How much should a done-for-you newsletter for real estate agents cost?

$2,000 a month. One custom weekly newsletter, sent once a week, done for the agent or team.

Five agents is $10,000 a month. I planned the service to grow toward $20,000 to $50,000 a month as the roster grows.

What does the agent get for that?

An expensive-looking newsletter they never have to write, with a mix that's roughly half and half:

• Real estate: featured homes with listing GIFs, market notes, open houses.
• Local life: events, restaurant stories, neighborhood stuff people forward. Memes optional.

How does it work week to week?

1. Intake form. The agent tells us what they want featured that week.
2. We build the issue. Custom, weekly.
3. Segmentation. I handle the email platform setup and segments.
4. Lead capture. A post-subscribe survey asks new readers about their plans. I get people to fill out my surveys at about a 60% to 70% rate.

Do you promise leads?

No. I'm careful about that. I haven't run it for realtors yet, so I won't promise lead conversion, so I sell the newsletter and the lead capture, not a number of closed deals.

Why would a realtor pay that much?

For comparison, a guest on my podcast said he could run a retainer agency for realtors at around $2,000 a month, with the realtors also covering their own Facebook ad costs. A newsletter builds an audience the agent owns.

It also gives the agent something to trade. Once you have an audience, you can run ads for your mortgage partner in exchange for their referrals. It costs you nothing, and they have a reason to send business to you instead of someone else.

What about publishers selling to realtors?

If you're the publisher, the other option is to sell real estate leads from your own survey, or get licensed and take a referral cut. See the real estate survey question.