“Any site requiring a log in is death for lead generation. A few visitors may docilely give you their personal information, most will not. You should not employ this technique. (Now that DOJ and NAR have settled, perhaps the MLS in certain areas will drop this kind of requirement to view properties—a good thing for clients and a good thing for agents and brokers!) If your site does use this mandatory sign in, my advice is to contact your webmaster right now and have it changed.” (from: http://brokeragentpro.com)
Interesting. I have been saying this for quite some time. With websites like BugMeNot.com, requiring people to log into your website to see results it not a lead generator. It is a good way to get garbage contact information and or email address that are provided by websites like BugMeNot.com. Definitely not “leads”.
6/17/2008 at 2:30 pm
I actually disagree with this premise. If you have something of value people will forgo their anonymity in a heart beat. For example, my brother-in-law has a tool called a virtual offoce website I used when we purchased our last home.
I could do my own searches for listings before they appeared on mls.ca and I could see way more listing information including all the room dimensions which was nice as I have large pool table that needs a big room. As a result my brother in law had to drive us to fewer properties. This was a win win for both of us and I have mentioned this tool to my friends in case they want to use it.
6/17/2008 at 4:26 pm
@ Greg – Hiding information behind a password protected wall is on its way out. Look at the countless newspapers that are taking down their pay walls and password protected pages. Or the successful real estate agents that put their information out there for people to read/watch without having to sign in to see it.
The days of hiding information is coming to a very quick end.
Maybe because he is your brother in law is why you’re ok with putting in you’re real contact information. We have had many agents tell us that their virtual office websites provide either leads that don’t respond to emails or leads that when emailed bounce back. Not very good leads in my opinion.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Steve
6/18/2008 at 8:33 am
I agree the login and junk info is a problem, but providing rich data to the consumer is invaluable and their is not an IDX solution that provides all the info. In fact the “rules” may not allow it without getting info from the customer/visitor.
Some pretty well respected web 2.0 real estate folks like Mary McKnight really advocate VOW solutions such as Wolfnet (USA only).
6/18/2008 at 8:48 am
@ Matthew – I have seen lots of web 2.0 people push vow solutions. I just disagree with them and I think that the day of the vow is coming to an end. There are better ways to get leads (and better quality leads) by putting information and your opinion out there. People will come to you when you have something to say.
I’ve always said that if you need to hide information to gain the lead then you’re in for a tough time in real estate. A good Realtor with something to say, something worth listening to will get the leads. People will flock to them.
6/18/2008 at 8:57 am
@Greg – the idea that MLS data provides enough value for someone to give up their anonymity is flawed. MLS data is a commodity… something any agent can provide and available on most any other agent site.
but, you are correct in that if you offer something of enough value people will pretty damn nearly give you whatever information you ask for. what it comes down to is what REAL value can you provide… MLS data is a crutch for the poor agent marketer.
here’s an example of a lead-generation/conversion process
6/18/2008 at 9:19 am
I am not convinced about the value of a listing appearing before it shows up on MLS. I have my buyers on auto notification and the listing always appears before any photos or showings are happening. It may not show up on MLS.ca as fast but if you are working with a good Realtor they will have the info to you as quickly as VOW. I too had a password projected sight and did get emails but they never produced a single lead. A lot of wasted time.
6/18/2008 at 10:14 am
@ MJ – I hear that all the time… lots of wasted time trying to follow up on “leads” that have come through a vow. We have lots of clients that have moved over to Ubertor and followed our philosophy of creating value by showing expertise in specific long tail markets/topics.
6/18/2008 at 3:43 pm
I have had my website lead directly to a sale to a client transferred here from Calgary – they liked my website and the fact that they could use the Virtual Office to search for properties in my area (South Surrey/White Rock, BC. Their company said they could use any Royal LePage agent they wanted, and after viewing my site and using the Virtual Office service, they called my office and told the secretary that they (very specifically) liked my website and would like me to call them directly. When I spoke to them, they told me they were coming in to Vancouver to look at houses in the South Surrey area on the weekend and asked me “would you be available? I met them at a local Starbucks with a number of houses lined up to look at and they bought one that weekend. My writing the offer on that home resulted in a $10,000 Commission – SO, OBVIOUSLY, THIS SERVICE HAS WORKED FOR ME.
6/18/2008 at 3:50 pm
On another occasion, I contacted a lead generated on my site from Virtual Office which resulted in a showing of one of my Listed properties in Rosemary Heights in South Surrey – after an itial showing, they came back with their own agent but I still sold the property as a result of following up on the lead generated by my VOW – Success in this business depends on how you follow-up on your leads.
6/19/2008 at 3:52 am
@ Brad Lambert – That’s great. Congratulations.
My main point is that I think the technology is on its way out and that your average user is to savvy to put their contact information into an online form that only provides them listing data.
We push agents to put their thoughts/feeling/ideas/interpretations of the market and real estate in general on their website in a blog/video/text so that potential buyers and sellers can get a feel for the specific agent. From your 2 stories above, it sounds like both of those clients if they ended up on any website that had property search functionality they would have used that agent.
Our push is that agents should focus on search engine optimization and differentiating themselves from other agents. Access to the listings is not a differentiator; I could be a real estate agent in 4 weeks. That would give me the same access to the data as any other realtor; does that make me as good at the business as you? I don’t think so. I think the data is just a commodity that anyone can have access to. The important part is your interpretation of the data.
Thanks Brad for commenting here. Look forward to future discussions. If your ever interested in taking the Ubertor system for a test drive let me know as I would be pleased to help you get setup.
6/22/2008 at 1:26 am
I couldn’t agree more with this posting.
Log-ins indeed kill leads big time.