Your leads aren’t the problem. Here’s what is

by REM Bot

Taylor Hack’s listing ads were generating plenty of traffic to his website. The problem was that the traffic was not converting into leads. Andrew Fogliato identified the bottleneck and switched the approach: instead of sending ad traffic to the website, he moved to Facebook lead forms – where a user’s name, email and phone number pre-fill automatically and the opt-in takes one tap.

Leads started coming in. That solved the top-of-funnel problem, but created a new one. Hack’s follow-up system had been built for a different kind of lead – higher intent, slower volume. The new flow of Facebook form leads needed a different approach entirely, and that is what the rest of the episode is about.

Same budget. Same listings. Completely different outcome.

“It wasn’t converting great, your website,” Fogliato said. “So we were getting a lot of traffic but not the leads on the other side.”

The website was not broken. The conversion architecture was wrong for what the traffic needed to do. Swapping to a lead form removed the friction and the leads came in. The next problem was the same one most agents face once leads actually start coming in: what happens now?

The two groups every lead falls into

Dean Jackson’s framework for lead follow-up is simple enough to remember and specific enough to actually use. Every lead falls into one of two groups: ready now or ready not now. The entire system is built around which group someone is in.

Ready now means something specific. They can write a market-acceptable offer today. They have motivation and ability. They are not waiting on a sale, a pre-approval or a life change. They are ready to move.

Ready not now is everyone else. Some of them will be ready in three months. Some in three years. Some never. The job is to stay close enough that when they cross the line from not now to now, you are the first call.

“You need two plans for all your leads,” Fogliato said. “The ones who are ready now and the ones who are ready not now. That’s it.”

Most agents treat both groups identically, which means they either pressure the not-now people into unsubscribing or they ignore the now people long enough that someone else gets the call.

The first text message

When a new lead comes in from a Facebook ad, the first contact should be a text within minutes. Not a phone call. Not an email. A text that asks one simple question in the lead’s language, not the agent’s.

Fogliato’s framing: they saw an ad for a house, not an agent. The text should reference the house.

“Hey, I saw you looked at our house online and requested more information. Are you just curious about the house or are you planning or thinking about a move?” he said.

Hack added a practical note on language. Agents call them showings. Clients call them viewings. Agents talk about listings. Clients talk about houses. The text should sound like a person, not a CRM.

One thing to avoid: opening with a vague “Hi, is this Sarah?” before revealing who you are. Everyone knows what is coming. The pattern interrupt is gone. Skip it.

The goal of the first text is not to book a showing. It is to find out which group they are in. If they say they are thinking about a move, you have a ready-now candidate. If they say they are just looking, you route them into the long-term nurture sequence and stop chasing.

The Godfather offer and the double dip

For the ready-now group, the next step is what Fogliato calls the Godfather offer: something so relevant and useful that an action-ready buyer or seller would not refuse it.

The offer has to match where they are in the process. For a listing lead, a version that works is offering to show them how much equity they could pull from their current home to buy the one they were looking at. Reply with your address and we will run an equity check.

“You’re addressing a common problem called the seller’s algorithm,” Hack said. “If I sell my current house, will I have enough money to do what I imagine doing next?”

That question is sitting in the back of almost every move-up buyer’s mind. The equity check offer surfaces it without the buyer having to say it out loud.

The double dip works alongside the Godfather offer. If they clicked on the listing but did not take the equity check, you offer something else. If they took the equity check but did not book a call, you offer a different next step. The sequence filters people toward a conversation without requiring them to jump straight to a sales interaction.

The free list of homes – what works and what destroys lead quality

The free list of homes is still one of the most reliable lead generation tools available, but the version most agents run is also one of the worst.

A generic list of homes under a price point attracts people with no clear profile and low intent. Fogliato’s experience: lists built around specific features that are difficult to search for publicly consistently outperform price-based lists on cost per lead and lead quality.

Two of the best-performing lists he has run: condos with outdoor space and lofts with exposed brick. Both are under a dollar per lead. Both attracted a very specific type of buyer who knew exactly what they wanted.

“You’re searching for things that are tough for the public to find online,” Hack said. “And you can be like, no, I curate this for you already.”

The list works best when it attracts people who genuinely want that specific thing, because those people are more motivated and easier to have a real conversation with. The failure mode is building a list that attracts everyone, then wondering why no one converts.

The three-email welcome sequence

Once someone opts in, whether through a list of homes, a listing ad or a community newsletter sign-up, the first three emails set the tone for the entire relationship.

Fogliato’s approach: the first email tells them exactly what to expect and gives the ready-now people a clear fast lane. Here is what you are going to get from me. If you are ready to talk, here is how to book a call. If you are not ready yet, that is fine. Here is what comes next.

The second email walks through how the agent can help, presented as options rather than a pitch. Here are the things you can do. Here is why we are a good choice for that.

The third email closes the welcome sequence cleanly. This is the last email like this. You are going to start getting my weekly newsletter. Any time you are ready for anything, just reply. We are not going to hassle you in the meantime.

The sequence does two things. It filters out the fast-lane people early so they do not sit in a generic nurture for weeks before anyone talks to them. And it sets clear expectations for the not-now people so they stay subscribed instead of unsubscribing the first time an email feels like a sales pitch.

The long-term nurture that actually keeps people warm

For the not-now group, the weekly touchpoint has to be something they actually want to receive. Fogliato described two formats that work well for agents with a family-focused client base: the deal of the week and the community newsletter.

The community newsletter works because it is not about real estate. It is about the neighbourhood. What is happening this weekend. Events with kids. Local news. Real estate content sits inside it rather than leading it, which means people open it for the community content and stay for the market update.

“Here’s what you can do with your kids this weekend,” Fogliato said. “And then I’d have a real estate section. Here’s some homes coming up. Here’s some open houses. Any point you’re ready, just reply.”

The key is consistency. A nurture sequence that goes out every week for two years builds a different kind of trust than one that goes out sporadically when the agent has time. The not-now people are not ignoring the emails. They are reading them and waiting until they are ready. When that moment comes, the agent who showed up every week is the one who gets the call.

The full episode covers how to think about lead volume at different stages of a team, when to use automation versus personal follow-up, and why the buy-or-sell-first objection is one of the most underused marketing angles in residential real estate.