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OpCity Realty: What You Need to Know
Opcity realty is a referral service that provides high quality leads. They charge a 30-35% of your commission for them though if you get to closing.
Madison Clifton
Jul 24, 2020
Opcity realty is a relatively new lead referral service a part of realtor.com. The service has proven to provide leads that convert to clients 3-5 times more often than the industry average, which is pretty impressive. While that statistic may catch your eye, the cost of their referrals may not be as appealing. Opcity charges between 30-35% of the commission you make from one of their referrals as their referral fee. Yes, that is a high price to pay, but quality referrals may be worth it.
Read below to find out more about Opcity, and determine if you could benefit from their service.
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How OpCity Realty is Different
So, how was Opcity able to attain such a successful conversion rate? Well, the platform focuses on lead qualification rather than just lead generation. Lead generation is simply collecting leads. This involves real estate sites collecting information from their viewers, and then sending that information along to agents. The problem is that many people come across these sites that have no intention of buying or selling a house anytime soon. Therefore creating a gamble situation for agents who buy leads from sites strictly using lead generation. Maybe they will get a great lead, maybe they will get someone who was just surfing the internet.
Lead qualification goes a step further than lead generation. This method involves checking out the lead to ensure its quality. To do this Opcity has over 400 representatives who make contact with all the leads that come across realtor.com. Once they have found that a lead is actually ready for an agent, they offer their information along to one. Then only if the lead turns into a paying customer do they collect a referral fee (but remember that fee is pretty hefty).
Benefits of Opcity Realty
To Agents
Opcity takes most of the risk associated with buying leads away. With traditional lead generation you will have to pay for the referral upfront, and then spend time to screen and follow up with the lead in an attempt to convert them into a client. With Opcity you will receive a quality lead that has already been screened, and stated that they are ready to begin working with an agent. Then if you get to closing with them, you will pay Opcity a percentage of your commission. If you don’t reach closing, you won’t owe Opcity anything.
To Brokerages
You will undoubtedly receive a monetary benefit from using Opcity if your agents are closing more deals from using it. The more your agents make, the more you make. In addition to the monetary benefits though, Opcity does offer a few more benefits to brokerages. The platform takes care of some of the time consuming tasks you are faced with. They will complete the following:
- Follow up with leads
- Assign leads to agents
- Monitor sales performance
- Monitor follow-up processes
When you utilize this service you will pay a small fee per lead, and then a reduced percentage to cover the rest of the referral fee once the lead reaches closing. Not to worry though, you can still expect the same high quality leads that are promised to individual agents using the service.
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Pros of Opcity
Many users claim that the platform is very user-friendly, but undoubtedly the primary pro of Opcity is the high quality leads you can expect to receive from them. Both agents and brokers are able to have peace of mind that they won’t be wasting their time chasing down leads that were never ready to for an agent in the first place.
Cons of Opcity
The first con of Opcity is the extremely high referral fee they charge. 30-35% of your commission is quite a bit. Especially after taking out any fees owed to your brokerage or costs of doing business. The math might still work out in your favor though if Opcity costs you less than your current lead generation strategy, especially when factoring in the time you take chasing bad leads.