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Read time: ~10 minutes
Mortgage rates are sitting at their lowest point in nearly four years.
Buyers who've been frozen on the sidelines for 18 months just got their "go" signal.
And most of the agents in your market? They haven't called anyone about it yet.
That window, between when the news breaks and when every agent starts sending the same "have you heard?" email, is exactly where deals are made. And it's still open.
In this edition: the word-for-word call script to reactivate your cold leads with this news, a Google advertising strategy that most agents have never set up despite it being the highest-placement ad on the entire search results page, and a $25/month tool that turns your past client database into a passive lead machine.
Let's get into it.
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The Google Ad That Sits Above Every Competitor on the Page (And Most Agents Have Never Set It Up)
If you've run Google Ads before, you know how this works: you pay per click, you bid against every other agent in your market, and half the people who click your ad were never going to call you anyway.
There's a different kind of Google ad most agents have no idea exists. And it's actually more powerful.
It's called a Google Local Service Ad (LSA), and here's what makes it unusual: it shows up above regular Google pay-per-click ads. You pay only when someone actually contacts you, not when they click. And it displays a "Google Screened" badge next to your name, meaning Google has verified your license and run a background check on you.
For a buyer or seller searching "real estate agent near me" in spring, that badge matters. It's the digital equivalent of a trusted friend's referral right at the top of the page.
Here's how to get set up, step by step.
Step 1: Create your LSA account
Go to ads.google.com/local-services-ads. Select "Real Estate" as your business type, then "Real Estate Agent" as your job type. This is the category that qualifies you for the Google Screened verification.
Step 2: Build your business profile
You'll complete your business name, phone number, service areas, and hours. One important note on service areas: enter zip codes, not just your city or metro area. Zip-code-level targeting gives you much more control over where your ads show and prevents wasted budget on areas you don't actually serve.
Your operating hours determine when your ads run. If you can't respond to calls quickly in the evening, set your hours to business hours only. Response speed is one of the key ranking factors.
Step 3: Get Google Screened
This is the step most agents quit on, and it's exactly why this opportunity exists.
Getting verified requires:
A background check (Google uses a third-party provider, typically takes 3–5 business days)
Real estate license verification
Business insurance verification
The whole process usually takes one to two weeks. Most agents hear "background check" and close the tab. That friction is your competitive advantage. Complete it now and you'll be ahead of nearly everyone in your market.
Once verified, the green "Google Screened" checkmark appears directly on your ad. No other ad format on Google shows that badge.
Step 4: Set your budget
LSAs use a weekly budget, not daily. Google recommends starting at $150–200/week to generate consistent data. You can also set a maximum cost-per-lead bid to cap what you're willing to pay for any single contact.
For real estate agents, expect to pay roughly $24–36 per qualified lead, meaning someone who called or messaged specifically asking about buying or selling. Compare that to:
Source | Typical Cost Per Lead |
|---|---|
Google LSAs | $24–36 |
Facebook/Instagram Ads | $20–60 (quality varies widely) |
Zillow Premier Agent | $50–200+ |
Google PPC (pay-per-click) | $100–750 per lead (after click-to-lead conversion) |
You're paying only for contacts, not for clicks from people who bounced.
Step 5: Optimize your ranking (this is where most agents leave money on the table)
Your position within the LSA results is determined by Google's algorithm, not just your budget. The main factors:
Response time: Respond to leads within 5 minutes whenever possible. Google tracks this. Faster response = higher placement.
Review count and score: More Google reviews = better ranking. The day you launch your LSA is also a good day to ask your last 10 clients for a review.
Dispute invalid leads: If you receive a call that's under 30 seconds, clearly a wrong number, or unrelated to real estate, dispute it in your dashboard. Google will issue a credit. Most agents never do this and overpay by 10–20% every month.
Why act now:
Spring search volume for "real estate agent near me" spikes sharply in March and April. Getting LSAs set up now means your Google Screened profile is live and ranking before that traffic arrives. Agents who wait until April are still going through verification when the peak is already here.
Your next step: Go to ads.google.com/local-services-ads and start the verification process. The background check takes a few days. Everything else can be configured in under an hour. Within a week you could have an active ad sitting above every Google PPC result in your zip codes.
The $25/Month Tool That Gets Your Past Clients to Raise Their Hand
Here's a scenario that happens to agents regularly: a past client decides to sell, calls three agents from Google, and picks one. That agent is not you, even though you closed their last transaction. They just didn't have you top of mind when the moment came.
Homebot exists to prevent that specific scenario.
What it does:
Homebot sends your entire database a personalized, branded monthly home value report. Each contact gets a report that shows them their estimated home value, how much equity they've built, their estimated net proceeds at current market values, and local market data.
The reports go out automatically, every month, under your name and brand. Your past clients, your sphere, your leads: all of them hear from you monthly with something genuinely useful, without you lifting a finger after setup.
Why this matters:
When rates drop, homeowners start doing math. "What's my home worth now? Could I afford to move up? What would I net if I sold?" Homebot is the tool that captures that moment of interest and routes it directly back to you.
Inside each monthly report, homeowners see a simple question: "Are you thinking about selling?" When someone clicks yes, Homebot sends you an instant notification. That's a hand-raised lead from someone who already trusts you. You didn't have to make a single cold call to get it.
How it works:
Import your contacts (CSV upload or CRM sync)
Homebot pulls property data and builds a personalized report for each homeowner
Reports go out monthly on a schedule you set
You get notified when a contact clicks "thinking about selling," requests a home value update, or engages with the report
You follow up with full context, because you know exactly what they saw
Pricing:
Plan | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Agent Partner | $25/month + $50 setup | Requires a lender co-sponsor to share cost |
Agent Starter | $50/month + $50 setup | No lender required; 500 contacts included |
Additional contacts | $10/500 block | Add more beyond the base 500 |
If you have a preferred lender you work with, the Partner plan splits the cost with them: $25/month each. That's a strong reason to bring it up in your next lender conversation.
Who it's for:
Agents with 50+ past clients or sphere contacts in their database who aren't hearing from them regularly
Anyone working in a market where homeowners have built significant equity (most of the country right now)
Agents who want passive lead generation: warm signals without outbound effort
Who it's NOT for:
Brand-new agents with fewer than 20 contacts in their database (the ROI math doesn't work yet)
Agents who work exclusively with buyers and have no homeowner database
The math:
If you have 200 past clients and sphere contacts, Homebot touches all of them every month for $50. If it generates just one warm lead per quarter who becomes a transaction (2.5% on a $400k sale), that's $10,000 in commission from $150 in tool costs.
Where to start: homebot.ai/pricing. 14-day free trial available, no credit card required.
Bottom line: Most agents lose past clients not because those clients stopped trusting them, but because they went quiet. Homebot ends the silence without requiring you to remember to reach out.
Mortgage Rates Hit Their Lowest Point in Nearly 4 Years. Here's How to Use That to Win More Listings.
CNBC reported that 30-year mortgage rates have dropped to their lowest level in nearly four years, with FHA rates falling below 6% for the first time since early 2022. Zillow estimates that the median U.S. household now has over $30,000 more buying power than they did a year ago. Real Estate News confirms that affordability has improved approximately 9% year-over-year.
This is the news your leads have been waiting for.
Why this matters for your business:
The majority of buyers and sellers who went quiet over the last 18 months didn't leave the market permanently. They paused it. Rates at 7–8% felt like a ceiling on what they could afford or a reason to stay put. Rates approaching 5.98% for FHA? That's a different calculation.
There are four groups of people in your database who need a call:
Buyers who paused their search because they couldn't afford what they wanted. Their purchasing power just went up by $30,000+. That changes what they can buy.
Sellers who were waiting for rates to drop before listing, because they knew low rates would bring more buyers and better offers. The moment they've been waiting for is here.
Move-up buyers: homeowners in smaller homes who wanted to upgrade but couldn't afford the jump. The rate drop compresses that gap.
Cold leads who went quiet after multiple follow-ups. You now have a new reason to reach out that isn't "just checking in." Timing-based outreach converts at a higher rate than unprompted contact.
The word-for-word call script:
"Hey [Name], it's [Your Name]. I wanted to reach out because something just happened in the market I thought you should know about. Mortgage rates just hit their lowest point in almost four years. FHA is below 6%. I know we talked about [buying/selling] a while back and timing was the sticking point. I wanted to make sure you had this news before you heard it from someone else. Is now a better window for you to take another look?"
Three sentences. An information drop they didn't have. A direct question. No pressure framing. This is not a cold call. It's a relevant, timely follow-up backed by real market news.
The bigger picture:
44% more sellers than buyers were active in January, and buyer volume hit a 13-year low. That inventory imbalance combined with a rate drop heading into spring creates a setup most agents haven't seen in years. More buyers entering the market at the same time as favorable pricing conditions makes this a genuine turning point, not just another "spring market" headline.
The agents who move on this news first will be the ones under contract in April.
Your next step: Pull up your CRM and filter for leads you haven't contacted in 60+ days. Use the reactivation sequence from the previous edition, but lead with this rate news instead of a generic market update. The script above is ready to use. Make five calls.
Quick recap:
Google Local Service Ads put your name above every pay-per-click competitor on the page, cost $24–36 per qualified lead, and display a Google Screened trust badge. Most agents have never set them up because the verification step takes two weeks. Start the process now.
Homebot sends your entire database a branded monthly home value report and alerts you the moment someone raises their hand to sell, for $25–50/month
Mortgage rates just hit a 4-year low and your cold leads have a $30,000+ reason to reconsider their timeline. Call five of them with the script above.
We'll see you in the next edition.
If you know an agent who's been waiting for the right moment to restart their lead gen, forward this their way.
The Real Estate Marketing Update Team @ imFORZA