Realty Agents

HomeGain’s Buyer Link is not cheap but you will receive a steady flow of leads.  It is your job to convert them into buyers.

If you’ve recently attended a real estate conference or read a book or a blog about success in real estate, then you know that lead generation is a hot topic. There is little debate that the ability to generate and capture leads can be what separates a successful agent from a mediocre one.  BUT start a discussion about paying for leads and the debate can get downright ugly.  You’re likely to hear the words ripoff and parasite used to describe lead generation companies like HomeGain and HouseValues.

HomeGain, who’s been around since 1999, seems to generate the most wrath in the real estate community. So what is it about HomeGain that gets real estate agents so angry?  Many agents feel that sites like HomeGain use an agent’s listings to attract buyers and then refers those same buyers back to the agent for a fee. If sites like HomeGain didn’t exist, they say, leads would go directly to the agent without the cost of the middleman.

I confess.  I use Home Gain Buyer Link. Home Gain has a few other lead generation tools but Buyer Link is the only one I subscribe to.  It’s a pretty simple concept.  HomeGain pays the big bucks to land a prominent place on search engines and to partner with online newspapers like USA Today.  HomeGain is found by consumers doing searches using popular real estate keywords for towns and cities across the nation. When a consumer clicks the link to HomeGain, they will be redirected to the IDX site of a local real estate agent who has paid a fee for that privilege.  There are no referral fees paid; just a fee when someone (anyone) clicks on the link.  That fee can run from fifty nine cents a click in a smaller rural town to over $5.00 per click for a place like Las Vegas. 

Getting started is easy. You simply pick the town or city you want and which URL to use for tracking. You set your own budget.  HomeGain does the rest.  In a few days, customers will begin clicking through to your website. What you do after that may greatly determine how you feel about Home Gain.  Before you start paying per click, you need to have a good landing page and systems in place to handle the leads that flow in; otherwise you will be wasting money.  There is not much point having clients registering on your website, if you are not prepared to followup with them.

HomeGain works particularly well for a team or small company unable to compete against larger companies who spend many thousands of dollars to optimize their sites. In addition, while single agents may be able to generate more than enough business on their own, a team leader or company owner may need HomeGain to keep the customer pipeline flowing to their agents.  Finally, even a single agent may prefer to spend time on other aspects of their business, rather than work on optimizing websites, bidding on keywords and working on lead generation.

I’ve made plenty of money using HomeGain’s Buyer Link over the past 4 years. I found it especially useful when I switched IDX providers and needed to get buyers into the new pipeline quickly.  HomeGain provided the leads.  We’ve developed good initial contact and followup systems.  As a result, my team was able to convert about 1 in 15 leads into buyers. 

PROS: 

HomeGain requires no contract so you can give BuyerLink a test drive without any future obligation.
BuyerLink is quick to set up and requires very little initial effort on your part.
Buyer Link will drive buyers to your website.  If you have a lead management plan in place Buyer Link WILL make you money.

CONS: 

HomeGain is becoming less valuable as more realtors are obtaining good rankings on their own by becoming educated on SEO. 
The cost is stupidly high. 
Even the best of agents will find the buyer conversion rate to be relatively low.

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