Refrigerated Real Estate Consumers
My definition of a real estate lead
A lead to me includes absolutely the following:
- the full name of the buyer (both persons if a joint purchase)
- an exact capture of their area and style of housing
- pre-qualified with a qualification letter
- a signed agreement that they consent to the distribution of their information to me and understand they’ll be working with me.
- the lead must be exclusive to me or my company.
What most supply
- name (sometimes correct)
- email address (rarely their best contact)
- city or zip code searched (is this narrowed or a broad general search)
- share the fragment of information with 2-10 additional agents
What ends up happening
- You and upto 10 other agents bombard the consumer with updates and QUESTIONS
- You turn off the consumer because you’ve been left with more QUESTIONS than answers
- You lose the consumer to someone else and are left begging for a response
- You’re left discouraged and with a hole in your wallet
It seems to me
A better approach for any aggregator would be to connect locally a partnership with a Broker, and provide a lead capturing solution supported by their national site. Endorsing the Brokerage from a national level gives the local Broker credibility allowing a transaction to take place on the local site- The transaction of information.
The wrap
Agents must raise the bar and and begin to ask serious questions of the vendors that would provide fragments of shared information. You must learn to just say no to antiquated products and force vendors to raise their bar. By doing so you force aggregators to engage a solution for consumers that is valuable enough that they would want to willingly submit their information, agree to pre-qualification, and yes, make the home buyer eager for the call by the agent by asking permission upfront- Permission marketing.
In the end, the consumers experience is what is most important, but the almighty dollar seems to continue to fuel poorly conceived dot-disasters to the online market place. These so-called lead generation opportunities leave buyers frustrated and with a feeling of refrigeration- consumers are not meat.
Are there dot-somethings out there that aim to bridge the gap from search to purchase? If so, I’ve not received your email.
