It's been a long time since online lead generation companies provided free seminar-style training for their future customers and existing subscribers. Free seminars are profit drains, and training is the first weight to be thrown overboard when a company is in trouble, but HouseValues, an online lead generation company out of Washington, believes training is crucial to making their services better understood and better utilized by their Realtor customers.

During one recent seminar in Dallas, some Realtors complained to the moderator that many of the leads they got weren't "real." They weren't ready to buy or sell right now, and what were the Realtors supposed to do with people like that?

The questions were answered when a subscriber was asked by the moderator to share how she uses HouseValues in her business. She astounded the crowd away with this response: "Work the system, not the leads."

Donna Richey is a 29-year-old, five-year real estate veteran who has struggled like many other Realtors to get more business on and off-line. She says she's a multi-tasker, but building contacts takes time. It makes a lot of financial and time management sense to let HouseValues provide a portion of lead generation opportunities for her.

"First of all, it's not a quick fix," Richey told the crowd. "It's going to take four to six months to see results. This is a different clientele that what you get from magazines and newspapers. They are tech-savvy and they are doing their research early, and that's when you want to capture them with the information they want, when they want it."

The Gen-Xer says she empathizes with consumers. "I hate to be called," said Richey. "That's what makes the Internet so ideal as a communication tool. These consumers want to be in control, and e-mail allows me to stay in touch and provide services of value without making the consumer feel pressured."

The reason Richey is happy to share her strategies for success with strangers is that HouseValues guarantees a minimum of leads. "So it's not like anyone would be taking leads away from me," Richey says.

The HouseValues system, she says, is already laid out for success -- all you have to do is follow the steps. Work the system and the system works the leads for you. Don't get frustrated that consumers don't act when you think they should, because they will act eventually.

This is farming for down the road. Let your newspaper leads be the immediate buyers and sellers, but what are you going to do for business six months from now? That's where online lead generation companies like HouseValues are re-educating Realtors -- to think about what they are going to be doing not next week, but next quarter.

HouseValues collects leads from buyers who are interested in finding a home or viewing homes through its portal JustListed. Sellers are found on HouseValues as they try to find out what their homes are worth, so agents like Richey who want to capture both buyers and sellers get two subscriptions.

Contacts are a series of periodic emails which include a mini-CMA that should take no longer than five minutes to prepare. To get an appointment with the seller, which is the goal, the seller is told that to give a more complete picture, the agent will have to come to the home. Follow-up emails are sent along with invitations to put the consumer on the newsletter campaign. There's also a new service called E-MLS, a broker-authorized listings delivery tool that allows consumers to scan listings, and keep the lead on the agent's site. E-MLS automatically sends the agents' leads new listing alerts and other contacts about three times a month.

It's a numbers game, with about one in 25 leads actually coming to the table to talk turkey. Richey says too many Realtors are discouraged by insincere leads -- competing Realtors lurking to see how the system works or FSBOs who want free information to price their homes, but she says each of those have "raised their hand." The Realtor wants to know how and if HouseValues works and the FSBO is letting it be known they want to sell their home. It's all in the attitude -- you can turn those Realtors into networking buddies and the FSBO sellers into clients, or you can complain and whine that the system doesn't work.

Richey doesn't put up with whining, she says, if agents simply follow the system, they will get legitimate leads they can close. It's up to you to turn the leads into relationships. HouseValues can't do that for you.

What HouseValues does is invite consumers in for information -- either listings or house values. Leads are qualified through their emails, phone numbers, and addresses. If one of three contact points is true, the lead is forwarded to the agent. For example, a lead may be named MickeyMouse@somesite.com, but there's a real person behind the alias, so treat that person seriously, and they'll come forward when they are comfortable.

Says Richey, "Don't get discouraged if you don't get a response. Assume they are getting your emails. When they're ready for more, they'll let you know."

For the month of July, Richey reports that she had seven closings at $1,654,820 in sales volume. "This was a major record month for me," says Richey. "I made more income in this one month then I would make in an entire year at my corporate world job. My previous highest volume month was $797,400 with 5 closings June 2004."

Out of the 7 closings this month, over $884K in sales volume was attributable to HouseValues' leads, or three out of the seven sales. "It's a major difference in sales volume from Housevalues," she says.

Published: August 1, 2005

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.