Hands down, the worst mistake you can make as a Real Estate agent is responding too slow to a new lead. I know from experience as I recently decided to sell my home and I started searching online for a good agent. The agent that helped me purchase my home was less than impressive, so I hoped to find a real rock star.

I contacted at least 30 agents that I had found from sites such as Zillow.com, Homethinking.com, HomeGain.com and basic Google searching.

What amazed me was the utter lack of call to action on many of these agent's websites! At least half of them had no contact information nor an easy to find 'What's My Home Worth' link. Those that did have a Free CMA link didn't have them setup properly as out of the seven that I submitted, five were broken!

Only one agent had a wonderful website, full of call to action and a detailed list of his marketing plan - and sure enough, he was the only agent that got back to me within the hour. Only two other agents responded to me at all - one at the end of the day and the other the next day. One sent a quick CMA that compared homes in a totally different city (where homes typically sell for much more than this area) and the other didn't send a CMA at all - and they both asked for an appointent.

The one good agent sent a very smart CMA that seemed quite practical given the current market and made intelligent comments about my specific area - he asked all the right questions and I certainly got the impression he knew his stuff. He's the one who will get my business.

You've heard the adage that you have to provide WIIFM or What's In It For Me in order to land those leads - but if you have a lead, you must continue to provide that value! You're being given a golden opportunity - these leads know for a fact that you'll be getting paid for your services, they want to feel like they're at least important enough to warrant you paying attention to what they're asking for.