RealtyChat.com Blog

Does anyone have a list of”good” lead generators?
Unless you have lived in an area all your life or have lots of $$$ for local advertising your pretty much in need of this kind of service to get up and running. I’ve tried several over the last 3 years, HouseValues, HomeGain, Service Magic, Realtor.com, Agent Connect–all have been useless, lots of names, no response.

HELP!! Somebody must know where there is at least one honest service.

Do you mean to tell me that 3 offers in a week with a “client” they have for you (always the same) doesn’t peak your interest? At least you would think they would be creative enough to change the “client” information.

I don’t mind the occassional spam, b/c it makes me look at related items if the idea is good. But if I have to unsubscribe (as opposed to just ignore), you know that it was too much.

Now don’t get me started on the ‘farming leads’ sites….

I actually tried the agent connect service when I first started. I would’ve been better off burning my money. I may have gotten better exposure. I have found that any service that requires a consumer to enter information and then wait for you to contact them will never work. You need to get the person on your site and searching the MLS and your personal listings. It is working for me now! Of course, fast follow up is the key and you could easily convert 20%+ of the leads you get. I use Homegain and swear by it. I’ve heard horror stores but I have nothing but good things to say.

My humble opinion is - if you want results from the web, spend your money on optimizing and good paid spots on good directories. The “lead generators” are useless, a waste of money and your time. If you get high in SERPs, there will be enough useless leads coming from your position in Google, but there will also be some really good leads…

I agree with the Google ad words….these lead generation sites are nothing more than a marketing source anyway…why not cut out the middle man.

Or how about a lead generation alternative such as a local real estate investing club site? Rather than spend $200/month on a couple dead leads, you can spend $25/month for a banner ad or prime placement on the investment site.

I have used them all and had success with only two. Below I have listed the two that work and they both seem to be honest brokers. I disagree with the 5th comment on this page about it being cheaper to do it on your own. I think that these companies probably buy in bulk with networks like yahoo! msn, google and elsewhere to get a better deal than you and I on our own. Anyway, good luck!

Success with:

1) homegain.com
2) e-agent.com

Unsuccessful with:

1) reply.com
2) housevalues.com
3) agentconnect.com
4) servicemagic.com
5) realestate.com
6) homevalues.com
7) lendingtree.com
8) realtynow.com

I have used www.RealtyTracker.com and Housevalues.com and didn’t get any results. The leads I got were bogus.
Have anyone tried LendingTree.com? They have advertisement in Costco.

I’ve tried them all too. Optimization or a professionally run PPC campaign will be money well spent. Instead of paying endless set-up charges and high monthly or per lead fees, an keeping track of many different web products with a shotgun approach, spending money to drive traffic to a good website product will be much more manageable. When I first started (’02) I spent (among other things) $500./mo on a Boston.com (unfortunately the same ad is $3000/mo now) within 6 mos I had 275 leads. Over the next 24 mos those leads turned into 44 transactions.
Advertising - 24 mos x 500/mo = 12,000.
Leads - 275 leads / 44 = 16% conversion.
Sales - 16M in sales 160K in income.
Anyone willing to invest time and money in their real estate career can do this. But HV and all of the other lead generators aren’t going to save you the work - you still have to do it to make it happen.
Real Estate is a local business, and even though there are many agents out there - many of them can’t or won’t make the investment in their careers. But as the saying goes…it takes money …you know what I mean. It’s just important that you spend with a plan rather than casting about trying everything. Enough agents have tried these different products that we can see that some have success, but many do not.

Comment #8 from Mike. Your formula makes perfect sense. The only change, as you mentioned, is the new cost of the ads. That’s everyones problem. Your new cost to advertise is $72,000 not $12,000. The market is slower than in ‘02 thru ‘04, so the response & conversion rate will be less, so adjust doward at least 25%.
Here are the adjusted numbers with your advertising in todays market- 206 leads, 33 transactions in 24 months, and customers are buying towards the lower price point, so let’s say 25% decrease in average price- so 9M in sales with 90,000 in commisions against advertising costs of $72,000 leaves you $18,000 for your work after 2 years. Working at McDonalds seems more profitable in this market.
You need to network for free as much as you can at clubs and organizations. Once you start spendig big money on advertising, you will lose everytime. Ads are only for the big boys with estalished REPEAT clients, trying to capture market share. 6 free referrals a year will keep you in the game (you won’t get rich). After those six then think of advertising.

I haven’t tried any of the services yet. Home Gain calls me on a regular basis and some people have trieda realestate.com and gotten some leads. It’s not getting the lead ; it’s following up and being persistent with it. It can be hard when your clients hopscotch around on you.

Whatever happened to good ol’ fashion work. What I have in the past is paid neighborhood kids a few bucks to had out keychains. It worked fine, and there was no pay-per-click or bogus leads from home gain.

Keychains
www.castlerockpromotions.com

Agent connect is such a low class organization. They block their number and call my celphone almost everyday. I have told them every single time that I wasn’t interested in their services and they should not call me again but their reps don’t take no for an answer. I have reported them to the FCC and everyone who gets harassed by these people should do the same.

I get bombarded by these guys all the time. It’s usually by email but I do get at least a phone call a day. There always the same approach with the “I’m your buddy approach” and “Let me help you get on page one of the search engines”.

The funny thing is…they found me usually because with my two main web sites, I’m already on page with with Google, MSN & Yahoo. No matter what I say, They just keep calling. Oh well, Iv’e got the routine down to about a 30-45 second call at least.

Anyways, thanks for providing us with a good site here. Looks like your wifes site up at
www.HomesinBoston.com is doing well. Has she added a blog to her site yet or a separate one. Seems like the blogs are starting to take on huge importance.

Jerry Campbell
www.NorthwestLiving.net

I had the worst experience with Realty Tracker than any other lead generating company out there. Agents beware! They used extreme pressure and the worst tatics to get me to sign up and as soon as I did all their promises disappeared. They promises scrubbed leads. Most of the leads I got were angry that they were called and or never needed an agent. Where do they get their leads? They also started charging me for amounts I never ageed to when I signed up. And that is fraud. Worse is the contract that they have you sign…which is non-cancellable even if they never keep their side of the contract. This company has had many complaints. Do your homework and realize that if it sounds too good to be true…it is!!!

I have tried several. Last two years I have spend over $18,000 on these online scams. Nothing beats a good website with good content and a good seo program. This year I have spent $1300 on my point 2 agent website and 2 hours a week on SEO work. I’m getting 3 closed deals a month from the web and a lot of marketing to buyers who contact their buyer’s agent who helps them buy my homes.

AGENTS BEWARE!!!
I have also had a horrible experience w/ Agentconnect.com. I signed up for 10 leads a month @ $36 a lead. Every lead I got was junk, bad emails, bad phone numbers or just poor credit. When I complained I did receive
a credit for some however when I gave them a 30 day notice to cancel they offered the leads to me for $18 a lead with a 90 day commitment. NO WAY!! HIGH PRESSURE TATICS!! Out of 25 leads and $720 later I have nothing to show for it. Does anybody have any suggestions???

Does anyone have a current phone number for Agentconnect? The 925.947.2166 is disconnected and no further information is available. HELP!!