ActiveRain Spoke, We Listened | Reply! Offers Pay Per Sale Lead Program

I vote for the skiop the $100 a month club...raise the back end a little...and fcrget the monthly fee...that would be a much better program for most agents who can't see paying for what they...can't see.

Sheesh people - it's his business model.  If you don't like it find an alternative that suits your marketing & business goals better.

If he gets a few agents to invest in it that can document success with it I'm sure that people that want to work these types of opportunities will have no problem with the cost structure. 

The bigger questions should be along the lines of -

- Are there any guarantees as to how many leads you'd get/month for your investment?

- What are the quality of the leads?

- If this works, whats to stop lots of other agents signing up and reducing the # of leads you'd get?

This doesn't suit my model but I certainly am not going to sit here and complain. 

In the State of Idaho, we are not allowed to pay unlicensed real estate agents referral fees.  I have had over 50 phone calls from Reply and keep telling them I would love to work with them if they can convince the Idaho Real Estate Commission (not me) that renaming a referral to an "Advertising Fee" is acceptable.  Some of them have mentioned how they have lots of agents already doing this in Idaho with them successfully and all that tells me is a class action attorney is drooling somewhere!

If you can provide me a letter from the Idaho Real Estate Commission accepting your model so that I don't jeopardize my real estate license, I would be glad to at least start with your regular pay per lead and convert if it is more cost effective. 

I am waiting for a lead generation program that gives exclusive leads, that would be worth paying for.  If any of us have been in business for over two years, we know how to convert leads.  But paying for leads that someone else is getting too, plus charging the Buyers to find us, plus charging the Sellers to find us; is a win, win for the lead generation company. 

I too am tired of paying, paying, paying and getting vacant promises.  In every program there are going to be successful results, but when looking at these post, there are only two (2) who have found success out of many who have not.   As REALTORs we cooperate with each other, we are friendly competition - it works, and we pay for completed transactions; in shared commissions.  Like Idaho, we in Arizona can not pay commissions other than to licensed Agents.  If REPLY has a marketing model where it can give exclusive leads, and lower the monthly fees - I am in!

REPLY it is better to get $1 from a million people, than try to choke at million out of one person.  Be innovative - be like McDonalds - sell millions, make millions - make it affordable.

this seems a bit rediculous to me seeing as that the average home price in america is now a little less than 200k.  if i were to close on a 150k home at 6% commission that sends only 2250 to me if my company takes 50% and then i pay Reply $1k which leaves me with $1250.  so i basically get paid 27% on a sale's commission.  can you say "rip off"?  i thought enough people had their hands in a real estate deal as it was lol

p.s.  tell your company's telemarketers to stop calling me.  no means no

No front end fees!! I gladly send out referral fees all the time!  And I'd gladly pay you at the settlement table!

I dont like the 100 bucks a month, I would be willing to pay a one time membership fee, and then pay a referral fee.....Although its tooo high!  But without some minimums to the amount of leads you would receive its a crapshoot like the rest of theses companies.  Just give us leads and let us pay you for them, if they are ACTUAL leads!

Last year I paid $99/year for a referral service that was taking a 25% cut on a closed transaction. I received maybe 7/8 valid leads in the 12 months period, and anticipate no closing in the near future. The company recently changed their structure to a pay per lead with no back end cut, with the same annual fee. I decided not to renew my membership with them, because as it stands out, I have better success with spending my hard earned $ on other lead generating activities.

I would try your services if you had a lower monthly fee (under $40 would work for me), You could still make money by charging a set percentage of the property sale price. I would suggest 1/2%, so that for for a $100,000 home your cut would be $500, but for a $400,000 you would get $2000. It would even out at the end.

Like many others who have commented here, I am very reluctant to spend more money upfront but don't mind to share my commission after a transaction has closed.

Im so happy so many of you are able to generate so much business on your own without the need to spend any money on marketing and advertising (ie buying leads) That will leave this advertising venue to me.

Rudd; if any potential customer wants to talk to someone about their experience with your service feel free to send them my way. (Just know that I want to keep Lee County Fl to myself)

IF I pay you $100 a month to get leads and close 1 lead in that time I will have paid $2200 for that 1 transaction.  By the time my broker takes his cut I would be lucky to take anything at all away from this transaction.  I could better spend my time prospecting and getting 1 transaction and making money insead of working to get 1 of your leads to close without a profit for me.  Sorry the math doesn't add up to me.

Rudd, I have to say you are a brave man. One of my favorite pastimes is torturing the three or four colors a week I get trying to sell me leads. However, if it is truly $99 a month and you can cancel anytime i'll give it a shot. But be warned if all I get is a bunch of disconnected numbers, non-English speakers, or it is a huge hassle to cancel, then I am not to be shy about reporting my experience.

Lots of interesting comments here. I am a firm believer in internet lead generation. It takes time and it costs money but if you have effective systems in place then it pays off. Everyone has always told me that paid up front internet leads did not work. I love a challenge so I invested into the concept. I paid $700 per town for four towns and then $316. per month, per town with an internet lead generation company. I had the exclusive to each town (but that does not guaruntee you anything because all the of the neighboring citys have agents calling many of the same leads since it is common for a search to consist of more than on town). In the beginning months I netted zero. I did not blame the system or the fact that 80% of the leads had bogus contact info since many lookers prefer to remain anonymous, at least until they are more serious. I kept the 80/20 rule in mind knowing that the 20% that had real contact info were the 20% that wanted help once I upped my game in terms of the correct conversion system. Six months went by and no return. I was getting close to throwing in the towel since I was swamped with other forms of leads and so were my two buyer's agents so I was starting to wonder if the time/money was worth it. Then it all started to click. First with a $410K deal, then a $700K deal, then a $810K deal and then a $1,250,000. deal all in the next 6 months. There are many other  buyers in the pipeline. The buyer who spent $1,250,000. last year called me today to say they would now like an ocean view home in Capitola and would like to buy some investment properties by the university in the next couple months. So I will definately try the program once you incorporate the change you are looking to complete in the next week or so having to do with the ability to choose preference in regards to listing or buyer leads. Please contact me then and I will try it and will report to the group on the results. With 24% of my sales in the last year from internet leads I think it's worth a shot.  At Keller Williams your broker split starts at 70-80% (depending on your production level) and after a short number of months  (depending on your sales volume) you can "cap" and you are at 100% for the remainder of the year. I was thankfully at 100% for all of my internet sales so the generosity of Keller Williams made it financially feasible to invest in the first program and appealing to try another system for such a low monthly fee. Thanks for the opportunity and for taking so much time to so patiently answer all of our questions. :)

Wishing everyone at AR a prosperous 2010!  Melody Russell - Keller Williams Santa Cruz

The perfect lead system will be a system that leads are entered into certain cities on an online dashboard system. Any agent that is signed up for that city will be notified that a lead is in their dashboard. The first agent to accept the lead gets the lead. You then put systems in place to make sure one agent doesn't hog the system when other agents are available. The agents that sign up pay no UPFRONT fees or monthly fees. They pay a lead fee after close of the transaction. Each lead placed on the dashboard should be followed up by you on a monthly basis via e-mail asking for their opinions about the agent who contacted them and if they were able to sell or buy their house with that agent. Get rid of the agents who get poor reviews and maybe base your fees on their satisfaction.

I think a cross between a BPO service and Redfin would be nice.

I had an unpleasant experience with Reply years ago.  However, I am much more comfortable paying a monthly fee than paying per lead and I am willing to give it another shot.  I was considering giving this program a try.  When I went to a website it said $99/mth for 5 leads and then $19.95 per lead after that plus the advertising fee.  I can't find where I read that now but I just want clarification.  I am thinking that I misread something.  So to clarify - The $99/mth includes as many leads as you can generate for that market area, right?  There is no limit and the only other fee is the $1000 advertising fee, correct?  Once I understand clearly, I think I will give this a try to see how it turns out.

Adam, from many of the comments you can tell that we do not like paying the monthly $99 membership fee.  I have read your responses and understand what you are saying, but I, like many others, do not agree with you.  I have a lead generation service to whom I gladly pay a percentage of each closed sale. 

THEY MAKE WAY MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER SEE IN THIS CURRENT PROGRAM. 

And you cannot tell me that the bottom line isn't important to you.  Of course it is.  It's iimportant to all of us.  So lose the $99 fee, lock areas with those who are serious and you'll see the cash flow pipeline go crazy. 

Just my 2 cents

I know this post is somewhat aged but I have been "researching" lead programs all weekend. I even blogged about it. I understand that some people feel they have been burned by lead companies. But I am still trying to process the logic behind some of the comments, especially with regard to getting rid of the $99 fee. You wouldn't expect to mail 100, 500 or even 5000 postcards without paying the upfront cost for postage and postcards. Don't forget about the time required to mail the cards or the cost to have someone else do it. Then, there's no guarantee of the response you will get.

You wouldn't expect to have someone implement SEO strategies and wait to get paid when you get paid. Even with pay-per-click there is a regular billing cycle without regard to your conversion rate. Maybe I am just thinking too much...I am a thinker. Just sayin...