Post Lawsuit: Home Seller Leads are the New Black

Home Seller Leads will become the new currency for the Real Estate industry. Gone are the glory days of Zillow and Realtor .com over and reselling bad buyer leads. The Seitzer case verdict was just thrown down, and for those that had not previously settled, a brutal $1.8 Billion verdict was delivered. Yes, almost 2 BILLION to be paid by the loosing defendants because of collusion and “price fixing” facilitated by NAR’s “Clear Cooperation Policy”.
But wait, thats not all. It could get worse and more expensive. “The judge in the case hasn’t issued a final ruling, which will be needed before the verdict is finalized. In the decision on the antitrust case, the judge could triple the damages to total more than $5 billion, in addition to ordering policy changes.” per The Real Deal.

The Headline
Remax & Anywhere (formerly Realogy … formerly …Cendant) were the smart ones. They chose to settle their claims early, before it went to trial for pennies on the dollar. Yet the stubborn, old school defendants including NAR, Keller Williams and Home Services of America (a Berkshire Hathaway company) left their fate in the hands 8 person jury over 11 days, who deliberated for a brief 2.5 hours.
Buyer Leads, buyer lead commission and the businesses built on that foundation are rattled to their core. Some will survive – all will require massive pivots to do so. Don’t believe me? Zillow sold buyer leads: On the same day, the news broke that the massively popular CRM Follow Up Boss Acquired by Zillow (More on this later – but Revaluate remains integrated in FUB via API)

The Lead-Ing Story
Before Seitzer (BS) Leads were more than plentiful. Actually, last year there were an estimated 150 Million + buyer leads generated on the portals and via properties. These are/were buyer leads. Yet in the same time, only 5 Million SFR homes were resold (not counting new homes sold – about 1M). Thus there was a ratio of 150:5 or 30X more buyer leads generated than transactions. Put another way: last year, agents teams and brokers bought and paid for 145 MILLION leads that were “bad”.

The demise of home buyer leads and buyer commission is a pivotal moment, can be seen as a GOOD thing for the industry. It forces agents out of lazy, inefficient systems and to look to pivot their businesses to help home sellers. In order to do so, they need home seller leads. They need a new system to organize and prioritize leads, contacts and prospects. Home seller leads will now become the focus of the desires of teams. The winners will find a way early – some already have.

Is This Really The End?
Per NAR via their PR department: “NAR plans to appeal the jury’s verdict, but that process could take years to resolve. NAR says it remains committed to pro-consumer, pro-competition practices and is confident the association will ultimately prevail.” I think this is exactly what NAR’s overworked PR team wants to share… but I think it’s standing on thin ice. The NAR PR Dept has lots of other issues to deal with currently – so that this spin is overly gilded. Buyer leads and buyer commission price fixing are dead. Home seller leads are the new gold standard.

Recap:
Home seller leads are in demand but not as “easy” to find – especially in this market. Last week I wrote: How to find seller leads in this market. Revaluate AI identity’s home owners who are likely to sell by looking for life events that cause them to sell. These home seller leads are more valuable in a post verdict world. Compounding the issue, high interest rates prevent most people from moving – with the exception of those that need to move due to specific life events.

To learn more about how to get your hands on Revaluate Home Seller leads, and pivot your lead gen, schedule a time to chat with one of our data nerds here: http://revaluate.com/talk