Real estate leads: people researching buying or selling a home
Buyers and sellers read for months before they call an agent: what their home is worth, what first-time buyers need, how commissions work. These are the people doing that reading right now.
What are real estate leads?
Real estate leads are people likely to buy or sell a home soon, bought by agents, teams and brokerages to win listings and buyer clients. Intent-based real estate leads are people in the US whose recent reading is about selling a home, first-time buying, finding an agent or what sellers pay in commission, identified from that research and delivered with contact details, home city and ZIP, homeowner status and household income. Unlike portal leads, they didn't click to contact an agent on a listing, so they aren't routed to whoever paid for that ZIP; unlike an expired or FSBO list, they aren't the same records every agent in town calls the same morning.
People researching buying, selling and agents
Portal leads arrive after someone has clicked a listing, and the same buyer is often shown several agents. The research comes earlier: a homeowner reading about selling quickly or how commissions work, a renter reading about first-time buying, a family weighing a move to a new city.
We count those readers every day and attach their home city, homeowner status, household income and age range. A listing agent can keep homeowners in the area they farm; a buyer's agent or a lender can keep non-owners reading about first-time buying.
| Topic | Category | People researching (US) |
|---|---|---|
| Selling a $500K+ Home Soon | Residential Sales | 676,446 |
| Home Buying | Mortgage & Home Loans | 233,092 |
| Home Selling | Residential Sales | 228,423 |
| First-Time Home Buying | Residential Sales | 194,038 |
| Finding a Real Estate Agent or Broker | Real Estate Agencies | 149,958 |
| Selling a Home Quickly for Top Dollar | Real Estate Agencies | 141,868 |
| Real Estate Agent | Real Estate Agencies | 127,869 |
| Real Estate Commission Rates for Home Sellers | Real Estate Agencies | 18,883 |
As of November 14, 2026. People in the US researching each topic on that day, counted exactly; the page checks for a new day every hour. People often research several topics, so the rows overlap: the total above counts each person once. A lane keeps a rolling 14-day window, so it also holds people from earlier days.
Ways to buy real estate leads
The common ways to buy real estate leads, side by side. Third-party prices come from each seller's own pages or a named industry source, checked November 2026 and linked below; where nobody publishes a figure, the row says how the price is set.
| Way to buy | Price | Exclusivity | Contact data included | Timing | Contract or subscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intent leadsPeople researching your topics, which you export yourself | 10¢ falling to 5¢ per lead; counts and samples free | Not exclusive, but no form fill is split among buyers | Name, personal email, mobiles with do-not-call flags, home city and ZIP, homeowner, income | Researched in the last 14 days; new people every data day | None: prepaid balance, top-ups from $250 |
| Portal leads, paid per connectionZillow Premier Agent: buyer inquiries shared out by each agent's share of a ZIP | About $223 per connection in major metros and $139 elsewhere, Zillow's own averages12 | You're the only buyer's agent shown to that connection, but the ZIP is split among the agents who pay for it | Name, phone and email, plus the listing the buyer asked about | Real time, as the buyer asks about a home | No contract required; 6-month contracts are offered |
| Referral fee at closingZillow Preferred and Realtor.com ReadyConnect Concierge: nothing up front, a share of the commission when it closes | 15%–40% of your commission at Zillow Preferred, and 40% on seller connections; Realtor.com doesn't publish its fee345 | Realtor.com live-transfers each lead to the first agent who claims it; Zillow Preferred is by invitation | A live transfer or a connection, with the client's details | Within minutes of the inquiry | No upfront cost; Zillow Preferred also requires a Follow Up Boss subscription |
| Expired, FSBO and pre-foreclosure dataSeller data subscriptions such as REDX, built for prospecting calls | $60 a month per lead type at REDX, or $199 a month for all five; extra users $75 a month each6 | Not exclusive: any subscriber in your market can pull the same records | Seller and property details from listing and public records | As listings expire or appear, with every subscriber seeing them the same day | Monthly, or annual at $600 a year per lead type |
- Zillow, Premier Agent, as of November 2026.
- Zillow, Premier Agent frequently asked questions, as of November 2026.
- Zillow Preferred, FAQ, as of November 2026.
- Zillow Preferred, Pricing, as of November 2026.
- Realtor.com, ReadyConnect Concierge, as of November 2026.
- REDX, Pricing, as of November 2026.
Who uses real estate leads
Listing agents and teams
Homeowners in your farm area researching a sale, before they've chosen an agent.
Buyer's agents and lenders
First-time buyers researching how buying works, months before they tour.
Investors and cash buyers
Owners researching a fast sale, who may prefer a quick offer to a listing.
Every field we have, at one price per person
Name, job title, company and website, business email with its validation status, personal email, every mobile we have with its own do-not-call flag, direct and company phones, LinkedIn, department, title and employer history, schools, home city, age, gender, household income, net worth, homeowner, married and children at home, the company's size, revenue, NAICS and SIC codes and address, and why they're here: the topics they researched or the pages they visited. The same fields in the dashboard, the CSV, the API and the webhook.
Every field, by group 70 in all
Who they are33
- First Name
- Last Name
- Job Title
- Seniority
- Standard Title
- Department
- Job Function
- Sub-departments
- Headline
- Title History
- Employer History
- Education
- LinkedIn Connections
- Company
- Website
- Industry
- NAICS
- SIC
- Employees
- Employee Range
- Revenue
- Revenue Range
- Company Address
- City
- State
- Company ZIP
- Company Country
- Company Description
- Photo
- LinkedIn Headline
- Current Title (LinkedIn)
- Current Company (LinkedIn)
- Location (LinkedIn)
Home and household11
- Home City
- Home State
- Home ZIP
- Home Country
- Age Range
- Gender
- Household Income
- Net Worth
- Homeowner
- Married
- Children at Home
How to reach them12
- Business Email
- Email Status
- Personal Email
- Mobile
- Mobile on DNC
- Direct Phone
- Company Phone
- Company LinkedIn
- X (Twitter)
- GitHub
- All Mobiles
Why they're here9
- Intent Topics
- Intent Score
- Last Active
- Visited Page
- Visited At
- Lane
- Keywords Matched
- Intent Strength
- First Seen
The ID that lasts5
- Exported
- Seen Before
- Suppressed
- Lead ID
- Person ID
Aim it at the people you can serve
Lanes take household and location filters as well as topics, so you only pay for people you can serve. For this market, these matter most:
- A radius around your office, or the ZIP codes you farm.
- Homeowner yes or no, to split likely sellers from likely first-time buyers.
- Household income and net worth, for price bands.
- Home state, city, ZIP codes, or a radius around a ZIP code.
- Homeowner, household income, net worth, age range, married and children at home.
- Require a mobile, or only mobiles that aren't on do-not-call lists.
Pay per lead, only when you export
100% usage-based: pay per lead, no subscription. From 10¢ a person, falling to 5¢ as your month grows, with no seats or contract: add funds to a prepaid balance and spend them on any lane.
Intent leads
Charged once a month per person, however many of your lanes find them.
| People this month | Each |
|---|---|
| First 2,500 | 10¢ |
| 2,501 – 7,500 | 8¢ |
| 7,501 – 20,000 | 6.7¢ |
| Above 20,000 | 5¢ |
10,000 in a month cost $817.50; 50,000 in a month cost $2,987.50. Only the people inside each band get its price. More than 100,000 a month? Talk to us.
Free before you buy
Size the market and check who's in it at no cost.
- Daily counts for every lane and every topic.
- Samples of the people in a lane, before you export.
- Quotes on every export, shown before you pay.
- Exclusion lists, so you never pay for people you already have.
- API, webhooks and CSV on every account.
Set it up in 3 steps
- 01
Add the topics
Create a free account and start a lane with topics such as “Home Selling”, “Selling a Home Quickly for Top Dollar” and “Selling a $500K+ Home Soon”. Or describe what you sell and pick from the topics we suggest.
- 02
Narrow it to your market
Set a radius around your office, keep homeowners for sellers or non-owners for buyers, and add an income band.
- 03
Export, or have them sent
Check the count free every day. Export a CSV when it looks right, pull leads through the API, or have each new person sent to your CRM by webhook.
How to work real estate leads
- 01
Run sellers and buyers as separate lanes
Put Home Selling, the two quick-sale topics and Real Estate Commission Rates for Home Sellers in a seller lane with homeowner set to yes. Put First-Time Home Buying and Home Buying in a buyer lane with homeowner set to no. Each gets its own message.
- 02
Give sellers a number for their street
Owners reading about selling want to know what they'd get. Offer recent sales in their ZIP and a price range for their home, which is a better reason to reply than any agent bio.
- 03
Answer the commission question plainly
People reading about commission rates are pricing agents. Say what you charge, what the fee covers and what a seller nets on a typical sale in your area, before they have to ask.
- 04
Hand first-time buyers a plan and a lender
Send a one-page buying checklist, the down payment programs in your state and an introduction to a loan officer you trust. Buyers who are pre-approved early are ready to tour when the right house lists.
- 05
Farm the ZIP with an ad audience
Upload the list as a custom audience on Meta and Google inside your farm area, and run just-listed, just-sold and home value ads to it. Your name keeps showing up while they read listings.
- 06
Stay in touch for a year
Plenty of these people move next spring, not this month. Put everyone who doesn't reply into a monthly market update and let the CRM tell you when they open it twice.
Cadence
Export weekly. Sellers get the price-range offer in week one and a market update every month after. Buyers get the checklist on day 1 and the lender introduction on day 7. Keep anyone who opens your emails in the monthly update for 12 months, because home moves are slow decisions.
SubjectWhat homes in {ZIP} sold for this year
Hi {first name}, If you're thinking about selling, the most useful number is what homes like yours actually sold for, not an online estimate. I've pulled this year's sales in {ZIP} and can send them with a price range for your home, no strings attached. I've sold homes in {neighborhood} for {years} years. Want the report? {name}, {brokerage}
Interest signals, not opt-in leads
These people researched the topics above. They didn't fill in a form or agree to be contacted, so these aren't opt-in or consented leads. Every mobile carries its own do-not-call flag. Follow the TCPA, state telemarketing laws, the national and state do-not-call rules and your industry's own marketing rules before you call or text. They work best for email, ad audiences and other compliant outreach.
Real estate leads questions
How counts, targeting and prices work for real estate leads. The lanes guide covers keywords, filters and strength in detail.
How much do real estate leads cost?
100% usage-based: pay per lead, no subscription. Intent Leads charges 10¢ per lead for the first 2,500 in a month, then 8¢ up to 7,500, 6.7¢ up to 20,000 and 5¢ after that, from a prepaid balance. Counts and samples are free, and each person is charged once a month however many of your lanes find them. Other ways to buy them, as of November 2026. Portal leads, paid per connection: About $223 per connection in major metros and $139 elsewhere, Zillow's own averages. Referral fee at closing: 15%–40% of your commission at Zillow Preferred, and 40% on seller connections; Realtor.com doesn't publish its fee. Expired, FSBO and pre-foreclosure data: $60 a month per lead type at REDX, or $199 a month for all five; extra users $75 a month each.
Are these real estate leads exclusive?
No, and nothing in real estate truly is: portals spread a ZIP among paying agents, and expired lists reach every subscriber. The difference is that nobody here clicked to contact an agent, so there's no inquiry being handed to a rival at the same moment. You reach people while they read about buying or selling, before they've picked an agent.
How fresh are real estate leads?
The counts on this page are for November 14, 2026, the latest data day. Each person researched buying or selling within the last 14 days, and new ones arrive with each data day. Moves take months to decide, so a weekly export catches people well before they list or tour.
Can I keep real estate leads to my farm area?
Yes. Draw a radius around a ZIP code, or list the ZIP codes, cities or states you farm. Each lead carries home city, state and ZIP, and the count for your farm is free before you export.
Do real estate leads include phone numbers?
On November 14, 2026, 1,075,339 of the 1,396,398 people researching buying or selling a home (77%) had at least one mobile number. Yes, every mobile we have, each with its own do-not-call flag, plus a personal email. Check the flag, and your brokerage's calling policy, before anyone on the team dials or texts.
Are these people ready to list?
Some are; most aren't yet. They're reading about selling or buying, which can mean this month or next spring. Agents who do well with them follow up for months instead of making one call.
Can I call or text real estate leads?
Only within the law. Nobody on this list asked an agent to reach out, so these are interest signals, not opt-in leads. Check each mobile's do-not-call flag and follow the TCPA, your state's telemarketing rules and your brokerage's policy before calling or texting. Email and ad audiences are the easier first touch.
Is this better than Zillow or Realtor.com leads?
It's different, and far cheaper per person: cents a lead with no referral fee at closing. Portal leads are buyers asking about a listing today; ours are people researching earlier, so you earn the conversation yourself. Agents who already pay for portal leads use these to build next season's pipeline.
Keep exploring
Leads for nearby markets
Lead lists by ICP
Guides and comparisons
- What is intent data?Intent data shows which people and companies are researching a topic right now. How B2B buyer intent data is collected, scored and priced, and how to use it.
- Website visitor identification: how it worksHow website visitor identification turns anonymous B2B traffic into named leads with emails and mobiles, what match rates to expect, and how to set it up legally.