eXp Realty to “Make It Rain” for Its Agents and Brokers

BELLINGHAM, WA–(Marketwired – Feb 26, 2015) – eXp Realty International Corporation (OTCQB:EXPI), the Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage, today unveiled its C.L.O.U.D. platform, a central component of which is “Making It Rain,” a robust, high-quality lead generation program delivering leads to its agents and brokers at steep discounts to leads generated and sold by popular third-party syndicators such as REALTOR.com, Market Leader, Zillow and Trulia.

“Lead generation costs associated with third-party syndicators have spiraled out of control. Agents have come to believe that the syndication sites are the only significant avenue to generating high quality internet leads,” said Brad Andersohn, eXp Realty’s Director of Education and Industry Outreach and former Director of Zillow Academy. “These agents who are paying exorbitant fees for advertising to get these leads are the ones who are actually generating the data through their own local efforts. Effectively, syndicators are selling back to agents, at a very high price, the very data that they have obtained from those same agents at no cost,” said Andersohn. “As a brokerage with membership in a large and growing number of multiple listing services across North America, eXp can aggregate data and generate leads very effectively. With the Making it Rain program, we will be distributing those leads to an eXp agent, without asking that agent to share it with others, and at a discount of up to 75% of what agents are paying today through contracts with third party syndicators.”

The leads generated through Making It Rain will not be company leads and will not be subject to a lesser commission split for the agent. The program allows agents to sign-up for leads in their market for as little as $100/month without a contract, with eXp Realty facilitating lead generation campaigns on behalf of the agent using Search Engine Marketing, Facebook Ad campaigns, Craigslist and other tools.

In addition, the program aims to educate consumers that the most up-to-date, professionally-listed properties are on MLS member websites and not some of the for-profit listing syndicators which are plagued by bad and confusing data ranging from inaccurate property valuation programs to “listings” for properties which have long since been sold or are otherwise not available.

“At eXp Realty, we have come to recognize the exploitation of agents through expensive lead generation subscription contracts, as well as the abundance of inaccuracy of listing and property data often found in syndicator websites,” said eXp Realty Founder and CEO, Glenn Sanford. “We now know that there are ways to generate leads using the syndicators without agents giving them their hard-earned money, and we are reinforced in the view that the most current and accurate data exists among MLS member websites and not with the for-profit syndicators.”

“Inaccurate or outdated data does a disservice to both consumers and to real estate professionals. The highest quality information about listings is that which is available from real estate firms and professionals using their MLS’s not advertising portals. We owe it to consumers to provide them with accurate and up-to-date data and, as an industry, we owe it to our agents to help them generate leads without reliance on services charging unconscionable fees for the privilege of using data that is derived from their (the agents’) own efforts and expertise,” said Andersohn.

In addition to lead generation, C.L.O.U.D. provides eXp Realty agents and brokers with a full suite of business-building tools, along with integration into the company’s interactive and collaborative Cloud Office culture, paperless transactions, and professional development.

As a publicly-traded company (OTCQB: EXPI), eXp uniquely offers agents and brokers the opportunity to earn equity awards for production and contributions to company growth. The company also features an aggressive revenue sharing program that pays agents a percentage of gross commission income earned by fellow professionals who they attract into the Company.