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Suck 100's of new leads off classified sites

Posted in Real Estate Bloggers By Riel Roussopoulos, Monday, June 15, 2009.

Please watch this video blog post where I show you how to use this killer new software that sucks new leads from craigslist, kijiijii and backpage with just a few clicks of the old mouse button.

http://rem20.com/blogs/internet_marketing/2009/6/12/highly-targeted-real...

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Submitted by on August 8, 2009 - 9:42pm.

Honestly, I can't think of anything I'd rather do LESS than "suck leads" from classified sites.

Here's an idea. Reach out to people. Treat them like HUMAN BEINGS and not "leads" and see what happens to your business...

So I assume you have permission from CraigsList to scrape their data? Because if you don't, agents are paying you for a service that violates CraigsList Terms of Service:

Additionally, you agree not to:

u) use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from the Service - unless expressly permitted by craigslist;

Jay Thompson
Broker / Owner
Thompson's Realty

Blog: www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com

.

 
Submitted by Charles Richey on August 9, 2009 - 12:46pm.

Jay is correct. You would be violating their TOS. I doubt Craigslist would give you permission to harvest user information from their site. Not to mention that people usually aren't thrilled to receive unwanted solicitations in their email inbox.

Charles Richey
Webmaster
Site: www.lvrealty.net
Blogs: www.realestatebyjacqulyn.com
www.previewvegascondos.com

 
Submitted by Billie Hillier on August 9, 2009 - 12:58pm.

Yes, you will violating the Terms.

There are so many other ways to generate 100's of QUALITY leads without violating any site's terms and without spending a lot of money without gimmicks, scams, etc.

Billie Hillier
Practical Real Estate Marketing (http://www.PracticalRealEstateMarketing.com)

 
Submitted by on August 10, 2009 - 2:35pm.

Scraping
Datamining
Crawling

All words that have similar meaning and various degrees of emaotionality tied to them depending on curiously who is doing it. Google? Scrape me baby till it bleeds. John Lunch Bucket's software? Stay the hell out you criminal!

Seems someone more famous than Riel has already scraped the hell out of Craigslist http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us&q=site%3Acr...

Lets be intellectually honest here when we all get a nice chuck of income from the biggest dataminer/scraper in the world....Google.

But But thats not scraping. Thats a search engine. Is this guys software not a search engine except for his desktop? Whats the dif?

I wonder if in the CL TOS there is an exclusion for search engines. And the reality is that this guys software probably queries a search engine to find whatever it finds anyway.

Just some thoughts and an attempt to insert intellectual honesty or at least another way of looking at this discussion.

TiM o'KeEfE
Spider Juice Technologies
http://www.spiderworkz.com
310 533 9145

 
Submitted by Danny C. Flucke Jr. on August 10, 2009 - 3:24pm.

You will spend much more time, effort, and money - Trying to meet people you don't know...

Than you will establishing a relationship with affiliate professionals who already have 100's and 1,000's of clients.

The choice is yours.

Endless spam and drip campaigns trying to "get" a deal from people you don't know - Or proven strategies generating a steady flow of highly motivated referrals...

"Sucking leads" off craigslist...? Most high performing professionals choose to not operate with spam tactics....

Danny C. Flucke Jr.
Senior Partner
Nationwide Mortgage Experts, LLC
Direct: (714)624-9479
DCFJ@NationwideMortgageExperts.com
www.NationwideMortgageExperts.com / www.NaMoEx.com

 
Submitted by on August 10, 2009 - 3:54pm.

This is what drives me nuts Danny...spam tactics. What the hell does spam have to do with this?

My posts here are not so much about craiglist getting datamined. It is understanding the issue.

Spamming is email, or in SEO- stuffing keywords into a page as an example.

This is a datamining issue and TOS issue. And it is more common than most would want to admit. My point was why do so many people want to abide by situational ethics, if indeed this is even an ethics issue at all. since we are talking about a machine.

Is it not OK for Riel to use a machine to grab information off of his own software for his own use and gain like it is for Goolge to Grab it for for millions of others pleasure so they can make a profit for their thousands of shareholders? Why is it OK for G to do this?

Put another way we all profit from datamining that Google does on our behalf.. As well as their own. So whats the dif other than you or I not benefitting from Riels datamining?

 
Submitted by on August 10, 2009 - 4:25pm.

This "system" seems to promote getting FSBO information from CraigsList (primarily the FSBO seller's email address) and sending them an email -- ostensibly in order to list their home when they fail miserably selling it themselves.

The vast majority of CL users submitting a FSBO ad have zero desire for an agent to contact them about listing their home.

Sending them an email, *especially* if they ask not to receive them, is spam. At least by my definition.

I happen to think there are far more effective, and less offensive, prospecting methods than soliciting FSBOs off of classified ad sites. But maybe that's just me.

I don't really care if it's a CL TOS violation or not. It's a smarmy tactic that helps the entire profession gain the reputation it currently holds in much of the public eye.

Jay Thompson
Broker / Owner
Thompson's Realty

Blog: www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com

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Submitted by Billie Hillier on August 10, 2009 - 4:34pm.

Jay -

I absolutely agree.

I have worked with FSBO owners to help them market their home and the first question is "are you an agent?"

I didn't realize there is such a stigma associated with agents because of a few that leave a bad taste in their mouths. Some of the stories I couldn't believe actually happened until I heard them more than once - I guess I am naive.

Intrusive marketing is frowned upon - there are so many ways to generate GOOD SOLID leads without harassing people who don't want to be bothered.

Billie Hillier
Practical Real Estate Marketing

 
Submitted by Danny C. Flucke Jr. on August 10, 2009 - 5:02pm.

"This is what drives me nuts Danny...spam tactics. What the hell does spam have to do with this?"

Tim - It's pretty simple actually.

In my opinion - When you "suck" contact information off some annonymous person's classified ad - For the purpose of emailing them marketing to "get" a listing - It is spam.

(Landvoice offers a similar, more comprehensive, much easier to use FSBO service for less than $40 mo - And we choose not to use that system either.)

We are simply doing business in different ways. Good luck...

Danny C. Flucke Jr.
Senior Partner
Nationwide Mortgage Experts, LLC
Direct: (714)624-9479
DCFJ@NationwideMortgageExperts.com
www.NationwideMortgageExperts.com / www.NaMoEx.com

 
Submitted by on August 10, 2009 - 8:59pm.

If someone is selling by owner is he not interested in help in selling?
If the person who approaches him is worthless, then yes it would seem intrusive. If the person seems helpful, then it isnt seen as intrusive.

I had a person show up at my door. Very intrusive. But what she was selling as it was perceived by me was not intrusive and seen as very useful.She turned me around.

Selling is selling is selling. When it is done well it isnt selling. When it is blundered it is intrusive, spammy, and scammy. Otherwise it should say order taker on a real estate license.

 
Submitted by on August 10, 2009 - 9:20pm.

"If someone is selling by owner is he not interested in help in selling?"

Generally speaking, no. Oh the FSBO will (usually) gladly take your buyer, but they are selling themselves for one primary reason -- they don't want to pay a listing agent for help.

So emailing them blindly IS spam.

That's not to say that some FSBOs can't be "converted". There are agents that do quite well doing just that.

I opt not to "turn around" people to become my clients. Don't see the need, plus I'm a lousy salesman. I don't even particularly care for salesmen.

Jay Thompson
Broker / Owner
Thompson's Realty

Blog: www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com

.

 
Submitted by Riel Roussopoulos on August 10, 2009 - 10:01pm.

Good discussion going on this :)

It's a tool, and like any other tool, it's up to you as to how you use it.

To clarify, this is not my software, it's just something that I bought and thought was neat - it's got an affiliate program and I thought I'd tell a few people about it.

Is it spam? no... can you use it to? Yes ...

Identifying people that are advertising for something that you have a solution for is different in my mind than spamming 1000's of email addresses with an un-targeted ad to enlarge some part of your body.

This produces a list of highly targeted prospects that you can pursue.

If you're uncomfortable in the grey area of marketing then by all means, don't use these types of tools.

If you have an established business and you're not looking for more ways to increase it? You're probably right, you don't want to try stuff that you think might compromise your reputation.

If you get that marketing will always be something of a numbers game and that systems can help you improve your odds and growth substancially ... then hey, try stuff and see if it works for you.

I'm just sharing a tool that I thought was neat, it's up to you if you want to buy it or not, it's not like it's some $2000 coaching club or something, it's less than $70, so it's not going to break you.

Maybe you're not using it to get FSBO's .. maybe you're using it to contact other agents and request link exchanges or other uses... point being it saves you time and gives you a tool to use with CL and 2 other popular sites that people advertise on.

http://AgentXL.com | http://rem20.com | http://LiveInMyNeighbourhood.com
Build your business online.

 
Submitted by Riel Roussopoulos on August 10, 2009 - 10:04pm.

Or maybe you're contacting them to offer them another place they can get some free advertising...

... in your community website ;)

http://LiveInMyNeighbourhood.com
Build your business online.

 
Submitted by David Lorti on August 11, 2009 - 11:35am.

I have been watching this thread a bit and thought I would put my two cents forward.

From a technology perspective, I find the technology interesting.

From a potential email perspective, I would be concerned for sending out a substantial volume of unsolicited email. There is no doubt in my mind that many recipients would feel this is nothing more than spam. If they didn't initially, then they probably would when there are a dozen emails coming in from various Realtors using the service. This is one of those things that I could see the more 'flexible' (I don't want to make this an ethical issue) agent using in earnest and not caring for any negative implications.

From a business standpoint, I don't like to be a glutton for punishment. The FSBOs often represent a portion of the market who don't like to use Realtors because of their own particular attitudes and because of the cost. Though there are some you could 'turn' potentially, there are many more that won't ever be turned. Your target market becomes a class of people who are very unlikely to use the product you sell rather than a target market that are willing to consider your services as a whole. It doesn't make a great deal of marketing sense to go after it. As well, this could be one where you get punished by the responses as well as the attitudes of the people you 'communicate' to.

I know that when I have posted items on Craigslist, I make sure to indicate "it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests." I could imagine that the FSBO owner expects that they will not receive any commercial sales inquiries from anyone as a result of the ad. If all of a sudden, this tool was used by Realtors and others to farm Craigslist and contact people despite their wishes, I could see quite a backlash as well as potential legal challenge from Craigslist. Though I wouldn't expect to get hit with a legal challenge directly from Craigslist, I wouldn't want the risk of being named a party to any action. In some sense, it reminds me a little of the music file sharing debate.

David Lorti - MBA, CNE
Thompson's Realty
www.lortihomesblog.com
www.lortihomesarizona.com

 
Submitted by Danny C. Flucke Jr. on August 11, 2009 - 1:47pm.

David makes a great point.

We made the mistake of placing a help wanted ad on Craigslist about a year ago - And we received about a few thousand (yes - 1000's) spam emails hawking every MLM and check cashing scam out there.

Maybe one or two of those emails were actually of value - But it certainly wasn't worth the time and effort to read the other 1,998 of them to find it.

I'd be very suprised if FSBO's have a positive reaction to being contacted via a Craigslist ad....

Thanx, Danny

Danny C. Flucke Jr.
Senior Partner
Nationwide Mortgage Experts, LLC
Direct: (714)624-9479
DCFJ@NationwideMortgageExperts.com
www.NationwideMortgageExperts.com / www.NaMoEx.com

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