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Market Leader - Vision - Yes there is!

By Stephanie Edwards-Musa

Real Estate Agent with thredUP.com

January 22, 2009 05:58 AM

I was signed up earlier this week in the Market Leader-Growth Leader program and so far it has been an interesting experience. If you have no idea what I'm talking about and would like to know more before you read, feel free to check out the Growth Leader Channel.

Since Monday was the first day with the site being Active, I thought it would be interesting to go ahead and write a post on my 'First Reaction' as they usually leave a Lasting Impression.

Setting up the program was easy. I mean....Easy. Market Leader literally did everything. That was quite nice honestly.

When I received the email that it was 'live' I immediately hopped on to check it out. I was quite amazed at the Depth of the program behind the scenes and find myself a couple times a day going over to check it out some more.

It is obvious that there was a TON of Vision put in to this product. It appears that every statistic imaginable was considered while putting it together. A few things real quick that I think would really help me is understanding a little more the Vision behind it. The program does SO much, how do they feel to best incorporate our own Personal Contact in to the scenario.

The site itself has a clean look to it and the ability to personalize the wording, which I like for branding purposes.

It is pretty easy to navigate, I like that.

There is only thing I WISH I could see on there right now...

I think this would REALLY separate the site. I would like to be able to write a blog post in AR and be able to redirect it over to this page...

OR, be able to have an 'outside blog' appear here. We could write blog posts on how Consumers can use the site to best help them in their home search, post market reports, etc. and have it all viewed there also. Maybe even a way for the leads to sign up via RSS on our blog posts...

That would be icing on the cake! :0)

So far, I think this could be an extremely powerful tool for business- But I'm giving it another week before I start talking about the lead generation side of it. I will say one thing though, leads started coming in almost immediately.

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Teri Eckholm

Boardman Realty - White Bear Lake, MN

REALTOR Serving Mpls/St Paul North & East Metro

Stephanie--We will have to compare notes when mine goes live...I am now impatiently waiting for my email. I have read others who have been in for awhile and some of the results have been great and others lukewarm. Hope yours are hot!

Jan 22, 2009 06:04 AM

Stephanie Edwards-Musa

thredUP.com - The Woodlands, TX

knitwit at thred UP

Hi Teri, It's too soon to tell how it will work out- But I am convinced that the potential is very powerful.

I'm very excited to be trying it out!

Jan 22, 2009 06:10 AM

Matt Stigliano

Kimberly Howell Properties (210) 646-HOME - San Antonio, TX

Stephanie - Feeling a bit jealous over here. I, like Teri, am waiting for mine to go live. You know I'll be on there messing with it the moment it does (please don't go live at 4AM). Excited to see another face I know being part of the trial runs. I will definitely agree with you in my first post about it - it would be great to see a blog function on it. Good luck and I look forward to comapring notes. PS Did you ever decide the @youragentsteph debate?

Jan 22, 2009 07:46 AM

Terrie Leighton

Ferrari-Lund Real Estate - Reno, NV

Reno Real Estate Agent ~ Selling Homes in Reno

Hey Stephanie ~ Thanks for the update! I am participating as well but have just complete initial paperwork! Looking forward to future posts and results from other AR members!

Jan 22, 2009 08:39 AM

Jennifer Lew

DocuSign, Inc. - Seattle, WA

Hi Stephanie! Welcome to the program! And warm welcomes to Teri (btw, your site is now live!), Matt and Terrie as well. Wow, this is really going to be an amazing program. I'm excited to have you all onboard!

Steph, you brought up a great point because many real estate agents are generating prospects from their blogging efforts, and being able to combine that with Growth Leader will only strengthen your success. Your Growth Leader website is specifically designed to be clean, sleek and simple. It has one objective - to grab visitors and keep them on your site for as long as possible and as often as possible until they purchase their home. Having other links on your site will drive your visitors away and you end up losing many prospects that way.

Vision has a widget tool that you can attach to your personal websites and/or blogs to drive your traffic to your Growth Leader site. Only when they are on your Growth Leader site will you be able to learn the most about their needs - what homes they're looking for, their ideal location, etc. Hope this helps!

Jan 22, 2009 11:14 AM

Jeff R. Geoghan

Coldwell Banker Realty - Lancaster, PA

REALTOR, Marketing Manager

Stephanie, so this is the registration-harvesting concept I've been hearing about, right? What's the domain for your area? Just curious...

Jan 22, 2009 02:44 PM

Maggie Dokic /Indialantic | 321-252-8696

Magdalena Dokic - Indialantic, FL

Selling the beach in Florida's space coast

Steph, while I agree that at first glance it may look like a good idea to have your blog on there, what Jennifer's saying makes sense.

Most home buyers want one thing: to look at homes. Tons of them. The more listings you give them to compare, the happier they are. These MarketLeader sites have a clean, professional, uncluttered look to them. I've seen a few and am very impressed. They appear to be doing a great job of getting buyers to raise their hands and point themselves out. Best of luck with it! Please keep us posted on the progress.

Jan 22, 2009 09:27 PM

Stephanie Edwards-Musa

thredUP.com - The Woodlands, TX

knitwit at thred UP

Hi Matt, Awesome! It hardly took 2 days when they set mine up..but I think it depends on your mls. No, I haven't decided the @youragentsteph thing yet. I've had a lot on my plate and just put it to the back burner for a little while. Still thinking about it. :) Good luck and can't wait to hear what you think about the Market Leader program!

Hi Terrie, That's fantastic! I'll be looking for your posts as well!

Jan 22, 2009 11:54 PM

Stephanie Edwards-Musa

thredUP.com - The Woodlands, TX

knitwit at thred UP

Hi Jennifer, Thanks for explaining that.

I was thinking more along the lines of the blog feeding directly in to the site. No external site to visit, just the appearance that the blog is there always.

Having more content and another reason to get on the site is a good thing...but since it is only a few days in to it I'm in with an open mind. :0)

Another thing is...

The agents actually getting on the site to follow up with leads. Being able to feed a blog post to the site would keep it top of mind to the agent and possibly keep them around. But, just an idea.

We'll see how it goes. :)

Jan 22, 2009 11:57 PM

Stephanie Edwards-Musa

thredUP.com - The Woodlands, TX

knitwit at thred UP

Thanks Maggie!

I agree also with what Jennifer is saying but it all depends on one thing. How long the buyer is wanting to wait until they buy.

Most online leads go through cycles. They are motivated and want to look at a ton of listings, then they get cold again and then it's up to us to stay in contact with them. I just thought that having a blog posts feed there may help satisfy their need for real estate information, even if they are not looking at listings at the time.

I'll keep you posted. :)

Jan 23, 2009 12:00 AM

Stephanie Edwards-Musa

thredUP.com - The Woodlands, TX

knitwit at thred UP

Jeff! sorry about that. I skipped over you.

The site is ServingSpring.com - It's the BACK side of the site that is totally unreal. I was very surprised. It's all automated and really cool. Almost like an assistant in itself.

You should see if you can try it out in your area...

Jan 23, 2009 12:02 AM

Jennifer Lew

DocuSign, Inc. - Seattle, WA

Hi Steph! I believe that blogging is a great way to present information to your prospects, as well as promote an engagement between you both that can lead to stronger relationships. Many agents here on AR have established themselves as local experts for their real estate market through posting blogs. I can definitely see value in having that component in your Growth Leader website. As you're exploring Growth Leader with an open mind, we are also open minded to any ideas you may have. I'm going to forward your suggestion to our development team. Thanks for sharing!

Jan 23, 2009 03:19 AM

Tad Navle

RSVP Real Estate - Bonney Lake, WA

I signed up with Vision by MarketLeader in the end of January. I was up within 2 days and ready to go. in the 14 days of going live I have had 5 people sign up for listing alerts. This is 5 people that will see an email from me everyday with new listings. And it is almost automatic. As you receive leads (or add your own clients) you will be able to see who is actively looking at the listings. This allows me to concentrate on only the active leads.

The back office is really the key to the system. I was very aware of the Realty Generator and the business it could bring, happy to see that it is now part of MarketLeader.

By the way - I don't work for MarketLeader but have been a client of justListed.com for 4 years. (made a lot of money off that -this is better!)

Feb 14, 2009 01:27 PM

Bob Evans

Legendary Realty of the Rockies - Breckenridge, CO

I have been a Vision user for about 30 days. The Vision site has generated over 57 prospects in just 30 days. The website has a lot of positive features. However, on the back end, there is no way to customize the Welcome Email which is sent out automatically each time someone registers. This email is extremely out of touch for my market and there is no way to change it or turn it off completely so that I can send out my own Welcome Email. Evidently, this is the number one suggestion/complaint for Growth Leader to make changes, but it does not appear to be something that they will change anytime soon.

The other problem I have experienced is that new prospects will be sent an email with recommended properties automatically within 12 hours from the time they sign up. This would be fine except the system sends out emails stating that I was recommending properties and there would be zero homes found in the link that was included. That doesn't make a Broker to look too sharp. I have talked to support several times and they never call back.

Overall, it is a great site, they just need help with their customer service.

Bob

Mar 31, 2011 12:45 PM