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I have abandoned HouseValues.

By Kenny & Brianna Franklin

Real Estate Agent with Franklin & Franklin Realty LLC

January 23, 2008 01:58 PM

I have been doing this for a while without a single meeting. I thought for sure that someone would have wanted to meet and talk about selling their house. Even the people that said that they wanted to sell right away didn't want to meet.

I occasionally came across people who said that they owned the house when in fact they didn't. I sent them a CMA anyway hoping that they would want to use my services to purchase the home.

Maybe I shouldn't have signed up. I did ask a few agents that used HouseValues what they thought. Half loved it and half didn't like it. Oddly, most of them didn't use it anymore. If it was so good then why didn't they keep using it?

I'm trying JustListed, now. Maybe this will work better in this market?

Time will tell.

Update on March 31 - JustListed was just as much as a waste of time and money as HouseValues. I have abandoned JustListed, too.

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Raymond Gravelle

Realty Executives Grant County - Moses Lake, WA

Serving Moses Lake, Ephrata, Soap Lake, Grant Cty

Hi Kenny,

I haven't seen you over on the MasterMind Forum. If you post what you are doing for follow up on the leads and ask any questions you have, you'll find a great group of people willing to share their experience and wisdom. Just look for the MasterMind Forum at the top of the HouseValues University page after you've logged in.

Hope to see you there...

Feb 12, 2008 11:47 AM

Cheryl S . Glover

Keller Williams Classic III Realty - Clermont, FL

CIPS, CRS, Green, GRI, SFR, TRC,

Kenny,

I actually subscribed for over a year. I did hundreds of CMAs and actually closed two transactions that I secured through them. However I believe that the time, effort and money that I used definitely could be used more productively. I find that web positioning and creating websites give you much better exposure and leads.

Feb 12, 2008 02:06 PM

Dave McNiff

Prudential NW Properties - Bend, OR

Kenny:

I've been with J/L for almost three years now and at one point they accounted for about 70% of my business. My first deal with them actually became a "Three-fer" deal as I found a home for grandparents whose daughter lived about 40 miles away. The daughter wanted to take advantage of the "built-in" day care and listed her house with me and I then found HER a home closer to her folks. I tried HV for 6 months and wasn't very impressed (I lean towards being a selling (versus listing) agent anyway so got rid of HV. My BIGGEST problem with JL is that they have underdelivered for 2+ years now and although they are VERY responsive in giving me my money back after each 90 day review (for underdelivery), I have now "busted" them twice for selling leads in my territory while still underdelivering me!!! I've been recompensed for their bad business practice (i'd rather not go into detail how, but it was fair) once and now have them on the ropes again. The problem is is that I really DO like the J/L Market Leader system (and yes you do have to weed through some not so hot prospects) but on more than one occasion, I have had a client come out of the blue who I had been sending listings to for MONTHS with zero response, suddenly say that they have put a list together and "let's go see some homes!". The problem I have is that because I like the product so much, I don't threaten to leave because I have tried some of the other programs and was thorougly disappointed with them,,,,,,,,,,so J/L has the goods, they are just guilty of bad "policing" of their lead counts and there is obviously ZERO communications (by design or not) between their sales and operations people. My last series of compliants about this was just this week when I was rebated for underdelivery only to discover (via my business partner) that he had gotten a call from J/L trying to sell him a "6 pack" of leads. I've had extensive conversations with them about this recent issue and it seems to me that it is being addressed. I'll have a better feel for that in 6 weeks or so. All in all, their Market Leader system is good on a lot of levels and I would recommend it. One thing I cannot blame them for is the lowering counts of leads simply because - as most of us are experiencing - there just isn't any buyers out there right now. I wish you luck and if you have any questions, please feel free to call me - Dave mcNiff - 541-815-8367

Feb 21, 2008 10:51 AM

Anonymous

annette L

It appears there are as many real estate business models as there are real estate agents. We each implement strategies based on where we are in our business maturity curve. One would expect, after 10 years in real estate, a majority of our business is from referrals from within our client base. I subscribe to House Values. Statistically, I find 25% of the leads to be valid. Valid means the home owner sold or put their home on the market within 18 months of me receiving the lead. An important question to ask yourself may be "Is it possible I am sabataging my own success? Am I working with all the tools I have in an intelligent way? My observation is that most striving real estate people only implement their plans 80%, they don't see them through to completion. Going 80 yards is NOT a touchdown. It does seem the path across the goal line is either paved with money or sweat. Pick one. Learn something. Stay in the game.

Feb 26, 2008 02:50 AM

#36

john golymbieski

c21 access america - Watertown, CT

Save your money I used house.com and realty tracker not one listing. Swamp an area of 500 to 1000 homes post cards newsletters whatever, make an appointment with all the business' in the area get menu's business cards their advertisments in exchange for your business cards hand the menu's advertisments and business cards out to the people that buy from you and tell them to use your name when they buy from these business, internet companies just don't work

Feb 27, 2008 12:33 AM

Derek Bauer's, www.DoorToDreams.com Door to Dreams Home Selling Team

Real Estate One - South Lyon, MI

That is not a service I have used, but have heard plenty of complaints in my office. You may have made a good choice...

Feb 27, 2008 12:35 AM

Mary Pichardo

Keller Williams - Mira Loma, CA

Thanks for the great blog. I was looking into these businesses and now I will just keep my hard earned money. Once again AR to the rescue!

Feb 27, 2008 01:30 AM

Marisa Ladd

Austin Texas Homes, LLC - Austin, TX

Austin, TX Real Estate

good observations, Annette! I choose sweat :)

Mar 13, 2008 10:04 AM

Ellie Viray

Deasy Penner Podley - Pasadena, CA

Realtor, GRI

Kenny - Never used any form of lead generating system with fees. I am sold on good old prospecting and working with past client, COI for referrals.

Mar 13, 2008 10:33 AM

Stephen Joos & Chris Brubaker- HouseFront

HouseFront - Denver, CO

Well, good luck with your new marketing site. (I've only heard bad things about House Values...but thats just me). The rule of thumb that I use is I wont pay per month or a contract becuase that clues me off that it probably doesn't work and they want to lock you in for some reason.

Just my two cents though. Let us know how your new marketing works.

-Chris

Mar 13, 2008 10:39 AM

Sandra Paulow

Aspen Properties, Inc. - Pinetop Lakeside, AZ

REALTOR, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR

Glad to hear some feedback on HouseValues. I have been in contact with them and they are pushing pretty hard to get me to take over the market here. I did something similar with Lending Tree once and didn't have much luck. Glad to hear others say it isn't working so I don't waste my time on it.

Mar 13, 2008 11:58 AM

Bart Whitmore

Keller Williams- Louisville - Louisville, KY

Real Estate Agent

I had been considering such programs and will just wait I think, thaks for the info.

Mar 14, 2008 11:18 AM

Bart Whitmore

Keller Williams- Louisville - Louisville, KY

Real Estate Agent

I had been considering such programs and will just wait I think, thaks for the info.

Mar 14, 2008 11:18 AM

Tom Lyons

makingyoufindable.com - Belleville, ON

Making You Findable

Hi Kenny,

We used housevalues as well, and the leads were pretty bad. However, we did use the market leader portion and still do. We dump all our own web leads into it and let it work on them. There's no doubt that in the end it more than pays for itself. The market leader portion is only about 60 per month. We're just moving over to Top Producer and plan to replace market leader with it.

Mar 14, 2008 07:51 PM

Kenny & Brianna Franklin

Franklin & Franklin Realty LLC - Woodford, VA

ABR®, AHWD, e-PRO®, SFR, MRP

I think I'm crossing over to Top Producer as well.

Mar 19, 2008 02:25 PM

Raymond Gravelle

Realty Executives Grant County - Moses Lake, WA

Serving Moses Lake, Ephrata, Soap Lake, Grant Cty

Hi, my name is Raymond and I'm addicted to HouseValues. I can't get enough of their training on how to convert Internet consumers into transactions, nor enough of a steady stream of guaranteed prospects, automated follow up tools, and the coaches. I've got it bad for the coaches who are so willing to show me best practices for building my business.

...just couldn't resist. LOL

Mar 24, 2008 05:31 AM

LaNita Cates

REMAX of Joliet - Joliet, IL

HouseValues and JustListed are the same company, just so you know.

Mar 24, 2008 06:04 AM

Anonymous

Kenny - Like you I was with House Values at one time. I left them because I felt the money paid in wasn't worth what you were getting out of it. Sure, you get lots of leads, but half the time the number is bad or they never respond to your email. Personally I don't have the time to waste setting around hoping that one of the leads is going to prosper for me. The ones I were able to get ahold of said they were just checking out the market to see what there home would be worth if they should decide to sell it.

After my contract was out I got a little smarter and went to the other side. Just Listed. I have had good sucess with them, but you can probably figure that if you get 3-4 closings out of the year your subscribed to - then your doing good. I am almost at my year end with them and have only been able to work and close 2 leads. There are other lead programs out there and working with buyers is the way to go. That is where your money is - in buyers.

I will not use Just Listed again once my contract is out with them. Check out the Relocation leads - I signed up with one yesterday and I am already working 2 for my area. Check out Buyers USA Relocation:

http://members.buyersusa.com/

You pay an annual fee and then you pay a % of the deal to them if you close it. If they have any available openings in your area you would be able to apply. Doesn't hurt to check it out. Good luck in your venture.

Mar 30, 2008 01:43 PM

#51

Eric Egeland

RE/MAX SUBURBAN - Libertyville, IL

SFR, e-PRO, CDPE

I tried HV for the Chicagoland market....the leads were mostly fictitious & horrible. I had to pay to break my contract early.

Out of all the marketing I've ever tried in 5 yrs. it was the biggest waste of money & time.

Apr 05, 2008 01:32 AM

Everard Korthals

---Preferred Lifestyle Advisors--- - Lancaster, PA

Mountain Realty

We spent $3600 on housevalues over an 18 month period of time and got 0 results back. Justlisted however did get us 4 but that cost an enormous $8800 over 2 years. Could have bought a car with that. Haven't tried growth leader and not considering it anymore based on recent reports.

Mar 04, 2009 06:31 AM