House Values - yes or no?

I am on house values. I think I will break even this year with the money I spent. However because of house values I found out about Activerain. Also I use a lot of their management tools like newsletter etc. So there is value past the leads. I only get buyer leads. Sop if you are thinking about seller leads maybe some one else can help. We will stick with them for atleast until next spring and then re-evaluate. But bottom line so far is that I have been happy

NO NO NO.  Stay away from that mess and invest in your personal sphere instead.  I spent a lot of money on them, got nothing in return except a bunch of terrible leads.  I have a far higher ROI with blogging and staying in touch with past clients and customers!

Good morning Vicki,

I tried both the HouseValues and JustListed products.  Yes, they are not cheap.  But if they produce results above the monthly costs we would all flock to them or  a similar product. My opinion is that the system was quite well thought out and implimented.  They had a good coaching series and the contact management back-end was very good.

It seemed that there were many leads with bogus information and this resulted in the number of leads falling well below the gauranteed levels.  This occurred during a very strong market.  No way of knowing how it would perform in a weaker market.

I finally ended my contract about a year later after no resulting business.  I felt that I followed the program but it just did not yield any actual results.  My opinion at this point is that you will be far ahead by investing any money in improving your sales skills and in your personal website.

Vicki...In my first year with Housevalues, I got one sale. That one sale was enough to cover the cost for the year. I INCREASED MY LEADS this year and have gotten zero,zip, nada in sales. I can't wait for my contract to expire so I can eliminate that monthly expense and time!

I say no...

Hello Vicki, I have not met anyone who really did well with these companies. I agree with Leigh Brown above, and spend your time and money getting your own systems set up. Here is what I did to turn 2007 around for me, after loosing several deals to the financing crisis, I ran an ad for investors to buy foreclosed homes for under 20% appraisal. All i can say if that I got replies, and have moved my whole business model over to the cash side, and spend my time setting up closings now instead of rescheduling delays...I also ran ads for rent to own homes, and got a tremendous response.....Suggestion, don't do this without voice mail and a 3 minute message set up to explain the program....

I have spent a fair amount of time and much money on Internet based Lead Generation companies, without even one sale resulting.  Now I spend my time in open houses, phone opportunity, (floortime) and writing notes to my SOI.  Those things are producing real income for me.  Next Im trying to develope a better website presence.  Goodluck if you chose to use Home Values, Home Gain or whichever one.  :)

Stay clear!  Most of the leads that the lead services provide are garbage.  I had an annual agreement with Realestate.com and once that was done I was out.  Most people spend a small fortune on these companies and never see their money back in listings and sales.

Vicki -- I had no quality leads. None. I can think of 101 ways to better spend your money.

It is your money....as for me, no way! I have tried similar outfits...one sale in 2 years. Took me two years to realize it wasn't me!

I see you are in Ohio, so I would suggest that you think twice.

However, I believe that it is an excellent source of buyer and seller leads for agents and brokers in the Maryland and Northern Virginia market. 

I encourage all agents and brokers in Maryland and Northern Virginia to use the service for multiple zip codes.

I tried the HouseValues product homepages.com, and cancelled it as soon as they would let me out of the contract.  (They actually let me cancel about two months early without a buy-out fee). 

I'd say no.  definitely not worth the money. 

Back in August of 2006 Linda Slocum wrote an excellent post about this topic.  Please excuse the outbound link, but it is relevant to this conversation:  http://activerain.com/blogsview/HouseValues-HomeGain-LendingTree-and-RealEstate-com-Beware-the-Real-Estate-Parasites?3846

The best things in life are free!!  There are many websites out there that allow you to put your listings on them for free and are connected to many search engines. 

Vicky, build your own infrastructure and own it!