Looking for Real Estate Leads in all the wrong places

I was recently on the phone with a client that had nothing nice to say about any real estate lead generation website. In full disclosure he was happy with Qazzoo but still needed to rant about the treatment and service he had received with online companies promising to deliver X number of leads for a ridiculously low amount of money. That low amount of money is possible for a couple of reasons that I can think of and I wanted to share them here and see what you think?

Number One reason that they can promise so much while delivering so little is that unlike the old days when you advertised in the local print, journal, paper, whatever. They were local. And you could, if you were so inclined, drop in and say “Hi” to the guy or girl that told you one thing and delivered another. I think that local, reach out and touch you concept was a powerful motivator for people to present the truth and deliver on what they promised.

Number two reason is that because most advertising platforms were strictly local (in real estate anyway) and they could not by virtue of self-preservation outright lie to people constantly and count on getting the next person in the office to fall for the same shtick.  This is not the case today when most large online marketing platforms are national and have one office in one state which is providing advertising for real estate professionals all over the country and because the dust has not settled yet, BS will rule the day and overpromising and under delivering is standard operating procedure. When the advertising platform only needs 6 to 8 agents in a geographic area they can afford to burn through people where in the old days every agent advertised on the same platform and there was less bridge burning.

Number three reason is that they can. When there are so few options that do not include the internet, local professionals are against the wall and have no choice but to try new things. Some things work out well and some things don’t but we have to try new things or we are going to lose whatever foothold we have in our local market.  Great websites don’t work. Great social media presence doesn’t work. Great referral networks will only feed us for so long or grow so quickly. Therefore we have to try new things and share with each other what works and what doesn’t.

Sometimes we find something that is good or even great and we are afraid of sharing it with others and ruining it for ourselves. That is not the general way the world is supposed to work. Share with your friends and associates what works well and provide them the opportunity to succeed. The more you give the more you get…that is how the world is supposed to work. That’s what my grandmother said anyway.