Guide
Following up on land buyer leads
Call every land buyer lead within the hour, qualify on the first call, follow a set cadence until they buy or say no, and log every inquiry in one CRM.
By Jordan Johnson, Founder, Kedron Co.Updated 6 min read
Follow up on a land buyer lead by calling within the hour, learning on the first call what they want and whether they can buy, and then following a set cadence until they buy or tell you no. Every inquiry, from every source, goes into one CRM with a name on it and a date for the next step. Speed and a second call are the two parts of this that are fully in your control.
How fast should you respond to a land lead?
Within the hour, by phone. The best-known data on this comes from outside real estate, but it's clear. In "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads" (Harvard Business Review, March 2011), researchers audited 2,241 U.S. companies and found:
| Finding | Result |
|---|---|
| Companies that responded to a web lead within an hour | 37% |
| Companies that never responded | 23% |
| Average response time, among those that responded within 30 days | 42 hours |
| Likelihood of qualifying the lead when contacted within an hour, versus an hour later | Nearly 7 times |
| Versus waiting 24 hours or longer | More than 60 times |
That study covers online leads across industries, not land. Land buyers have their own reason to move fast: good parcels go quickly. One buyer on the Rokslide hunting forum wrote that "most any property that has interested me and been priced right is gone within a week" (Rokslide). A buyer like that may have sent the same inquiry to several agents. The first one to call gets the conversation.
If you can't call within the hour, send a text that names the property and gives a time you'll call. Then call at that time.
Where land buyer leads come from
Leads arrive from more places than most firms track:
- Land portals such as the Land.com Network and LandSearch.
- The firm's own website.
- Calls from the yard sign or the plat book.
- Facebook and Instagram comments and messages.
- Replies to an email or a film posted on YouTube.
- Referrals from past buyers, foresters, lenders and attorneys.
- Walk-ins and calls from neighbors.
Log the source on every lead. Land.com, for one, shows agents searches, views, emails, flyers and inquiries for each listing (Land.com Network). Pair that with your own record of which leads became showings and which became closings, and you'll know which channels are worth the money. Without the source, you're guessing. For a comparison of where listings get seen, see where land buyers find listings.
What to say on the first call
The first call has four jobs: answer the question they asked, find out what they want, find out whether they can buy, and set the next step.
- Name the property. "You asked about the 80 in Vernon County off County Road B." They may have sent five inquiries that day.
- Answer their question first. If they asked about access, answer access. Then ask yours.
- Ask what they want the land for. Hunting, farming, building, an investment, or some mix. This tells you whether this parcel fits and what else to send.
- Ask how they'd pay and when. Cash, a land loan, Farm Credit, 1031 proceeds. When they want to close. The full question list is in qualifying a land buyer on the first call.
- Set the next step. Send the film, map and information pack. Offer a video walkthrough or a showing with a date.
- Ask what else they're looking for. If this parcel doesn't fit, the next one might.
Write the answers in the CRM before you hang up the phone or right after.
What if the buyer doesn't answer?
Most won't pick up the first time. A set cadence keeps the lead from going cold without annoying the buyer. This is the sequence we recommend as a starting point; adjust it to your market.
| When | What | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0, within the hour | Call, then text, then email | Name the property; send the film, map and listing link |
| Day 1 | Call | Ask if they've seen the film; offer a video walkthrough |
| Day 3 | The full information pack | |
| Day 7 | Call and text | One new detail about the property, or a similar listing |
| Day 14 | Similar listings or a price update | |
| Monthly after that | Email or text | New listings that match what they said they want |
Stop when they buy, ask to be removed, or tell you they're out of the market. Record which one.
Every touch should carry something the buyer didn't have: a new photo, a video walkthrough, a tax figure, a comparable sale. "Just checking in" gives them nothing to answer.
Keep the buyers who don't fit this listing
A buyer who calls about a 40-acre parcel in Buffalo County and wants 120 acres in Pierce County isn't a dead lead. They're a buyer for your next listing, or for a landowner you're talking to now.
Record for every buyer:
- Use: hunting, farming, building, investment.
- Counties or area.
- Acreage range.
- Budget.
- How they'll pay.
- Timeline.
- Must-haves: water, tillable, a building site, closed to the public.
Land buyers plan far ahead. A 2012 LandThink article put it this way: "Most buyers will tell you that they have had a search setup at a land specific website for months or some cases even years in a specific county or even several counties." A list of waiting buyers sorted by county and budget is something you can show a landowner at the listing appointment. It is also where a quiet sale before listing starts, when the seller wants one.
How to keep follow-up from slipping
Follow-up fails when leads live in three inboxes and nobody owns them. A few rules fix most of it.
- One CRM for every lead. Portal inquiries, website forms, social messages and phone calls all go in the same place. Keep every contact in your own system, not only in a portal's inbox.
- One owner per lead. A lead with two agents on it gets called by neither.
- A next-step date on every open lead. If a lead has no date, it has no follow-up.
- A weekly review. Fifteen minutes, every open lead, looking for the ones with past-due dates.
- Automate the reminders, not the relationship. Let the CRM remind you and send the day-3 email. Make the calls yourself.
Portal inquiries need one extra step. Many arrive as a form with a name, an email and a one-line question, sometimes with no phone number. Reply by email within the hour with the film, the map and a direct question they can answer in one line ("Are you looking to hunt it, farm it or build on it?"), and ask for the best number to call. A reply they can answer from their phone keeps the conversation going until you get them on a call.
Track two numbers each month: how many leads got a call within the hour, and how many became a showing or a video walkthrough. Those two tell you whether the system is working before the closings do.
Following up with remote buyers
Many land buyers live hours away, so the follow-up has to carry the showing. Send the film, the 3D model or map and the information pack early, and offer a live video walkthrough before asking them to drive. Selling land to a buyer who lives hours away covers the pack and the walkthrough.
Before the next lead comes in
Check where leads land now. List every source, and confirm each one reaches one CRM and one person. Write the cadence down, set the reminders, and look up how fast your firm called the last ten leads. That number is the place to start. More on how buyers decide is in land buyers.
