I signed up with House Values a couple of years ago and have regretted it since day one. After I signed up with House Values, my contact person explained to me that the purpose of their compnay wasn't to give consumers the actual value of their home (like H.V. Advertises on television). They are just a vehicle to get my foot in the door with homeowners who are looking to House Values to find out what their homes are worth.
I was told not to put too much work into attempting to place an actual value on the clients home. But, to use the homeowner's contact information to solicit them for business. While I have no problem using a vehicle to get more business, House Values obviously had no interest in giving the homeowners what they were promised (i.E., an easy way for folks to find out the value of their homes{again - like House Values advertises on T.V.]). The House values approach was - Ignore what they want! Just use their info. To try and sell them. I figured I would try and give the homeowners what had been promised to them - to the best of my ability - and then hopefully sell them on my services.
Okay. Sell who? How about one of my first leads... The alleged homeowner's name was, A. Person. That's right! First name... A. Last name... Person. Many of the so-called leads I received were for homes that were already under contract, or worse yet, the people didn't even own the homes.
After awhile I realized that I was not only wasting my time but, also the time of the folks that legitimately wanted to get what House Values promised. Although, I must say the legitimate leads were few and far between.
When I explained to House Values that their product was misleading and I wanted out, they told me I could pay half of the money on my remaining time with them. They also let me know that the offer they made was for a limited time. I then asked for half of the money back that I had already wasted with their company. I further let them know that my offer was only good for a limited time...
I have received hundreds fo calls from a collections company trying to collect on behalf of House Values. I have stopped trying to reason with the callers. I just don't answer or I hang up on them.
I did however, have an interesting conversation with one of the collections people a few months ago. He confided to me that he had heard many of the complaints I voiced to him about House Values from other real estate agents.
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