Realty Agents

Reply.com is a lead aggregation site.  They put information about home values and homes for sale on the internet to attract consumers who may want more information.  Consumers can fill out a contact form, which goes to an real estate agent, and the consumer becomes a “lead” for that agent. Web sites like Reply.com should be examine from the point of view of the consumer, who is looking for real estate services and from the point of view of the agent who is looking for business, because the service is designed to be used by both.

For Consumers
There is a home search.  It says “Search Homes For Free”, which seems misleading.  I have not yet found any company that charges money to search the internet for homes.  To use the free home search consumers must give there email address and other information.  Any consumer can search sites like Realtor.com or local real estate web sites and find all of the homes listed in the MLS and in most cases they do not have to provide any information about themselves, or pay a fee.

There is a section for home owners to get a free home valuation.  Again most agents provide this service for free in the first place.  To get a free home valuation the consumer must describe the home and then are contacted by an agent who is a local expert.  That agent does a market analysis.  The agent who contacts the consumer is not necessarily a neighborhood expert, they are an agent who signed up for leads. 

There is also a section that claims to have “almost” everything a person wants to know about any home.  They did a nice job with the design and it was easy to quickly find my own home.  Unfortunately when I looked up my home it was missing about 500 square feet, had inaccurate bath descriptions and an extra room.  I will not comment on the stated value they listed but will say that the number is a bit below the average value of a home like mine in my neighborhood.  Comparable homes were displayed that are in a different neighborhood.  There isn’t any information on the site about where the data comes from, but the fine print on the bottom of the site states that the information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. 

For Agents
Agents pay a flat fee of $44.95 per month, and an additional $44.95 per lead, if the agent chooses to work with the lead.  There is a guarantee that if a member agent does not close at least one transaction through the leads in 12 months they will get 12 months of leads for free.  The service can be canceled at anytime.  Sounds reasonable for agents who want to buy leads through a lead aggregation sites.

I did some testing to see if consumers would actually find the Reply.com web site when searching for home values.  The site did not come up on any search term I used in Google.  If it did it was so low on the page that I did not go far enough.  I looked at the keywords and meta tags that the site uses and found generic terms like “home value”.  Often consumers include references to geographic areas when they search for homes or for home values.  Real estate is local.  The same site also generates leads for car sales professionals.

With the money back guarantee the site might be worth a try for some. A flat fee of $44.95 a month is not a large investment and lead generation is expensive. From a consumer point of view I think it is in their best interests not to become a lead.  Sites like Reply.com are used to “capture” leads.  Who wants to be captured?

This author rates this service:		4 out of 10
Average ratings by readers:		Avg. 2.0

Category: Lead Generator,
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