Primary marketAgents Say Realtor.com Works As Lead Generator
National listings sites have fallen out of favor with agents who believe that their local IDX sites, broker sites, or franchise sites may produce more leads. But in response to a series of recent articles on Realtor.com, some agents say that they do indeed get consumer leads from their listings on Realtor.com as well as referrals from other agents who find them on the site.
"I want to go on record and say I have proof that Realtor.com works as a lead generator," says Naperville, Illinois Realtor Kathryn Hoffman. "My company (Coldwell Banker, NRT Inc) provided one year free (Realtor.com I-LEAD Web sites) for those agents savvy enough to submit their information. When the “one year free” expired, my lead generation expired too! It took me six weeks to figure out that it was the best money spent and I renewed ASAP. It’s true, consumers are contacting me through listings, but when my name was not attached to the listings, they did not contact me!"
Hoffman has been an agent three years, a self-proclaimed "bit of a web junkie." She has other national Web sites as well as an e-mail and a Coldwell Banker profile page on her broker"s site.
"I am always trying and signing on for new ways to work the Web, especially if they are within my budget," says Hoffman.
And she tracks which leads come from which site. "When they click on the listing for further information, the e-mail includes which site they are searching as well as the link for what they were looking at," explains Hoffman. "What is good about Realtor.com is the listings are what the MLS automatically sent."
"I have had more success converting Realtor.com inquires over some other sites," says Hoffman. "The quality of leads just seems better and they are asking about homes in my area because it is my listings they are seeing. The reply e-mail has to be their correct e-mail. Sometimes when people search on some other sites, they can plug in any e-mail address, and it usually is a made-up address."
How much business has she done from her sites?
"I don"t know the percentage of sales from the site," says Hoffman. "I will leave that until the end of the year. I am a bit superstitious in this regard. I can get obsessed worrying about my production, and I am still growing my business."
Tacoma, Washington Realtor David Albertson first bought his Realtor.com I-LEAD Web site subscription at a Prudential Real Estate convention three or four years ago.
"I came back home and went back into the system, and entered all the cities I do business in on Realtor.com," explains Albertson, "and a week later I got a call from a lady who said she wanted me to list her house. She looked at other agents, but she liked my Web site better, and I got the listing, and we closed. I made enough from that transaction to pay for all my Realtor.com costs since then."
Albertson says he gets one to two "solid client prospects" a month from Realtor.com, and he is also getting referrals from agents. "Agents are finding me from a direct search of Realtor.com, and prospects are finding me from listings," says Albertson.
"I absolutely am getting referrals," he says. "I"ve got a $320,000 transaction that will close at the end of the month that was a referral from another agent because of Realtor.com. The agent went on Realtor.com, found me, liked what she saw and called me. I"ve had that happen numerous times. I"ve had a minimum of one closed referral a year and it is usually two or three a year."
Part of the benefit, says Albertson, is that not that many agents are really using Realtor.com, nor do they understand it. "I saw the potential and opportunity and the need for technology and the Internet in my business," he says. "My experience is a low percentage of agents are hooked up to Realtor.com and they are missing out."
"I can"t tell you how many deals a year I"ve closed because of Realtor.com," says Albertson, "but again, just one deal is more than enough to pay for my subscription. It"s all gravy now."