I will freely admit that I was once a “HouseValues Subscriber“. Well, technically that’s not true as a title company was the actual subscriber and they doled out “leads” from HouseValues to agents like me. Let’s re-phrase and say that I once had “The Full HV Experience”.
I got dozens of “leads”. Never earned a dime from any of them. Yes yes yes, I “worked” the leads as HV preaches. I did all the “right things”. I got nada.
I will also freely admit that the HV “MasterMind” forum provided me with a wealth of information, and I met true friends there that I still interact with on a regular basis. I’d trust my children with some of these people, the majority of which I’ve never met face-to-face. (on the other hand, some of you can just stay away from my children! 🙂 )
But HV the company, and HV the product are, in my opinion, slowly (?) spinning down a death spiral. Their stock has been languishing in the low 5’s. They’ve laid off 12% of their employees. There is much rumbling and grumbling from employees and subscribers. The COO recently left to “pursue other interests”.
More telling, in my humble opinion, is the fact that many long term HV subscribers and strong supporters are leaving HouseValues. Yes, this is a fact. No, I will not name names. If one of them wants to comment here to support this fact, that’s up to them. I *know* this to be true. You’ll have to trust me on this.
Also quite telling, is Joel Burslem’s recent blog on a recent interview he conducted with Ian Morris, the CEO at House Values. Joel is, as usual, spot on in his assessments, and his blog post already has some interesting comments from HV observers.
HV has stopped selling “leads” to mortgage lenders. But as recently as last Friday, they were still pushing “HomePages” — which may be the single most dysfunctional real estate related web site I’ve ever encountered. I know this because I could not shake an HV salesperson that insisted that as a former subscriber, “I know how good HouseValues is”. Yeah, whatever.
Mortgage “leads” apparently aren’t the answer. HomePages certainly isn’t the answer. I don’t think selling their Internet “leads” is the answer.
And apparently, the CEO doesn’t either. According to Joel’s interview with Mr. Morris, the CEO of HouseValues actually said, “There’s no such thing as an Internet lead“. Hmmmm…. most curious!
Morris seems to have all but told Joel that HV is re-focusing on MarketLeader, their in-house CMS (Contact Management System). MarketLeader is a great product, when it’s functioning. When I was at HV, it was often broken — to the point where is didn’t send out emails. Sending emails is pretty much a fundamental aspect of a real estate CMS. Those I know who still subscribe to HV report frequent outages. That said, if they can get ML running with good reliability, it could indeed be a product people would pay for. Tip for HV — focus on the “support” before focusing on the “sales” of ML. It’s really kind of important that the product you sell works. If you wind up HomePaging MarketLeader, then your company graduates from the Death Spiral to full blown oblivion.
Of course I doubt anyone is going to pay them ten thousand a month for it. And yep, that’s what some agents are paying now for HV “leads”, HomePages, and some ludicrous television ad gimmick they are peddling.
Good luck HV. But I fear a “RIP HV Post” is in the not-so-distant future.
.
[tags]HouseValues, HV, HomePages, MarketLeader, Ian Morris, Joel Burslem[/tags]
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
Jay – you were pretty brutal in this post, but right on!
Amen, Jay! I'll say I was a long time supporter of that particular company and the way the did business. Right up until I became unimportant in their plans (that happened when they went public).
The main beefs I ever had with them was continuing to bill me for a product that wasn't working (MarketLeader) and they KNEW it wasn't working sending out my emails like it should have been. I emailed Scott Smith and Ian Morris right when I was leaving HV and they just blew me off…then about that time, about 30 other long time supporters and subscribers left too. It was a classic way how NOT to run a company. I don't think it's too early for a RIP.
Jay: Excellent article. HouseValues was a brilliant concept in its early days, before many Realtors were familiar with websites–or even had one. The problem, as you point out, was the quality of the leads.
Once upon a time, I paid $650 or so per month for Carlsbad, CA leads and even sold founder Mark Powell and his lovely wife a second home here.
If HV hopes to make it on their database management system, they may as well turn out the lights.
Nice post Jay!
Increased competition, regular technical difficulties, failed products (homepages) and a very high customer churn rate are big obstacles HouseValues will have to tackle to stay afloat.
Are they up for the challenge?
Time will tell, but it doesn't look good.
I also was one of the early clients of HV–a full subscription with an exclusive zip code. The best thing I got from HV was a vision for the "pipeline" and the ML (marketleader) tool which usually was working. Much more reliable now than it used to be.
Anyway, HV got waaaay to ahead of itself w/ HomePages. They should have run it by their best clients such as Ron Tarvin (see above) or some of the others. I would have told them to forget HP as it did not bring value to the table and it only seemed to take away the focus of them improving the product we were all paying out the nose for–leads and zip codes.
The other best thing I got from HV was the minds of people like Ron in the forum and some other guy which had a huge impact on me (Drew Hartanov) as I ventured out to create a website. It led me to where I am now with prospects of an online brokerage if I produce big this year. With 200 visitors and 4-10 registering a day I won't have any excuses.
HV made some terrible decisions but I love market leader…but if any of you have any better follow up/drip system please let me know ASAP as I always like to know what my options are.
jay
It's interesting to see how people's opinions about a company can change so easily when a company's business practices change. Customer service is key to consumer satisfaction.
$10k a month….WOW. That's a lot of Adwords leads….. Bad customer service and support will kill even the best product, so what chance does a dysfunctional one have?
To estimate your home market value, use "comparables." It's how appraisers do it. Get at least three similar houses nearby that have bought within the past 6 or maybe 12 months (these are the comparables). This information is obtainable in county records (occasionally online), or call a house agent with access to many listing services. Get the description of the property, terms of sale, sales prices, and other information.
To estimate your home market value, use "comparables." It's how appraisers do it. Get at least three similar houses nearby that have bought within the past 6 or maybe 12 months (these are the comparables). This information is obtainable in county records (occasionally online), or call a house agent with access to many listing services. Get the description of the property, terms of sale, sales prices, and other information.