Lead generation is a broken business model. It is an unsustainable business model. The lead gen model on the web is not something I would invest in.
–Zillow’s Rich Barton , November 2007 (quote source)
Really? Hmm…
Zillow’s new offering is a lead generator called the Mortgage Marketplace. Mortage professionals sign up with Zillow for leads. From what I can make of it, it is very similar to HomeGain’s Agent Evaluator, which is a lead generator for agents.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Zillow
HomeGain leads
Who said lead generation is dead?
I guess we can now officially call Zillow a vendor.
Further Bloggery (company blogs omitted):
FoRem; PhoenixRealEstateGuy; 3Oceans;TransparentRE; Lenderama; RCG (Rhonda Porter); SeattlePI (John Cook); Blown Mortgage; TechCrunch; 4realz.net; Lenderama (again); HomeGain blog.
Technorati Tags: zillow, mortgage marketplace, homegain, agent evaluator, lead generation
It’s going to be interesting to see which LO’s jump into the Zillow’s pool of leads. The amount of time it takes to deal with “rate shoppers” and on top of that, lenders who will undercut you by $50 to beat the quote you just prepared and is posted…who wants to do that?
Hmmm. That does look familiar! Check out Louis’ post this morning calling Zillow out: http://blog.homegain.com/homegain-cries-flattery-zillow
Rhonda
If the number of calls I get from lender telemarketers is any indication, I think Zillow will be swamped with LO looking for leads. But I defer to you as the expert. Would you use it?
What I want to know is, if Rich Barton thinks lead-gen is a poor business model, why is it being used? Is selling ads more profitable than selling leads?
Also, Zillow continues to add new features which I think will only serve to muddy the waters for consumers and not add to the company bottom line– which may still be lined in red (I don’t know if it is).