Talking House, Do you use it?

I tried it. In my opinion it is a waste of money. I did everything all the training books and my personal coach at Talking House told me to do and all I ever did was send out free DVD's that I could never get the requesters to return. So after 90 days I sent them back for a refund. Save your time and effort.

Good post!  No we do not use it!  Ww prefer to try and deal with the calls ourselves, and convert the call.

Run! Don't walk away from them.

Carmen, I just had a conversation with a REALTOR last week about the talking houses.  He said he loves them and uses them all the time.  He uses the live feed feature for his Open Houses and will sometimes "rent" it to other busineses for events. 

Most of the real estate agents that have posted a blog on here hates using Talking House. I thought about getting it but after some of the posts I got on my blog,I thought it will be just a waste of money.

I've had TH for several years.  The only bad thing is that you CANNOT track the leads that you get from the tool.  It's a great tool for listing presentations and for winning the listing because not many agents use the tool.  For our time, I think it's outdated, but sellers think it is the coolest thing since sliced bread.  If you're going to purchase it, try eBay.

I agree that every market is different. They work good for some while others not so good. You should buy used and try them out before you buy new though.

Lynette

I had talking house - I think it could be great for some business- but I think spending the money on a 800 call capture would be a better move.  I have used them a few times but it is a pain and if a seller moves out of the house and turn off the electric you can not sure it - also they are expensive.

You can not capture your leads and once they drive away from the house they may not remember your name and number. I love the 800 call capture system.  Not only does it capture you callers numbers, but it can help you track your advertising dollar!

We have been using the 800 call capture system for about 9 years. Does that say anything???? We us a sign rider on our sign posts and we use it on our "Just Listed" postcards. When doing the recording, we do not say what the price is. We do that for 2 reasons.....1. If you have a price reduction, you have to re-record you description and 2. You want your phone to ring too.  After listening to the description of the house they will have 3 options....press "0" and be connected to us right away.....press"3" and get a fax on demand which sends them (in about 30 seconds)  pre-loaded info like room sizes, taxes and schools.... or they can leave a messge. The system pages you with the phone number from where the person is calling from. We call all of our pages back within 5 minutes of them call our "800 # ".  There is a one time set up fee and then you just pay by the calls you receive. We use a company called ArchTelecom. Check out their website.

We would recommend it. Donna is right on....not only does it help you capture new clients, but it helps you track your advertising dollar! Good Luck!

Carmen, Talking House has just about disappeared here in Northern Virginia and I don't see many 800 numbers, either.  I own a URL that only has my listing virtual tours and I have a sign rider that has the URL on it.  SeeAVirtualTour.com and the sign rider is

 

Karen

I've never used Talking House myself, but over the years many of my agents have tried it. All of them abandoned it after a short time. I believe it's a "technology" that has seen it's day. About 3 years ago we had as many as 10 agents using someone's version the 800# Call Back. That number has dwindled to just one. More emphasis (dollars?) is now being thrown into capturing bona-fide Internet leads. The buyers simply don't get into their cars and scour the neighborhoods for "FOR SALE" signs any more. It's foolish to spend money on technology that depends on that.

I like them, and renting them out to FSBO's worked great and covered my monthly expense... unfortunately I don't list homes anymore right now... so they are in my garage...

Resell on these things is bad too... you can only sell them for like $75 a pop...

Talking house does not provide you with direct interaction with a buyer. A lot of messages are too long and the buyer loses interest and drives away.

A flyer from the property gives the buyer something to hold in their hand and take it home with them for further research.

No flyers, a sign with the agents cell number puts every interested buyer in direct contact with the agent.

I think the Talking House just makes sellers feel better, somewhat like our hard copy ads that hopefully will go by the wayside sooner than later as the Internet dominates for the best place to get the most information the quickest.

Carmen,

    Thanks for raising the issue of the Talking House, my husband and I are both real estate agents and we have been going back and forth on if we should use it or not.  After reading all of the responses made here, I don't think we will.  We will look into the 800 # or just pushing or website more.

800 #'s are awesome if you go with the right company!!!