Yes, I am tardy with my report for Day 2. There was not much going on from an interesting meeting standpoint so I visited the tradeshow floor. For anyone that has not been to a Realtor tradeshow, it is certainly an experience. Flashing buttons, contests, people throwing free things at you. Having been to many of these, it always amazes me the types of companies that have booths. For example, there were several jewelry and makeup booths. While I am not a woman, it seems odd that they would come to a real estate tradeshow. It would be like having Titleist as a vendor. Lots of real estate guys like to play golf but they don’t really fit at a Realtor tradeshow. Then again, I am pretty dense about this stuff and they seemed to have a bunch of women buying stuff so I guess they are the smart ones.
I visited a bunch of booths but a couple stood out for different reasons:
Realtor.com – They intro’d a Zillow/HouseValues-like feature on their home page called “What’s Your Home Worth.” It is a lead generation system for agents that provides basic home value data and then let’s the consumer elect to get more refined info if they want from a “featured” agent. Agents can buy territories and they apparently will rotate as consumers access the feature. Once a consumer asks for more info, the “featured” agent will get an email and that consumer will see the particular “featured” agent for a period of time each time they return. With the large amount of traffic that R.com gets, it will be interesting to see how well the lead gen system works. I tried my zip code and there was already an agent signed up! I think this will be a winner for R.com and the agents that jump on it but I also think that agents will squak when their choice area is sold out.
HomePoint – This is a Trulia-like company (although the get data via the MLS directly) that is trying to become a portal of sorts. Agents sign up for territories and get “featured” when a consumer clicks on a listing. Again, this is a lead-gen system for agents that even extends to listing agents and FSBOs. The thing that I did not get was how they were going to generate traffic. No eyeballs, no leads.
More later….
Russ
Thanks for the reports, Russ! That Realtor.com things sounds like the identical twin of HouseValues’ HomePages site, but I’m guessing that Realtor.com won’t have to spend the advertising bucks that HouseValues spends on each customer. That model still seems a little wacky to me – do people really want to be assigned an agent at random? Do agents really want to chase leads at random?
Speaking of “eyeballs” and obtaining clients, Real Blogging has this about Internet leads up yet satisfaction down.
And for our Realtor friends who dread the 9pm phone call, here’s a homeowner’s problem and the phone call we took a short time ago. Visit our The Closing Table
For those who are curious, we are routinely doing business after our normal banking hours. Agents are not alone in working crazy long hours.
oops, sorry, bad link.
Try The Closing Table Blog
Galen, Here’s an email I received from HouseValues. Doesn’t it nauseate you to hear someone telling agents they don’t have to be good anymore, they just have to be FIRST?!
“Hi Ardell, What we have learned from the NAR in a recent study is that 77% of home buyers and sellers are STARTING their search online and over 74% of those same consumers will ONLY interview ONE agent! In other words, they pick the first agent that contacts them…wow! It’s a tough realization that as an agent, you don’t have to be good anymore…you just HAVE TO BE FIRST! Knowing this helps to understand the system we have created to help agents make more money in a lot less time! Here’s a brief overview of the HouseValues system our agents receive.”
A whole system based on the fact that “you don’t have to be good” anymore, as in don’t waste your time and effort on skill and knowledge.
What a marketing campaign. But they are right about one thing. It IS a “tough realization” for this agent, and I’m not buying it (pun intended).
Galen, Here’s an email I received from HouseValues. Doesn’t it nauseate you to hear someone telling agents they don’t have to be good anymore, they just have to be FIRST?!
“Hi Ardell, What we have learned from the NAR in a recent study is that 77% of home buyers and sellers are STARTING their search online and over 74% of those same consumers will ONLY interview ONE agent! In other words, they pick the first agent that contacts them…wow! It’s a tough realization that as an agent, you don’t have to be good anymore…you just HAVE TO BE FIRST! Knowing this helps to understand the system we have created to help agents make more money in a lot less time! Here’s a brief overview of the HouseValues system our agents receive.”
A whole system based on the fact that “you don’t have to be good” anymore, as in don’t waste your time and effort on skill and knowledge.
What a marketing campaign. But they are right about one thing. It IS a “tough realization” for this agent, and I’m not buying it (pun intended).
Ardell, that really is a crummy message. Its funny that they totally embrace and promote that concept – that you as an agent are a commodity and have nothing to offer but being there at the right time. I’m guessing that a lot of people interview a highly recommended agent first – one they can be confident is good – but that doesn’t fit with house values’ you-are-a-commodity proposition, so they don’t point that out. In fact, I bet that 74% of your customers interview only one agent, Ardell, because most of them know from this blog or word of mouth that you’re a good agent who is worth every dime.
Not to knock on all agents that use HouseValues (I have met a few who seem great), but some of them must believe that pitch, right?
“Don’t be good, be first!”
Ardell, that really is a crummy message. Its funny that they totally embrace and promote that concept – that you as an agent are a commodity and have nothing to offer but being there at the right time. I’m guessing that a lot of people interview a highly recommended agent first – one they can be confident is good – but that doesn’t fit with house values’ you-are-a-commodity proposition, so they don’t point that out. In fact, I bet that 74% of your customers interview only one agent, Ardell, because most of them know from this blog or word of mouth that you’re a good agent who is worth every dime.
Not to knock on all agents that use HouseValues (I have met a few who seem great), but some of them must believe that pitch, right?
“Don’t be good, be first!”
Galen, For the most part I use a reverse pattern, in that I interview them to see if we are a good match vs. their interviewing me. For instance, I can meet 20 buyers, and choose none of them. Sellers have a higher ratio of “acceptance” because the selection process is based more on “the product” than the client, though some client selection issues are in the mix. But not to the same extent as buyer client selection, since “the product” is an unknown factor at time of client acceptance.
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Wow. It was really refreshing to hear something nice about Realtor.com. I would like to thank you for that. I do love the featured CMA program, and so do my clients. And it was awful, to see that a HouseValues rep would say something like that. I hope all my clients know how much I appreciate them. Can I say that here?