Field manual for seller-lead buyers
Start a lead-buying test you can actually review.
Decide what a lead must look like before you pay for one. Write the buy box, inspect the card, plan the follow-up and log the result, so a handful of purchases tells you something about your own process instead of a feeling about a provider.
The workflow, in four steps
Each step ends with something written down. If a step has no output, skip the purchase until it does.
Before you look at a single card
Step 1: Write the buy box
Put the market, property types, must-haves, hard exclusions, the test budget and your weekly calling capacity on one page. Note which unknowns you will accept until the first conversation.
Output: One page you can hold a lead card against.
- PlaybookSet a buy box
Before you pay
Step 2: Inspect the card
Read what the card states, what it leaves out and how old the information is. Decide pass, clarify or consider purchase in writing. A card is a seller-stated summary, not a property report or a closing forecast.
Output: A written decision with the evidence and open questions next to it.
- PlaybookRead a lead card
The first call and the next seven days
Step 3: Qualify and follow up
Confirm who you are speaking with and check the card against what the seller says now. Agree a next step, record the seller’s contact preference and plan dated actions around it. Calling and texting rules are your responsibility.
Output: A named next action, an owner and a due date for every lead.
- PlaybookFirst-call questions
- PlaybookPlan seven days of follow-up
Same day, every week
Step 4: Review the week
Reconcile charges and approved credits, give every open lead a next action and count contracts and closings against their own denominators. An open lead is not a loss because the review happened.
Output: A test log you can trust and one change for next week.
- PlaybookWeekly pipeline review
New to buying leads? Your first ten exclusive seller leads stages the whole test with budget caps and decision points.
Printable resources
Fill them in on screen, print them or save a PDF. No account. Anything you type stays in your browser unless you download it yourself.
The worksheets are being fact-checked and will be listed here soon.
Where we run this workflow
The steps above work with any provider. Separately from that general advice, we recommend one platform for the inspect-before-you-pay part of the workflow. It is our related product, and the reasons and limits are below.
Recommended platform for the preview-first workflow
Inspect each lead before you buy it.
DrivenSellers is our recommended starting point if you want to read an exclusive seller lead's card, choose it individually and pay a listed grade price, without a required membership.
- Price before purchase: listed by grade, $99 (C) to $349 (A+), shown on the card.
- No plan needed: optional plans credit their fee to your wallet; they do not discount leads.
- One buyer per lead through DrivenSellers; the card shows motivation, timeline, occupancy, repairs and equity before you pay.
Limits: Inventory varies by market. Grades score the seller's stated answers; they do not guarantee a contract or closing and have not been validated against outcomes. You have 5 days to report a lead as not as described; approved requests are wallet credit, and some providers state longer windows.
How this manual is written
Playbooks and worksheets are written from the provider terms we can read publicly, with the source and check date printed on each page. We have not run a documented customer test, so no page reports close rates, success stories or a score that predicts a deal. Example numbers are labelled illustrative.
Product steps are kept apart from general business advice: a playbook tells you what to decide, and the platform walkthrough shows where those decisions happen in one product. Calling, texting and contract rules vary by state; the pages are general information, not legal advice.
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