How to Convert the Leads Your Brokerage Hands You (2026)

The problem: Handed leads feel like junk because they're strangers who clicked a button months before they're ready, and every agent who reaches them asks the same first question.

The fix: Change the first thing you say, sort them with a question they haven't been asked, and find out which button each one clicked.

What changes: You'll know from your own numbers whether these leads deserve your hours, and you decide where your time goes instead of waiting on the next handout.

By D.J. Paris, president of sales and marketing at Kale Realty and host of the Keeping It Real Podcast. The fix is below. If you want to talk it through, there's a 10-minute option right after it.

What's really going on: they clicked early, and the first question shuts the door

A handed lead is a stranger who clicked a button. A lot of the time they clicked it months before they're ready to do anything. Then an agent reaches them and asks, "Are you looking to buy?" They say "just looking," because that's the safe thing to say to a stranger. The lead gets marked junk and everybody moves on.

So the lead might be fine and the first question might be the problem. You won't know until you change what you say, sort every lead the same way, and count. That's the three moves below. At the end, your own numbers decide whether these leads get your hours.

Move 1: don't ask if they're buying. Go find out something.

"Are you looking to buy?" always gets "just looking." So skip it. Reach out fast, between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., and text about the home they clicked on.

Hi [name], [you] with [brokerage]. You were looking at [address]. Want me to find out what the photos aren't showing? Your first text to a new lead

Then call the listing agent and ask two things: "Any offers yet?" and "What do buyers say after they walk through?" Send the lead what you learn, in your own words. No address on the lead? Send this instead.

What caught your eye, the area or the price? When the lead has no address

This works because you showed up with something they can't get from the photos. That's a reason to write back. If the listing agent doesn't pick up, tell the lead you've asked and you'll report back. Then do it. The mistake that ruins this is passing along a guess. If the listing agent didn't say it, you don't say it.

Move 2: sort every lead with two questions

Every lead gets the same two questions, in the same order.

Are you working with an agent yet? Question one, every lead

If yes, wish them luck and move on. If no, ask the second one.

Have you walked through any homes yet, or just looking online so far? Question two, if they're free

• Walked through some: call today and ask which one came closest.
• Online only: ask, "Okay if I text you when something sells near there?" A yes gets one useful text a month.
• Never, or "stop": mark it dead in the system and don't text again.

A lot of "junk" is a "later" that nobody stayed with. The second question is easy to answer honestly because it asks what they've done. And "which one came closest?" gets you the price, the area and what was missing in one answer. The mistake: turning the monthly text into a pitch. One sale near the home they liked, and what it sold for. That's the whole text.

Move 3: find out which button they clicked, then do the math

Ask whoever runs the leads this.

Can I see the source on each one, and how do you decide who gets which? To whoever runs the leads

Someone who asked to tour a home raised a hand. Someone who typed an email to see photos didn't. Then count the last six months:

• How many leads you were handed.
• How many closed.
• What you gave up on each closing.
• What you closed from people who already knew you.

Compare the two. If the handed leads lose, tell your broker you're pausing them. If they win, ask who in the office closes the most and copy what they do.

Ask the source question as someone who wants to work the tour requests first, because that's what you are. For "what you gave up," pull the real numbers off your closing paperwork. Don't go from memory. Memory is how these leads got called junk in the first place.

Do this today

Your own numbers get the last word

Do this and you stop being the agent who grumbles about the leads. You become the one who knows which ones get a fast reply, which get a text a month, and which get nothing. You'll have a count to back it up, and your hours go where you decide they go.

Who this works for, and who should read something else

Frequently asked questions

Still stuck on this one? Book 10 minutes with D.J. No strings, not a recruiting call. I'll call you, and I won't bring up Kale unless you do.