No doubt in my (un) usual way I will say something to aggrevate someone.
Sorry! But, I can't apologize.
I have rarely bought referrals. That's a pretty honest statement. I have participated in a few things that have given leads and never paid a dime (or more) until closing. I have no regrets. But I have no intentions of paying up front for leads.
Yes, the market is a little on the "less than fast" side, which means that not only real estate agents are feeling the pinch, so are companies who sell referrals.
Last week, a "SELL-A-MARKETER" called my office, offering zipcodes at a few hundred dollars a pop.
No need to mention the name of the company or who they are affiliated with.
He had a made-for-radio voice. Dynamic and confident, his opening lines were (at best) misleading to the actual nature of his call. When I figured out what the meat and potatoes were that he was dishing out, I respectfully declined.
Just for schnitz and giggles, I looked up his company on-line, followed the links to another company and then filled out the forms for their home value analysis. I received responses (phone calls) from 2 agents. One was flabbergasted when he called and found out it was another real estate company.
So much for selling one agent exclusive referrals to a zipcode.
The second agent (a seasoned veteran from a big name/nationwide real estate company) purchased my area zipcode and although it had only been two weeks, he was not impressed with the referrals. He had received only 3 and mine was the third one. He said, the referrals companies scrubbing was only verifying names and properties.
So much for the promise that they scrub their leads. No one from the actual service contacted me to verify (scrub) anything! Naughty-naughty!
The next day, Mr. Sell-A-Marketer called again. Ahhh, persistance! I respect that. Except I am definitely not buying.
This time I did the talking. I am sure that was no fun for him.
I asked how many years has this dot.com been in business. He said 4 years. I asked how many years had it been associated with _ _ _ (HINT: three initials - for business newspaper). He replied, since last fall.
He said that it a monthly service. Pay for one month, if you don't like it, you don't have to sign up for another.
My response:
Do you know how much money a company could make selling zipcodes on a month to month basis to each agent out there? You guys have the potential of making a huge wad of cash! (He chuckled).
I told him I tried out his company online and got calls from 2 real estate agents, even though he stated that the zipcodes were exclusive. (No answer) I also was going to quiz him to see if the dot.com was "planting real estate questions" on this site to entice agents to respond, I refrained.
Mr. Sell-A-Marketer said, that the company was owned by other real estate agents. Really? I responded.
Thinking to myself, "Sheesh, no kidding. If the market is so slow and you are not selling houses, sell to other real estate agents. I was so not surprised.
I would have loved to have pinned the tail on the donkey, but he was genuinely a nice guy. I bit my tongue. I never bothered to ask how many real estate agents that were BM (before me) that purchased zipcode referral leads and why all of sudden (especially in this market) was this zip available if it was a real money maker.
Like he said, "how much is the average home in that area." I said, about a million dollars. I suppose getting me to say a million dollars should have got me all excited, but 0 x 1,000,000 still equals ZERO.
I mean please, if it was that good, why are you calling me. If you have been in business 4 years, why didn't some agent buy this zipcode and hang onto it because it was soooo good. (Why did you call back at almost 10 times after that, too)
AND let us not forget the countless other companies that are doing the same thing, having agents purchase zipcode leads.
In closing, I just want to say "no sale". My phone rings (not everyone is a Sell-A-Marketer). Why? Because I do stuff the old fashion way, I am working!
;)
;)
