Market Leader Review 2024: Prices, Features, Reviews, and Alternatives
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In this review we’re going to talk about an all-in-one system that real estate agents are using, what all the hype is about, and if it will actually live up to our expectations.
The solution we’re going to delve into is Market Leader.
Market Leader is a competitive option for an all-in-one system. They have everything from PPC lead generation, to your more traditional mailers. While they have all the bases covered, they are going to be better for some than others.
This review will help you decide if Market Leader’s tools, pricing, and overall product offerings are going to meet your needs. We also uncovered a few things that might surprise you, so stick with me for at least a few minutes to determine if they are going to be one of your top contenders.
Quick Summary of Market Leader
Market Leader is a one-stop solution for nearly every step of the lead generation process. You’ll get:
- a website builder
- CRM
- marketing automation
- and more…
They’ll also bring you leads through SEO, PPC, and social media.
They take a unique approach to generating and engaging leads. With Market Leader your leads are viewed as potential life-long clients, not just a one time transaction. Their CRM and marketing automation tools were designed with this in mind to keep the conversation and relationship going strong even after their first sale with you.
Their CRM will keep you organized with alerts and intuitive features that help you know when to engage leads. A nice bonus is the fact that it is very user friendly and has a good amount of automation to make your everyday life easier as well.
The enticing thing about Market Leader is that you’re given a certain monthly volume of leads. We’re going to go over how they can do this in this review, along with other features that may or not be beneficial to you, but we’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Market Leader Features
Like I mentioned before, I think you’ll be pleased with all the features Market Leader offers. The top ones that really stood out to us were their social media leads (Network Boost), exclusive seller leads (HouseValues), Leads Direct, user-friendly CRM, and an enhanced mobile app. Let’s dive into these features and the benefits to you.
1. Network Boost
Market Leader offers Network Boost as an add-on, but it is a very powerful tool in getting the most out of your social media leads. They can bring you an average of 25+ leads for just $399, every month. The thing I really liked is, the leads are exclusive and targeted to your local market.
Once they bring in the leads, Network Boost also offers automated nurturing with things like an 18-step drip campaign and listing alerts that meet your leads interests to keep them engaged.
A nice perk – their nurture solutions are done by the digital advertising experts so you don’t have to worry about managing and optimizing your campaigns either.
I love how Network Boost works. It’s so simple.
- People looking through their social media in your local market see your ads in their feed.
- If they click the ad it will automatically populate info in the lead form which gets sent straight to your CRM.
- And bada-bing bada-boom auto nurture is kicked on, and you only have to step in once the lead is ready to engage.
Bonus – this feature is reasonably priced, so the add-on won’t break your budget!
Why it’s useful: Obviously it’s a perk just to get extra leads, but I think the real benefit here is that these leads should be more qualified and they are going to get nurtured for you. That’s often the problem with more leads – not having enough time to take care of them.
2. HouseValues Exclusive Seller Leads
Market Leader’s HouseValues for exclusive leads feature is a unique way to increase your seller leads. I love this feature for a few reasons, with the biggest one being that the leads should be very motivated.
They capture home sellers through free home valuation offers on HouseValues.com. When they go to get a home valuation they fill out required information which gets passed to you. Think things like, their listing time-frame and more property details. And, the personalized home valuation is generated with Market Leader’s built in CMA tool.
A huge benefit is that the leads in your desired zip codes are exclusive to you. Basically you can own an entire zip code of leads. Plus, you get a predictable number of exclusive leads ever month, which can help alleviate the worry about adding this to your budget.
Why it’s useful: Getting motivated sellers before another agent does can be tricky because it is definitely a race to be the first person in front of them. If you can hook them during their initial search, and without them even realizing it, you might get a leg up above other agents.
3. Leads Direct
Leads Direct will bring potential clients to your branded website by having their PPC ads direct house hunters from Google, Bing, and other search engines to you. A big benefit with this is that you only pay for actual leads. Meaning, you don’t waste your money on the looky-loos.
The leads have to enter their info after they have checked out 2 or 3 of the properties you have showing. All that info goes straight into your CRM so you can get started nurturing them. You’ll also get alerted when you have a new lead.
Why it’s useful: Paying for leads can feel like gambling since you don’t know how many people just browsing you will get. You’re still going to have to do that, but this will at least give you an avenue where you have some assurance it’s motivated leads.
4. User-Friendly CRM
Something that sets CRM’s apart from one another on the most basic level is whether they are user-friendly or not. Market Leader’s CRM is definitely one that people have less trouble operating.
They have tons of automation and good tracking to help you know when people have been on your site, and what properties they are viewing. It integrates with your website, marketing center (making all that automation successful), MLS, and 40+ lead sources.
All that integration takes a lot off of your plate.
Why it’s useful: For me a good feature is anything that makes your life easier. So, between the automation and the fact that it’s not a challenging CRM to use, you should get some time back to focus on making money, which is a win.
5. Enhanced Mobile App
To be totally honest, some mobile apps aren’t even helpful, so I get pretty pumped when I find a good one. That being said, Market Leader has done a good job with their app.
Their biggest focus is speed to lead, which is really important in real estate. Their app gives you real time notifications for new leads along with contact information and additional lead insights. Your reminders are organized so you can easily stay on top of the most important ones first.
They also offer a variety of ways to search through your leads. For example, looking for leads by name may not always be the most efficient, so in their app you can toggle between recent activity or campaigns/groups.
Plus, you can reach out to the lead via text or email right from the apps contact section. I liked that the emails are synched with your desktop CRM to keep you organized.
Why it’s useful: Being on-the-go is a big part of being a real estate agent, but it can make staying organized and on top of your stuff harder. An app (as long as it’s well thought through) is a good solution to help with the on-the-go and have everything in one easily accessible place.
Market Leader Pricing
Market Leader is not as transparent as some with pricing on their website, and you do need to speak to their team to really dive into the cost for you and your team specifically. But, let’s go over some of the basics.
For starters, it is one of the more affordable options out there. Market Leader Pro is for individual agents and starts at $139 a month plus roughly $25 per lead based on location. With it you’ll get support, websites, CRM, content library, marketing automation, email and text alert blasts, and their mobile app.
The Market Leader Teams option will give you support, websites, CRM, content library, marketing automation, email and text alert blasts, mobile app, and team performance details. To have all of this for your growing team it will cost a little more per month. In addition to a base package price you want to account for additional fees per team member each month.
- $79 per user for up to 4 team members
- $69 per user from between 5-10 team members
- $59 per user for more than 11 team members
You can get a %10 discount if you go with an annual plan over a month to month option.
Outside of their two main offerings, you can also add on Network Boost for around $399.
Biggest Pros
Now to the good stuff, the benefits of going with Market Leader. The biggest benefits that stood out to me were their marketing automation tools, the lead generation guarantee, and that they’re a more affordable option.
They offer some great marketing automation tools.
Their multi-channel automation tools will truly lessen your workload. In addition to your run of the mill automation most competitors offer, they have automated direct mail options, birthday and anniversary card options for past clients, and robust automation options for each of your listings.
You’ll get a lead volume commitment.
This is one of my favorite benefits from Market Leader that you won’t get with many competitors. Not only are you given a certain monthly volume of leads based on how many leads you can support, they’re exclusive to you.
To offer a set amount of leads would lose some of its luster if they were not just for you, so Market Leader knocked it out of the park here.
They offer their platform at an affordable.
All of the features Market Leader offers come at a cheaper price than most of its competitors. This is especially beneficial for individual agents starting out, and teams that have a smaller budget to still get some bang for their buck.
Biggest Cons
Even though they have proven to be an overall good product, there are still some things that could use improvement. Namely, a lack of customization options, 6 month contract commitment, and less features than some competitors.
There’s limited customization options.
This may not be as much of a con for some agents that are just starting out, but for more seasoned agents the lack of customization to tailor everything to their liking can be frustrating.
You’ll have a 6 month contract commitment.
A time commitment for a product you’ve never used can be a little daunting for some. Especially when some of the competitors are offering a free trial period to let you decide if they’re a good fit.
They have less features than some competitors.
While Market Leader will get you everything you need, they don’t have quite as many bells and whistles as some of their competitors. This can be a deterrent for some agents that are looking to take their marketing to the next level with additional features.
There’s no built-in dialer.
This could fall under the less features con, but I am pulling it out because a number of their competitors offer this. Since phone calls are integral to real estate marketing, the lack of a built-in dialer means you might have to then partner with someone else that can integrate with Market Leader’s CRM.
Who’s Market Leader best for?
Like all products, Market Leader is better suited for some more than others. Let’s take a look at the people that would get “most likely to succeed” in the year book if they went with Market Leader.
It’s great for individual realtors who are balling on a budget
This is who Market Leader mainly targets their product to – solo agents. It’s more affordable and simple to use, which helps solo agents from a time management perspective.
It’s great for newer small teams looking for a more simple user-friendly product
The user-friendly aspect to Market Leader’s product is a win for newer agents but also teams if they are smaller. Before you can run you have to learn to walk, and Market Leader can help you get ingratiated with all the tools you need as a realtor.
It’s great for agents that want to streamline their marketing with automation to save them time managing campaigns.
With all of the automation they offer, your time can be freed up to focus on growing your business and closing deals, all while Market Leader is still bringing you in leads and nurturing them.
Who’s it not good for?
There are some groups of people that Market Leader will not be a good fit for. If you fall into one of the below categories you should probably take a look at the Market Leader alternatives.
It’s not that great for larger teams
While larger teams can use Market Leader, it’s not necessarily the best choice for them. There currently isn’t as many features to help streamline larger teams workflow, or keep them as organized on the backend.
It’s not that great for agents that don’t want to commit before giving them a try
If you’re a real estate product commitment phobe, and want to really know this is the product for you before signing up, this may not be a good fit. There’s no trial period and you have to sign at least a 6 month contract.
It’s not that great for teams that need more customization or tons of features.
While they’ve got just about everything you need, the lack of features like a built-in dialer, or limited front end customization for your website, are missing from their offerings. If you want these things all in one place they may not be your best bet.
What other users say
Many people have reviewed Market Leader, and it seems to be quite the mixed bag of happy and less satisfied clients. What stood out more was how hard the pendulum swings in terms of the admiration or frustration that users have in regards to their experience with Market Leader.
The people that have had a good experience praise Market Leader’s CRM and how easy their products were to use. Those same users enjoyed the simplicity (others may call lack of customization) of the backend that enabled them to make quick changes.
On the flip side a number of users were not as happy with their lead quality after a while, stating that the set number of leads was nice until the quality deteriorated. They also had issues with the contractual amount of time they had to stay with Market Leader.
While most of the compliments and complaints of this product align with our findings, it was interesting to see the number of people that had lead quality complaints as time went on. The set number of exclusive leads is very enticing, but the quality has to be there as well.
Market Leader Alternatives
Best All-In-One Solution
- Best-in-class technology
- Easy to learn platform
Best Lead Gen System
- Easy to learn platform
- Best-in-class technology
Best Budget Leads
- Get leads instantly
- Integrates with dozens of technology platforms
If you’re in one of the categories of agents that Market Leader may not be the best for, it’s good to know some alternatives that could better fit your needs. There are a handful of other companies whose strengths may be Market Leaders weaknesses and vice versa.
- Real Geeks – While they’re also more tailored to individual agents they do offer more customization, and additional features.
- BoomTown – If your budget is not tight, and you’re looking for a high-end website that integrates with your CRM this could be a good fit for you.
- Sierra Interactive – Here’s another good option for teams. They’ll require a larger budget, but if lots of features and customization are your focus, they could be the solution.
The Final Verdict
Market Leader isn’t one size fits all, but the users it does fit, it fits them well. They’re user-friendly and have great automation tools to lighten their users workload. And, while you may not get the level of customization as you would with some other products, you’ll get an effective website and CRM to meet your marketing needs.
Plus, their add-on features will bring you even more leads without breaking the bank.
If you are still wanting to learn more about how Market Leader stacks up, you can look at how they compare to other CRM’s or lead gen options. It may also help if you dove a little deeper into their pricing for your specific needs as well.
