Short answer: There is no single right percentage. Spend what your business can afford after taxes, bills and a cash reserve are covered, then judge every dollar by what it returns. In a Luxury Presence survey shared on our show, the average agent’s marketing budget was just over $12,000 a year. Top producers on Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris track spend by lead source, expect a few dollars back for every dollar in, and give a new source three to six months before they cut it.
By D.J. Paris, host of Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris. Updated November 2026.
How much do real estate agents actually spend on marketing?
The best number we have on the show comes from Chris Linsell, director of content at Luxury Presence, who walked us through his company’s 2024 State of Real Estate Marketing report, a survey of thousands of agents:
“78% of the agents that we surveyed said that they increased their marketing budget between 2023 and 2024. The average marketing budget across all of the agents that we surveyed was just over $12,000 a year.”
Chris Linsell, This Is More Important Than Social Media For Marketing! (August 2024, at 20:40)
He was quick to warn that the average hides a wide range. A few agents in the data market multi-million dollar listings and spend heavily. Others spent almost nothing: “We do have some agents who literally spent like the cost of their marketing was in the triple digits” (same episode, at 21:14). So $12,000 is a reference point, not a target.
A better question is what share of your own income you spend, and what it gets you. Brandon Green, who co-founded Keller Williams Capital Properties in Washington, D.C. and now runs Alchemy of Money, a bookkeeping and fractional CFO firm for agents, gave an example of the kind of conversation his team has with a client looking at their profit and loss statement:
“You’re spending 14.5% of your gross commission income on lead generation conversion. The model for a business of your size is 9.5%.”
Brandon Green, Financial Strategies For Real Estate Agents (May 2025, at 29:04)
Those figures were an illustration, not a rule for every agent. The point is the next question he asked: “what’s your return on investment on that?” You can’t answer it until you know your own percentage. Add up last year’s marketing spend, divide it by your gross commission income, and write the number down.
Where should your marketing money come from?
From what’s left over, not from your rent. Megan Walters, a top 1% agent in Columbia, Missouri, who was named to NAR’s 30 Under 30 and has never bought a lead, described the order she pays things in. First, 20% goes to a tax account. Then a fixed budget covers business and personal bills. Then she built a cash cushion before marketing got a dime:
“I made sure and built a reserve account. And so I have a reserve account for four months of expenses between business and personal.”
Megan Walters, 66 Deals at 28 with Zero Bought Leads (September 2026, at 53:29)
Only once the reserve was built did the surplus go to her marketing budget (same episode, at 53:46). If you’re building the rest of your budget too, our guide on how to budget your real estate business covers the full list of expenses.
How do you measure the ROI of real estate marketing?
By lead source. Not “marketing” as one line, but each source on its own line: mailers, online ads, open houses, a portal, your sphere. Carrie McCormick, a top 1% producer with @properties in Chicago, does this every November when she builds her plan for the next year:
“Big one is look at your marketing budget. How much money have you spent? And then look at where you spent the money and the lead sources that came from, what worked, what didn’t work.”
Carrie McCormick, A 170m Producer’s Predictions For 2023 (November 2022, at 07:26)
Janine Sasso, a Coldwell Banker agent in Chicago who built her business on geographic farming, showed what that looks like with real numbers. She tracks her mailers against the commission they produce:
“I do track it. … I was looking at a 10 X ROI. So based on I send 60,000 mailers. I want to say it cost me about 24 grand in 2021, 2022. So each individual year and well over $240,000 in commission received.”
Janine Sasso, Why Real Estate Agents Need Mailers In 2024 (December 2023, at 33:57)
She also puts trackable QR codes on her mail now. On one recent mailing she “had a QR code on there that was trackable per house per address” (same episode, at 51:44), which tells her exactly who responded and to which campaign.
Here’s a simple tracker. The numbers are an example to show the math, not a benchmark. Fill in your own.
| Lead source | Spent this year | Leads | Closings | Commission earned | Return per $1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example: postcards to a farm | $6,000 | 14 | 2 | $18,000 | $3.00 |
| Example: online ads | $4,000 | 60 | 1 | $8,000 | $2.00 |
| Your source |
Return per dollar is commission earned divided by money spent. Ask every new client how they found you and log it in your CRM the same day. Our guide on the numbers top producers track goes further on the rest of your metrics.
What return should a lead source give you?
Greg Pekarsky leads Vesta Preferred and the Vesta Team in Chicago, which works a high volume of online leads, including as a Zillow Flex team. His floor is simple:
“I don’t like to do anything that doesn’t give me $3 back for every $1 that I spend.”
Greg Pekarsky, 290M in 2024: How An Agent Had His Best Year In A Down Market (January 2025, at 27:12)
Asked why three, he said online leads take so much work that a small margin isn’t worth it, and that “you might not get your first check for six months and you’re usually spending thousands of dollars” (same episode, at 33:01). That’s his rule for paid leads, not a law, but it’s a useful line to draw before you spend.
He also says no to almost every lead company that calls him. His screening question cuts most of them out:
“What’s your proven closing ratio and give me two referrals of people that work with you and are successful?”
Greg Pekarsky, same episode (January 2025, at 32:12)
How long should you test a lead source before you cut it?
Long enough for a lead to actually buy. Pekarsky’s advice is to “give yourself a minimum of three, hopefully six months to start to see those ratios. Because that is about the buying timeline to be able to tell if the lead source is good or not” (same episode, at 27:45).
Kiki Parmar, a Chicago agent who went full-time in real estate after a career in operations, described her version during a live coaching session with Brent Scott. She sets her budget at the start of the year. When she tries a new lead source, she sets aside three months of the expected cost, and if she doesn’t see a return by then, she stops (at 40:22). She also limits how many tests run at once:
“I also try not to invest in multiple lead sources at one time, which gives me a financial constraint.”
Kiki Parmar, Live Coaching Session With Brent Scott & Kiki Parmar (April 2025, at 40:29)
When should you cut your marketing spend?
When a source has had a fair test and still isn’t paying you back. How often you check depends on the channel. McCormick watches digital closely:
“Monitoring your online spend monthly is important because those are quick stats. You’re gonna really see what’s working and what’s not working through engagement, through responses on it.”
Carrie McCormick, same episode (November 2022, at 08:49)
Print is slower to read. She said her postcard mailings were “a lot of money” and weren’t returning as well, so “either I’m gonna cut back on it or I need to perfect it” (at 09:22). That’s the real choice for a weak source: fix the offer, the list or the follow-up, or move the money.
A simple way to set your marketing budget
- Find your current number. Total last year’s marketing spend and divide it by your gross commission income.
- Pay the essentials first. Taxes, bills and a cash reserve come before marketing, the way Megan Walters does it.
- Split spend by lead source. One line per source, with spend, leads, closings and commission.
- Set your minimum return. Decide in advance what a source must return per dollar to stay. Pekarsky uses $3.
- Test one new source at a time for three to six months, then keep it, fix it or cut it.
- Review online spend monthly and everything else yearly. Your year-end review is the natural time to move money toward what worked.
Then put the budget on your one-page business plan next to your lead sources.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of GCI should a real estate agent spend on marketing?
No guest on our show gave one percentage that fits every agent. Start by calculating your own share of GCI, then judge it by the return each source produces. Brandon Green’s approach is to compare your number to a model for a business of your size and ask what the extra spending is getting you.
How much does the average real estate agent spend on marketing?
In the Luxury Presence 2024 State of Real Estate Marketing report, as Chris Linsell shared on our show, the average was just over $12,000 a year, and 78% of agents surveyed had increased their budget from 2023. The range ran from a few hundred dollars to much larger budgets.
What is a good ROI on real estate marketing?
Greg Pekarsky won’t keep anything that returns less than $3 for every $1 he spends. Janine Sasso reported roughly a 10-to-1 return on her mailers in 2021, based on her own tracking.
How long should I try a lead source before quitting?
Three to six months. That’s about the buying timeline for a new lead, according to Pekarsky, and Kiki Parmar gives each new source three months of budget before she decides.
Should a new agent spend money on marketing?
Only after taxes, bills and a reserve are covered. Megan Walters built a four-month reserve before putting her surplus into marketing, and she built a top 1% business without buying leads.
Listen to the full episodes
- This Is More Important Than Social Media For Marketing!, with Chris Linsell
- Financial Strategies For Real Estate Agents, with Brandon Green
- 66 Deals at 28 with Zero Bought Leads, with Megan Walters
- A 170m Producer’s Predictions For 2023, with Carrie McCormick
- Why Real Estate Agents Need Mailers In 2024, with Janine Sasso
- 290M in 2024: How An Agent Had His Best Year In A Down Market, with Greg Pekarsky
- Live Coaching Session With Brent Scott & Kiki Parmar
Keeping It Real with D.J. Paris is a podcast for real estate agents, with more than 790 episodes of interviews with top-producing agents, coaches and industry leaders. Here’s how to listen.