LendingTree doesn't just let lenders compete over you, it also has significant forays into the real estate industry where it is trying out several business models, including selling leads directly to agents, the RealEstate.com Broker Network, which offers rebates to customers, and iNest, a subsidiary which offers a rebate and specializes in the new home construction market. Tapping Bret Violette, formerly of Weichert Realtors, as the company's senior vice president and manager of the Western division, a mystery subsidiary is being launched.

"We've been pretty focused on launching and building our brokerage business and we've basically kept our noses to grindstone," says Violette.

What is LendingTree doing with a brokerage? Will it be a "traditional" model or something new? Will it offer a discount or go full service?

One thing's for certain, it has a killer name: Realestate.com .

The first office launched in Portland in April. Seattle, Salt Lake City and Denver followed within the next several months. Today, the brokerage employs about 170 agents across the four markets, and has plans to open in several new markets early next year, says company spokespersons.

The company-owned brokerage operates in addition to the existing broker and agent-facing networks and iNest, giving RealEstate.com one more method to serve real estate professionals and consumers, says Violette. "Our ability, collectively, to reach agents, consumers and broker partners in many different ways has helped the RealEstate.com brand to grow and thrive."

In addition to the main RealEstate.com website, the company owned brokerage has specialized websites for its local brokerage operations. For example, the company's website for its Portland office is RealEstate.com/portland and its Denver-area website is RealEstate.com/co.

The RealEstate.com brokerage is a full service operation, but Violette warns, "Don't confuse us with a traditional brokerage model."

He points to a middle ground between the "traditional" brokerage model -- in which agents take higher commission splits but are expected to generate their own clientele with little support from the broker -- and the newer models like Zip or Foxtons, where agents earn lower splits but get most of their business through company-generated leads.

"We operate in the sweet spot between these two extremes," says Violette. "Our sales people enjoy two income streams -- both company-generated business and their own agent-generated business, and this makes for a pretty compelling opportunity for the right kind of agent.

"Most agents enter the business because they're entrepreneurial and they're looking for a great career with flexibility and autonomy," he continues, "but they end up spending far more time and money prospecting for clients and managing administrative work than they anticipate. Our model addresses both of those challenges in a way that we believe better leverages the agent's time."

A major priority of the RealEstate.com company-owned brokerage is consistent lead generation. Violette says the biggest opportunity in real estate today is figuring out how to get to the online customer first. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 58 percent of consumers who make an online inquiry to a real estate company or agent never get a response. Of the remaining 42 percent who do, it takes nearly two and a half days to get that response. And yet, more than 70 percent of all online real estate consumers say they'll do business with the first agent who responds to them. For Violette, that's a golden opportunity.

"Today, the expense of successfully attracting and capturing those online customers is too high for most individual agents and for many brokers as well. It's just cost-prohibitive, and as it gets more expensive over the next few years, it will become nearly impossible," he says. "That's where the centralized buying power and expertise of a lead generation powerhouse like RealEstate.com or LendingTree becomes a real advantage."

Violette says Internet marketing is the key to finding customers today, and RealEstate.com invests in very sophisticated online advertising campaigns to drive traffic to its listings. When a customer inquires about a listing, either via email or telephone, the company's sophisticated, centralized customer call center takes over, contacting the prospect immediately -- in many cases within 60 seconds -- and then connecting the prospect with a live agent in a "warm transfer."

Violette estimates that most of his agents receive between 5-10 Internet leads per month to supplement their own independent books of business. In fact, the company won't hire new agents unless and until it has the lead flow to support them.

"But getting the lead is only half the battle," says Victor Vaca, the company's vice president for agent development and training. "There's an art to converting that so-called 'Internet customer," and we spend a lot of time and through specialized training to help our agents succeed."

"If you think about doctors, they learn how to perform surgery on cadavers," adds Vaca. "In real estate, most professionals learn how to close deals on live customers. But because we emphasize hiring agents who already have a base level of experience, it means we can focus our professional development on more sophisticated training that helps them really convert and close those warm-transfer customers at much higher levels than is standard in the industry."

The RealEstate.com brokerage also provides centralized team support for closing coordination. Says Violette, "As we see it, most agents divide their daily work into three categories. The first is getting business -- it's all the time and money agents put into marketing and prospecting to get customers in the door. Most agents will tell you this is not their favorite part of the job. The second piece comes when they're actively working with buyers and sellers, and most agents will tell you that's what they really love. The final category is dealing with all the administrative work from contract to closing."

Through its online lead generation capabilities, Violette says the RealEstate.com brokerage model helps to eliminate the agent's need to spend as much time and money on prospecting. Similarly, by providing closing coordination through centralized team support, this means agents have more time to focus on doing what they love, which is helping their clients buy and sell homes.

RealEstate.com agent Tara Perry concurs. "The RealEstate.com model helps me be more efficient," she says. "Not only was I able to close my first lead, but I closed it in the first month. I wasn't looking to change companies, but I can honestly say that RealEstate.com has improved my business from day one."

Says Violette, "At the end of the day, closing transactions is where the agent makes a living. It's about working smart and closing more deals."