Hi,
I've finally made the plunge to join STM and all the information here has been very insightful, particularly the follow-alongs.
I've had this idea for quite sometime around building a real estate focused messaging web-app.
A potential lead would go to the site and go through a multi-step form to give the site more info. On the backend, I'd aggregate real estate agents phone numbers and send a SMS (text message) to agents with matching real estate available.
E.g:
Don't try to get too fancy.. I think you will have more success charging agents for leads instead of trying to "match" them. Agents would gladly give you money for qualified leads. That does however violate some rules in certain states but it shouldn't be much trouble to overcome.
My advice to you would be to read the book "the lean startup" and "running lean". Throw up a simple website about what you provide and cold call some agents or spend money on facebook ads. Find out if anyone would like to give you money.
I personally don't care if you're using twilio to send me a text or come up with some kind of algorithm that "matches a consumer with me". I want to pay you to grow my business. If there were people that we could pay for solid leads, we would be all over it.
just so you know - homelight.com attempted this and failed with $1.5m in funding. don't try to re-invent the wheel. if you can generate quality real estate leads, just scale it up to every single city in america and become a millionaire.
edit2:
Majority of buyers don't care who they work with or even what company they work with. They just want an agent to open the door (#1) and be able to get along with them. Read the statistics from the national association of realtors - buyer's don't care who they work with or what company the agent is from, as long as the agent is confident and gets the job done.
edit3:
Here's how I would do this:
- Get agents to sign up for free (CC inputted and authorized) but you charge them for every lead you send them... $20 or whatever you come up with.
- Whenever a lead comes in, it's round-robin'd and sent out to an agent who is also billed $20 for the lead
If you think about it, you're pretty much building a zillow without the homes for sale.
edit4:
I did this with a simple instapage lander & facebook ad marketing state-wide downpayment assistance programs. This ad was targeted to renters ages 25-40. I was getting close to a 16% CTR on the ad with a 7% conversion rate. Nearly all of the leads couldn't qualify because of credit issues but you see where I'm getting at.