Real Estate Marketing Ideas

How To Generate Real Estate Leads for Free

By Lindsay Goebel Last Updated November 3, 2022 3 min read

Lead generation is one of the essential strategies for successful real estate agents. Why is lead generation so crucial for real estate professionals in particular? Well, the real estate business is built and grown by relationships. 

Nurturing prospects and focusing on your referral network help grow your business, but you need to know how to generate leads. You may think that only leads from paid ads or sponsored posts are valuable, but there are now several ways you can create high-converting leads for free. 

Here are four ways to generate real estate leads without spending a dime: 

1. Blogging

Your real estate website should include a blog where you share value-based content with your target audience. You don’t have to be a professional writer to post informative articles online. There are applications, like Grammarly, to help you improve your writing style. 

Homebuyers and sellers usually look for real estate advice online before hiring a real estate professional. Blogging about the real estate industry, the local housing market, and community updates better your chances of prospects finding you on search engines. Your rank improves through search engine optimization, and blogging is a simple way to achieve high website traffic through SEO. 

You can generate leads on your blog by creating a lead gen form. Your lead gen form can be a pop-up or an in-line form within your article. Lead generation forms help build your email list, which allows you to nurture your leads through strategic email campaigns. 

2. Pinterest

When considering social media channels to generate leads, you may not think of Pinterest

Your target audience likely uses Pinterest. Several users of this visual discovery engine are interested in home design, home organization, landscaping, and renovation projects. The median age of pinners is 40-years-old, which aligns nicely with the first-time homebuyer (45) and home seller (38) demographics. 

Furthermore, a whopping 90% of weekly Pinterest users make purchasing decisions through the social media channel. 

Whenever you create a new blog post, add an eye-catching pin on Pinterest linking to your article. You can create pins on user-friendly design sites Canva.com

real estate video marketing
Many free apps make it easy to create video slideshows of your listings!

3. Video Content

Video marketing is one of the most prevalent strategies for businesses today. This type of content helps viewers retain 95% of the marketing message versus only 10% when reading text. Video content is shared 1200% more on social media platforms than text and image content combined.  

There are several types of video content you can create to generate leads. You can repurpose your blog articles into a video using applications like Animoto. You can also create fun BTS (behind the scenes) videos on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Show your audience a tour of your listing or share tips on finding a house as a first-time homebuyer. 

If you want to generate leads on the spot, your videos can be gated content. This means interested viewers need to fill out a lead gen form to receive your videos. These exclusive videos can include webinars, guides, presentations, or private listing tours. 

4. Referrals

We mentioned above that a prosperous real estate business is built on relationships. The success of your referral strategy directly reflects on the success of your lead generation strategy. After you help a client buy or sell a home, remember to stay connected. 

The clients you keep a relationship with are more likely to refer you to their friends and family. With that said, you must be easy to find on social media platforms, like Pinterest, and search engines, through blogging. 


You can grow your real estate business through thoughtful lead generation strategies, and they don’t have to cost you a penny! Focus on generating leads for free through blogging, video content, Pinterest, and referrals. Learn more about real estate lead generation techniques by reading this article: 9 Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas to Boost Your Career.