Don't Buy Carrot Investor Websites

Investor · Get yourself trained before doing something inadvisable. · Member since 2024 · 3k+ posts · 1k+ votes

I've had a Carrot Investor website for over 2.5 years. Back when I got it, organic search was supposed to be the 'magic bullet' in real estate motivated Seller lead generation. I didn't purchase Carrot for that, but its clear that's what it was designed, marketed and sold to address. While Carrot does some things well: 1. provide multi page platform for custom landing pages; 2 lead capture; 3. analytics, it is WOEFULLY inadequate as a platform to parse and tag leads and send them to outside tools for follow up calling. Let me explain. From the Lead Manager Page in Carrot you CAN clearly delineate your active, follow up and dead leads...but here's the HUGE problem...YOU CAN'T FILTER LEADS AND EXPORT ONLY A PORTION OF YOUR LEADS from the Lead Manager or from the Content-Forms pathway (a real clunky and non intuitive approach in and of itself)...you only have choice to export ALL of them..that is you can't just export active leads..a huge problem that SHOULD have been addressed years ago but hasn't . Big design problem..WHY WOULD I WANT TO CALL DEAD LEADS??? Answer I dont. So there's the first HUGE design problem.

There's no connectivity possibility with Carrot either..meaning there's no mechanism to communicate with your leads from Carrot...again a HUGE problem that makes this product painfully inadequate compared to other available tools.

A few months ago Carrot came up with their native CRM. It's AWFUL. Not intuitive, user interface (the way you interact and move around in the software) may be the worst I've ever seen in software...seriously bad. This 'so called CRM is supposed to allow you to parse and export selected leads...in my case it did not. I could not isolate the 83 or so active leads I wanted to export even in this CRM. I reported this to customer support and the rep had NO IDEA how to fix the problem...

In my case, my landing pages are converting at a crazy high percentage (due to my ad targeting and the way I designed my capture pages..not necessarily from anything Carrot is or does). It would be crazy for me to move these pages now and disrupt my funnel and have to get all my new pages re optimized (although I had a tech ready to do just that and I still may...

So if you're looking for a lead capture website, there are MUCH better alternatives available, one of the best being Go High Level which allows you to tag leads, export tagged leads to other tools, call, text, send follow up emails all from the Go High Level platform...and the basic plan is $99...way cheaper than Carrot with tons more capability (its a beast and has a learning curve, but GHL has equally robust live customer support to help you through that initial 'cuss filled' learning phase.

It's not even debatable...Carrot has outlived its day...don't waste your time or your money.

I don't use Carrot so I don't have a rabbit in this race.

What you may not be aware of, is that the multiples of the numbers of sites hosted by Carrot is far better than having your own single site like I have. Quantity like Carrot attracts hits. Visits to my site consist of occasional contact out of the People's Republic of China, no doubt after my mind blowing scientific or economic advances.

It's work to get people to your site, no matter how you run it.

Mine is for the occasional accredited investor that wants the inside scoop on how to buy properties using creative financing. Nothing more. I have to give them the URL. The site is out there for the world to see, but the world doesn't want what I'm selling. ;--) (Investors do, but that's another story)

I would assume that having a Carrot Site is a starting point. The rest is work, just like any 0ther investing.

2 Reply

Carlos ZamoraPro Member

Miami, FL · Member since 2022 · 25 posts · 10 votes

1y

Hey @Kevin Pritchett,

I'd love the opportunity to chat with you- I'm with Carrot and come from InvestorFuse, the CRM Carrot acquired.

Inside the CRM you can do all you're asking for and more, so not sure where the confusion is from our support team. We have companies of all sizes on the platform and really enjoying it.

Reaching out directly to make sure you're getting the most of the CRM and get some further feedback from you.

0 Reply

James McGovern
Flipper/Rehabber · Bloomfield CT · Member since 2020 · 1k+ posts · 409 votes
1y
@Carlos Zamora how much does a carrot site cost all in?
0 Reply
Carlos ZamoraPro Member
Miami, FL · Member since 2022 · 25 posts · 10 votes
1y
Quote from @Carlos Zamora:

Hey @Kevin Pritchett,
I'd love the opportunity to chat with you- I'm with Carrot and come from InvestorFuse, the CRM Carrot acquired.
Inside the CRM you can do all you're asking for and more, so not sure where the confusion is from our support team. We have companies of all sizes on the platform and really enjoying it.
Reaching out directly to make sure you're getting the most of the CRM and get some further feedback from you.

To expand on my response a bit more from yesterday, I hear you on the lead manager concerns. That was meant for very basic lead management, which is why we have since added the CRM (InvestorFuse Technology for 9+ years). I would love to hop on a call so we can help you easily get all of your Carrot leads into the CRM and get them talking to each other easily. That way you can custom export leads… We can also get your follow up sequences set up in Carrot CRM - we have some default ones in there, and you can add in whatever texts, emails, ringless voicemails, and mail pieces that you'd like.
- Ah I'm sorry it didn’t feel super intuitive- I'm curious if you were able to meet with our onboarding team to get a walk through of the CRM. We JUST rolled out a major UI update, I would love to show you around and walk you through the action based system, to make sure you’re getting the best use out of it, whether you’re on a free or paid plan.
- On the web side of things- GHL is fine if you just need a simple site to say you exist — like a digital business card. But once you’re spending real money on marketing like FB traffic, your site has to do more than just look decent. It needs to actually convert at a high rate. That means things like: does it load quickly on mobile? Are the calls to action obvious & the right verbiage? Does it build trust when someone lands there cold? A lot of GHL sites aren’t built with those things in mind — they’re more focused on automation or backend tools than front-end performance. If you’re investing in traffic — even just time and energy — I’d want to make sure the site isn’t accidentally leaking leads because of bad UI, clunkliness, page load speed, lack of credibility elements, etc. That’s why we focus so much on conversion & performance. And yeah, SEO structure is better too — but even if you’re not doing SEO, just having something built to convert traffic makes a big difference over time, as it sounds like you’ve seen!
0 Reply
Carlos ZamoraPro Member
Miami, FL · Member since 2022 · 25 posts · 10 votes
1y
Quote from @James McGovern:

@Carlos Zamora how much does a carrot site cost all in?
Hey James!
Was out of office a bit hosting some family, always happy to jump on the phone or a google meet with you to hear what you have going on in your business :)
There's 2 elements for pricing on Carrot:
1. Would be the monthly/annual subscription to the site. Our current pricing starts as low as $89/mo for a base site, and goes up to $176/mo with all the bells and whistles for SEO.
2. Would be the setup services. You can either DIY your sit setup, or have our team do the initial site build out for you. Currently we have 3 options for site setup at one-time costs of $275, $1,200, or $3,300 depending on the level of personalization and SEO strategy you are looking for.
So you'd be looking at a monthly sub currently at $89-$176/mo + optional 1 time setup of $275, $1,200, or $3,300
Let me know and would be happy to chat with you
0 Reply

Kevin Pritchett

OP

Member since 2019 · 4 posts · 4 votes

1y

Carlos...I sent multiple support tickets to Carrot with VERY SPECIFIC notation of what I needed...if nothing else, I AM certainly a clear communicator. When I followed the 'instructions' from customer support, it showed a random number as the number of active leads....in other words, what the crm SAID was active leads had absolutely no correlation to the actual active leads clearly showing in the Carrot Lead manager. My speculation about why that happened was that the new CRM just picked up where it started and maybe didn't /wasn't able to totally incorporate data from inception of sites like mine that has been active years before the CRM took effect...I don't know..I'm just speculating...but in any event, it wasn't accurate when I searched for active leads (and the CRM didn't call them 'Active' like the Carrot Lead Manager..it called them opportunities or something else..again..another example of a company cobbling together disparate systems, not making them coherent, or consistent..just wanting to throw something together to get it to market...in Carrot's case, to try to compete with the MUCH more capable CRM options currently in the real estate space.

I am NOT in the tech support conversation all damn day business...I am in the lead conversion business. I solved my problem and have moved on. The user interfaces on ALL these real estate softwares are dreadful...quickly thrown together, non intuitive and bloated...designed to sell features and make sales to a hungry, burgeoning real estate investor marketplace...'sell tools to miners'. The ONlY real estate software that has sufficient support to match the heft of the software is GoHighLevel. That software is an absolute BEAST...has every conceivable feature (and some most of us have never conceived of) AND live human being support to help with the steep learning curve. The user interface on GHL is logical and consistent (unlike the UI on Carrot and Batchleads and Batchdialer and Investorlift...all of which I use) and once you wrap your head around the difference between Agency and Sub Account in GHL, the UI logic flows pretty well. All that to say, Carrot CRM does not work for me.

Carrot does what it does...as I said, a multipage website builder..it does exceptionally well. If you want to optimize for Organic, it probably does that as well as any competitor. But its functionality as a sophisticated platform for tagging, triggering responses, interacting with leads via SMS, direct calling and linking with other platforms...Carrot, even with the 'new CRM' falls short...well short.

1 Reply

Carlos ZamoraPro Member
Miami, FL · Member since 2022 · 25 posts · 10 votes
1y
Quote from @Kevin Pritchett:

Carlos...I sent multiple support tickets to Carrot with VERY SPECIFIC notation of what I needed...if nothing else, I AM certainly a clear communicator. When I followed the 'instructions' from customer support, it showed a random number as the number of active leads....in other words, what the crm SAID was active leads had absolutely no correlation to the actual active leads clearly showing in the Carrot Lead manager. My speculation about why that happened was that the new CRM just picked up where it started and maybe didn't /wasn't able to totally incorporate data from inception of sites like mine that has been active years before the CRM took effect...I don't know..I'm just speculating...but in any event, it wasn't accurate when I searched for active leads (and the CRM didn't call them 'Active' like the Carrot Lead Manager..it called them opportunities or something else..again..another example of a company cobbling together disparate systems, not making them coherent, or consistent..just wanting to throw something together to get it to market...in Carrot's case, to try to compete with the MUCH more capable CRM options currently in the real estate space.

I am NOT in the tech support conversation all damn day business...I am in the lead conversion business. I solved my problem and have moved on. The user interfaces on ALL these real estate softwares are dreadful...quickly thrown together, non intuitive and bloated...designed to sell features and make sales to a hungry, burgeoning real estate investor marketplace...'sell tools to miners'. The ONlY real estate software that has sufficient support to match the heft of the software is GoHighLevel. That software is an absolute BEAST...has every conceivable feature (and some most of us have never conceived of) AND live human being support to help with the steep learning curve. The user interface on GHL is logical and consistent (unlike the UI on Carrot and Batchleads and Batchdialer and Investorlift...all of which I use) and once you wrap your head around the difference between Agency and Sub Account in GHL, the UI logic flows pretty well. All that to say, Carrot CRM does not work for me.

Carrot does what it does...as I said, a multipage website builder..it does exceptionally well. If you want to optimize for Organic, it probably does that as well as any competitor. But its functionality as a sophisticated platform for tagging, triggering responses, interacting with leads via SMS, direct calling and linking with other platforms...Carrot, even with the 'new CRM' falls short...well short.

I'm bummed the experience was not great for you and totally get it you have moved on.
Agree, we want you guys talking to and converting leads, not chatting with our team all day.
I appreciate your feedback and sharing with the community here. We are diligently working on CRM with updates and upgrades coming out.
Appreciate you!
0 Reply

Don't Buy Carrot Investor Websites

Don't Buy Carrot Investor Websites

Most Popular Reply

7 Replies