Critique my idea - Local real estate squeeze page

CygnusX

CygnusX

New member
Mar 4, 2007
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Belgium
I hope I can have a few minutes of your time to critique my idea. Rip it to pieces if you think it sucks.

First, a little background...
When Googling for "house cityname" or "apartment cityname" for my city, there aren't many Adwords ads. The same goes for the neighboring cities. Also, the organic results are mainly Craigslist-like sites aimed at real estate. They require a "per item" listing fee of 5 to 15$ per week.

What I was thinking of is a site that's mainly a squeeze page where the user enters his information, his budget, his type of housing, renting/buying, .... On the other side, there will be a back-end where real estate agents can bid on these leads. When a visitor submits the form, it's automatically sent to the highest bidder.

Technically this shouldn't be a problem. I can have it ready in a few days. As for traffic, I want to rely (at least in the beginning) purely on paid traffic from Google and Bing. There are around 5k searches per month for my city and neighboring cities (combined) and hardly any Adwords competition. If this works well for those few cities, I can extend it a lot further.

What do you think?
Has anyone done anything similar?
Say an Adwords click costs $0.25, how much would you ask for a lead?
 
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Random opinion here...

When I look for an apartment, I don't really want to fill out a form and have to wait for a real estate agent to contact me - I want to see some listings asap.

Why not start off your plan like you said, but when they fill out the form, send them to some actual real estate results. Send them to a page of "featured listings" that match the specs the user put in (of course, you would sell these listing spaces to real estate agents) and then sell the lead itself to a real estate agent so they can "follow up..."

Get paid x2

Write up a quick "city guide" that the prospect can download and read about specific areas in the city to live in (Basic info like average rent, safety, nearby "stuff", maybe a picture or two)

Of course, you could get a real estate agent to sponsor this as well, or sell featured listings in this "report"...

Get paid x3

I think the concept needs a little more development...

Why am I still just a writer...
 
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FrugalCopywrite said:
Random opinion here...

When I look for an apartment, I don't really want to fill out a form and have to wait for a real estate agent to contact me - I want to see some listings asap.

Why not start off your plan like you said, but when they fill out the form, send them to some actual real estate results. Send them to a page of "featured listings" that match the specs the user put in (of course, you would sell these listing spaces to real estate agents) and then sell the lead itself to a real estate agent so they can "follow up..."

Get paid x2

Write up a quick "city guide" that the prospect can download and read about specific areas in the city to live in (Basic info like average rent, safety, nearby "stuff", maybe a picture or two)

Of course, you could get a real estate agent to sponsor this as well, or sell featured listings in this "report"...

Get paid x3

I think the concept needs a little more development...

Why am I still just a writer...
Click to expand...

Some good ideas there, thanks! +rep for you
In my city, the real estate sites usually list the real estate that isn't that interesting. The good ones are usually gone fast, as each real estate agent has a list of leads available already. People interested in buying something usually end of going to the agents, filling in a form and being contacted directly when new places are available. This idea would make it a lot simpler for the buyers.

danke said:
check your rep ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks :) Good luck with it! Feedback is always welcome.
 
How do you propose sending them? If you send all the information the real estate brokers will say the leads are garbage. You'll get a bunch of scam brokers stealing the leads and selling them on.

I did a ton of this in the home improvement space, the auto trade, you are dealing with another group not known for their business ethics.

I'd also question the lack of advertisers. With local search results you get very different landscape than you do with more generic. Google doesn't like brokers, they prefer to list local businesses and there was a fairly significant shake up in the citation and results where they intend to favor reviews from Google users rather than say Yelp or Yellow Pages.

There is definitely a ton of money to be had from local businesses, I'm just not convinced this is the way to do it.
 
CygnusX said:
Some good ideas there, thanks! +rep for you
In my city, the real estate sites usually list the real estate that isn't that interesting. The good ones are usually gone fast, as each real estate agent has a list of leads available already. People interested in buying something usually end of going to the agents, filling in a form and being contacted directly when new places are available. This idea would make it a lot simpler for the buyers.



Thanks :) Good luck with it! Feedback is always welcome.
Click to expand...

I have the technology to implement it right now.

Give PM me your AIM and I'll gladly share with you. Partners are always welcome.
 
I'm starting to wonder if every time a WFer goes house hunting they have this idea too, last week I started a thread asking about idx data after having the same idea, but I was planning on a slightly different implementation.
 
jimbanks said:
How do you propose sending them? If you send all the information the real estate brokers will say the leads are garbage. You'll get a bunch of scam brokers stealing the leads and selling them on.

I did a ton of this in the home improvement space, the auto trade, you are dealing with another group not known for their business ethics.

I'd also question the lack of advertisers. With local search results you get very different landscape than you do with more generic. Google doesn't like brokers, they prefer to list local businesses and there was a fairly significant shake up in the citation and results where they intend to favor reviews from Google users rather than say Yelp or Yellow Pages.

There is definitely a ton of money to be had from local businesses, I'm just not convinced this is the way to do it.
Click to expand...

We verify our leads through a system that does lead scoring for accuracy, the second problem you said you encountered had to deal with your chargeback and return policy. LendingTree for example doesn't allow returns if the info is real. Period.
 
How do you alert the lead buyers and then auction the lead to the highest bidder? Im working on something similar in a totally different market.
 
mediastar100 said:
How do you alert the lead buyers and then auction the lead to the highest bidder? Im working on something similar in a totally different market.
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure about that part yet. I'm thinking of showing the highest bid (just the numbers). Then they'll be able to see how much they need to bid to get it for sure. The buyer should then commit to buying the lead when it comes, at the price they've entered. They can also specify a monthly budget. If the budget is reached, it goes to #2.

I don't live in the US, so I don't think the class 6 felony note is a problem for me. I'm having a talk with a real estate agent tomorrow, so I'll soon know more.
 
mgtarheels said:
Yes, I think you misread.

The quote says anyone, who is not licensed, receiving money for selling referrals can be tried for a class 6 felony.
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand what you're talking about... Err, actually I'm sure of it.

Receiving a commission for the sale or rental of a property (which is a RESPA violation) isn't the same thing as selling the information of a person who is interested in purchasing a home in the area.

Just like selling a mortgage lead isn't the same as getting paid for the closing of a mortgage loan.

But, I'm sure you'd be better off just telling every company in the space this: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=real+estate+leads
 
danke said:
I don't think you understand what you're talking about... Err, actually I'm sure of it.

Receiving a commission for the sale or rental of a property (which is a RESPA violation) isn't the same thing as selling the information of a person who is interested in purchasing a home in the area.

Just like selling a mortgage lead isn't the same as getting paid for the closing of a mortgage loan.

But, I'm sure you'd be better off just telling every company in the space this: real estate leads - Google Search
Click to expand...

Actually, in many states it is.

Texas, as well as Florida, for example, are two.

It's illegal to trade referral information in Texas, period, if you're not licensed.

Oh, look. A thread on WaFo about this topic.

My Favorite Offline Business. 10 leads/mo=$5,000! - Page 2

You going to tell me and everyone else that either has direct experience working in the industry or those that called their local boards that we're all wrong, along with the information the board has given us?
 
If you are not an agent, you cannot be paid a commission, referral fee etc..

But, tons of companies sell leads to Realtors.
Getting paid for leads is fine.
Agents get bombarded all the time with these offers.

Getting the leads is not terribly complicated..

Now go find a Realtor that will PAY you consistently for them.

That's a whole nother story.

Even when your leads convert you would expect them to come back and buy more...
Just not that easy for some reason.

You can make good money doing this, but it is not a set it up and forget it type thing.
You or somebody will spend a lot of time getting these things sold.

I know what I speak of...
 
Same in CA, apparently. Can't even collect the contact information according to one who called their local board.
 
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