HouseValues Don't use them--you will regret it. Ripoff Kirkland Washington
I was given the hard sell just as everyone else. They apparently have a way of tracking when you open an e-mail from them, because as soon as they sent me the contract and I opened it, the phone rang and it was the agent who was signing me up. She said she saw that I had received the agreement so we should go ahead and finalize everything. I didn't have a chance to read everything word for word in the agreement. The agent spelled out the "highlights" of the contract and kept pushing to finish. I went ahead and finalized everything without reading the whole contract and "sleeping on it" (a mistake I'll never make again). As a new agent, I was excited about the idea of getting leads and helping out potential sellers, and ultimately doing business.
Then reality set in.
The leads were sometimes fake. Most of the time, though, they were people who didn't want to sell, but who just wanted to know how much their home was worth or they were already working with an agent. Many would immediately tell you to not contact them.
After several months, my credit card was maxed out from the monthly fee, and I had nothing to show for it. I had to quit real estate to get a "real job" and try to pay off the debt from HouseValues. I contacted them to explain my situation, with hopes of getting some sympathy, and to try to get released from the contract. I received an e-mail that thanked my for my time with them, and that my account had been closed.
I received a letter from a collection agency shortly after. After my request to terminate, I was never sent a bill for the termination fee. They never made any attempt to collect on their own. It just went directly to collections. I would have paid the termination fee if given the chance. Now I have a ding on my credit because they never gave me a chance to pay it before sending the account to collections.
I also learned that my 12 month contract was actually 13 months. The contract says that the term is 12 months PLUS the prorated month in which you start. I started my agreement on the 5th of the month, prorating payment for 25 days. As a result, instead of the termination fee for 3 months I thought I had left on the agreement, I owe them for 4 months. (The termination fee is half of the monthly fee for every month left on the agreement.)
I just read that they closed the call center in Yakima and 100 of "them" are out of a job. I hope they all go into collections on their bills. I hope the Kirkland office closes next.
Deirdra
OC, California
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
D
OC,California,
U.S.A.
HouseValues--I just wanted to add a little more info
#2Author of original report
Mon, February 25, 2008
I just wanted to add, I never contacted HouseValues seeking to do business with them. I was working the "updesk" at the office, when a HouseValues rep called the office and asked for another agent, the name of no one who worked in the office. (After looking into it, no one by that name had ever worked for the office, so it makes me wonder if this wasn't an excuse to call, knowing that anyone on the updesk was there because they are trying to generate leads.) When asked if I was interested in the program, I said maybe. I was called and e-mailed for the next few days and repeatedly told that another agent was also thinking of taking the leads for the area in which I worked, so I needed to make a decision quickly.
Clearly, they had no one else who wanted the leads, or they wouldn't have had to call me with the hard sell, but I was naive. If they had agents calmoring for leads from HouseValues, they would allow people out of their contracts so that the leads could be given to someone who wanted them.
I kick myself everytime I think about how easily I let myself get sucked into the scam. I like to believe that people have good intentions when they go out into the world, and at the time this call came in I wasn't a jaded skeptical person. However, this experience has made it very clear that there are people who don't have the most ethical way of doing business and aren't beyond stretching the truth to make a buck.
People going to HouseValues do not want an agent. They want the value of their home. That's what the ads offer to home owners, so who can blame them for giving fake contact info.