Agent Search & (Lack of?) Consumer Adoption
I touched on agent search last week, but wanted to write a short follow up post digging into the topic further.
Zillow has an agent search (Trulia, too), as does Realtor.com.
Homethinking is still around, as is AgentHarvest. Another is Agent Findr.
Homelight recently raised a new round of capital ($11M). I agree with Greg, that money likely was not invested based on on pure speculation.
Does anyone have any data (that you can share) about whether consumers use these agent search tools? What percentage of buyers actually search for agents from a search/directory format?
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Sep Niakan
Posted at 08:42h, 26 MayDrew, I can give you my experience as an agent. I am on homelight and get referrals almost daily. Horrible quality of buyer. I have heard agentace isn’t bad, but I have to be number 1 in my market/price point to get referrals from there. Working on that 😉 I have asked Zillow to give me an option to be at the top of their list (I am pretty high up there already), but they said they don’t get enough views on those agent search pages to merit selling premium space there. I think buyers find agents from listings or referrals for the most part so far….Plus, I think Zillow would lose eyeballs if they pushed people to connect with agents straightaway instead of having them browse and create page hits for months at a time….
Chrisopher White
Posted at 13:27h, 27 MayOne of the best agent search programs that I know of is on AskAvenue. Customers go in, they ask a question, it geo-tags where they are and then pairs them up with a local real estate agent. Real estate agents from all over can sign up and last I checked it was pretty inexpensive too! Check it out!
Drew Meyers
Posted at 13:29h, 27 MayAvenue is not an agent search experience. It’s helping people ask real estate questions, and have agents answer them.
Chrisopher White
Posted at 13:31h, 27 MayYes, but it generates leads, agents gain the trust of customers and then assist them with buying and selling. The opportunities are there.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 13:33h, 27 MayBut that’s very different than consumers searching for an agent. Z, T, Realtor all generate tons of leads too, but I don’t think consumers are really specifically searching for an agent.
Chrisopher White
Posted at 13:35h, 27 MayBut that’s the beauty of AskAvenue, because the customers go there for information about a specific question, whether it be for mortgage help, specific hot spots to buy or sell, or any other inquiry, and they are immediately connected with a live agent. The agent can then answer that question and any other they have, and if there is opportunity, hopefully turn them into a buying or selling customer.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 13:38h, 27 MayThe whole point of this post is to ask whether consumers search for agents. I don’t think (the vast majority) do.
Do you have a vested interest in Avenue?
Chrisopher White
Posted at 13:40h, 27 MayI think the reason why consumers don’t search for agents is because of sites like AskAvenue because they have unlimited access to all the information online. And agents who are still bound in the old way of generating leads are going to be left in the dust. And no, I’m not affiliated with them at all, I’ve used their services before and though I would promote them on my own terms.
Jess Martin
Posted at 06:14h, 09 JuneI think it’s mainly a data problem. If we had perfect data about RE agent performance, I think you’d see more search engines popping up that don’t suck or aren’t _clearly_ lead gen platforms.
As a consumer, I personally try to check out agents, particularly for my friends, to make sure they’re not gonna get burned by a bad agent.
I think we’ve got a long way to go.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 09:20h, 09 JuneI don’t think it’s a data problem at all. There have been several good product attempts at it. It’s an access to data issue, but the data exists.
Jess Martin
Posted at 12:26h, 10 JuneAs a developer, I meant that “access to data” is the problem. 😛
If this data were available from a consistent source for 50+% of agents in the country and developers could access it via API you’d have some _really_ interesting products out there to choose from.
Until then, Homelight needs to raise $11m to solve this for a fraction of markets. 🙁