Leads from Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, etc.

[Patrick Britton]

Curious to know if anyone has tried Realtor.com's lead generation program (or anyone else's for that matter).  I took the chance and paid (a good amount of money) for an expected 20 leads/month but in two days i've received 7.  4 - 5 seem relatively decent and 2 just came in tonight, so i am not sure about them just yet.  

I have spoken with 4 of these leads over the phone and they seem genuine (like floor calls with which i have had a lot of success TBH).  But the one thing that is bothering me is that only one single lead has a local phone number.  The rest are from Houston, Austin, Utah, Wisconsin, etc.  When I get floor calls only about a third are from out of state, not the vast majority.  Perhaps this is because Realtor.com is nationwide?  Perhaps this is how the scam works?  i.e.  pay people a few bucks to pretend to be genuine leads?

Admittedly, it's only 2 days old so i should know a lot more in a few months but I would like to hear anyone's experience with any of the real estate sites.  

Also, if you're only response is something like, "you should do door knocking" or "don't waste your money on leads, go out and network" or something else equally useless, save yourself the time and harass someone else.  People with actual experience should be replying only.  

[Sean Proctor]

I have been advertising with Zillow as a premier agent for 5 months now, and I can tell you that it is 100% a scam. I needed a new place to allocate some advertising dollars and decided to give Zillow a try. The sales rep, Lindsay Caldwell, told me the number of leads per zip I would receive (43) for the spend I was willing to do ($3,000 a month). Zillow makes you sign a 6 month contract, and I was a bit hesitant to commit to $18,000 for 6 months worth of advertising. 

Over the first few months I realized that I made a terrible mistake. I would say 90% of the leads are absolutely worthless. I have had one guy contact me through Zillow and ask what the number was for Zillow's customer service. Are you kidding me? That counts as a one of my leads. Just yesterday I had a lady who barely spoke a lick of English call and ask what was going on with this particular property. After a few questions I was able to ascertain that she wrote up an offer on this property and wanted to know what happened!!! Instead of calling the agent who wrote up the offer she submitted an inquiry on Zillow. What do you know, that counts as a lead against me. 

To top it all off the 43 leads I was sold on has now dwindled to 23 in month #5. Each month they sell more advertising so the number of leads per share goes down, but the amount they charge me does not go down relatively. It is borderline criminal. It is a SCAM. I asked my marketing rep, Jeff Wallace, to see if he can cancel my last month. Of course he could not. Ha, what was I thinking. They do not want to lose out on screwing me for that last $3,000. In closing, I want to get the word out to everyone in the business so maybe I can save someone else from getting scammed. Learn from my mistake, DO NOT ADVERTISE ON ZILLOW.