Mark D.

Many years ago I was purchasing leads from Homes.com. It was a disaster. I purchased leads from 5 popular local zip codes for a period of 12 months. I received my first lead the first day which gave me hopes this was going to be a good investment. Unfortunately it was 3 months later before I received my next lead. There is nothing worse than having to pay that monthly bill knowing you didn't even get a contact for it, let alone a closing. Imaging how you feel after paying for 3 or 4 months without ever receiving a lead. Over the course of these 12 months I called several times complaining of the lack of activity and return on my investment. I was always promised they would do more advertising in my territories to try and attract more leads, but it never happened. What did happen was an increase in bogus leads that were really solicitation phone calls from vendors trying to sell me everything from websites to social media marketing. When the year finally ended they offered me 3 months free to convince me to stay, unfortunately that 3 months only generated 1 more lead in my 5 zip codes.

Fast forward to today and I receive another call from a Homes.com salesman trying to sell me their lead generation service. I tell him about my previous experience and he goes on to talk about how it's a whole new Homes.com system. He talks about how they generate at least 4 times more traffic than they used to, how the current agent in the zip codes I had are now generating 10 to 14 leads per month. He even goes on to tell me how he has a 95% renewal rate with his agents. I will give Homes.com credit for one thing, they are significantly cheaper than Zillow or Realtor.com which is a good thing because they still don't deliver many leads.

Now I knew I wouldn't get the same 10 to 14 leads per month as I knew there would now be 2 agents splitting those leads, however it has now been 3 months and I have again only received 1 lead. I originally gave them a 2 star rating because last time they at least tried to make the situation right, this time however they won't even return my phone calls. Neither the salesman nor his supervisor have returned multiple calls to explain. Clearly I was lied to about the potential leads and clearly nothing has changed over the years except that this time around they don't even want to try and make things right.

If you're a Realtor and wish to supplement your business with Internet leads, stay away and stick with Realtor.com. They have quite a few bogus leads too, but at least the flow and quality of leads offers a return on your investment.

After a good sales pitch I fell for SetSchedule.com appointment/lead generation program for Realtors. I paid $1700 for a promise of 12 scheduled appointments with serious home sellers over the next 6 months (now they say it is a year, but that isn't what it says in the agreement).

As part of the program I would also receive leads of those not ready to make an appointment yet, but expressed interest in selling within a 15 mile radius of my desired location. This second part is what convinced me to give them a try. Unfortunately (9 months later now) I have never received an appointment and have only received a handful of leads that were not in Milwaukee's inner city. Of those 8 leads I accepted I was only ever able to reach one, who in the end decided not to sell.

SetSchedule also has lists of other potential sellers that you can download by zip code. I downloaded all the 28 names they offered in ******* only to find that all but 2 had already sold over the previous 12 months.

Needless to say this is a scam. I have tried calling to get a refund, but they claim to not give refunds and besides my 12 months isn't up yet (it says 6 in the agreement). They say they will increase advertising in my area to deliver their commitment, but I haven't heard anything from them since my complaints (3 months now). Now they won't even return my phone calls.

Realtors. Stay away! This is a SCAM!

Update - Visa refused my disputed charge with them. Seems Visa only gives you 2 months to dispute a charge which doesn't work when the service has 6 months to provide their service. My dispute was within 60 days of the contract expiration. SetSchedule says they have renewed my subscription for another 6 months to try and fill their obligation. I did receive 1 appointment from them shortly after this. An elderly lady who says she never requested any services and has no intention of selling. Outside of that one bogus lead I have yet to hear anything else from them in the 3 months since the original agreement expired.