A.I. “Lead” Scams Targets R.E. Agents!Daniel Dobbs2024-07-25T14:08:51-07:00
I’ve branded myself by the line “I pick-up,” so I’ve had to develop additional strategies for screening the calls labeled “valid” by ATT.
First, I don’t answer out-of-state calls as I don’t do out-of-state loans.
Second: When I’m on the other line, and a call comes in from out of the SOCal area codes, I auto “text, “Can I call you back in two minutes? Rarely do I get an answer.
Note: Once you pick up a spam call, their algorithm targets you as a “valid end user,” you’ll be bombarded for the next week or more. Cheers.
A new lead generation scam is brewing that targets agents and comes in the form of the buzzword (and mysticism) of “A.I.”
Disclaimer: A.I. will have a place in the real estate universe, but that’s a different post for a different day!
This A.I. lead generation is just another “hustle” in a long line of cons sold to agents! Let me share my own experience to demonstrate the grift. Hopefully, you haven’t been taken in by this coming storm of scams, and I can save you money, grief, and lawsuits.
I built my first website in 1998. My first “website guru” was an uber-successful luxury watch merchant. (I’m currently on my third site: DanielDobbs.org).
Fast forward to 2002 and Beyond
In 2002, I sat through a real estate tech presentation and witnessed an emerging “trend” that targeted every independent “boomer” age business person (seemingly) on the planet. And agents were EZ “marks.”
While the Visions of “Sugar Plums” Danced in their Heads
I observed agents being lured and then (later) bombarded with high-pressure calls from so-called “website designers,” Ad-Word Reps, and every e-commerce charlatan preying upon an agent’s lack of tech experience with promises of riches with little or no effort!
And how these charlatans “accessed” a local board office (I won’t name names) into the use of their facility and, therefore, co-opted the board’s “street cred” is beyond me.
Inman: Zillow, ‘it’s not me, It’s You’:
Why this smart agent is breaking up with buying leads
In 2006, Zillow and Realtor.com entered the market and started selling agent buyer leads (often from their own listings).
Cringy?
When Alexa launched in 2014, I received calls from the “new generation” of charlatans offering to sell me the contact info of Alexa users discussing loans and mortgages that had been eavesdropped on.
Umm, no!
Now, the next grift is taking the low road of telemarketing and dressing it up with the mysticism of A.I.
Here’s just one example of a
The telemarketing hustle is shown in the post below (from Fiver).
Note: If this marketing plan was “legit,” “RAI” would be a marketing director working in downtown NYC on 5th Avenue for a major real estate conglomerate, not some shadowy offshore location.
According to Fiver.com
“One of the most prolific is Abhishek Rai, who has racked up more than 3,000 five-star reviews offering leads on motivated sellers, vacant properties, or absentee owners since joining the platform in April 2020″.
“Editors” Legal Alert: “RAI” (?) is in India; you are not. Rai is beyond the reach of U.S. law. You, however – are NOT!
Rai, who’s based in India (?) and uses the handle @virtualguy2020, typically charges $10 for 100 leads, $50 for 650, and $100 for 1,500.
“Real estate agents have demanding schedules, and outsourcing lead generation tasks allows them to focus on other aspects of their business, such as client meetings, property showings, and negotiations,” he said.
Rai has clients across the U.S., including many in SoCal. He added that generating leads is a specialized skill, and not every agent has the expertise to find them independently.
He claims to comb public records, online databases, and real estate sources such as property records, tax records, and foreclosure listings for his leads.
Moving Forward:
The post below has a lot of great info. Click on the headline to read about people that he (Fletcher) interviewed. Otherwise, hold onto your wallet while reading my edited post!
By Jack Flemming
SoCal’s real estate market is as cold as the snow adorning its mountain peaks. In slow markets, the agents at the top — those with experience, connections, and plenty of clients — typically maintain a modest but steady stream of business.
It’s the agents at the bottom — those just getting into the industry “starve.”
As those agents have grown more desperate for leads, they’re trying alternative ways of finding them. Some outsource the work overseas, and others turn to A.I. or automation in a last-ditch attempt to find a seller.
NAR’s membership swelled 2022 to a record 1.6 million in 2022, up 200,000 since 2020. Some agents are now simply calling it quits.
In 2023, though, in California alone, NAR lost 9,723 members from December 2023 to January 2024 — a 4.75% decline.
But even after the drop, California still has the second-most active Realtors in the nation at 194,964, and they’re all fighting for a tiny pool of sellers.
In a hot market, sellers find an agent. In a cold market, agents have to find a seller. Cold calling is time-consuming — and stressful, considering the ire it draws from those on the receiving end.
So, some agents are handing that thankless task to machines.
A handful of companies, such as Slybroadcast and Salesmsg, offer “ringless voicemail,” a robocall-adjacent tool enabling agents to send pre-recorded messages straight to a potential client’s voicemail box without their phone ever ringing.
In 2022, the FCC declared this trend a form of “robocalling” and said it was illegal if the caller didn’t have the recipient’s prior consent.
“I don’t have time to cold call all day,” said one real estate agent who asked to remain anonymous due to the potential taboo of using the technology. “I have to find clients somehow, and in a market like this, you have to get creative.”
According to the YouMail Robocall Index, U.S. consumers received more than 55 billion robocalls in 2023, 5 billion more than the previous year.
Roughly 15 billion were telemarketing calls, and 8 billion were scams. California ranks second in the number of robocalls, behind only Texas.
To respond to thousands of unwanted call complaints, the FCC has established a Robocall Response Team to combat the influx of robocalls, many of which are targeted toward homeowners.
Last year, the FCC shut down MV Realty’s robocalling campaign, which sent out robocalls with misleading mortgage claims.
A whistleblower from the company told a news outlet that employees were directed on how to use software called PhoneBurner and required to make at least 450 calls per day.
Other companies, such as VoiceSpin, give agents access to auto-dialing software, which, as it sounds, automatically dials numbers from a list.
VoiceSpin claims to use A.I. and machine learning and enables agents to drop voicemails straight into inboxes, record calls, or even use local area codes so owners are more likely to pick up.
In that case, you’d be talking to an agent, but sometimes, you might find yourself unwittingly conversing with a robot.
The tech company Ylopo recently uploaded a video showcasing an A.I. assistant conversing with a potential home buyer planning a move to the North or South Carolina coast.
The company said it’s “one of thousands of A.I. calls being made daily for Ylopo clients.”
Cinc, a real estate lead generation platform, offers agents an AI-powered digital assistant that purposefully misspells words and uses emojis to make interactions with potential leads appear more human.
The NAR offers an A.I. scriptwriter powered by ChatGPT that analyzes housing trends so that agents can appear more knowledgeable about the market. Agents can even choose the tone: professional, engaging, or conversational.
Earlier this month, the FCC continued its fight against robocalling by outlawing robocalls that use AI-generated voices. Since the ruling is so fresh, it’s unclear how companies utilizing the technology will be affected.
In a market as slow as this one, finding numbers to call becomes a challenge; tech becomes useless if wasted on the wrong potential clients.
So many agents are looking for leads.
To be clear, most agents in SoCal still conduct business the old-fashioned way. But the ones trying new things often do so to make a living.
In 2022, Realtors with 16 or more years of experience made a median gross income of $80,700, according to the NAR. But those with two years or less experience made just $9,600.
According to a report from business networking platform Alignable, 31% of real estate firms struggled to pay rent for their office in January.
A.I.’s subtle invasion of the real estate industry doesn’t surprise me, as A.I. has permeated nearly every profession over the last few years.
But for an industry that has long relied on human connection — handshakes, open houses, fresh flowers, and other personal touches —
A.I.’s cold, sterile seep into housing has become unnerving for some.
