Where Closings Come From

Every lead source priced per dollar: what you spent, what closed, and what each dollar of spend actually returned. Fictional demo for Dana Whitfield, Upstate SC agent.

SAMPLE DATA — ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY
The owner's top questionWhich lead sources actually make me money — and which just burn cash?
Sphere & referrals: $186,000 GCI at $0 spend. Portals return the worst dollars-per-dollar.
Marketing spend · 12 mo
$31,200
across 5 paid sources
Total GCI · tracked sources
$286,000
from 38 closings, 644 leads
Blended return
$9.16
commission earned per $1 spent
Cheapest cost per closing
$0
Sphere & referrals — free sources
Lead-source ROI — spend to closings to commission (12 months)
Source12-mo spendLeadsCost / leadClosingsConversionGCICommission per $1
Zillow$8,40096$87.5033.1%$26,000$3.10
Realtor.com$7,20084$85.7122.4%$15,400$2.14
Meta ads$5,760240$24.0041.7%$20,000$3.47
Farming mailers$6,24048$130.0024.2%$11,600$1.86
Open houses$3,60072$50.0056.9%$27,000$7.50
Referrals$046—919.6%$72,000∞ free
Sphere$058—1322.4%$114,000∞ free
Total$31,200644—385.9%$286,000$9.16
Unexpected view: The priciest leads are the worst investment. Zillow returned only $3.10 per $1 spent and Realtor.com just $2.14 — while the two free sources (sphere + referrals) quietly produced $186,000 in GCI, nearly twice the $100,000 from all five paid sources combined.