The landscape of real estate lead generation is evolving. Instead of merely buying and nurturing leads yourself, real estate agents, brokers, and lenders can now use a concierge service that qualifies a lead and then matches that lead with a local real estate agent. One such concierge service is Opcity, who provides live telephone operators who qualify the lead before passing it on to the agent.
Who Owns Opcity?
Realtor.com’s parent company, News Corp., acquired Opcity for $210 million in 2018. The company then offered a substantial upgrade to Realtor.com’s standard lead purchasing program with a service called Opcity, available in the U.S. and Australia.
When Opcity launched, it changed the landscape of lead generation to laser target buyers and sellers who are ready to move.
The goal for the company is to take a more active role in converting leads to clients.
How do Leads from Realtor.com Work?
In the traditional platforms of Realtor.com, real estate agents can purchase leads by zip code. Within that platform, there are two options.
The first option is to buy from Realtor.com non-exclusive leads, meaning other agents might also be chasing after that same prospect.
The second option is to obtain leads that are available to you only, and no one else. These two options range in price from around $200 – $1,000 and more.
With these two options, while you may buy the leads, the rest of the work is up to you. You’re the one who has to learn the difficult way if a lead is a viable prospect or just window shopping with no real intent to buy.
How Real Estate Leads Work with Opcity?
With Realtor.com, real estate agents purchase leads either non-exclusively, or exclusively. Opcity raises the bar by offering real live operators who qualify the lead before passing it to a matching real estate agent.
Opcity, referred to as a concierge service, guides quality leads into your lead conversion funnel.
The business model for Opcity differs from that of Realtor.com in that rather than charging a flat rate for leads, real estate agents pay a 30-35 percent commission on the sale. While that might sound steep at first, the return on investment is robust, generating leads that are said to be worth 36 times the standard.
How Does Opcity Qualify Leads?
Opcity is actively involved in vetting and nurturing leads with live operators to eliminate unqualified leads while passing prospective buyers to a matching agent.
The company’s goal is to improve conversion rates for real estate agents while saving them valuable time. But how do they do that?
Opcity qualifies leads by following up with inquiries within 60 seconds of receiving an inquiry.
Then, they screen the customer to eliminate window-shoppers and hone in on the serious buyers and sellers.
Next, they use a smart agent matching proprietary algorithm that chooses the agent – based on which is most likely to close the deal.
Once the lead is screened and qualified, Opcity deploys real-time mobile dispatch to the selected agents.
ARE OPCITY LEADS FREE?
Opcity is not a pay to play program. There’s no up-front investment on your part. Opcity invests in garnering leads; in return, they take a portion of your commissions from the sale. With Opcity, you’re not buying leads; you’re purchasing empowered referrals.
Opcity sends a text alert or push notification to real estate agents who have registered to participate and have agreed to the terms and rates.
When a qualified lead with purchasing power is ready to pull the trigger, the first agent on the list for that area gets notified and has a short time, around five seconds, to “click to claim,” and then the lead is passed to the next agent on the list until an agent claims the lead.
Opcity verifies that customers are agent-ready and able to buy a home.
In other words, Opcity only makes money when you make money, so they’re driven to help you succeed.
How Opcity Leads Compares to Zillow’s Premier Agent?
Zillow and Trulia weren’t about to rest on their laurels while Realtor.com embarked on a new way of doing business with real estate agents.But Zillow’s Premier Agent works a bit differently than Opcity in that it is a pay-to-play way to generate qualified leads with higher conversion rates.
Real estate agents create a profile online, and then compete with other agents for leads. For example, typical agent listing ads have at least three real estate agents listed as available. If you dish out more cash, you get the exclusive.
Like Realtor.com’s Opcity, Zillow’s Premier Agent offers verified leads, meaning a live operator connects with an interested party resulting from an online inquiry. That first contact is attempted and connected with you within 90 seconds of the inquiry being submitted.
Unlike Opcity, Zillow’s pricing structure is variable. Opcity takes a specific commission from the agent’s sale whereas Premier Agent rates change based on location and the number of agents in that location. Therefore, the price is driven up when agents compete for the same lead. Note: Zillow Flex DOES take specific commission.
Opcity Services for Brokers
Opcity is more than a lead generator for independent real estate agents. There are also services for brokers. For brokers, Opcity’s team calls leads in less than one minute during business hours.
And they won’t try just once. The team makes up to 26 attempts to reach a lead throughout a period of several months.
Opcity then screens potential buyers and sellers to ensure that they’re on track and ready to move forward with a real estate agent.
Once the lead has been screened and filtered, they’re connected to agents through a live three-way telephone call.
There’s accountability for your agents as well. Opcity monitors active leads to make sure they’re moving through the pipeline in a timely fashion. If not, the lead is re-assigned to another agent on the broker’s team.
Opcity for Lenders
Online house hunters are searching for more than a real estate agent and their dream home. In order to obtain that dream home, buyers are seeking out lenders for a home mortgage loan, too.
Opcity offers access to motivated consumers.
You’ll receive mortgage inquiries delivered directly to the your CRM or LMS.
Lenders can also take advantage of rate table ads and media solutions to get their brand recognized and to reach buyers in your area.
How Well Do OpCity Leads Convert?
This is a loaded question and may vary by what you are willing to put into these leads. Real estate agents have varying experiences converting these leads. This is mainly because some agents are great at converting all online leads, so they naturally have more success. They have a system to follow up, kill speed to lead, and willing to work with a less than advantageous price point at times.
Average lead conversion for Opcity leads falls between 4-10% depending on your market based on my findings. This should give you a benchmark to aim for. These leads naturally convert higher than any forced registration or pay per click lead since the lead is close to the bottom of the sales funnel and ready to speak to a real estate agent.
Conclusion
Real estate agents don’t need to bury themselves in a haystack of useless leads, hoping to find that one solid prospect. The time of real estate agents is valuable and must be managed efficiently when you are high producing.
As an agent, you can chase leads by purchasing them in bulk, or you can target those buyers and sellers who are ready to connect with a real estate agent to move forward with their transaction.
You can spend hundreds up to thousands of dollars buying leads but don’t have time to follow up with so you see little conversion, or you can select leads that have been vetted and qualified and are already in your conversion funnel.
While Opcity may require a lightning-fast response from participating agents, the agent instantly receives a qualified referral.
Unlike Realtor.com’s original lead generation program, their new concierge service Opcity has a vested interest in your success. They only get paid when you do.
Although the commission rate of Opcity may seem expensive, when you compare the cost of customer acquisition, it’s clear that a qualified lead converts faster and in less time than a generic lead.
Opcity isn’t just for real estate agents to generate leads, but also for brokers as well as lenders.
When you’re ready to stop buying a stack of unqualified leads to chase, and you’re eager to work with motivated, qualified buyers, consider improving your business with the use of Realtor.com’s Opcity.
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