With more and more home buyers turning to the Internet to start the process, GainClients Inc., Tucson, Ariz., is bringing its integrated lead generation platform, Sikku, that ties together mortgage lenders, real estate agents and title and escrow companies, out to the forefront. There is even a social media component.
GainClients chief executive Raymond Desmond is a 35-year veteran of the mortgage industry where he is the founder of Nova Home Loans in Tucson, which has been the home of a number of the industry’s high volume producers as recorded in this and other industry publications.
The Sikku service, explained Desmond, is pronounced “seek you, like I am seeking you.” It came about eight years ago as he was looking at what path the growth of technology in the real estate process would take the consumer and Nova Home Loans in the future.
Today, over 90% of all homebuyers start their process on the web, before they see a realtor. But Desmond added, over 60% of buyers when queried by the National Association of Realtors, said they found their target to purchase through a yard sign.
With those facts in mind, he developed Sikku, a complete marketing system for real estate agents. “It generates new leads and referrals and is a tool to improve marketing time on listings. And what that really means is that it is all about buyers. That is what they are trying to capture,” he said.
Consumers can use the system for free to shop for homes and get instant information and quick responses from real estate agents.
The loan officer is connected to the whole process and helps to increase their capture and conversion rate on purchase business and develop and strengthen realtor relationships.
Because it is a purchase market, loan officers need to have a stable of real estate agents to work with, Desmond said. The title representative is also “a natural to be involved” with Sikku as the system helps them to increase the number of title search orders they receive, he added.
“Everyone is involved in the process from the moment the consumer is outside the home and texts or uses a smart phone to get that instant information from the sign,” he said.
The consumer can send a request on their cell phone by texting to 74558 (which is the numeric representation for Sikku.) They can also scan a QR code with their smart phone to make the connection and get information.
Within six seconds, they get response describing the property. At the other side of the deal, “the real estate agent and his favorite loan officer and their favorite title rep get a notification that the person is in front of the house.
“They can immediately respond to the person via text or they can call him because they have their phone number (although not their name) and they can invite (the consumer) into their network,” Desmond said.
So the consumer is now free to shop with any for sale sign in their city—they can change locations, he said; later they can go back to their home computer and log in as they would on a social networking site. It is an opt-in system, with the log in being their phone number; they also provide their e-mail address to get notified about available properties.
While online, the consumer can see flags on every property he or she visited and organize them based on their own criteria or priority and track them.
Meanwhile the professionals have their own dashboards with the clients invited into the system and track their behavior.
As for the social networking aspect of this, professionals can hit a button and have a listing posted on Craigslist, while the consumer can share information on Facebook, Desmond noted, adding, “It is a very social media-heavy product.”
Besides the lawn signs, professionals can incorporate Sikku into their print marketing efforts. Using the QR code will bring the consumer to a landing page of the professional’s choice and captures them as a lead source.
“It is a system that really has a lot of accountability in it. It keeps the professionals accountable in that they can watch what is going on with that buyer that is so important to everybody today. It is all about buyers again,” Desmond said.
Everything the consumer sees online is branded to the professionals affiliated with the property where they first made contact. “It’s all about the consumer but it is all about them connecting with the professional. We’re not trying to get rid of the professional, which a lot of places have hinted on over the years,” he declared.
Among the features consumers can use on Sikku is an MLS search. The goal is to keep the consumer on the Sikku site.
The mortgage section includes a prequalification short form as well as current rates.
A basic version of Sikku is free to the real estate agent, and for a fee of $9.99 a month gets a premium version with more tools.
It is a dynamic product, and Desmond keeps on working on improvements based on feedback he gets from the marketplace.
In late 2010, GainClients signed an agreement with Prime Alliance Real Estate Services LLC, for the latter’s 1,400 credit union members to be able to use Sikku.
Pricing for the service is based on the number of members each credit union has and Prime will share in the set up costs to enter new markets.
GainClients is also entering into agreements with title companies and banks for Sikku. Growth is coming from “all areas and it is quite phenomenal,” Desmond said. It ties together all the parties in the transaction and in the future could even include some other services.
