Any Other Realtors Not Too Happy About Metrolist's new "Find Prospect" Search? (real estate, broker) - Denver - Colorado (CO) - City-Data Forum

Matthew5280 · 11-10-2009, 10:47 AM

I'm not all that happy that metrolist feels the need to put my prospect info out there for everyone to see.

1)Many of my prospects were named after my clients. (I went to the trouble of changing them) In my opinion this is an invasion of my clients' privacy. Aside from that, it invites brokers to sidestep other brokers (ie. google my clients name, find MY clients contact info and market directly to them.)

2)I'm sick of calls and emails on stale listings. If I had a buyer for your overpriced property i'd bring them to you, right? We both want to make money. And it's not as if I didn't already see your listing in my inbox.

3)I really can't see this being all that effective as a marketing tool. Most productive brokers are very busy, making may phone ring any more than it has to, especially while I'm with a client, is not going to make me want to help you sell your property.

4)Don't brokers already have enough to do? I mean do we really need our clients asking us if we'd called the hundreds of brokers that may possibly have a buyer because at some point in time they felt the need to set up a prospect?

Anyone else with me here?

randomy · 11-10-2009, 11:08 AM

You would have to elaborate more for me to understand completely what the scenario is. I can try to give you perspective from the other side though. I am in the market for a home right now, and I use a search tool on my realtors site that lets me select many details like the neighborhood, type of house, and so on, and then get email alerts from that search criteria when new homes com eon the market, or already listed homes get adjusted. The only time I see MLS docs is when my realtor prints them and we go look at a house. His search uses MLS, it must, but it can adjust the preview of the results to remove that data perhaps?

Matthew5280 · 11-10-2009, 11:21 AM

Prospect allows brokers to set up searches that automatically email both the broker and the client with any new properties that meet the search criteria.

Metrolist (denver's MLS) now allows brokers to search other brokers prospect searches. Meaning, if I had you set up as a search titled "John Smith" for a certain area in a certain price range, a broker could find that search based upon that criteria and call or email me saying "this property is perfect for John Smith....".

The biggest problem here is that this diverts me, as a broker, from being attentive to my clients, along with the other issues I listed above.

formercalifornian · 11-10-2009, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthewsellshouses

I'm not all that happy that metrolist feels the need to put my prospect info out there for everyone to see.

1)Many of my prospects were named after my clients. (I went to the trouble of changing them) In my opinion this is an invasion of my clients' privacy. Aside from that, it invites brokers to sidestep other brokers (ie. google my clients name, find MY clients contact info and market directly to them.)

2)I'm sick of calls and emails on stale listings. If I had a buyer for your overpriced property i'd bring them to you, right? We both want to make money. And it's not as if I didn't already see your listing in my inbox.

3)I really can't see this being all that effective as a marketing tool. Most productive brokers are very busy, making may phone ring any more than it has to, especially while I'm with a client, is not going to make me want to help you sell your property.

4)Don't brokers already have enough to do? I mean do we really need our clients asking us if we'd called the hundreds of brokers that may possibly have a buyer because at some point in time they felt the need to set up a prospect?

Anyone else with me here?

You're that busy? What a blessing to have in this economy!

Matthew5280 · 11-10-2009, 11:32 AM

That's part of the point. When you are self employed, busy does not always mean $$. I work hard for the clients I have and work hard to retain them. They don't want me wasting time either. I am not trying to sound like a cry baby, I just want my privacy and time respected.

formercalifornian · 11-10-2009, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthewsellshouses

That's part of the point. When you are self employed, busy does not always mean $$. I work hard for the clients I have and work hard to retain them. They don't want me wasting time either. I am not trying to sound like a cry baby, I just want my privacy and time respected.

Oh, I get it. I'm just thrilled to know that you have work.

Scott5280 · 11-10-2009, 11:43 AM

While I have been an inactive broker for the past six months, I have kept up to speed with most of the Mymls transformation to the Prime access and newer changes within instanet..I have to say talking with many in the industry that you are not alone in your views regarding the search prospect functionality or lack there of. I have kept my client list as well through my own private web site files..and it has a privacy function that allows me to shadow my clients info. I am not entirely thrilled with the new way of searching, but allowing the email and control of more properties at a time is certainly a plus. I worked the Cherry Creek North Market up until last July..but that market was hearing crickets until recently so I'm reactivating..Time to break out the search prospects for the area, currently I get more broker E-Flyers from my old data entered than if I had 200 listings.

Matthew5280 · 11-10-2009, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott5280

While I have been an inactive broker for the past six months, I have kept up to speed with most of the Mymls transformation to the Prime access and newer changes within instanet..I have to say talking with many in the industry that you are not alone in your views regarding the search prospect functionality or lack there of. I have kept my client list as well through my own private web site files..and it has a privacy function that allows me to shadow my clients info. I am not entirely thrilled with the new way of searching, but allowing the email and control of more properties at a time is certainly a plus. I worked the Cherry Creek North Market up until last July..but that market was hearing crickets until recently so I'm reactivating..Time to break out the search prospects for the area, currently I get more broker E-Flyers from my old data entered than if I had 200 listings.

I'm glad to hear others feel the same way. I did call today to see if there was an "opt out" option available and was told no. Supposedly my request was sent to the web developers as feedback. Maybe if enough of us complain they will change their policy

2bindenver · 11-10-2009, 01:49 PM

It's always been there. It went away for about 6 weeks, before the cries to bring it back were heard.

Most brokers would not spend the time looking up your prospect on Google.

Most Realtors know that that could be interference with an established brokerage relationship contract.

If you had a house at $215,000 you could search for prospect matches in the Legacy system. If you wanted a price reduction you could change the price to $199,000, and see how many more prospects matched your listing. (You'd then change it back to the contract price.) It was ammunition like that that got some price corrections, that lead to contracts, that lead to closings.

Besides, dealing directly with a buyer on your listing is a recipe for disaster. "I am calling on the property at xxx street name. My broker is busy, could you show me the house today at five?" "Really? I represent the Seller. You could call the managing broker of your agent's office for an appointment. Otherwise everything you said to me would be used against you in a offer. Do you have a pre-approval letter from a local lender? Great, send that over. You cool with that?"

Matthew5280 · 11-10-2009, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

It's always been there. It went away for about 6 weeks, before the cries to bring it back were heard.

Most brokers would not spend the time looking up your prospect on Google.

Most Realtors know that that could be interference with an established brokerage relationship contract.

If you had a house at $215,000 you could search for prospect matches in the Legacy system. If you wanted a price reduction you could change the price to $199,000, and see how many more prospects matched your listing. (You'd then change it back to the contract price.) It was ammunition like that that got some price corrections, that lead to contracts, that lead to closings.

Besides, dealing directly with a buyer on your listing is a recipe for disaster. "I am calling on the property at xxx street name. My broker is busy, could you show me the house today at five?" "Really? I represent the Seller. You could call the managing broker of your agent's office for an appointment. Otherwise everything you said to me would be used against you in a offer. Do you have a pre-approval letter from a local lender? Great, send that over. You cool with that?"

I'm not 100% sure we are talking about the same thing. Prospect is fairly new on Metrolist, they just started it about a year ago. Before that you needed to use realtyassistant.net. The "find prospect" button that is located on the listing report page in between "print" and "close" just showed up recently.

I really don't care if people use my saved prospects for marketing data, In fact, I wish Metrolist would focus more on providing marketing data availability. I just don't want anyone calling or emailing me or my clients (which did happen).

Colorado Does allow for transaction brokerage, so theoretically I could have lost a client, though I'm sure the real estate commission would agree that I would have procuring cause.

Metrolist should ask before making contact information and search names available, especially since they are the only gig in town.