Thank you for the insight. I too was contacted by Reply Real Estate today and was considering working with them, but will now have to rethink it.

Well, thank the Lord, I haven't been screwed over by these people yet.  However, Money Tree Funding got me for $200 and provided ALL non-producing leads.  I paid them one day and then after about one month of calling them 5 times a day and fussing and arguing, they produced the leads, however, surprisingly NONE of them turned into ANYTHING.  I mean NOTHING AT ALL!  Just as you said about this company.  I swear, I don't see how people that work for these companies sleep at night.  They are all living a lie and getting rich at the expense of others that trust them!  It's crazy, but I've definitely learned my lesson.  I'll never pay for another lead in my lifetime!!!

Well I sure wish I had seen these comments before I signed up with Reply.  Ryan is right, the leads they give you are the impossible deals.  What really kills me is they will not give a credit for "Prospects" that won't return your calls or emails.  They say they have been taken advantage of in the past where agents have asked for a credit and then worked with the Prospect.  Here is the kicker, they said that when this happened and the agent called them asking to be recharged for the Prospect their system had no way of doing it.  Heres a thought Reply, post a charge instead of a credit manually.  Wow, you can do that???  Anyway if you sign up with these guys you will be charged for leads you may never be able to get into a house, or even talk to.  How does that make sense???

When they call Run as fast as you can!

Good luck Jim, I'm sitll trying to get back my money and disputing the charges. When I send e-mails to them they pretend like they're not recieivng them and when I call I get voice mail. They only time I got a response is when I threatened with a class-action lawsuit!

Dear Ryan,

My name is Payam Zamani, CEO of Reply! Inc., and we own ReplyRealEstate.com. I appreciate your perspective and wish we could have done a better job meeting your expectations.

I think the bigger issue that we, as lead generators and the real estate community (agents and brokers), need to address and agree on has to do with the expectations that buyers of leads have for these prospects.

Every agent that joins Reply! gets exposed to what we call the "Prospect Development Funnel." We specifically ask every agent to review the expectations that we believe they should have for our leads before they activate their accounts. Here are excerpts from the page that agents have to review and agree to before receiving any leads:

"While not all of the online consumers provided by Reply! will become a serious prospect, you should expect that approximately 10% of those consumers will ultimately generate transactions for you. In many cases, it will take six (6) to nine (9) months to nurture these prospects and experience your first sale. To support your efforts and show our commitment to your success, Reply! makes an industry-leading guarantee to all its members..."

The fact is that the online consumers start their search much earlier in their house hunting process; they are less committing and certainly less loyal. With that said, we all know that this segment of the industry will continue to grow. The chances are these leads will never be anywhere as qualified as the type of referrals we are used to getting from other agents or friends and neighbors. The real question is will it ever be worth a realtor's time to dial 10 - 20 phone numbers and spend $900 and close a transaction in 6 months? Or are we simply going to turn our backs to online lead generation?

I'm sure some of you will respond by saying that you will do your own online marketing and direct traffic to your own website. While that by itself is not a bad idea I would argue that:

1) Either you are not tracking your cost/click and the ultimate cost per lead, or if you are, you know that it is costing you a lot more than $45/lead

2) Given that on Google and most other sites with a lion's share of the traffic on the internet, at best you can focus on a DMA vs. a city or a zip and the chances are that the majority of leads that you generate are from outside of your target area.

3) Ultimately the leads you generate are from the same consumers that we have access to and there is no reason to believe that the quality will be any higher.

So, what's the end game? Give up on the two most effective forms of marketing on the internet? Or believe the fact that this new segment of the market will only grow and we can gain a much higher share of the market if we logically follow a numbers oriented approach to this new form of marketing and patiently make it work for us. Once you know your close rate the sky is the limit.

The math is simple and it works. The sales pipeline looks very different than what we are all traditionally used to, and it will take 6 - 9 months and probably close to 100 leads to build a pipeline and start closing transactions. Statistically you need to be working with a large enough number.

Ryan, it sounds like we did not set your expectations accurately. I apologize for that. I could have told you that judging the program by the first two leads would have disappointed you.

Few of us can lose weight after spending 2 days at the gym. I humbly suggest that it takes a higher level of commitment and certainly more than 2 leads and couple of weeks.

Sincerely,

Payam Zamani

Chairman & CEO

Reply! Inc. 

Dear Ryan,

It's me again, Payam Zamani from Reply!

There is a negative comment above regarding Reply! Real Estate from Mr. Jim Vander Voort. Here I have included a detailed email form the client services person at Reply! who was assigned to this account. I encourage Mr. Vander Voort to publish additional comments and clarify if any aspect of the information below is not 100% accurate.

Best Regards,

Payam Zamani

Chairman & CEO

Reply! Inc. 

Good Afternoon Payam, I appreciate you listening and respecting my feedback in regards to the recent blog that has been posted regarding the company and its representation. As I stated in the meeting when an agent decides to reflect their experience on an internet blog they can get away with saying just about anything to bash the company being that they are rarely or never monitored. I found it particularly interesting when I heard the comment that was posted by one of the agents that I manage, Mr. Jim Vander Voort. He mentioned very negative information about his experience and his thought about the company; however a key part of his experience was not even referenced. As the Client Services Representative I would like to share the "real story" of what happened with Mr. Jim Vander Voort.

I received an angry voicemail from my agent and he asked that I call immediately to address his concerns regarding our credit policy criteria. I immediately returned the call and he mentioned his disappointment with the program and the policy, one of his major concerns was that we do not issue "credits" for leads that are non responsive. The conversation continued on a very professional level and we discussed scenarios and analyzed the policy for close to 40 minutes. As I was on the phone and was attempting to help my agent and manage the account in the best possible way I asked him to hold for a moment. I reviewed the leads in his account and there were 5 leads remaining. I decided to call the leads and find out what I can do to help my agent. As I contacted the 5 leads I found that there was 1 disconnected number, and 2 were contactable people and the other 2 leads I actually spoke with the prospects and made sure that they needed an agent and informed them that I would have an agent in their area contact them as soon as possible. I went back on the line to inform my agent of the good news and when I did he said "oh, well now you put me in an awkward situation". I asked him to elaborate because for the life of me I could not figure out why a reputable agent would turn down potential business. Instead of being receptive he said "I would rather wipe my hands clean of this program". Needless to say I was shocked. I had spent 40 minutes nursing an agent and doing his job of establishing contact and setting up 2 potential prospects and he wanted to wipe his hands clean? Not to mention I issued 2 courtesy credits to his account and refunded him $44.95 for the lead with the disconnected phone number and went above and beyond to accommodate this agent and his needs.

The point of this response is to reiterate that blogs may only tell one side of the story and in this particular case this agent bashed the company and its procedures but failed to mention that this company that was so disappointing to him did their job and produced leads to him and generated business as we promise and he declined our efforts and instead wrote an unjustified negative comment and did not for a moment reconsider his lack of commitment and cooperation with the program. 

Thanks again!

I understand you have a job to do Payam and I don't know any of the details of your situation was with Jim van der Voort, but all I know is that am still waiting to get back a credit for the money that was charged (technically stolen) from my credit card by Reply! Real Estate. If multiple people are saying the same thing in that the lead are crap and the company is not following through with their promises then who are people going to believe. I think the market forces will eventually speak for themselves and as agents become more capable and tech-savvy and are able to produce leads on their own in other more productive and effective wasys we'll see lead generators like Reply! simply fade away and disappear to the benefit of all real estate professionals!

Even after two phone conversations with two different people at Reply! who said they would refund back the money they were NEVER authorized to take in the first place since I complied with everything they claimed over the phone. Just because nothing is in writing and it a verbal conversation over the phone doesn't mean you can later decide not to follow through with your promises or say, "we didn't say that". Well, guess what, I am very tech-savvy and make a regular habit of recording phone conversations for things like this that. I will use this to prove what was said and not said. In a court of law if need be!

Monday morning I'm going to file a dispute with my credit card company and tell them the whole store about what happened! I've sent 4 e-mails in the last week now to Reply! asking why the refund has not posted to my credit card account and I get no response.

If need be I will bring in one of the best attorneys in the sate of Arizona to file a class-action lawsuit against Reply! It doesn't have to be this way, it's just the principal of the matter that bothers me the most!

Meanwhile I can at least feel a sense of redemtion in having posted this very popular blog post that is very well positioned in the search engines and is saving people from disappointment and financial losses!

I've got a news flash for Reply, Inc. - In the Internet age everyone has a voice and if you screw people over, sometimes it only takes one and word of mouth travels fast causing you to loose substantial amounts of business! You could conduct business ethically, keep your promises and refund fees when they were promised to be refunded and loose out on 1 customer and a couple hundred dollars or you can piss off that one person and unleash a fire storm of bad press and lose thousands of dollars in future revenue potential. Which is what we see happening now!

I rest my case!

Unfortunately the person who posted the message at 12:27AM did not provide a name so I cannot offer any comments.

Ryan,

Every Monday morning I have a meeting with my entire company (all 120 employees). This meeting usually lasts about 20 minutes. That's probably why you were forwarded to the voicemail. During our regular business hours almost always the calls are answered as soon as they are received however depending on the volume of calls at times people may need to leave a message. We typically return calls within couple of hours and emails within 24 hours.

I spent more time looking at your account. Here is what I found:

*** You joined the program at 11:40AM on 7/30/2008. You sent your first request to be cancelled on the same day at 10:27PM and then you followed that up by sending 5 more identical emails. Here is a detailed account of all your emails:

*  7-30-2008 - 10:27 PM

*  7-30-2008 - 10:32 PM

*  7-31-2008 - 12:28 PM

*  7-31-2008 - 12:32 PM

*  7-31-2008 - 2:01 PM

*   7-31-2008 - 2:07 PM

*   7-31-2008 - 2:29 PM

***  We placed your account on hold at 2:26 PM on 7/31/2008.

As I have mentioned previously it really takes more than 2 leads and 6 hours to make a marketing program work for you.

I'd be happy to personally have a phone conversation with you. I'm really eager to better understand why you chose so quickly to judge a program and trumpet negative information about it and hope after a professional discussion we can find some common ground and both benefit from the exchange. I can be reached at 925-983-3382.

Best regards,

Payam Zamani

Ryan,

My apologies for keep on commenting on this blog. While the readership may be small the subject is of utmost importance. 

1) Reply! has communicated multiple times that "it will take 6 - 9 months and probably close to 100 leads to build a pipeline and start closing transactions. Statistically you need to be working with a large enough number." It's interesting that while this message is abundantly clear in my communications, our website and the contract agreed to by agents who join the program there continues to be reluctance by you to accept that as an essential part of the marketing program as it is created and marketed by the provider of the service, Reply! Real Estate. It is our service and we are telling you that our program will only work if you follow the above. It's as though a doctor prescribing a medicine tells his patient to take 3 doses a day for 10 days but the patient after the first 2 doses on the first day calls the doctor incompetent because the drug did not work.

2) You and others on this blog continually use derogatory terms such as: "my money was stolen" or "unauthorized charges" while the moment you agree to the contract on our website and provide your credit card information you are authorizing us to charge your card as we deliver leads. You may dispute a charge because you believe the lead was not valid but that is very different than the charge being "unauthorized." Given your familiarity with the law and the fact that you know many capable attorneys I'm confident you appreciate the point I'm trying to make.

3) Lastly I don't understand the hostile tone taken by you on this blog. Someone chooses to not side with you why should you make a derogatory comment and tell him: "Think before you post!"

It is my intention and the intention of Reply! to treat people with dignity and I certainly hope that you and others on this blog will choose a much more cordial and cooperative attitude. 

As previously mentioned I'd welcome a call from you and trust that we both would benefit form the conversation.

Best regards,

Payam Zamani

Chairman & CEO

Reply! Inc.

Ryan, 

I appreciate your feedback. We will certainly take your comments into account as we take our sales staff through ongoing training.

I should say that I'm surprised that you took down the only comment (beside those form me) that did not side with you. I find the practice somewhat similar to China's approach to free speech. However I do understand that the blog is yours and you get to set the rules.

I'm appreciative that you have let my comments remain on the page.

Best regards,

Payam Zamani

Chairman & CEO

Reply! Inc.

Payam,

Yes, I will leave comments up where people actually identify themselves. Since you are the CEO of Reply! I respect your right to post and give your side of the story, but I did in fact delete a post of someone who was posting anonymously and started insulting me personally with complete disregard of the facts and to my unique situation. It almost sounded like it could be someone who worked for Reply Real Estate and handled my account, but I don't know for sure. However, I'm glad that things have finally be taken care of! I'm sure you'll see to it that this type of situation never happens again.

Good luck!

-Ryan

I left my signiture. ( -_-_-_-) its all over blogs all over the internet.  Its funny you go back to attacking the company because A realtor in Las Vegas has used the internet to build my successful business and I will being trying Reply and as far as I have heard in seen, It looks like a stand up company ( if you stay for more than half a day) .

       I'm glad a few people were able to here a different point of veiw untill you deleted my threads. That CEo called, my comunist friend.  So you and the ten people you made aware of how you misused the product and got your money back.

    Go ahead and be haters and keep hanging door flyers, more business for the rest of us living in 2008 using tech to increase our business.

08-26-08

3:19pm <how long will this one stay on

James richards ( heres my name ) look me up

Okay, I'll leave the last post up because its interesting and somewhat comical. I still don't know who you are and I still don't know why you are so determined to defend a company of which you have never even used the services of. I'm trying to do people a favor and inform them of the potential problems they could have when using lead services and you are for some strange reason enjoy protecting a company you've never done business with. I looked you up...typed in ["James Richards" activerain] on Google and you're nowhere to be found! You go on to say "I will being trying Reply...", besides not knowing how to spell I see you are also assuming Reply is a good company with a good service based on what proof? You haven't even used the service yet, not even for 48 hours! For God sake, do some research on the Internet and talk to other Realtors all over the country like I did and decide for yourself. Don't assume anything. Too me and to many people who read your post it sounds like you're affiliated in some way with Reply, Inc. and are just posting in an attempt to discredit me. I do like the attention this blog topic is getting though...it's helping me rack up more points on Activerain - Thank you! :0)

Also, this line from your post says it all! "Go ahead and be haters and keep hanging door flyers, more business for the rest of us living in 2008 using tech to increase our business."

Obviously you haven't done your homework and you don't know me. I don't need to hang flyers, go door to door or use any lead service like Reply! I've spent $1,000's of dollars on state-of-the-art custom web-development projects that have produced many high-quality REAL leads for luxury properties in the $500,000 - $5,000,000 price range! I work with developers, and on many commercial projects. I'm self-sufficient and probably more tech-savvy than you'll ever be. Where's your website? I've used other lead services in the past for 3 - 6 month periods and spent a lot of money with no results. When I saw the leads come in to my Reply account I was able to tell almost immediately (based on experience) that they were not up to my standards or as promised.

Hey, if they work for you go ahead, try it, test it out, spend some money, if not, don't worry, I'll be here to say I told you so!

Good Luck!

RC

Ha, I forgot to hit the spell check button like you, im sure that makes you a credited genious. Whats comical is how you contridicted your self by saying Im affiliated with the company to try and make your some what lost point, and then say you love the attention this blog is getting. A whopping ten people is a lot of attention im sure for someone as lovable as you.

     It must have been my mistake, I didnt realize you were our Mother Theresa in disguise by warning people about this company. How nice of you. I thought it was your pathetic attemp at trying to vent your own frustration at your self of your 12 hours ( not 48 ) with that company that didnt work out. As a realtor you should know the difference between a refferal and a lead. Just let it go, you muttled the difference between the two and your invested $100 which was out of your budget appartly to try and get more business. It sounds like you needed all the help you can get so I dont understand why you didnt read the terms you agreed to. Maybe you should get your fancy attorney to help you join a website next time to read you the points on the site that are on almost every page.  

And I will be testing it out because I accually sell homes to people and, a little hint, we write business expenses off like this. Win or lose, I judge by trying, not by reading a desperate blog.

LOL. The company refunded your money it sounds like as a courtesy of good business, because you threw a temper tantrum and started a stupid blog to try and twist what happen. The Guy took the time to accually show your account in detail and they had every right to charge you what they did.You were exposed and you try and defuse the issue by attacking one person who offered another point of view.If making it personal and trying to go as far as saying that im part of the company is very laghfable and some what sad. but people are smart and who knows who accually posted good comments at this point becuase of th way you censor the site.

    As much negetive feedback you gave I think  I will remain the THE PHANTOM OF ACTIVE RAIN. Anyone would be crazy to reveal there identity to you if you take another side other than yours. Even people that sided with you were not leaving a name and you were all over them like a fat kid on a cupcake.

But again your getting away from the issue, you didnt even give it a chance is the issue. And you had buyers regret which is fine, your money your business. But you know that what you are doing is not professional in any facet. A monkey could see what the product is, sales people are sales people. Just like you and I, we want to make people happy with the home there getting. Thoses people were trying to get you envolled but as I understand it from veiwing  there page, you had to accept the agreement on your end??? You didnt read it???  I will let you know my results from the site, if you were right, and can read the future with your crystal ball then I will be the first to apologize, but I will give it the time required and find out the reality of whats goin on here.

The bottom line, spending $1000 to get an ROI of $6000 works for me. If you dont see the value in that, well then good luck to you...

Will Adivse of progress-

Ryan, I do work for Reply and it is our policy to walk you through the participation agreement, and this has to be done before you can change your password. This is done so that you can see what we are promissing in writing before your account can be activated. We are good people hear and we care about making the agents we work with happy. I mean we took care of you inspite of all the bad things you were asying about us right?

Ryan,

We employees of Reply have identified ourselves as such. I'm sorry if someone else didn't like your approach but why does that have to our fault too. I think you are being really unfair to us this point.

Life isn't fair. What happen to me with Reply! and my experience with them was not fair. I still paid interest charges on the charges and had to waste hours of my time over a 4 week period fighting for what was right.

enough said!

I tried REPLY but to no avail.  Leads were not qualified/no answer/out of area. I quit the service and will never use another service.  WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY!!!!!

That was one of the best blog strings I've read in a LONG time!  And, you are saving me from completing my application and paying Reply money I'll have to fight to be refunded.  Thank you for your opinions and insight.  And most of all, the voyeuristic pleasure of reading that exchange!!!  You can send potential leads to www.SoCalGrace.com !

P.S. I never post, so I don't know if I need to log in to my Active Rain account (which I never do) to link this to my identitiy...I'm sure I should.

P.P.S. I got hooked up with Reply via an Active Rain email. How come no one is commenting on that relationship?

Heres a thought.  Whenever you get a reply sales agent on the phone advise them you are going to record the conversation and compare it to what they send in writing. 

Hi

I just went through this post and it had some really good stuff. I am really scared now that I just sign up with them..lol..Dam!!!! I guess I will try it for a couple of days and see what the leads look like. At the price per lead it could really add up...I will be back to post my expierence. Later.. 

Hi,

I myself just signed up with Reply also,  I guess I will have to wait and see.  I have used lead companies before and know they won't all pan out.  I hadn't read this blog before.  I usually do my homework on a company, but this time the guy was a good talker and caught me at a good time.  I will work the leads like always have.  Being new in the area lead generation seemed like the right thing to do at this time.  A good website takes time to generate leads.  I will let you know how it goes with me.

Renee Eubanks ( Remax Champions)

I have to say the overall commentary on this blog has greatly concerned me. I just signed up for Reply! Real Estate a few days ago and am now considering seriously cancelling and just losing my setup fee and saving myself a lot of headaches. 

There has only been one post since my post on 10/25/08 and no one has contacted me to verify or challenge my post. Payam Zamani, CEO of Reply, Inc. has not contacted me. Either he has not read my post which means he is not following this poor reporting on his company or he does not want my information.  I am not hiding I have lots of information on Reply, Inc and some on RECR (some good some bad) and I will speak with anyone who wants to know. My email: billqueen@verizon.net or phone 804-346-0318.

Wow.  Reply Realty has some persuasive sales agents.  Well scripted, convincing, and right before I was about to give them a try just on "this one lead" I googled them and found this thread WHILE I WAS TALKING TO THE AGENT.  I told him I would do some research on Active Rain and get back to him, that's when he offered to waive the monthly fee and refer me to another agent from my national franchise but he "did not have her number handy".  He asked me for my email address so I offered him my Keller Williams e-mail and he asked for another one since KW is blocking his companies e-mails.  Gee... I wonder why. 

I think I'll just go call some past clients and generate my own leads, thank you.

That's interesting Damian, I suspect they (Reply and others like them) won't be around munch longer. They're sort of a leach on the age old system of lead generation. Expecially in times like when average agent incomes are falling as volumes fall there's no room for error with marketnig and advertising dollars.

Mark my words! The real estate agent of the future that embrases organic, do-it-yourself lead generation and prospecting will reap the rewards in my opinion by experiencing better quality leads and a higher ROI on thee time and money invested in doing such.

Perusasive agent told me,if I don't like the leads, I can cancel the lead wihin 72 hours, I called the same day. They told they will cancel, and charged me $ 299.  don't have any bad words to say, they are the cheaters. I already told more than 1500 reaktors and my contacts about the junk company that is REPLY!.- Please Please Please do not fall into thier trap as I did.. tell your friends. This is a classic bait and switch ... furthermore the CSRs were very useless in terms of helping me

I hope someone can help me, please file a complaint with the BBB !

you can contact sumukh1@gmail.com 

I really learned my lesson with this one. NEVER NEVER NEVER fall for their pitch , unless you like giving money away. I did this for a month and EVERY lead they provided me was absolutly worthless. They did however manage to get me to pay them over 600 dollars. They should be sued and put out of business. Do not sign up with this service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been using Reply! for a week and have 9 leads, have returned 3 so far, but have spoken with 2 leads on a positive note.  I see one problem is that they use foreclosurestore.com and one of my leads says they advertise houses from $10k, and I don't know of too many markets where this is even remotely possible.  This lead is actually interested in meeting and we are making contact again today to set up a time to meet.  I do see some evidence of non-qualified leads, and hope that these 3 that I have asked to be ccredited for will be credited.  I will call them Monday and refer to this blog for support.  I am open to ideas for leads, and don't mind paying if they are leads that can actually qualify for a mortgage, and have an interest in the next year.  I did receive a lead for a seller, and it was not even the property owner, and when I did get ahold of the person, they admitted they really were not interested in real estate services.  That is not Reply!'s fault, and we will see if they agree that should not be charged to me.

In recap: 9 leads, 3 of them I have spoken too are not usable leads at all.  2 of them are good leads and should be workable, 5 have not returned emails or calls, but one of the emails was invalid.

Thanks for all the good blogging.  It is a rough market and this could explain the existence of these lead generators.  We all want more business and are maybe starting to stretch to find the business.  One person mentioned living and learning, which is true.  Life is a non-stop education process.  I have been at it less than 2 years and can "write-off" expenses, but let's face it... no one wants to waste money.

If Reply!RealEstate is reading this, I have found everyone to be very cordial on the phone and hope that will continue when I call this week to clarify these concerns.  I would rather a company like Reply! adapt the lead system to work better for the agents paying a very high fee, so that we can all benefit together.  You know, "why can't we all just get along". 

In the end, we all have the gift (or curse) of freewill and have to use caution with our lives and businesses.  If Reply! is crooked, they will pay in the end, and some of us will just be out a little dough.

All The Best

Well I am back to report poor results from Reply!.  Please do not support their lead generation system.  I emaild a list of bogus leads.  Many were reachable but did not reall y have any interest in speaking to a Realtor and have no desire to buy or sell a home.  They have unrealistic expectations of $10k homes which means they are misled on a site somewhere by this company,and then the company misleads agents so they will sign up with the corrupt company.  I warn you, I really warn you to not sign up.  They have all the right answers when you speak about the system, and they make it clear that you will have quality leads becuase they want to earn your business for the long haul, but I can tell you this is not their plan at all.

Now you have been warned.  I only wish I would have researched and found this blog prior to signing up.

I actually spoke up for them in the prior post because they fooled even a sceptic like me.  Shame on them for taking money and giving nothing in return.

Thanks, and a quality control guy called me and talked woth me for a long time, changes some settings, and we will see, if the resolutions help.  He assured me that they have been in business 8 years, and he has been there 5 years, and although they get some iffy leads, they find the process really does work, so I got a 60 trial and special guarantee if things don't inprove, so I am still going to attempt the process, but will report back.

I appreciate the help on the blog, and I know we are all frustrated with the markets.  I wish everyone....

All the Best

I thought I would give a quick updae, and I will continue as I know more.  I have two very good leads, one buyer, and one seller/buyer, with 2 more that I think will do something later this year as buyers (remains to be determined).

At this point, there may be something here, but stay tuned and I will post again.

I just received a phone call from a guy in California with this company.  My question that I always use to qualify the lead companies is, "Do you require a credit card up front?"  When they say yes, I tell them that I'm definitely not interested.  The number that he called from was 925-983-3400.

I signed up 10 days ago.  I've had 6 prospects sent to me.  None of them panned out.  Not even for a drip campaign.

1. looking for a rental (said his FICO was 520)

2. stated they were just messing around on the computer and not looking for an agent

3. a high school student

4. already had a brokerage agreement with another agent

5. no response to emails or messages

6. no response to emails or messages

Reply would only credit 3 of these and say if I commit to 10 more leads ($550) they will give me 6 months free (30 leads).  Well, I'm 0-6.  Using this ratio, I can be 0-46!

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me! 

So Long Reply.

550 dollars to find an interested person and then sell a home? Rediculous.

My day Wife (Realtor) came home claimed that Reply! Real Estate has a program to provide a hot leads representing the home buyers and sellers. My son and I were got immediately suspicious of it. We asked if it''s a free service or paid one. Within a week, our credit card was charged approx $254 for 5 emails per week plus initial fee. All those mails were bogus and none of them responded. We called immediately cancel the service and no one from Reply! was ready to talk. We complained to creditcard company and finally, we were able to cancel the subscription not until we paid $254 to Reply!.

I don't know if I can call it (officially) a fraud company. Reply! thinks that real estate agent may not have thinking/analyzing skills to understand the risks/fraud of a company.

It is best to avoid Reply! If you really want leads, have open houses or attend large gatherings and you will appreciate your savings for each lead.

Thanks

WELL Stupid me. I should have read here first!

I got credit immediatley for two wrong numbers sent to me and I guess that is how they get you thinking they play fair.

Not so if your lead never answers an email or the phone then you just keep sneding them postcards and calls since that is what REPLY REAL ESTATE thinks is a good lead.

As long as it is a correct phone number it is a quailified lead.

DO NOT SIGN up with them unless you agree with that a person on a street with a computer is a lead.  I even had a person say forget it I was just screwing around, he did answer anyway and put in the correct phone number so he is a hot potential lead!!

The leads likely come from foreclosure sites.

I do not really care where they come from if they would talk with me but a no answer is a lead period.

Avoid this if you are smarter than me.  I was told  I have no contract or monthly fee since that was waived and I can cancel anytime.  So a few 54. charges should be all I lose.  Will post on it further.  Pat

Lead Generation

What is the truth about Internet real estate lead generation for real estate agents? I will attempt to answer this question with intellectual honestly from my personal experience. The purpose of my writing these words is to cause some of my fellow agents to examine this subject critically. I will not praise or demean any specific organization or individual in this post.  I may critique specific lead generation organizations in a future post as I have in past postings.   I hope to keep the attention of at least a few readers to what I hope to be a thoughtful & logical review of internet real estate lead generation.   If you are looking for two or three lines of text blasting internet lead generation organizations or exclaiming their perfect virtues you will not find that here.

In my view there are three classes of parties to Internet Real Estate Lead Generation transactions. They are Real Estate Agents, Lead Sellers and the Consumers. Let's examine the roles of each.

Real Estate Agents: They (we) are the money that drives the transactions.  Real Estate Agents are willing to pay money to obtain the names and contact information of possible buyers and sellers. Their (our) expectations are to gain clients as inexpensively as possible in order to earn commissions.

Lead Sellers: They operate services to Real Estate Agents to sell them the lead information. Their expectations are to sell names and contact information of consumers in excess of what it cost to generate the leads. (Called profits)

Consumers:  They are the general public seeking information most often free of cost or obligation.  Their expectations are to surf the Internet to check out the real estate market for a wide variety of purposes.  Some only for entertainment.  Some to find out how much their neighbor's house is worth or what the list price is. Some with the ideal hope that the magic internet will be able to tell them what they could get for their house.  Some to feed their dream of buying a home and vary often without the ability or the willingness so they are satisfied to window shop. Some are starting the lengthy process of information gathering to buy or sell someday.  Few and very few are actually expecting to buy or sell in the short term. Even fewer are actually seeking a real estate agent to help them buy or sell now.

I hope that the readers of this post already know the basic roles and expectations of the three parties to lead generation transactions.  The reason I took the space to define the three parties is to cause us remember what each of the expectations are. Under most circumstances the expectations of the three parties are not compatible.  If I am correct that the expectations are not usually compatible why is the internet lead generation business becoming so prolific? The answers are very simple; hope, low unit price and the ability for all parties to exaggerate or downright lie via the Internet without personal consequences.  

The sellers of leads hope to make large profits by gathering consumer information and selling it to real estate agents.  For the sake of discussion let's assume the sellers of leads develop their business models with the intent of delivering a valuable and honest service. But they soon find out that if they practice what they promote they lose money. The reasons they lose money will be covered below when I describe the attributes of agents and consumers. The sellers have large investments in their operations so they look for ways to increase the profitability. This very often results in false advertising, lies and outright default on their commitments.  The sellers have learned that they cannot sell their services if they disclose the real most probable results. They accept the fact that they will have a large turnover of disappointed customers. (Real estate agents) Their business plan concentrates on aggressive marketing to mine the millions of agents who have hope.  I am not saying that all lead generation organizations are total frauds and cheats.  Some are and some are not.  Very often it is the agent's and consumer's fault for the incompatibility.

The consumers have the hope of getting some free real estate related information.  They may want to get what is advertised as a free instant evaluation of their home or of a home they might have an interest in (such as one which they have listed for sale or one they have under contract). They may want a list of homes for sale or a list of foreclosed homes that are advertised at ten cents on the dollar.  In most cases it is just a matter of curiosity or at best the first stage of let's see what is out there.  They seldom have the intention of buying or selling in the next 30 days.  They seldom want a real estate agent to contact them for the purpose of a commitment to buy or sell in the short term.  They are lured to the web sites with banners announcing free no obligation custom services just for you.  After all everything on the Internet is free, right? You are reading this post because it is free. If I ran an ad, Lead Generation What's The Truth? and required a payment of any kind you most likely would not take the chance. You are a consumer of information just like the other consumers you are trying to attract.  It should not be hard for you to put yourself in the consumer's shoes because you are them. Very often the consumers are not provided the information they are seeking unless they provide what appears to be their name and contact information.  The more or less honest persons supply some truthful information. Some consumers just want the information and supply false contact information in hopes of fooling the web site. Some consumers think twice about clicking submit after entering their information but the web site captures it as it is typed.  Some consumers fill out the information in hopes of getting something only loosely related to a real estate transaction such as a loan quote or credit score or totally unrelated such as a free mouse pad. Their information once captured is sold and resold among lead generators. The bottom line is the consumer has the hope of getting something for free and some are quite willing to provide false information (lie) in order to get it.  Many provide truthful contact information but later wish they had not. We cannot disparage the consumers because they are led to believe that it is all free and without obligation.  The smart ones know nothing is without some cost so they lie.

The real estate agents hope to get leads to clients in order to generate commissions.  The expectations of agents are most often inflated because the sellers of the leads make outlandish claims concerning the success rates.  The sellers often promise or guarantee services or results that are not real or honored.  The agents are very often disillusioned. Here is the problem we agents must recognize; if the lead sellers told the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth in their advertising and promotional language they would not sign up enough agents to pay the light bill.  My fellow agents this is important:  Not all lead generation organizations are totally corrupt and I have found none that are saints.  I have found some that can be used profitably.   It is not free and not cheap.  The use of lead generation organizations will cost thousands of dollars and many hours of time invested in the leads.  Some are very corrupt and some of the business models just don't work.  When you have the very bad experiences and you examine the experiences with intellectual honesty then by all means drop the bad ones and give them harsh but truthful reviews in the blog pages.  Then investigate others.  Examine their business model for reasonableness and ask for three or four agent's names and phone numbers who are using their services. Of course they will only give you the names of the agents who have been successful with them. That is ok talk to them to find out how they worked the leads and what their cost and success rates are. But first checks to make sure you have been referred to a real agent by finding them through their local association.  Of course if the lead generation seller cannot or will not supply you with any customer names (Other Agents) and numbers just drop them and move on to another.

I was just looking for the main phone number for Reply!Inc. to see if there was actually somebody I could talk to about my extreme frustration this past week,when I stumbled upon your Blog. Boy do I feel stupid. I have sent email after email and have called several times only to be sent to a voice mail directing me to email service. Someone finally called me yesterday at 2pm Pacific but since I was with a client, the man said he would call me back at 3pm Pacific time. Not only did he not call back then I have yet to hear from him today,24hours later. Alyeisha Ellis my supposed Acct. Manager called me at 4:55 Pacific (they close at 5:00) and although I called back immediately,it went right into voicemail again so as directed, I emailed Service again and haven't heard back from either service or Alyeisha again.

I sure do wish I had seen this before I was drawn in last week. Nothing has gone right from the beginning.

Every lead that has come my way has been outside of my requested area and the sellers are obviously on the brink of foreclosure since they all say on their requests that they need to sell with in a month. I live in Texas and was even sent a lead from New Mexico. It never occurred to me that if I signed up for specific zip codes that leads from outside those zip codes would have to be physically returned. Talk about a scam.

Fortunately,I got frustrated with Reply early enough that I notified my credit card company and they have already started an investigation. I will direct them directly to your Blog. Thank you ! Betsy Miller

I

Reply Real Estate has been an absolute waste of over $2000 for me not even counting the cost of the time I took to follow up on these bogus leads.  Even the people who say they want an agent have such terrible credit that it will take over a year to even get them preapproved for a mortgage.  People don't waste your money on this service.  Te customer service people talk to you like you are a child. Reply is a game and I hope that no one else plays with them. 

I just received a phone call from a "Deborah" at Reply RE. I was skeptical since she sounded like she was reading from a sales transcript, and thought I'd check online to get the real story. Thanks to this blog, I know. In case anyone searches for more info about her, her name is Deborah or Debra and her phone number is (925) 983-3425 / 925-983-3425 / 925.983.3425.

Wow i was feeling pretty stupid for signing up with reply but now i don't feel so bad. I just got my credit card statement i signed up for 5 leads last month. Needless to say all leads were bogus. People did not speak English every other language but English. Some people were not even aware that they were looking for a home. Sent in my cancellation after a week then got a call from A Mr. Antonio. He said he would give me credit and start me on some new leads if i stayed on with them. I agreed (Very Stupid of me) Lowed my leads to three and i have gotten 4 so far this month all bogus leads then the killer i got my credit card statement 625.00 i was upset to say the least. sent and email to Mr. AAntone no response Left a message this morning no response. I started to Google Reply and i got all kinds of bad information. My question to all of you reading your blog. Does anyone want to join me in a law suite against Reply I hear from my research that the ceo has all ready been sued in past

thanks for Reading

Bertha

I'm not sure if SCAM is the right word, but deceptive certainly applies.  They say NO CONTRACTS and pay as you go, and you can cancel anytime.  The truth is that when you cancel, or give "30 day notice" as required, they continue to send you leads AND bill you for the 30 day period.  It seems to me if there is no contract, once you want out of the program, the relationship should end.  If I was a Realtor who has luckily not been contacted by them yet, DO NOT SIGN UP when you get the call, and sooner or later you will get the call.  It is so ironic that one of their Corporate Values under Integrity Guides All Our Actions is: We conduct all business with uncomprimising integrity.  NOT!  Another Value is that Our People are our Foundation: Reply! cultivates a fun, rewarding, and enjoyable experience for our customers, clients and employees.  I would be interested to have people post their "fun, rewarding, and enjoyable experiences as thier customers.  This would be a good way for Reply! to receive some positive feedback.                              Regards, Dean

Unfortunately I didn't think to do research on Reply, Inc's reputation and manner of doing business.

I got a call from them while on vacation. Their sales rep explained that they charge $ 54.95 per valid lead. I would get credit for invalid leads. I signed up for 5 per month and told him I wanted to get no more than one per week - because payment is due within 72 hours of getting the lead. I didn't want a bunch of charges to roll up on me very early in the relationship. He said no problem.

Upon returning from vacation I looked on Active Rain and found lots of negative feedback on them. I e-mailed to tell them I wanted out. They told me I'm in for for their 30 day cancellation period. 

In the first 2 days they hit me with 5 leads, in two weeks I've been billed for SEVEN leads when I asked for a maximum of FIVE per month! That's $ 384.65 in two weeks!

They've made no attempt to honor their sales rep's representations, their only replies have said that I owe within 72 hours for any leads sent. Absolutely no recogniton of the fact that their rep agreed to the one per week, 5 per month that was agreed to on the phone.

Reply Inc., or Reply Real Estate as they go by uses misrepresentation and deception. Avoid them. It will not be a good experience.

Ryan, thank you so much for the blog and to everybody who shared their disappointing stories!   I was contacted by a rep from Reply Real Estate , and I will be happy to tell her when she calls me back on Monday that  I read the blogs on her company and I won't become another sad statistic for her company!  Thanks for saving me the bad experience with Reply Real Estate!

Do not do work with this company! I was with them very briefly and left as soon as I was charged for a lead that would not call or email me back.  I asked to have the lead fee removed they declined I left.

I second Patty's comment above.  I was seriously going to join but after reading all the comments I respectively have declined.  I was told that I could review the contacts and if I found them not to be valid that I could call and would not be charged.  I was also told that they check all contacts to make sure that they are valid but is sounds like a lot are not.  Thanks again for the heads up,

Mr. Carabetta,

Your sales people do not really promote your company the way you do, I also wonder why you would do a sales pitch in this forum? 

Your company has not been truthful, and the leads have not been very good at all.  I have gotten better leads from knocking on doors. 

I will never go back to your company and will continue to tell other agents in my company, Coldwell Banker of my very bad experience with Reply Real Estate.

Jim van der voort.

If this thread is still active, please read my post on my blog for my story. The salesperson I contacted said $500 per sale, instead of Adam Carabetta's $1000 per sale, but in my area that would be all of my commision on many of the short sales and reo's. Plus, you're going to have paid for the leads, long before you actually close. Anyone in this forum should understand the time value of money.

Reply is a shameful company. I worked there for about two weeks and felt so bad about what I was telling agents that I quit. I would be called a crook, a liar and hung up on all day long.

The company works like this, the owner sells the scam to the director, the director to the sales mgr the sales mgr to the employees. I am not really sure who actually believes in what they are selling, but most people who work at reply just do not care. Most reps I talked with daily, hated their jobs.

Reply in my opinion is only interested in getting as many people onto the program no matter how it fits into their marketing strategy. In my opinion they are selling a product that about 2% of the agents can use to 100% of the agents, and they know it.

Reply Real Estate truths

They do not credit if the lead is working with another agent, ask them,

They know that you cannot reach 50-80% of the leads, phones do not work, they are not interested, etc,

The set up fee is $1.00, any other amount is a ploy to get agents to think they are getting a bargain for waiving the monthly subscription. The sales rep splits the set up fee with reply,

Oh yeah, there is never a monthly fee, no matter what, anoter ploy,

They re-use the leads over and over,

They will always make sure you have more leads than you sign up for, never believe it when a rep says no no you will only get 3 leads,

Biggest problem I had working at reply was they sell a product that is not very usefull to the average agent, charge way too much money, and do not care anything about you as a customer as long as you keep paying.

Mr. Carabetta,

Once again, why are you posting here?  The comments you leave confirm my thoughts even more.  Much of what you have said was never communicated to me, in fact the sales person said things to the contrary.  Why would I pay for a prospect that I could not contact, your business model is good for your bottom line not the "customers".

Your company is loosing potential customers because of how many of us were treated.  I bet I alone have cost you more than the money you were not willing to refund to me.

Really, stop posting here you are not helping your company.

JIm van der Voort

RUN... don't just walk from their offer.  And tell your fellow agents and company broker to research this company before even thinking of doing business with this company.  Add one more experience like so many of the previous posts... WE SHOULD HAVE RESEARCHED THIS COMPANY FIRST before stepping into this mess.

RUN...

Thanks everyone for your comments.  They have been calling me and wanted me to sign up.  I got stiffed by Homegain and almost let down my guard.  Keep up the good work!

Adam

Blah Blah Blah, same old cut and paste information from Reply.

I only post because I have friends and family who are agents, and I am ashamed at what I have done while working for your company.

Why do you have to defend yourselves from so many angry agents if your selling a usefull product in an ethical and un screpulous mannor.

Please tell the agents why they should buy a product from an ex-con, high school student or dropout who makes $8.21 an hour and who knows nothing about what agents do, or the areas they serve.

For anyone who wants to talk to know marci (a sales rep at reply) here is her profile on linkedin.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/marci-watson/5/676/5ab

Former Employee,

Nice of you to take the time to post.  Adam Carablahblah does not understand how his "sales professionals" are poisoning the pool of real estate agents one agent at a time.  It seems he would be much better off to supply truly valid leads, and charge more money for them. Agents network, and if Reply offered really good leads, word would get around and Reply would be getting inbound calls and referals and wouldn't need to subject their minimum wage "sales specialists" and "territory managers" to making 100 dials per day to find that one unsuspecting-uninformed agent at a weak moment to make a sale, only for the agent to regret it later.  No matter who Carablahblah claims has invested millions in their model, it really is not a sustaining business practice.  Even though Board Members are formerly from Yahoo and Apple, this company will NEVER have a successful IPO.  More likely they will burn through their cash, try for more, get rejected, and close the doors.  The sooner the better.  I am emailing all my associate agents to warn them of Reply, and suggest you all do the same.  No matter how many times I tell them to quit calling, they still call at least once per month.  And I will never change my mind and even consider giving my credit card number.  NEVER.   dean michaels

Boy, I wish I would have read your post earlier!  I too, was taken for a great deal of money from these lying, cheating people...is there anyway we can band together to bring these people down?  What they are doing is absolutely fraudulent behavior...it's just not right!

I got the same call you all got.  The lady from ReplynRealty said she had someone in the area I specialize and wanted to pass it along, but first I must sign up for their program.  I was not in a position to continue conversation and would called her back.  In the meantime I went to my office sales meeting and everyone was talking about the call they got for 'leads' from Reply Realty.  The bells went off in my head and after Googling them found this blog.  I am so glad I did.  Saved me money and heartburn.  I've done these leads programs before and most of the folks were not qualified and really didn't want to be bothered.  We are in a tough market and need to watch our spending; this is a waste of money.  Go back to the basics and prospect your sphere.

Does anybody have a recommendation for a good company from which to buy leads?

"I have a referral needing an agent in your area" they have an E mail blast only!  "Seller lead - great--but not on title.  One polite E mail from buyer--do not contact me.  I thought the screening would be done first like a confirm that they wanted to be contacted-then I would follow up.  Yes I too was given the courtsey "credit" of 2 but ask for a call back from "MY" rep----still waiting.    

Reply is NOT what is "sold"--I should have researched first.  I am sorry that i did not see this blog first---Thanks

Judy @ alain pinel realtors in Silicon Valley Morgan Hill

Great information on this blog. I was called a few minutes ago by Reply and asked the salesperson if any of the leads were pre-qualified. She told me they were not. I thanked her and hung up. In this market it makes any leads that are not prequalified worthless.

I was a victim of FRAUD commmited by Reply Real Estate.  I recieved many leads instantly all of which were unusable by ANY STANDARD, mine or Reply Inc's.  THe leads were soliciting credit advice or already working with an agent or they never returned my contact.  I requested refunds for every lead I received under these grounds and I did not recieve all of my credits.  I was eventually charged a large amount so I quickly requested to cancel and asked again for the charge to be reveresed based on the fact that i was being billed for leads I submitted as invalid.  I was then called by a gentelman named MIchael in the "Quality Control" dept. who then assured me I would be refunded the charge and I would not be charge for any future invalid leads.  I agreed to give it another try and quickly i noticed that I Was being charged for leads that I woudl submit as invalid.  Over a 3 month period I was billed for ALL INVALID LEADS THAT I SUBMITTED AS INVALID.  Even after I was assured that I would never be charged again I Was still charged OVER and OVER for bad leads.  I asked MULTIPLE times for a refund and I never recieved correspondance back... this company is a bunch of crooks no matter what they try and tell you. STAY AWAY.  I am currently in dispute with them through the BBB and I am pending legal action to get my money back.  They lied and they did not even honor their own contract.  Also good luck trying to get a hold of them because conviently every time you will call the person you need to speak with is "out of the office".  

STAY AWAY AND IGNORE THEIR LIES.  if someone cals from reply trying to promise leads... HANG UP!!!!