Baron Briefs

I’ve been slowly evolving RealtyBaron’s lead trading platform since its launch in 2004. In that time, I’ve learned quite a bit from users (don’t we all). For example, I initially modeled lead auctions after eBay auctions–3, 5, 7, and 10 days in length. However, agents complained consumers didn’t respond to emails after a lead auction completed.

After some good ol’ fashioned research ‘n analysis, I concluded a lead becomes quite “cold” after 24 hours…a fact that’s prolly well known by other lead services on the Web. So, I made some changes recently to counter this effect:

1. Instead of giving a choice of 3, 5, 7, or 10 days, I now give no choice and impose a 24-hour time limit on all lead auctions.
2. I added the concept of a “stop bid” which can be used by consumers to immediately stop the auction if a certain bid amount is received from a Realtor®. Not only does this prevent bidding from reaching absurd lows, but it can significantly shorten a lead auction. I now see some lead auctions end within hours of starting.

The first wave of feedback is just now being received after making these changes:

Not bad, eh?

Sometimes we receive email from brokers and agents who make it clear they are not fans. This beauty just arrived in my inbox from “Jim”:

Is there a service I can use to pick out a brain surgeon or a great attorney or a day care provider so I can bid and not be conceerned[sic] with their quality or their true experiance[sic] or past bad service.I thought prostitution was illegal.Great concept!!”

“Jim” not only illustrates his difficulty with the English language, but he totally misses the point of AgentRankâ„¢ whose sole purpose is to represent an agent’s “quality”. If an agent can’t prove he or she has a good track record, they will not see a whole lot of action on RealtyBaron.com. Unfortunately, I can’t help but think there are a 1,000 agents for every “Jim” who leave our little corner of the Web with the same misunderstanding.