http://www.essaytown.com
http://www.essaytown.com

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?

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.

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.

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.