Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings

MKBridge · 23rd Sep 2011, 07:49 PM

Hi All

I am focusing on text messages for house listings. IE "Text house123 to 555444 to get pictures and info on this house right to your mobile phone".

Is anyone doing this service now? I would love to hear any information on successes, insights, etc.

I am particularly interested to know how many texts on average are sent on each home per month. I want to do an all inclusive price structure and this information would help.

Thanks in advance MK

MatthewGreen · 23rd Sep 2011, 07:57 PM

I would be interested in how other are doing this as well.

Thanks.

MKBridge · 23rd Sep 2011, 08:57 PM

Got my own platform I'm using, this isn't a search for a product, I'm looking for specific information. $40 per house seems incredibly steep, people are signing up to your service? So if they have 50 listings, you get $2000 per month? Wow, if that's the case, let me know!
If you google this service, people are charging as low as $14.95 month no matter how many listings you have. The realtors need to buy signs on top of that price, and I'm wanting to provide a price point that includes everything needed. Any one else? Thanks

Michael Clough · 24th Sep 2011, 10:46 AM

I personally stay away from RE Brokers. I concentrate on businesses with constant repeat business like Restaurants, Salons, Retail, etc.

Brokers tend to have enormous egos and expect way too much from this service. I know a ton of them personally and they are great friends, but when it comes to business, they pretty much suck!

The key to Text Message Marketing is for the customer to build up a huge database of cell #'s so they can text out special incentives to their clients. One of the clients I work with (a restaurant) built up over 5,000 numbers in a 3 month time period.

Now that's gold! And they are thrilled! Just my 2 cents

MKBridge · 24th Sep 2011, 02:52 PM

Hey Rowdy, I would love to hear how you got 5000 sign ups in three months. I have some restaurants as clients, and although I am happy with the growth so far (and so are they) it certainly is not that many - although I haven't had either client for three months.

And yes, I have been doing mobile websites for Realtors, and it can be a lot of work dealing with them. But I still want to try this.

DEAFEYE - yes, I don't know how they can operate with that low a price, and that is certainly not what I am going to charge, this is a business, and I am doing it to make money.I already have a supplier for my text message business, so I don't know the right terminology - platform or what ever. Keywords are FREE for me - probably the best part of this particular supplier. Therefore I want the realtors to have keywords for their listings that make the best sense.

Actually, it just came to me, duh, incoming messages don't cost anything. Excellent, now I can figure out my price! Back to work.....

xlfutur1 · 24th Sep 2011, 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by DEaFeYe

Depends on how the campaign is run TBH

You're talking about providing content that is simply not available in text as response to a text.

The company I develop for has these capabilites, and I believe we achieve it in a rather unique manner... most text responses simply only send you a URL (which we are capable of) that alienates the non-smartphone crowd.

The reality is, you're much more likely to gain a database of interest from such a campaign than you are from any other tactic besides standing in front of the house all day.

My company also provides a service that will actually text YOUR phone as well when somebody texts in... so instantaneously you have a phone number for a lead on the house. I don't need to see numbers and case studies (in an area too new to do something comprehensive) to know that for about $40 a month per house, you are getting the most cost efficient leads around combined with the ability to distribute mobile material.

I mean, think about it... at that rate if you got ONE commission on ONE HUNDRED houses because of mobile marketing you'd still be way in profit mode... and the crappiest method in the world likely has a better conversion rate than that.

Interested? I might even be able to hook you up with a free trial.

Shoot me an email at dan@tifome.com

This can easily be done with OpenVBX. Just create a menu directory, then the caller chooses what house he would like to hear more info on. It delivers a recording and texts info, including URL, back to the caller. Then just have the flow send the caller's mobile number in a text to the realtor and add the caller to a list.

With openvbx, the person can simply CALL the local number, and ultimately be connected "live" with the realtors cell phone if the caller wants to talk to the realtor right then. As far as I know, you can't do that kind of thing with a short code. Even if the caller hangs up, the realtor still has the mobile number of the lead.

MKBridge · 25th Sep 2011, 08:34 AM

Mine is a short code and the potential buyer can easily call the realtor directly while they are in front of the house when they enter the keyword for the house.
Wow, its much simpler that you guys make it out to be.
I use Avidmobile.com

MaxReferrals · 25th Sep 2011, 04:32 PM

Tough climate and environment. Our own work also has been
met with broke and cheap realtors, despite them needing
leads and listings. Our .02, YMMV.

BKH · 26th Sep 2011, 03:16 PM

I currently have a broker that signed up all of his agents listings for them. My price point is a little different for real estate as they are really only being charged for the keyword or what I call a "listing code". It's only 25 listings and I have only had them on for 2 months thus far but the average listing is generating about 10 texts per month so obviously the 25 listings is only using about 250 messages a month. That costs me roughly $8 and the keywords cost me $2 each so $58 a month is my cost and I charge $5 per "listing code" up to 25, $4 up to 50 and $3 for anything above that. I use generic codes so that when a listing sells I can just change the info to the next listing and they can use the same signage. I tried to work out a deal so I can make a dollar off of doing the signage for them but I have found that most of them I've talked to already have a signage company that they get deals through. Hope this helps,
b

Nick Surran · 26th Sep 2011, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by BKH

I currently have a broker that signed up all of his agents listings for them. My price point is a little different for real estate as they are really only being charged for the keyword or what I call a "listing code". It's only 25 listings and I have only had them on for 2 months thus far but the average listing is generating about 10 texts per month so obviously the 25 listings is only using about 250 messages a month. That costs me roughly $8 and the keywords cost me $2 each so $58 a month is my cost and I charge $5 per "listing code" up to 25, $4 up to 50 and $3 for anything above that. I use generic codes so that when a listing sells I can just change the info to the next listing and they can use the same signage. I tried to work out a deal so I can make a dollar off of doing the signage for them but I have found that most of them I've talked to already have a signage company that they get deals through. Hope this helps,
b

BKH, this is excellent, real world information to have. I too want to start working the Realtor market with SMS and had no idea how many drive by leads a listing would generate. This definitely gives me guidance for pricing.

Are your Realtors on a do-it-yourself type plan, or do you setup the text message replies each time a listing changes?

What kind of feedback have you gotten from the broker/Realtors so far?

PPCampaigns · 26th Sep 2011, 04:31 PM

We have recently been trying to explore the RE market on our SMS platform. We currently have one client with 2 listings. We charge $35 per listing, which has the short code & keyword + a qr code which leads to basic mobile site with more detailed listing information. The client seems to be happy with the service. It has only been 2 months, so I don't have much information to go on. They have generated ~10 contacts and have sent out ~2 texts to each. If you could get enough clients or listings, I think it would work out great.

BKH · 26th Sep 2011, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Iolaus

BKH, this is excellent, real world information to have. I too want to start working the Realtor market with SMS and had no idea how many drive by leads a listing would generate. This definitely gives me guidance for pricing.

Are your Realtors on a do-it-yourself type plan, or do you setup the text message replies each time a listing changes?

What kind of feedback have you gotten from the broker/Realtors so far?

I am currently managing them so I set up all the information in the auto responder that goes out. They have only sold one of the listings since we started and we haven't changed the responder as of yet but I will be doing it for him.
From what I've found the brokers are really into using but most of them want to put the cost on the agents. The agents are typically an easy sale if you show them that their competition is using it. The agents typically like the idea and a lot of them have compared it to the old "call this number for info" but faster. They receive the number immediately with the text for info and the call for info was a couple days.
Glad to help,
b

xlfutur1 · 26th Sep 2011, 07:40 PM

Originally Posted by BKH

I currently have a broker that signed up all of his agents listings for them. My price point is a little different for real estate as they are really only being charged for the keyword or what I call a "listing code". It's only 25 listings and I have only had them on for 2 months thus far but the average listing is generating about 10 texts per month so obviously the 25 listings is only using about 250 messages a month. That costs me roughly $8 and the keywords cost me $2 each so $58 a month is my cost and I charge $5 per "listing code" up to 25, $4 up to 50 and $3 for anything above that. I use generic codes so that when a listing sells I can just change the info to the next listing and they can use the same signage. I tried to work out a deal so I can make a dollar off of doing the signage for them but I have found that most of them I've talked to already have a signage company that they get deals through. Hope this helps,
b

This is one reason I like OpenVBX and Twilio. Its so darn cheap. The same amount of activity you mention would have been only 1 cent per text and $1 for the phone number. Keywords are $0 and you can use as many as you want. Plus rather than have to text something, prospects can just call the number to get the info.

I do like the idea of charging a few bucks per listing and approaching a broker to take care of all their listings. Once it is setup it runs on autopilot. Even if you had 50 listings at $3 each, that would be $150/mo. and at 10 calls per month on each listing, that would cost no more than 10 bucks with Twilio, and that would include phone calls in, and text info out.

steve solo · 18th Oct 2011, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by MKBridge

Hi All

I am focusing on text messages for house listings. IE "Text house123 to 555444 to get pictures and info on this house right to your mobile phone".

Is anyone doing this service now? I would love to hear any information on successes, insights, etc.

I am particularly interested to know how many texts on average are sent on each home per month. I want to do an all inclusive price structure and this information would help.

Thanks in advance MK

Mk

the way I do it is that when a broker is having an open house they mostly will provide me with a list of potential buyers they have in their data base and i will broadcast the message,..they pay me $49 each time I send the text message,..very simple,..and for some other brokers I work with my own opt in list specifically in the real estate niche and with this service I charge a little more,...hope this helps,..

Steve

Michael Clough · 18th Oct 2011, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by MKBridge

Hey Rowdy, I would love to hear how you got 5000 sign ups in three months. I have some restaurants as clients, and although I am happy with the growth so far (and so are they) it certainly is not that many - although I haven't had either client for three months.

And yes, I have been doing mobile websites for Realtors, and it can be a lot of work dealing with them. But I still want to try this.

DEAFEYE - yes, I don't know how they can operate with that low a price, and that is certainly not what I am going to charge, this is a business, and I am doing it to make money.I already have a supplier for my text message business, so I don't know the right terminology - platform or what ever. Keywords are FREE for me - probably the best part of this particular supplier. Therefore I want the realtors to have keywords for their listings that make the best sense.

Actually, it just came to me, duh, incoming messages don't cost anything. Excellent, now I can figure out my price! Back to work.....

Easy....the restaurant runs contests with the waitstaff.....whoever signs up the most customers in a night get's $100 bucks or concert tickets, etc.....

They get real excited and kick ass!

MKBridge · 19th Oct 2011, 08:58 PM

Rowdy - Yup thats what the restaurant owner i am working with did as well. I set up each server with their own key word and had a contest for a month. The winning server got a trip to Las Vegas for 3 days. The contest generated about 400 opt ins in the month. Still not close to your numbers, they must be large restaurants.
MK

AlaskaBorg · 21st Oct 2011, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by MKBridge

Hi All

I am focusing on text messages for house listings. IE "Text house123 to 555444 to get pictures and info on this house right to your mobile phone".

Is anyone doing this service now? I would love to hear any information on successes, insights, etc.

I am particularly interested to know how many texts on average are sent on each home per month. I want to do an all inclusive price structure and this information would help.

Thanks in advance MK

Hello,

I have used Avidmobile and others so this should work for them.

Each house can use one of the free system generated numbers for each house.

People would Text: 561200 To: 72727 (or 90210, etc.) where 561200 is unique to this house.

What gets sent back is the price of the house, square footage, number of rooms and bathrooms, number of levels. All in 160 characters or 145 not counting the opt-out message.

The realtor gets an alert that someone just inquired about house 561200.

The alert contains the calling number and time info was requested, which should have been seconds before this alert.

With the holiday season coming up, it would be nice to know what the hot gift will be. Retailers could have customers text in to get on the list to buy the latest game console or smartphone/tablet.

And someone could win games, minutes or other accessories using the random function in most sms white label and reseller accounts to choose a winning cell number.

It can be cheap to build mobile websites for individual houses if all the sites use the same template and the only thing changes are a few photos and some text. Charge $30 for each one and have a teen or fiverr do it.

UtahHomesToGo · 21st Oct 2011, 08:06 PM

I don't use any text program for my listings and that is because my website has a mobile side that does that already. However I do see a lot of agents that use the texting for their listings, but most are realizing the same thing that I did. Buy a website and get that all included.

dannrathers · 18th Nov 2011, 11:16 AM

I currently do this for a few local real estate offices/agents. I charge $75 per month for an agent for 1 keyword. I have them use a custom keyword like 'lastname#' # is for each house to track. For an office with multiple agents but will use 1 keyword I charge $150. I also charge a $150 setup fee, to setup there active listings and I design the rider for them.

I do include any updates for listings...which on average 1 or 2 for an agent and takes 2mins..an office about 5 to 9 and takes 5 mins.

some offices or agents want to run a special keyword or advertisement to track results .. I charge them accordingly to the take they want and the time it takes me.

to get clients.. I am a realtor and I am also a real estate photographer..so they are already my customers and I just up sell them this service.

it is possible to sell to agents..but you want to go after the top 10% of agents. They have the money to spend and they will spend it if you show them the benefits of getting buyer leads that they normally won't get.

good luck

23rd Sep 2011, 07:49 PM	#1
MKBridge Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Location: British Columbia Posts: 97 Thanks: 20 Thanked 23 Times in 17 Posts	Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: Hi All I am focusing on text messages for house listings. IE "Text house123 to 555444 to get pictures and info on this house right to your mobile phone". Is anyone doing this service now? I would love to hear any information on successes, insights, etc. I am particularly interested to know how many texts on average are sent on each home per month. I want to do an all inclusive price structure and this information would help. Thanks in advance MK

23rd Sep 2011, 07:57 PM	#2
MatthewGreen Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2011 Location: New York Posts: 74 Thanks: 4 Thanked 13 Times in 12 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: I would be interested in how other are doing this as well. Thanks.

23rd Sep 2011, 08:57 PM	#3
MKBridge Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Location: British Columbia Posts: 97 Thanks: 20 Thanked 23 Times in 17 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: Got my own platform I'm using, this isn't a search for a product, I'm looking for specific information. $40 per house seems incredibly steep, people are signing up to your service? So if they have 50 listings, you get $2000 per month? Wow, if that's the case, let me know! If you google this service, people are charging as low as $14.95 month no matter how many listings you have. The realtors need to buy signs on top of that price, and I'm wanting to provide a price point that includes everything needed. Any one else? Thanks

24th Sep 2011, 10:46 AM	#4
Michael Clough Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: NE Posts: 1,190 Thanks: 346 Thanked 162 Times in 143 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: I personally stay away from RE Brokers. I concentrate on businesses with constant repeat business like Restaurants, Salons, Retail, etc. Brokers tend to have enormous egos and expect way too much from this service. I know a ton of them personally and they are great friends, but when it comes to business, they pretty much suck! The key to Text Message Marketing is for the customer to build up a huge database of cell #'s so they can text out special incentives to their clients. One of the clients I work with (a restaurant) built up over 5,000 numbers in a 3 month time period. Now that's gold! And they are thrilled! Just my 2 cents
	www.OptimisationSeo.com

24th Sep 2011, 02:52 PM	#5
MKBridge Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Location: British Columbia Posts: 97 Thanks: 20 Thanked 23 Times in 17 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: Hey Rowdy, I would love to hear how you got 5000 sign ups in three months. I have some restaurants as clients, and although I am happy with the growth so far (and so are they) it certainly is not that many - although I haven't had either client for three months. And yes, I have been doing mobile websites for Realtors, and it can be a lot of work dealing with them. But I still want to try this. DEAFEYE - yes, I don't know how they can operate with that low a price, and that is certainly not what I am going to charge, this is a business, and I am doing it to make money.I already have a supplier for my text message business, so I don't know the right terminology - platform or what ever. Keywords are FREE for me - probably the best part of this particular supplier. Therefore I want the realtors to have keywords for their listings that make the best sense. Actually, it just came to me, duh, incoming messages don't cost anything. Excellent, now I can figure out my price! Back to work.....

25th Sep 2011, 08:34 AM	#7
MKBridge Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Location: British Columbia Posts: 97 Thanks: 20 Thanked 23 Times in 17 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: Mine is a short code and the potential buyer can easily call the realtor directly while they are in front of the house when they enter the keyword for the house. Wow, its much simpler that you guys make it out to be. I use Avidmobile.com

25th Sep 2011, 04:32 PM	#8
MaxReferrals Kahuna Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: 2005 Location: Blairsville, GA, USA Posts: 781 Thanks: 333 Thanked 236 Times in 104 Posts Blog Entries: 1	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: Tough climate and environment. Our own work also has been met with broke and cheap realtors, despite them needing leads and listings. Our .02, YMMV.
	KILLER OFFLINE WSOs - 100s of REVIEWS!! 52 PLR Offline Autoresponder Emails \| Offline Client Flood - 'Door-Opener Tactic \| SMS Lead Machine - Mobile Domination \| QR Code Tricks, Tactics, Loophole Secrets

26th Sep 2011, 03:16 PM	#9
BKH HyperActive Warrior Join Date: 2011 Posts: 116 Thanks: 8 Thanked 43 Times in 26 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: I currently have a broker that signed up all of his agents listings for them. My price point is a little different for real estate as they are really only being charged for the keyword or what I call a "listing code". It's only 25 listings and I have only had them on for 2 months thus far but the average listing is generating about 10 texts per month so obviously the 25 listings is only using about 250 messages a month. That costs me roughly $8 and the keywords cost me $2 each so $58 a month is my cost and I charge $5 per "listing code" up to 25, $4 up to 50 and $3 for anything above that. I use generic codes so that when a listing sells I can just change the info to the next listing and they can use the same signage. I tried to work out a deal so I can make a dollar off of doing the signage for them but I have found that most of them I've talked to already have a signage company that they get deals through. Hope this helps, b

26th Sep 2011, 04:31 PM	#11
PPCampaigns Active Warrior Join Date: 2011 Posts: 39 Thanks: 3 Thanked 5 Times in 4 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: We have recently been trying to explore the RE market on our SMS platform. We currently have one client with 2 listings. We charge $35 per listing, which has the short code & keyword + a qr code which leads to basic mobile site with more detailed listing information. The client seems to be happy with the service. It has only been 2 months, so I don't have much information to go on. They have generated ~10 contacts and have sent out ~2 texts to each. If you could get enough clients or listings, I think it would work out great.
	All-In-One Mobile Marketing Sign Up For Your Free Trial

19th Oct 2011, 08:58 PM	#16
MKBridge Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Location: British Columbia Posts: 97 Thanks: 20 Thanked 23 Times in 17 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: Rowdy - Yup thats what the restaurant owner i am working with did as well. I set up each server with their own key word and had a contest for a month. The winning server got a trip to Las Vegas for 3 days. The contest generated about 400 opt ins in the month. Still not close to your numbers, they must be large restaurants. MK

21st Oct 2011, 08:06 PM	#18
UtahHomesToGo Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2011 Location: Utah, US Posts: 92 Thanks: 80 Thanked 9 Times in 9 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: I don't use any text program for my listings and that is because my website has a mobile side that does that already. However I do see a lot of agents that use the texting for their listings, but most are realizing the same thing that I did. Buy a website and get that all included.
	Justin Robins, Realtor Market Edge Real Estate Click Here, Chattanooga Homes For Sale, Tennessee Homes For Sale, Homes For Sale In Salt Lake City, Sandy Utah Homes, Ogden Utah Homes

18th Nov 2011, 11:16 AM	#19
dannrathers Warrior Member Join Date: 2011 Posts: 4 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Anyone doing txt messages for Realtor listings Share on: I currently do this for a few local real estate offices/agents. I charge $75 per month for an agent for 1 keyword. I have them use a custom keyword like 'lastname#' # is for each house to track. For an office with multiple agents but will use 1 keyword I charge $150. I also charge a $150 setup fee, to setup there active listings and I design the rider for them. I do include any updates for listings...which on average 1 or 2 for an agent and takes 2mins..an office about 5 to 9 and takes 5 mins. some offices or agents want to run a special keyword or advertisement to track results .. I charge them accordingly to the take they want and the time it takes me. to get clients.. I am a realtor and I am also a real estate photographer..so they are already my customers and I just up sell them this service. it is possible to sell to agents..but you want to go after the top 10% of agents. They have the money to spend and they will spend it if you show them the benefits of getting buyer leads that they normally won't get. good luck