If you are willing to compare your real estate agent business to Henry Ford's automobile manufacturing process you'll want to consider that although money was important to you and Henry, what he understood perhaps better than his competitors was that he needed to produce the type of product and process that would produce a happy pas client who would be likely to repeat and refer based on their satisfaction.
Therefore, if we start with the outcome of producing a happy and satisfied past client, then we'll need to consider how to start with the correct raw materials. I know it sounds odd, but let's consider the concept of Leads as raw materials. When you see them that way, it will force you to truly consider the quality of those raw materials. When you think quality and consider that Internet-generated leads far outpace the number of real estate transactions, are you really being smart about building your business by purchasing far too much of this type of raw material?
I'm not saying that Internet leads are not a decent source of revenue, I know firsthand as each year we convert multiple relationships that had a genesis on the Internet. However, I am suggesting that you may very well be missing many other opportunities to focus on contacts that come to you more pre-assembled and more ready to engage in a business relationship.
The reason for focusing on quality is so that you may run your assembly line more efficiently with gives a greater depth and quality to the satisfaction of your client who ultimately becomes part of your "family" and is much more likely to repeat and refer helping your business to accelerate!