This company is profiteering from the slow real estate market by targeting real estate agents with big promises for referral clients and lead generation in exchange for a $3500-$3950 entry/set up fee for a service that is worthless.
Here's the scam: The agent gets a phone call asking if they will accept a referral client, which any agent will certainly accept. They are instructed to call a number later that day for a conference call about the "client." No such client exists; the conference call is a sales pitch for becoming part of their network. Jeff Guthrie, ostensibly the owner, conducts the conference call and makes sure to drop the name of established companies like housevalues and zillow in the pitch. The angle is that the agent was handpicked to be part of the network and that they are getting in on the ground floor of something big, which will refer them tons of real estate clients from their powerful internet presence.
According to his website, "The Real Estate Advocate was founded by Jeff & Patsy Guthrie in response to a negative experience they had when buying a home... Jeff and Patsy knew that if they were going to find their dream home - at the best price and best terms then they needed to be represented by a top-notch Real Estate Professional the REexpert... After going to many, many real estate referral web sites, the Guthrie's realized that the real estate agents that these sites recommended were NOT great agents (they were sub-par or average at best). After doing some research, the Guthrie's learned that virtually all of these real estate referral organizations would take ANY agent who signed up for their program - and who agreed to pay them for their referral services."
Ironically, The Real Estate Advocate won't accept any agent unless they pay for entry as well - $3500 or two installments of $1950. A survey of those in the program in our metropolitan area shows their experience level to vary from newly licensed to experienced, making Guthrie's program utterly no different from those he decries on his website.
After the conference call, various pressure tactics are employed by the follow up staff on agents who are intrigued by the pitch. The fee buys exclusivity for certain zip codes, pays for the supposed elaborate setup of the internet sites (which are actually quite sparse, simple templates a 10th grader with a basic HTML skill could create for 20 bucks), and of course, the promise of more business than the agent can handle in spite of the tough housing market.
Thereafter, agents get a "newsletter" email encouraging them to spend even more money to accelerate their results with pay per click services.
5 months after being contacted by Mr. Guthrie's staff (no one has been able to reach Guthrie himself), none of the agents in our market area have gotten so much as one lead or referral from this expensive program, and none of the websites they paid dearly for are anywhere near the top of the google search.
The area agents therefore call shenanigans on Jeff Guthrie, The Real Estate Advocate, and RE Experts for this deceptive subterfuge.
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