Monday morning. Over the weekend you paid to boost your property listings, and the phone did ring. A tenant who missed the fact that the flat was for sale. A buyer who was “just checking the price”. A family looking for a three-bedroom flat for five million in an area where prices start at eight. Plenty of calls, no deals, and the money is gone.
Sound familiar? Usually the problem is not choosing the “wrong” platform. Budgets disappear when you count calls and enquiries rather than completed deals, and when you start paying for traffic before the rest of the process works.
Let us go through the channels, from the least expensive to the most expensive: where estate agents find clients, where prospects get lost and how to measure the return on each rouble.
Clients do not start with advertising
The US property market has been studied in detail for many years. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), more than a third of sellers found their agent through a friend, relative or neighbour. Only 5% came directly through an internet search.
People chose an agent for their reputation, honesty and trustworthiness. Asked how their agent helped, 61% of buyers said “helped me understand the transaction”, 58% “pointed out problems with the property”, and 46% “helped with negotiations”.
It is a different market, so those percentages cannot simply be applied to Russia. But the principle is clear: for a transaction worth millions, people go to someone they trust. Advertising accelerates that process; it does not provide the foundation.
Do not jump to “if only 5% come from the internet, I do not need it”. A recommendation introduces you, and then the person goes online to check you out.
The moment that makes the difference
A neighbour tells a seller: “Call Marina. She is good at selling flats in our area.” Before calling, the owner searches Yandex for “Marina Ivanova estate agent”.
First version: a photo, the words “reliability, professionalism, individual approach”, and a “Request a call” button.
Second version: “I sell resale flats in districts X and Y”, three real sales stories, reviews, a clear explanation of the process, terms and fees.
The recommendation is the same. In the second case the owner calls almost ready to proceed. In the first, they may never call.
What each channel provides, and its catch
Your existing contacts: money already in your phone
Past clients already trust you. You do not need to buy their attention again. The catch is remembering them only when you urgently need a deal and writing: “Do you know anyone who is selling?”
What works better is being useful regularly. Local price updates, mortgage news, document reminders, a message on the anniversary of their purchase. And one particularly strong reason for a homeowner to respond:
“I will update your property's valuation and show you which similar flats actually sold.”
That is much closer to their interests than “I am the best estate agent in town”.
Partners: people who hear about a move before you do
Mortgage brokers, inheritance and divorce lawyers, renovation contractors, designers, removal specialists and agents in other districts. The main rule: a partner must know exactly whom to send to you and with what problem. “Three people inherited a flat and do not know how to sell it” works. “If anyone needs an agent, give them my number” does not.
Cian, Avito and Yandex Realty: demand on someone else's platform
People here are already looking for a property, so calls can start almost as soon as a listing goes live. According to Yandex itself, around six million people use Yandex Realty each month, and agencies can pay for unique calls and track their spending.
There are two catches. First, you do not own the platform: its prices and rules can change without you, and there is no universal “a listing costs this much” price. Second, promises such as “several times more calls” from paid promotion come from the platform itself. A simple test: if a boost increases views by 200% but suitable calls stay the same, it has provided no benefit.
VK and Telegram: building up trust
A subscriber is rarely selling their flat today. But six months later, when they decide to sell, they will remember the person who kept sharing something useful. Posts that people want to save and forward work best:
- “What actually sold in the district this month”;
- “Why this flat has been on the market for 90 days”;
- “Three mistakes when setting the initial price”;
- “How to sell a mortgaged flat or a share of a property”;
- a review of a particular residential development.
In NAR's 2025 survey, US agents attributed 39% of leads to social media and 12% to their personal website. But do not dismiss the website too quickly. It has its own job, which we will get to below.
Do not include Instagram or Facebook advertising in a Russian marketing plan: since 1 September 2025, advertising on platforms prohibited in Russia has not been allowed.
Your Yandex Maps listing
Basic placement is free, and the listing reaches people searching for “estate agent + district” or checking you after a call. Your name, phone number and description should match across the listing, property adverts, social profiles and website. That helps search engines recognise one specialist rather than ten different people.
Yandex Direct: leave it until last
It can bring enquiries the same day. But it is an auction: the price depends on competing bids and the quality of your advert. There is no “standard price per click for an estate agent”. It is also the fastest way to spend money if you do not yet know how many enquiries turn into deals. Here is an example.
The RUB 450,000 story
Neftetraffic published a case study: a property agency in a large regional city spent RUB 450,000 on Direct over 30 days and received 310 enquiries. Cost per enquiry: RUB 1,452. That looks excellent.
Now read more carefully. Only 62 of the 310 enquiries came from suitable prospects, meaning people who really were buying or selling. One in five.
Recalculate: 450,000 / 62 = RUB 7,258 per suitable enquiry. Five times the price shown in the report. And that is still not a client: the case study does not say how many of those 62 completed a deal.
The lesson is simple: you cannot decide whether advertising works from the enquiry price in the advertising dashboard. Follow the numbers through to a contract.
How much can you pay for an enquiry?
“What is a normal enquiry price for an estate agent?” is not a useful starting question. Start with your own transaction. A hypothetical example:
- after expenses, an average deal leaves you RUB 180,000;
- you are prepared to spend up to RUB 30,000 to acquire a new client;
- one in ten suitable enquiries becomes a deal.
That means a suitable enquiry can cost no more than RUB 3,000. If only one in twenty converts, the limit is RUB 1,500.
Now return to the earlier example. RUB 7,258 with a limit of RUB 3,000: impressive dashboard figures cannot rescue that channel. There are three options: convert more enquiries into deals, earn more from each deal, or stop the advertising.
Enquiries that die after arriving
Sometimes advertising is not the problem at all. Overseas agency Noven Digital reviewed a property business's funnel and found that around 60% of enquiries did not receive a same-day response; some were not handled at all. After the process was improved, the average first response took less than five minutes, and the cost of a suitable enquiry fell by 62% in two months. This is the agency's own case study, but the underlying point applies more widely: there is no sense buying more enquiries if they die after arrival.
Check the following in your own business:
- Speed. Someone who leaves an enquiry in the evening may already be talking to another agent in the morning.
- Records. One CRM, meaning software or at least a spreadsheet, with each contact's source, whether they are selling or buying, district, budget, stage, reason for declining and final commission.
- Call source. Dynamic phone numbers, or call tracking, show which advert or page generated a call. Yandex Metrica can track calls, including calls lasting more than 30 seconds as a separate group. That is quite different from a click on a phone button.
Your own website: why have one if clients come from Avito?
A website does not create demand out of thin air. It has four jobs:
- Reach people already searching on Yandex and Google.
- Support a recommendation. The Marina example above.
- Explain things for you that you would otherwise repeat on every first call.
- Remain yours. Platforms change their prices, social networks change their algorithms, and auctions change their bids. Your domain and search presence remain with you.
For a Russian business, prioritise Yandex: according to StatCounter, it accounts for around 70% of search referrals in Russia, compared with roughly 28% for Google.
Queries a private estate agent can compete for
Trying to beat the major portals for “buy a flat Moscow” is pointless. But an individual specialist has a better chance with specific local searches:
- sellers: “estate agent to sell a flat [district]”, “property valuation [district]”, “how much is a flat in [development]”;
- complex situations: “how to sell a mortgaged flat”, “selling a property bought with maternity capital”, “how to sell an inherited flat”, “sell one flat and buy another at the same time”;
- buyers: “pros and cons of [development]”, “new developments [district]”;
- checking you: “[your name] estate agent”, “[your name] reviews”.
How pages are built around these searches is explained in “What is SEO?”.
Which pages you need
Rather than a one-page business card, build a small site where each page answers a specific question:
- sell a flat: how the process works, from valuation to completion;
- buy a flat: what you contribute when the buyer can browse listings themselves;
- districts and key developments: evidence that you know the area;
- complex transactions: mortgages, shared ownership, inheritance and linked sales;
- case studies: the situation, what you did, how long it took and the outcome;
- reviews, about you, terms and fees;
- a “Value my property” form: the main enquiry from a seller.
If the website collects names and phone numbers, it needs a personal data policy and a separate consent checkbox. These requirements are explained in “Website fines in Russia in 2026”.
What it costs, and when to expect results
Website. A practical guide for an estate agent is RUB 50,000-120,000 for a small site genuinely ready for SEO. RUB 80,000 for 12 useful pages with analytics is better than RUB 250,000 for five pages with impressive animation that nobody visits.
SEO. Agency retainers start at roughly RUB 40,000-55,000 a month and can exceed RUB 100,000. Google itself says small local business owners can do a great deal themselves, and advertising does not affect positions in organic results. Getting clients from search without buying adverts is possible. Getting them at no cost is not: you pay with time spent on copy, case studies, photographs and improvements.
Timing. During the first three months pages enter search and begin receiving impressions. By months four to six you can see whether visits and enquiries are growing. After nine to twelve months you can assess search as a channel fairly. Be wary of contractors who name the exact date of your first client.
Be careful with other people's case studies, too. “Traffic increased by 130%” sounds powerful, but going from 100 to 230 visitors is also 130%. Without enquiries and deals, the case study tells you nothing about money.
The key question for a contractor
The domain, Metrica and Webmaster accounts must be registered to you, and reports should end with enquiries and deals, not rankings. Before signing a contract, ask one question:
“Show me a case study where you measured enquiries and deals, rather than positions and traffic.”
If the answer is just a rising graph from an SEO tool, that is not yet proof.
The order of work
- Bring past clients and warm contacts into one CRM and start sharing useful information with them.
- Choose a narrow specialism, for example: “resale flats in two or three districts, including mortgages and linked sales”.
- Complete your Yandex Business listing and make your contact details consistent everywhere.
- Build relationships with partners who understand whom to send to you.
- Keep adverts on the platforms that generate suitable calls in your city, and count calls rather than views.
- Build a website around your specialism, with case studies and district pages.
- Once you know how many enquiries become deals, turn on Direct for specific queries: “sell a flat [district]”, “property valuation”, “estate agent [district]”.
Frequently asked questions
Can I work without advertising at all?
Yes. Recommendations, partners, a Maps listing and a website with SEO can work without paying for clicks. You pay for them with your time.
Advertising is running but not paying for itself. Should I stop it?
First count how many enquiries were suitable and how many led to a contract. Money is often lost between an enquiry and the first call, rather than in the advertising itself.
When will a website start bringing clients?
It can support trust immediately: people use it to check you after a recommendation. The first search enquiries usually take several months.
Where this leaves you
For every channel, ask: what remains if I stop paying tomorrow?
- Recommendations leave trust.
- A website leaves pages, search presence and case studies.
- A CRM leaves a history of relationships.
- A good listing leaves a buyer and evidence that you are working.
- Useful posts leave recognition.
- Paid advertising usually leaves nothing once the budget is switched off.
Build trust, records and your own platforms first. Buy speed afterwards.
An estate agent’s website for local areas and complex sales: pages that help people find you in Yandex, a property valuation form and enquiry tracking in Yandex Metrica. See multi-page website development for details, or find contact information on Roman Mikhailov’s developer profile.
