been seeing a lot of people mention these lead gen platforms and im trying to figure out if its actually worth paying for leads or if its mostly a race to the bottom with guys charging $75 for a full real estate shoot. tried Bark for about a month, bought maybe 15 credits worth of leads and converted exactly one job which barely covered what i spent on the leads. maybe im doing something wrong with my profile or response time idk

feels like the clients coming through those platforms are mostly just shopping for the cheapest option and dont really care about quality. but i also know a guy locally who says he gets decent work through Thumbtack so maybe its just market dependent. curious what peoples experiences have been, good or bad

yeah those platforms are pretty hit or miss in my experience. Thumbtack worked okay for me when i first started and needed to build a portfolio but after a while the lead costs added up and the quality of inquiries was inconsistent. a lot of tire kickers who never respond after you send a quote.

what actually worked better long term was just reaching out directly to real estate brokerages and introducing myself, maybe offering a free or discounted shoot for one of their listings so they could see the quality. feels slower but the relationships you build that way are way stickier than anything coming through a lead platform. one broker who likes your work is worth more than 50 random Bark leads

honestly i think the lead platform thing is kind of a trap for drone pilots specifically because the barrier to entry is low enough that theres always someone willing to undercut you. the guys winning on those platforms are usually either locals who do super high volume at low margin or total beginners who dont know what to charge yet. neither of those is a great situation to compete in if you actually want to run a real business. not saying never use them but id treat it as one small channel not a main strategy