Another side of Housevalues.com
(Housevalues one year stock price history)
Housevalues posts a Q3 loss and Joel at Future RE Marketing calls it correctly ... Housevalues' explanation of their poor Q3 showing by blaming sales and marketing expenses seems shallow, but I don't have time to do the analytical research. Housevalues is known for its leads, and its website landing page says so... period. Simply put, Joel, I and most Realtors will concur that leads in a stagnant market mathematically aren't as effective as in a fast moving market. That means Realtors stop buying leads that are perceived to be less effective, and anyway their marketing budget is much smaller these days. Housevalues didn't show a significant drop in revenues in Q3, but there may be a lag because I think most lead purchase contracts run annually.
Following this logic, I'd think a Wall Street Analyst would simply and superficially give SOLD (Housevalues' ticker symbol) short shrift because the real estate lead generation business seems to follow the housing demand cycle and transactions ARE slow... so it's a no-brainer. And, yes, Thomas Weisel, Piper Jaffray and Merriman Curhan Ford all downgraded SOLD in the past four months. H O W E V E R ...
My new friend Amit (introduced by Mike), who just posted his new blog at Active Rain, surprised me with a spin on Housevalues that I (and I bet many Wall Street folks) had not heard before and could only hear from a practicing Realtor... Housevalues has the best CRM ("customer relationship management") system in the business. Amit previously ran software companies, so I'll hear him out. The key to their CRM is the added value beyond contact management and lead capture functionality (i.e., drip marketing capabilities) that are normal features with other systems. Their CRM is customized to the Realtor lead processing experience and provides scripting for Realtors that navigate them through the steps to closing the transaction. The easy analogy would be akin to the script followed by call center operators to make a phone-based deal close.
Amit swears by the system, but more importantly swears on the ROI the system generates for his realty business. He also mentions there is new lead response functionality being developed that would make the initial agent - client contact more effective. (Read this article about why lead response is key.) What a testimonial...
Here's the real point of this story... Housevalues may be making a big marketing mistake by keeping their CRM under wraps. Visit the Housevalues site and notice when you click on "Real Estate Professionals - click here", the next page is just a Contact form. A form that says contact me about LEADS, nothing about CRM. Frankly the site provides so little information about Housevalues' services off the landing pages, I would think that their conversion rate just to get the contact details would be pretty low.
Housevalues' marketing department needs to connect the fact that lead generation is far more fruitful with powerful tracking capabilities (the CRM system). So Housevalues' PR management... I give you a shot at redemption from that bad financial press... do you really have the best CRM system? And if so, why don't more Realtors know about it? And why not just market this supposedly amazing product?
Technorati tags real estate marketing lead generation housevalues CRM
Related articles on lead generation:
| Lead Generation - Selling "Motivated Sellers" Leads |
| Generic lead generation companies make a play for Realtors with Suspect Results |
| A Dissertation on Leads |
| Lead generation companies turning into Brokers |
| How a Lead becomes a "Lead" - part 3 on Lead Qualification |
| Lead Conversion's newest Permutation - Lead Response Time |
| Realtor.com - an advertising model for realtors |
| How Internet Lead Generation Shifts the Realtor's Lead Acquisition and Selling Process |
| Home Buyers - Know that when you fill out an Online Home Valuation/Mortgage Quote form, you will receive a Followup Phone Call from a Realtor/Loan Broker who Paid for the Lead |
The CRM might be great, but:
a) many agents, including experienced agents who are good at "converting" leads, will tell you that most the contacts suck. I've never heard one of those agents discuss the CRM though, so it must not have been worth the money to them
and
b) Try signing up for a home valuation yourself - the CRM isn't that impressive from the consumer end.
HouseValues isn't stupid, but they're behind. They will need to innovate a lot over the next few years to catch up.
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Thanks Galen, I've often heard the leads suck... and my readers know I'm not a fan of the lead generation biz model (check out the other articles). I'm a business strategy guy trying to figure out how lead gen companies will make themselves valuable to the Realtor... valuable enough to take a big cut out of their commission.
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HouseValues.com is a lead generation company surviving off of the sweat and tears of eager Realtors hoping for a positive ROI. The company is deceptive about the quality and quantity of leads provided to paid subscribers. I was enthusiastic about the program for over 9 months until it became painfully obvious that I had been mislead about both HouseValues and more rediculously JustListed.com.
I am currently being hassled by their collection agency claiming that I breached my contract and currently over over $1,000 with an amount due increasing with the daily (Sun-Sat) collection calls that I recieve. Their business model never should have gone IPO. I look forward to the CLASS ACTION LAW Suit that someone should champion on behalf of all of us who were mislead and recieve daily calls from RPM the collection agency for HouseValues.com.
When I asked for my subscription to be changed over to Market Leader only, Eric Simon at corporate basically told me it was my problem that thier system sucked. He never engaged in conversation but just kept repeating the same stoic response despite my personal knowledge of other Realtors who had been let out of their contracts.
I am deeply dissapointed that the REALTOR magazine continually provides free publicity to the company as if the system truly works. The stories of those who have been negatively affected (credit score and bank account) should be given equal publicity by "industry" publications. I am dissapointed and enlightened.
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Sorry to hear Ivette... I'm not a fan of lead generation companies who sell leads to Realtors from the consumer-facing "free home or loan valuation service" type of come-ons. Search for articles under the Lead Generation category (found on the left sidebars of this blog) for more information. Thank you for responding.
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