Real Estate in Kansas City North

I feel these lead companies exploit REALTORs. and all they do is intercept traffic that would rightfully go to a local REALTOR.  Because they pay for key words for every state city and town in the country they get the traffic and trick the consumer into giving contact information without the consumers knowledge they are selling their contact information to REALTORS. I tried several of them about 2 years ago. Most of the leads were Bogus. One lead was the daughter of a top Agent in my market and her mothers listings matched her criteria. When I called the number and asked for the daughter I recognized the mothers voice.  The mother said i told her to look on the internet but I'm her agent.  I told her I paid $50 for the lead and I was really embarrassed. If you go to many of these sites they pretend that they have listings or information but first you have to give contact info, most of the people have no idea their names are being sold. Many are taken a back when you call them. So I decided to beat them at their own game with my own website. I copied some of the forms from their sites and added 20 pages of local content to my website and I have been getting much better leads on my own. It's like they already know me because they were on my site and I'm a real agent with a real office and real phone number and I can actually show them properties or sell their property.  If you have content about your market google and the search engines will find you and so will buyers and sellers. These lead companies have alot of money and they got to the internet before most REALTORS. They are just technology DotComs and can not sell real estate, we can and do.

I never have bought leads.  My team gets leads all the time.  Open houses are the best source of leads.  I guess I buy the leads with my time.  Time spent standing at Opens.  We have sold and listed other properties based on leads received from Open houses.