking price, or who found their dream home in their dream neighborhood.
• Highlight a particular neighborhood and give a short video tour of it.
• Post interactive polls, informal surveys, and real estate FAQ sessions to actively engage with your audience.
• Launch a home value campaign to educate your audience about the benefits of knowing their home value and offer a free home value estimate.

Watch Jeff Glover's webinar on the 5 tips to get more listings from our Titans Mini Masterclass →

Don’t Neglect Your Past Clients

Past clients who receive regular, valuable communication are a great source for lead generation as they’re more likely to refer business to you — and use you as their agent again:

• Get back in touch with past clients by providing email updates on their home’s current value.
• Reach out to them with seasonal home maintenance tips — winterizing a roof, summer landscaping — and briefly explain how regular upkeep can add to a property’s value.
• Notify past clients of refinancing opportunities.

Learn how Fello automates communications with previous clients (and old and new contacts) → 

Be Scrupulous about Your Contact Database

To understand the value each of your individual contacts brings and the nature of your relationships with them, you need to manage your database effectively:

• Segment your contacts by relationship strength or referral rate using a customer relationship management (CRM) system like Follow Up Boss or Sierra Interactive.
• Track the frequency of interactions and communications with your contacts, so you know who to re-engage with if you’ve lost touch and can also avoid overwhelming anyone.
• Document the sources of your referrals, so you know who to thank and which relationships to commit more of your time to.

Leverage Technology for Easier SOI Management

You need the right tools and intelligent automation to manage and scale your SOI. Choose tools with features that can help you:

• Automate birthday and anniversary reminders.
• Better qualify leads and prioritize your contacts.
• Enrich and fill in missing lead info to help you segment your contacts, such as the tools available on the Fello platform.
• Manage your social media marketing.
• Streamline your email campaigns by integrating with email marketing platforms, such as Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Constant Contact.

Measure Your SOI Success

Tracking key metrics for your sphere of influence helps you know which of your SOI activities and tactics work the best: 

• Referral rate (referrals per contact)
• Conversion rate of referrals to listings
• Average transaction value from referrals
• Engagement rates with communications — including opens, clicks, and unsubscribes

2. Geographic Farming: Dominating Local Markets — 15%–20%

Successful agents identify the neighborhood(s) in which they want to become an expert and build up their brand, then they directly market to those residents to generate listings. They strive to be the face and the name that everyone in the neighborhood associates with real estate expertise and success.

You can approach geographic farming in a couple of ways:

Digital Farming

• Create hyper-local blog, video, and social media content about neighborhood trends — for example, info about job opportunities, schools, and community development plans.
• Develop area-specific landing pages for your website — Fello’s pre-built landing pages are a good option — that are optimized for local search with keywords people use in their search queries. 
• Publish monthly market reports about specific subdivisions or housing developments.

Traditional Farming

• Run direct mail campaigns with featured listings and sold properties in a particular neighborhood.
• Sponsor local events for neighborhood residents — such as an outdoor summer concert, a sports tournament, or a holiday charity event.
• Host local seminars for seller leads on topics like home valuation and cash offers.

Watch Dan Beer's webinar from our Titans Mini Masterclass about successful marketing tactics in your market →

3. Digital Marketing: A Modern Approach to Lead Generation — 15%–20%

Top agents know that to remain at the top and outperform their competitors, they need to invest in sophisticated digital marketing strategies that reach today’s sellers in the places where they’re hanging out, searching, and conversing online. 

You can launch strategies for the following:

Content Marketing

• Write educational blog posts about the selling process and post to your business website as well as a local community website that accepts guest bloggers.
• Produce video content for YouTube or TikTok that showcases your market expertise.
• Start a podcast to discuss local market insights or appear as a guest on another real estate-focused podcast. 
• Create downloadable guides for seller leads that give them tips about home improvement and preparation.

Paid Advertising

• Create Google ads with keywords that target seller intent or motivations — such as downsizing, upsizing, or job relocation.
• Fire up Facebook ads that reach audiences who are looking for properties in specific price ranges.
• Use LinkedIn advertising for luxury and investment properties.
• Create retargeting campaigns for leads who visit your website and then appear to drop off.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Optimize your website content for “sell my house” queries.
• Create content focused around neighborhood-specific terms like names of subdivisions, schools, parks, and retail areas.
• Blog regularly about local market news and updates. 
• Include keyword-optimized, user-generated content — like client reviews and testimonials — on your website.

Watch Dan Beer's webinar from our Titans Mini Masterclass about successful marketing tactics in your market →

4. Strategic Partnerships: Leveraging Professional Networks — 10%–15%

Elite agents build strong relationships with professionals in complementary fields who can refer sellers. Your professional contacts are part of your sphere of influence (discussed above), but because these partnerships often yield high-quality seller leads — since they come from trusted advisors who understand what their clients are looking for — they deserve their own category.

To build a quality professional network, get to know:

• Financial advisors and wealth managers
• Estate planning attorneys
• Divorce attorneys
• Tax professionals
• Home improvement contractors
• Property managers
• HR and relocation specialists

5. Expired and FSBO (For Sale by Owner) Listings: Strategic Prospecting — 5%–10%

While many agents avoid expired listings and FSBOs, top performers don’t shy away from them. In fact, they enthusiastically target these opportunities as part of their lead generation strategy.

To take advantage of these types of seller leads for Realtors®:

Expired Listings

• Make immediate contact and convey your value proposition — for example, your track record of selling fast, selling over the asking price, or getting all-cash bids.
• Provide a custom market analysis showing why their property didn’t sell.
• Present your specific strategy for a successful relisting — including your marketing plan and home valuation advice.
• Use a follow-up system to nurture the relationship long term — such as a drip email campaign.

FSBO Listings

• Offer statistics about home prices and other market insights to demonstrate your expertise.
• Provide or recommend professional photography services.
• Share comparable home sales data with FSBO leads to earn their trust.
• Take a pressure-free, value-added approach that can pay off in time.

Becoming an Elite Listing Agent

Elite agents don’t rely on a single source for their listings. Instead, they start with their immediate sphere of influence, then develop and systematically nurture multiple lead generation channels. The key to their success lies in consistent relationship-building, communication, and use of technology to scale their efforts.

It’s also important to know that the best lead source for your business may vary based on your market, expertise, and resources. Start with one or two strategies, perfect them, and gradually expand your lead generation efforts as you grow your business. Over time, you can build a pipeline of seller leads that rivals that of any top performer.

Ready to transform your seller lead generation strategy? Schedule a demo to see how Fello’s tools can help uncover more seller leads, get more listing appointments, and close more deals.

Already a Fello user? These strategies can work for you too. And if you have questions about any of the Fello features and tools mentioned above, schedule a call with your CSM, or email success@hifello.com.

The featured image is from a networking happy hour hosted by Fello and Homeward during KW Mega Agent Camp in 2024.