Foreclosure Radar Update

Sean O’Toole and the guys at ForeclosureRadar.com were nice enough to let me try out their new product, Foreclosure Listing Exchange(FLX). I’ve had it on my site for about 2 weeks now and I’m beginning to get a good amount of activity on it now.

At first, I only posted a blog about my new service and added a “Foreclosure” tab to my nav bar.  This unfortunately, didn’t do much at all.  SanDiegOh.com averages about 80 visitors a day and I quickly realized that this was not enough to get the FLX function to be noticed.  After a week, I sent out a mass email to my database, informing them of my new tool.  I instantly had people respond with “property info requests.” 

This was awesome!  For one, this showed me that people actually read my emails and two, that they were using the FLX function.  Within 24 hours, I had 8 requests for more info on specific properties – granted they were from clients I’d already been working with, but so what.

One thing I found though, is that the FLX charts and info are a bit difficult to understand if you’re not familiar with how Notice of Defaults, Trustee Sales and Foreclosures work.  I thought I was fairly familiar, but I was wrong.  For each property, Foreclosure Radar provides you with loan amounts, estimated value, estimated equity, sale amount, the winning bid….and much more.  It doesn’t look like the MLS info I’m used to analyzing, so this took some getting used to(as well as several calls and emails to their office).  On the other hand, customer support is incredible.  With each email I sent, I got an immediate response and when it was clear that I had no idea what was going on, they’d call me and walk me through the info.

Here’s my biggest complaint…

People have to request information from me.  When they run a search, they have to submit a request for more info, which I must research and then send them.  In addition to that, the request form isn’t just one click – it requires a full name, email and phone number(in the proper format).  Then when I look up the home, there’s no way to just send them a report.  I have to summarize it and email them from my personal account.  FLX does have an “export” function, but not all my clients are comfortable looking at an Excel CSV spreadsheet.

I know FLX has to be run this way since they are not the listing agents and there are IDX rules, but it is a pain – especially when my clients can search through the “regular” MLS on my site with complete autonomy. 

I think the best use for FLX is to A) use it as a marketing tool to get new leads B) contact home owners who have been given NOD’s or are in distress and try to list their homes C) research the distressed properties that your client wants to put an offer on.

I do like FLX and based on my experience, have found it to be the most accurate and updated source for foreclosures.  Whether or not my clients like it…well, we’ll have to see.