I never understood the mentality many agents have regarding the “unregistered” use of their IDX Search. Some agents believe that if you’re not ready to pony up some identification with “forced registration,” you have no business on their site. How ridiculous!!! Gary Ashton’s comment said it perfectly in his assessment of people who do or don’t give their information. I talk to brokers and agents everyday who say they force registrations to capture leads, but would never fill out those forms themselves. However, if they don’t push some sort of registration, they won’t be able to begin nurturing a relationship with this lead. What they don’t consider is you also can’t connect with qualified home buyers leaving your site or giving you fake information. The very people that do give you factual information have probably given it to every other site they’ve visited and may not be a qualified buyer.

As a “dot-something” technology company, as it were, we have addressed the concept of nurturing relationships online with “Lead Capture Redefined.” This is where we approach the lead capture process with a consumer driven approach. Let them search anonymously while giving the agent the ability to connect online. If the consumer sees value in the correspondence, they’ll identify themselves. There is much to be afraid of with identity to begin with on the internet. Give your new visitors time to get to know you as an agent, search your site, and return periodically. Don’t give them a reason to “lie” with fake information. Rather, engage early and establish trust.

Bill, Ines, and Teresa, we met at REBarCamp PHL. I wish I was following this site earlier on. You guys ROCK!!!

Benn, I’m digging Agent Genius with every new article I get a chance to read. I feel that guy who just discovered the box set of “Lost” for the first time and am playing catch up from several seasons back.

I would disagree with your perception of google’s careful insertion of adwords- they’re just geinb honest about identifying ads- something that newspapers have done for years, and a laudable action, but since they’re banking large, I would respectfully say that the reason is not because they love the consumer experience, but because they don’t need to do anything else. Businesses need to act as businesses in order to survive and to have the participants in those businesses survive and even thrive- I don’t think that is a bad thing or a good thing – just a thing we need to recognize when we look at the structure of our electronic workplace

I do agree with you that we need to keep the consumer’s experience in mind, because even if the motivation of the business or person operating the web site is commerical, they defeat their own pupose if they don’t make it a good consumer experience, because many consumers will then choose not to participate.

I wait excitedly, Obi Wan.

We all know that the best way to meet buyers, the traditional way, would be to sit in a well publicised open house or in a heavy traffic area, and wait for potential buyers to walk through the door.

Well, in actual fact, the open house brings in all sorts of potential buyers as well as plenty of lookers, from the next door neighbors to the couple doing some remodelling and looking for interior design ideas. They are all interested in the home but with varying degrees of interest towards actually buying a home.

The internet lead is very similar and in a lot ways exactly the same. It’s an virtual open house that the buyer can enter at any time of the day or night…and we don’t need to be there.

Most real estate sites at some point will require the user to provide some kind of information about themselves. Those who have no intention of revealing their identity can create a fake, but plausible e-mail address, and a fake, but plausible phone number, and then they have access to the rest of the site.

Other users will only provide a good e-mail and yet others will provide a working e-mail and a working phone number. However just because the working phone number and working e-mail user has provided all the correct information doesn’t mean that they are looking to buy a home. They may still be a inquisitive neighbor or some one doing research regarding interior decorating and they needed to see pictures of homes etc.

The point is that internet captures leads at all stages in the buyers life cycle just like the buyers and people coming to view traditional open houses. Some maybe in the very early and formative stages and have 2 years to incubate before they buy. Others may not even know they are thinking about moving but the research they do for another project brings them to the realization that they need to “upgrade” to get what they want in a home ie they can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear

I guess all I’m saying is that internet leads are at the end of the day either real people or fake. The real people will at some point be looking for a home. It may not be next week, next year or the next decade but it’s very likely they or someone they know will be involved in a real estate transaction. If you treat that lead with respect and give them some attention they will remember you via your drip campaign when they do enter the actual buying stage.

I don’t reject someone just because they are using my site for research. I hope they will remember it as a user friendly site and refer their friends and family and eventually become a client themselves when it’s their turn to buy

I look forward to hearing any one elses opinions as I would like to convert more of my leads just like everyone else that uses the internet as a way of generating business for themselves and their team

As exclusive agents for Nashville.com we generate anywhere from 15 to 50 leads a day…and not all are immediate buyers

I don’t believe saying “the Internet is purely consumer driven” is simplistic. Instead, I believe it is a fact to keep in mind for anyone who wishes to succeed in this environment.

Of course there are web sites that are supported by ads or sales. However, those web sites delicately place their revenue model on top of a solid customer-centric experience…or they will become irrelevant.

Google is a very good example. In the beginning Google was a text box, one click and then the answer to your question. With this “simplistic” approach they became the greatest force on the Internet.

Now Google obviously has AdWords; but notice how careful they have been about infusing ads into their product. Notice they have never allowed the “natural” results to be tainted with ads. Do you know how much companies would be willing to pay for top-spots? Millions & millions of dollars are being lost. But Google understands that as soon as they start down this path, they lose the confidence of their users. That confidence is really the only thing of value they have.

If I have a web site where I am trying to offer value to customers during the real estate transaction, it is not in my customers interest to:

- Demand of them questions they are not ready to answer.
- Exclusively give their “lead” to 1 agent who may or many not respond.

ines,

Regarding the companies you describe, it does not surprise me that the leads they generate would be flawed. Their core business model is flawed. Thank you for the clarrification.

This post is something much deeper and much to the heart of any startup that wants to offer antiquated methods to real estate practitioners that lead them down a 1.0 path. Some here get that, some here do not, but my larger point will be understood by a vendor that is looking for the niche that will fly through the ages,

It is the point that will build what some used to call a lead into a buyer who wants to willingly participate. The meat being if you had reached that level of bliss with the consumer with a product they wanted, you’d have recieved more than bits and bits should not be sold (or purchased). When purchasing bits the consumer is destined to become chewed by the pack. Again, this method was created by aggregators but somehow the agent becomes the vilain.

There is a better way… I’ve seen it, and I’m going to show it to you… stay tuned.