My experience is apparently different from the majority.  I signed up for a minimal subscription with them, for buyer leads.  In 2 years I spent approximately $6000 on subscription fees and had 5 closed transactions for a a total of about $20,000 in commissions.  This is clearly not the way to instant riches, and yes, it IS WORK to respond to all the lame leads.  However, my calculator informs me that I did indeed come out ahead on this deal.  This was business that would have gone to someone else.  I think the idea is to keep it in perspective, respond to the leads diligently, but then drop the ones that don't want an agent and forget about it.  1 sale for every 25 leads or so, so you give the good ones a chance to surface, take those, and move on.  So, after 2 years, I decided that it was proven I would make money, and proven that I would not lose my investment, so I recently increased my

Received a call today from House Values.  I think they are only in our pocket.  But I would like to hear from a agent with a success story.

I used them and they are in your pocket. The leads were cold or duplicates sent to other agents. They used my name to recruit other agents (  no referral fee) worst yet they are hard to cancel.  I had to close the account to get rid of them.

I have subscribed to HouseValues for the last 3 months and so far I had no good lead. Most of the referrals I receive do not include their phone number nor their address and frankly sometimes it is a fake e-mail address as well. I have signed up for one year but at this point I have no hope that I will ever receive a valid client from them. Ulli Rieckmann-Fechner REALTOR, SRES, e-PRO ulli4real@gmail.com 408.679.0333

I have to pipe in at this point, my partner and I have been HouseValues.com subscribers since 2000 or 2001 and have been EXTREMELY happy with the service.  Yes, it is expensive.  Yes, there will be some bum leads but our experience has been that there have been MUCH fewer “Bill Clintons” or other fake leads compared to ANY of the Internet buyer-lead services out there (and we have tried most of them).  These leads tend to give real information to you because they want something tangible in return, not just to browse listings.  It might be for a refinance or just curiosity and not an immediate sale but then you have their email addresses and I would rather email for follow-up than snail mail any day.   The seller leads do take patience and work.  We have had leads  turn into deals 1, 2, even 3 years later.  I do not have a current count of transactions we have gotten from HouseValues but our slowest years with them were around 15-18 transactions and our height was of course 2005 with over 40 closed deals just from HouseValues.  That being said I am in a very techno-savvy marketplace with most every consumer online and we are also in a populous area (DC suburb) that has seen tremendous growth the past few years.

Tan Tunador

Exit Realty Talbot and Company

ttunador@exitrealtytalbot.com

www.LoudounCountyHomeSales.com

Has anyone had any experience with HomeGain for referrals (good & legitimate that is)

I did the source4sellers and could not have been more disappointed.   The agent in LA got off cheap at $110 per month.  They charged me closer to $400.  I never got leads except when I called to complain and those leads were worthless.  I never got anything from it.  It was money wasted.  I have them on my caller id so I know not to answer when they call.  Also, their customer service people quit so whoever sells you will likely be gone when you call to complain.

Good luck,

Scott Killian

Scott Real Estate

www.SaveWithScott.com

I used home gain for about 6 months the $250 per month deal,  I made 2 sales.  About 5 times my cost of the program,  but I found it made more sense to build my web site up on the organic side instead of competeing with myself for leads.  When we pay another for leads we are competeing with our own marketing devices for the leads. Whether if be PPC or organic web site optimization we are just working against ourselves.  Now many may disagree and it took me a couple years to figure out that it takes about 100 -150 or so leads to become a sale with in a year. So that first month of leads will make a sale for me in the next 12 months and so on, once we get it rolling it really starts paying off.  I work for Keller Williams and we are unique in the Real Estate business, we as a company don't feed you every day.  But we do teach you how to feed yourself.   It's the biggest difference I see in Real Estate companies today, most spoon feed their agents leads or call time calls but they never teach the agent how to find his own leads.  Many of you have 20 or 30 or more years of experience and you are looking for leads,  this could never happen to you once you learn to fish.  I emplore you to learn to fish and never have to look again at the Leads sellers.  Make your own. 

Gary Mitchell
Keller Williams Realty
Charlotte, NC
704-578-9789
www.mycharlottehometeam.com
gary@aboutcharlotte.com

I couldn't help reply to this one.  Yes leads from some online referral sources are good.  But the one mentioned here as one of the oldest and one of the one that advertises is one of the worst.  They lock agents into an expensive contract, give crappy leads with wrong information and at least when I did it guaranteed nothing and when I told them they were not fulfilling their contract and quit they turned me into a collection company and kept trying to bill my credit card.  I told the collection company it was a disputed charge and they went away.  It did not affect my credit, but I have 40 years of a FICA that is at the top.   Agents with less credit can get hurt.  Pick a better one and one that has an out if it doesn't work rather than an expensive one or two year contract.

There are other good ones.

A lead is just that a lead, a direction toward someone that will someday have a need for entering into a real estate transaction with someone.  How well I can convert that lead to a client depends on a lot of things.  First I have to actually talk with the lead, and hopefully meet then in person to begin building a relationship.  Sometimes it's hard to get married on the first date, but that is our goal at the first meeting to make a client.  It takes a lot of leads to make a sale.  The cold internet leads that come into our websites thru either being purchased from House Values, or Home Gain, or by PPC are still a little warmer then the phone book,  probably in my mind they are hot if you put them beside the phone book.  But it is our responsiblity to make friends and build a relationship with our leads and actually help them find the place they love.  I guess the greatest words I ever here from my clients are "cancel the rest of the appointments, this is the one we want"  It's quite exciting when they go from being a stranger thru an email just a few days or months ago to this wild eyed excited teenager acting home buyer.  Ain't it great, that's why I love this business.  So exciting to see people get their home and live the excitment with them.  And don't get me wrong it's also exciting to get the closing check.   Cool

Gary Mitchell
Keller Williams Realty
Charlotte, NC
704-578-9789
www.mycharlottehometeam.com
gary@aboutcharlotte.com

I used Realty Trac for about a year, like 3-4 years ago.  Of the lead programs, they were the best I used, BUT you get a lot of people who read a foreclosure book and want to buy  a $400,000 home for $40,000.

Every lead I got was legitimate in that they were all real people (no dogs, fake emails, etc) but they were mostly people wanting to invest (I was thinking of that specialization at that time) and very time consuming.  While I still work with investors, I only have a few that I work with now.  Lots of people wanting help to negotiate a preforeclosure sale (I require a retainer for that).

I have been with RealtyTrac for almost 3 years now.  Get leads for my two counties nearly every day.  As stated most of these potential buyers are "wannabee" investors who think that a course or two on foreclosures make them experts.  But they are good people at heart and many can be retrained into reality.

One hard thing is that much of RealtyTrac's information is very poor for my area.  Of the bank owned properties that they list some 95% IS WRONG.  We have a six month redemption period here in Minnesota and RealtyTrac's computers don't seem to understand this means the properties are still the borrower's until the time has elapsed.  Not bank owned.  Usually not even for sale.  On top of it the service will report Sheriff Sale amounts (what is owed) as the price.  And it regularly reports secondary liens as if they were the asking price.

Hard to explain that the $400,000 house they saw "listed" is not for sale and not available at the $60,000 they saw on RealtyTrac.  It was a secondary lien foreclosing.  Worse yet is when associations foreclose on townhouses and condo for back dues.  RealtyTrac makes it look like we have units available for $3,000 -$10,000.  In your dreams (or late nite TV).

But they do get the response from the consumer.  Wonder if there are any enterprising attorneys that might consider this false and misleading advertising.

Steele

Steele V. Propp
Foreclosure Specialist/ Loss Mitigation Consultant
Bank Owned Property Division
Schatz Group GMAC Real Estate
1009 Mainstreet
Minneapolis, MN  55343
(612) 325-6764   Direct Line
(952) 938-3831  Fax

I agree with Melina.  We are using it right now just for a trial run to see what we think.  We have definitely gotten leads from it but have to 'educate' every one of them on the foreclosure process and explain to them how foreclosures may or may not get them the best deal.  We have a lot of houses on the market right now and foreclosures and short sales in our area are not necessarily the best deal.  But many of them have gone to a seminar or talked to someone about foreclosures and think they can get them for next to nothing.  We end up spending a lot of time educating them on investing, foreclosures and agency and it does take a lot of time.  And some of them pay for the service of RealtyTrac and so they feel as though they know more than an agent or feel that they don't need the services of the agent.  We haven't closed any transactions yet but have a few in the works.  However, I don't feel that they are our most loyal customers and clients.

Kasey Boles

Associate Broker
GRI, REALTOR®
Cell: 208.830.6186
Fax: 208.562.1582
Jon Gosche Real Estate
www.BoiseRealtyStore.com
Boise Realty Store Blog

I used Realty Trac for about a year, like 3-4 years ago.  Of the lead programs, they were the best I used, BUT you get a lot of people who read a foreclosure book and want to buy  a $400,000 home for $40,000.

Every lead I got was legitimate in that they were all real people (no dogs, fake emails, etc) but they were mostly people wanting to invest (I was thinking of that specialization at that time) and very time consuming.  While I still work with investors, I only have a few that I work with now.  Lots of people wanting help to negotiate a preforeclosure sale (I require a retainer for that).

Melina Tomson, MS
ABR, e-PRO
melina@tomsonburnham.com
www.TomsonBurnham.com
ph: 503-371-6515
fax: 503-588-1628

I have been using House Values for about 18 months. I follow their recommended process with each lead as it comes in. Drip campaigns and all. Additionally I send and email through AOL which gives a description of a community and the a link to the MLS listings meeting the prospects criteria. The AOL system picks up bad email addresses that HV does not. I report this to HV and they give me credit.

The prospect is then entered into the MLS auto notification system using the prospects criteria. So they are on two "drip campaigns. After 18 months I have closed on sale from this source. Has anybody had success and how are they doing it?

Thank you

Warren W. Higgons
Broker/REALTOR®/e-PRO
RE/MAX AT THE BEACH
10239 Beach Drive
Calabash, NC 28467