IDX Lead Capture Technology
By Reggie · June 30, 2007
Should real estate agents capture or not capture a user’s information on their real estate website? This still seems to be a highly debated question. Thanks to Jeff Tomlin, of Point2 Technologies, for his coverage of “Why 95% of Realtors are leaving BIG money on the table.” Jeff talks about the trouble of “Baiting the consumer by providing basic information and then requiring contact information for more data.” Jeff also states what all real estate agents should be aware of… consumers are getting smarter online! They know the technology for public listing data exists, and if you don’t supply it freely they will likely leave your website to find it on your competitors. To prove the point take a look at the chart Jeff provides below. It displays Point2 NLS stats on leads generated as a percentage of unique visits to registration forms.” Look at the staggering decline in registration forms effectiveness since 2004.
Why have consumers shied away from user registration? On this question I agree with Jay’s opinion over at PheonixRealEstateGuy. He is a fan of the “Free Internet and Free Information.” Think about it, that’s what the Internet provides all of us. Imagine the last time you searched for information on any topic. Did you pass up a website that required you to register? I know I have!
So if I don’t make the consumer register on my real estate website, how will I capture the lead? When it comes to this question, I agree with Marrlow Harris at 360 Digest when she says “build a better website, add some good sticky content.” She hit on the essence of what we should all be trying to do via the Internet. Make your website content appealing by exploring a niche, localizing, and enhancing your data for maximum appeal.
It’s important to note that these findings will obviously be different for each real estate market. If all of your competitors require registration for MLS data, you will likely not see the backlash as quickly. But rest assured the Internet will continue transforming in the consumers best interest.
Please share your opinions!
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As far as I’m concerned, there is no debate.
Imagine if Amazon.com tried to “Capture the Lead” before showing you the book review, the contents of 20 pages of the book, the price, etc., etc.
I don’t capture leads online. I earn clients. People know the difference, and that’s how I’m able to keep five agents plus me (and counting) off the streets.
Obviously I agree with you. But rarely a week passes that I don’t get in a discussion with another agent about requiring registration to use IDX. Many still tell me I’m waisting my time unless I switch on registration.
Seems to be working just fine without it….
This is such a highly debated subject. Many real estate agents that I discuss this with find not requiring registration a wasted opportunity. Coincidentally, these are the same agents whose websites lack any compelling content. When the only real value item on the site is the IDX home search, agents seem to feel a bit protective of giving it away for free.
Required registration on your IDX website is tragically stupid, for one the number of bogus leads increases dramatically, and two most people will pass and go back to Google and click on the next link in line, so… all of that expensive SEO and SEM is flushed down the toilet.
Do you want to be different??? SELL access to your MLS! Charge web visitors 9.99 a month, if your site is slick, the perception of value principle will kick in and you can offset your losses in transaction business…
I go back and forth on this issue all the time. Right now, I am not requiring registration or sign-up.
When I do require it, I do get good leads. It is hard to determine how many people back away because of it.
A more effective option for me is to offer specialized forms such as “townhome finder” or “lake home finder,” as well as an anonymous idx search feature. The visitor can order a customized list of MLS properties that precisely meet their search parameters. You get a few pranksters now and then, but I get good leads from these form pages every day. The key to this is to make the form seem specialized for a particular market niche. I had a site with a “one-level-townhome” finder, that was very effective, and I will probably resurrect it on my new site. The volutary form will give you better quality leads, and you can provide a quality response. Also, I require a phone number, which runs contrary to the opinion of “experts.” A phone number is a far more useful tool for closing for an appointment than an email adress.
For those of you who are skeptical, I would recommend trying it for a while on your own site and see what happens.
Actually, what worked best for us at helpusell.com was a hybird approach. We allowed visitors to view 8 details pages and on the 9th it asked them to register to see more. Of course they could clear their cookies and come back… but most are not this savvy
The trend is toward the hybrid approach; limiting the information accessible after a certain number of detailed property views. However I have clients that are very succesful with pre-registration but they are the 1%.
I had a conversation with Andrew Coleman about this subject yesterday at Inman. Our belief is that we probably do lose some consumer capture opportunities, but so what?? Provide the customer a solid experience and they will come back. Also, our agent productivity would plummet if we had them chasing after people how fill out forms.
We prefer to get the customer data when they are ready to look at a certain home. Its a win for the consumers and a win for our company as nobody wants to chase after buyers online when they are 6 months from making a purchase anyway.
I delivered research on this at the 2006 NAR convention in San Francisco.
Not to bore you with the stats, but we studied 70,000 agent and broker websites then surveyed consumers.
Consumers register to agent and broker websites when the site solves a problem for them, or helps in property search.
Hence, leave property search open from registration, but provide consumers with tools that make shopping for a home easier.
Save your search requires registration, but helps the consumer by eliminating the need to fill out the stupid form again
Listings by e-mail requires registration, but saves time for the consumer by delivering them the information they want as it becomes available.
Save listing to favorites requires registration, but allows the consumer to save the homes they like and forget about the ones they don’t like – also makes is easier for them to share with their spouse or co-buyer.
Make sense?
We run both. What I mean is, our pages that we SEO we run an open IDX and the pages we use for SEM we run form pages. When the consumer is ready to ask a question the buttons are in place for them to do it. For our SEM efforts we run an IDX that requires forms to be filled out. We ran multiple tests for the past 24 months and leads actually go down with an open IDX for SEM marketing.
In our experience the SEM efforts bring more stage 1 buyers (stage 1 buyers are at the beginning stages of “Just Looking”). We have tools/systems in place to help the consumer for that 6 month buying process they go through. We teach the agents how to work with that consumer that is “just looking”. Think about it, every consumer is a stage 1 buyer before they turn to a stage 2 buyer and if agents can stay with them there will be no more stage 2 buyers. (deep thought) (Stage 2 buyers are asking questions about a property, – IE they request a showing, more information and so on – we call that buyer a stage 2) Our goal is to help our agents understand how to better help the stage 1 buyer, in doing so, the REALTOR will be able to stay with the consumer until the stage 2 buying stage. It really is a great service to the consumer, right at the start they have a REALTOR they like, trust and can work with throughout the process. There is an art to helping this stage 1 buyer; it is not the same as the stage 2 AT ALL.
We are focused on the best experience for the consumer. Part of our program is “not about commission” it is about the person/consumer that filled out the form. We talk to our agents about the importance of HELPING the person that fills out the form and not focus on commission. Really the secret for staying with a stage 1 buyer is stay focused on what they need, not what you need! It is that easy.