stagingmate
Research/Agent trade press

Agent searches for door knocking and cold calling fell 49% in three years

Searches for door-knocking scripts, cold-calling scripts, postcards, door hangers and other offline prospecting dropped 49% between 2022–23 and 2025–26. Searches for "AI for real estate agents" rose 224% over the same period.

16 prospecting queries47 months of search volume10 years (Google Trends)
Stagingmate Research
Published 2026-10-09
Method

Average monthly searches per query in the earliest and latest 12 months, summed into offline and digital groups. The long-run view uses Google Trends interest within the Real Estate category, pulled twice and averaged.

Sources
Google monthly search volume estimates, October 2022 to August 2026Google Trends search interest
Limits

Google reports rounded monthly search volumes, and very small volumes show as 10 or nothing, so small states and rare queries are noisy. Google may group close variants of a query. Search volume measures interest, not transactions. Search volume estimates go back four years, so the 10-year view relies on Google Trends, which reports relative interest rather than volumes. "Door knocking" is too rare in Trends' Real Estate category to chart. The plan called for a 10-year search volume comparison, which isn't available.

Key findings

01Offline prospecting searches fell 49%, from 14,698 to 7,569 a month.
02Digital prospecting searches changed −8%, from 10,881 to 9,990 a month.
03Offline went from 57.5% of all prospecting searches we track to 43.1%.
04The steepest drops: "real estate cold calling scripts" (−72%), "door knocking real estate" (−68%) and "door knocking scripts real estate" (−65%).
05The fastest risers: "ai for real estate agents" (+224%) and "facebook ads for realtors" (+148%).
06Over 10 years in Google Trends, real estate interest in "crm" changed +121% and "lead generation" +90%, while "postcards" changed −27%.
−49%

change in offline prospecting searches, 2022–23 to 2025–26.

−8%

change in digital prospecting searches over the same period.

+224%

change in searches for "AI for real estate agents".

Scripts out, software in

−49%

change in searches for door knocking, cold calling, postcards and door hangers in three years.

Change in US searches, 2022–23 to 2025–26

ai for real estate agents
224%
facebook ads for realtors
148%
google ads for real estate
22%
real estate crm
4%
chatgpt for real estate
-12%
real estate social media
-13%
real estate seo
-29%
open house sign in sheet
-32%
real estate farming
-49%
real estate websites for agents
-49%
cold calling real estate
-57%
real estate postcards
-63%
real estate door hangers
-64%
door knocking scripts real estate
-65%
door knocking real estate
-68%
real estate cold calling scripts
-72%
Source: Google search volume data; Stagingmate analysisstagingmate

The 10-year view

Yearcold callingpostcardscrmlead generation
20160.811.727.114.3
20172.312.435.317.4
2018311.330.615.6
20194.49.232.815.8
20203.48.835.817.8
20214.97.239.520.9
20225.37.640.924.8
20234.57.437.420.5
20244.27.842.620.2
20254.38.559.927.2

Google Trends interest within the Real Estate category, annual average (100 = the highest month for any term). Between 2016 and 2025, CRM interest went from 27.1 to 59.9.

What this means for agents

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Cite this study

Stagingmate Research (2026). Agent searches for door knocking and cold calling fell 49% in three years. https://stagingmate.com/research/real-estate-door-knocking-vs-digital-search-interest

Use our data

Free to use under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. For the full dataset or a local cut, email press@stagingmate.com.

About this study

Yes, but searches for it are down 68% in three years.

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