One reason internet real estate leads can be found to be less reliable than the old print media lead gen method is the very nature of the internet. It doesn’t matter what the platform the internet gives the public at large a great deal more power than they are used to.
Fake leads are generated by real people with nothing better to do than to play games online. It is not too different from doorbell ditch or making a crank call…but with less chance of getting caught.
This has less to do with the internet and more to do with the people using it. Whenever a new platform comes out people are curious and the curiosity shows itself with behavior that is not always conducive to getting the results one would hope for.
Other examples of this misleading online information includes but is not limited to:
- Online dating with misleading profiles that are only found out when the person shows up for a blind date 50 pounds heavier, smoking a cigarette with their five kids that they neglected to mention in their profile.
- Social media (facebook) where people pretend to be someone else. Is it facebooks’ fault when Scarlett Johansson turns out to be a guy from New Jersey with obsessive disorder?
- These are just some of the examples of people feeling empowered when we wish some of them were not so powered that it wastes our time. But such is the new media and until the entire populace grows out of the newest platforms or discovers new ones, real estate leads will be part of the overarching theme which is the freedom to waste your time has always been out there. The internet just allows for a little more of it.
Matt Steinmuller