Complaint Review: Trulia.com - Internet

As A New York  state Real Estate Salesperson (REALTOR, Real estate Agent) I must be honest and fair in all of my dealing, no deception, no lies, no cheating people out of money, My integrity is all I have to go on when dealing with people most expensive finacial investment.

well that and marketing. 

here's the deal I don't get paid till the deal closes.

in oreder to provide the best service for my clients i'm constantly revamping my teams marketing campaigns.

we have a website with excellent seo. we have the local mls and broker reciprocity.

but without buyers and sellers bussiness doesn't go very far.

search for homes for sale anywhere on google and zillow trulia and realtor are bound to pop up.

(realtor.com by the way is not affiliated with  the NAR, but is owned by a private media group)

they make money by selling Leads for potential home buyers and sellers to agents all over the country.

they do this by selling zip codes. now with the excellent SEO that they have and the millions of views they get daily you would think buyers and sellers that are genuinely interested would simply inquire.

& they do within minutes of you signing up.

Here's the problem. The info is for dead numbers or people that have no idea who you are or why your calling.

emails are never returned. If you do talk to someone they generally set up a time to show (mind you my schedule is based on what's best for others) but never show and then the number goes dead.

I even had one buyer inquire on two seperate sites we we're advertising with with different contact info phone name email exct. when I called he reconginzed my voice! We set that we would go see both of the homes he was interested in. seems great, He never showed and again never picks up the phone... line dead, maybe i was blocked tried on 5 differnt lines nada.

so that's the buyers.

now for the sellers. I figure If i'm going to use a seller lead generation service I'd start in my own town (mind you they have a great sales deparment, folks would make good realtors if they didn't make a living preying on us lol) 

So this is hysterical, I do door knocking. I grew up here. I know everyone. if I don't know them they know me.

so Why not look good and be the one that answers the call when they want to sell and ask the internet for answers?

well the same thing as the seller lead bad numbers, wrong numbers, confused people. emails never returned.

well they want to know how much there home is worth, so I do my part with the limited info I have drive by to check the condition on the outside, Pull the numbers compile the report with varience depending on internal factors. print it. bind it. drive out and knock on the door. explain who I am why i'm there. Not even once has someone said oh yeah me and my spouse we're talking about that the other night and had inquired.

It's become a nice ice breaker when they see how concerned I am about the fact that I've been duped yet again. I generally hand off the report and leave with a do call me when you are thinking about moving!

It's one thing when you get bad info on a lead. it happens. But when none of the leads seem to be real. that's when I began to wonder. 

facebook public noted that click farms are a real problem when most of the facebook pay per ad likes we're coming out to be fake accounts.

could these massive online realestate companies be feeding fake leads to paying customers as well?

while a fake like on a facebook page is still a like and could help contribute to brand reconition.

A fake lead does nothing to help a Hard working Real Estate professional. I've wasted my time resources and money on what has seemingly become one goose chase after another.

It has lead me to a positive outcome I warn all other agents of the shenanigans I've gone through here.

and I've recently expanded with 3 new websites custom tailored to seo for niche marketplaces in my area.

hopefully a continued effort on the personal website front will allow me to generate more online leads on my own.