ReviewMe: agentBOOST Can Save Real Estate Buyer’s & Seller’s Commissions
Author: Joshua Dorkin • URL: http://www.biggerpockets.com/May 10th, 2007 •
The agentBOOST website concentrates on connecting buyers and sellers of real estate to agents in their area. The agentBOOST homepage claims that it is “a better way to find a real estate agent.” According to the site, there are three steps to finding an agent:
- Our users tell us about the properties they are planning to buy or sell.
- Agents have five days to bid on the opportunity to help with the transaction.
- Users are free to interview and hire any of the agents who placed a bid.
By using their service, this startup company claims that buyers and sellers will save money and real estate agents will increase their sales. The Registration is quick and easy. A password is sent to the user’s email immediately after filling out the form. Once you have a username and password, a client is able to add a property to their profile to buy or sell. There are several fields for the user to complete including property type, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, minimum price, maximum price, preapproved, and under contract.
The site claims that users will typically get bids from real estate agents that are below the “standard” 3% charged by full-service companies. I am excited by this premise, as I am a huge fan of reducing agent commissions! Does an agent who sells the average priced home in Los Angeles of $565,000 really deserve over $16,000 for their efforts? NOT A CHANCE! If agentBOOST is successful in reaching mass saturation and bidding for commissions becomes a thing of the future, I think the consumer will be more then better off! I’m sure this is not something that established agents would like to see succeed, but I think it may also give new agents the opportunity to compete in some markets. I wish there was a service like this when I was starting out as an agent (back in the day).
As I don’t have any property for sale, nor am I seeking a property to purchase, I cannot vouch for the site’s success in linking buyers and sellers up with agents, but there are other features to discuss . . . Design-wise, the site is very clean and uncluttered. It is visually appealing and there are no ads that I could find. As I mentioned earlier, I think the site is focused on the average home buyer or seller and newer real estate agents or those less motivated by overpriced commissions.
I certainly think that this is a site worth watching and hope it, can help bring real estate agent commissions back to planet earth.
If you’re selling your home, check out agentBOOST for sure!
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Joshua Dorkin
Charles Feldman
Ted Karsch.
Troy Schuricht
Richard Warren
Jim Watkins
Its funny that you should mention Los Angeles, I live there and you are right on. Since the average price of houses is so expensive the take for an agent is ridiculous. Btw, a $350,000 in LA will get you a fixer-upper.
There is a fundamental flaw to all of these “lead generation” and “real estate agent referral”services …. nobody really wants or needs them.
Why would I trust a realtor who pays to buy leads? Buying a lead has absolutely no relationship to the quality of the Realtor’s service or expertise.
The best referral you can get from any service company is a referral from someone you know and trust who has previously used the service (or knows someone who has previously used the service). Everything else is just hit and miss, driven by the agent who bids the lowest or figures out how to work the lead generation system.
Agent Boost is beating a dead horse. Homegain and RealEstate.com (and subsidiary Lending Tree) had to dramatically change their business model because the leads started to dry up. Homeowners wised up and stopped using the service because it was inconsistent, ineffective and basically just opened them up to being bombarded by solicitations from agents. Real estate agents wised up and stopped paying for the service because they were wasting time chasing unqualified, non-exclusive leads.
And while all this was happening hundreds of wannabe lead generators entered the marketplace.
So here’s my prediction …..
Agent Boost will start out with good intentions but soon learn that Realtors are a tough sell…. this will put pressure on their bottom line because they won’t meet sales forecasts…soon they will start to accept unqualified realtors and oversell the same lead to multiple Realtors…. soon thereafter homeowners and realtors will flee from Agent Boost.
Other than that, I really liked the simple easy layout of their web site. I wish them luck.
anything that tries to take out the middle man and make things cheaper is good as far as I am concerned. Yes, there are a few exceptions but this isnt one of them.
Ross and Dave,
I appreciate you taking the time to visit our site and share you thoughts on our service. I would like to address some of your concerns.
First, I completely agree with your assessment of the current state of the lead generation business. Most services sell the leads they acquire to multiple agents, which creates an environment where the agents aren’t happy (because they are paying for worthless leads) and the users aren’t happy (because they are inundated with phone calls from real estate agents).
agentBOOST attempts to solve these issues. For one, we don’t sell leads. We sell the opportunity for agents to advertise their service to people who are looking for an agent in their area. Secondly, we let the clients contact the agents they wish to interview; we never sell the client’s personal information. In fact, we never even ask for it!
We know that agentBOOST isn’t for everybody. If you’re an established agent who is receiving referrals then there is no reason for you to use our service unless you want to significantly increase your exposure. However, for agents just starting out with a limited budget we believe agentBOOST is the most cost-effective way to kick start your career.
Chris,
Agents are an extremely tough sell. You will need to overcome a huge sales hump every time you sign up a new agent. You are going to burn through some serious cash establishing your business. RealEstate.com gave up on it, opened up a brokerage and converted to working their own leads.
I love the simplicity of your site. I’m not sure what the blog protocol is about posting contact details but please email me. I could use your development expertise.
Great discussion, guys. Agents are indeed a tough sell, however if a service has the potential to help their business, why not look into it? Would you rather have more business at a lower, competitive commission rate, or the status quo?
Ross - You’re predicting the downfall of this site, yet soliciting them for help on yours? Seems somewhat strange, no? Do you have any advice that can perhaps help them overcome the potential “cash burn” that you’re talking about?
good one!
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I agree with dave this is a great idea to take out the middle man, or the “appearance” of one anyway!