I have used Home Gain's zip code feed to my website with much
success -- I pay $1.99 per click through for a particular zip code. I
'own" a certain percentage of the zip code during a certain part of the
day. They rotate the time of day among the people who share the day, so
that for example, if there are three agents who each have 8 hours of the day and
if you got the worst 8 hours on Monday you'll get the best 8 hours on Tuesday,
the next best on Wednesday, and back to the worst 8 on Thursday. However,
it doesn't seem like it is actually in 8 hour chunks like that -- I think it is
done more in 2 hour time slots from what I can tell from my web traffic.
You set up your url to go directly to a "use the MLS for free" registration page
and then the people have to register to get past that to get to your
MLS. I have it set so they can enter x@x.com if they like, with a
little funny blurb that says that I will protect their privacy and if they will
trust me, they will get lots of good info from me if they give me the real deal.
A surprising number of people give me valid info, and I then set them up for
drip email, newsletters, etc. If they will give me a phone number, I try
to call them as well, though most people will not give a phone number this early
in the process.
I have been so happy with the HomeGain
pay per click that I have increased my initial order of clicks by about fivefold
from my initial order and have a standing order for more capacity in my selected
zip codes if one of the other agents cancels any of their time.
I have
used this service to improve the "hits" to my webpage also and my natural
placement on Google and Yahoo is greatly improved by it -- kind of like using
stealth pay per click advertising.
This may seem really steep to
some of you, but this is in areas where the average home price is over $1
Million, so a single home sale can easily pay for the whole year's
"clicks" and then some.
However, I do NOT recommend their "Source 4
Sellers" service -- I have tried it a couple of times in various zip codes to
see if one zip was better than another and it tends to mostly get people
interested in re-fi's -- great if you do mortgage loans also, but not so good if
you just want real sellers. Everyone I've tried to call was not interested
in actually selling or really in even refi'ing but just was curious about their
property value and was wasting my time -- they don't do enough screening.
In my area (Los Angeles county beach cites) the pricey zip codes for this were
$199 per month and the cheap ones were $110 per month.
Hope this is
helpful!
Best Regards,
Lauren Perreault, MBA PMP, GRI, e-Pro, SRES, Realtor,
Licensed Broker South Bay Brokers, Inc.Redondo Beach and Manhattan
Beach, CA
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