ePerks- A Scam or A Gem?

1. There is nothing wrong to expect a return even if you pay one cent. Good pay per click campaign can bring you about 7000 visitors to your website and if your website is only able to convert 1% of those visitors into solid leads you can end up with 70 leads.

   It does not matter how much is spend, those who spend $50 are entitled to expect returns no matter how low those should be. From comments here we can deduct that many real estate agents are not too happy with the results.

   By the way, thanks every one of your honest feedback.

2. i wish i would of seen this first i paid with a credit card im going to use my credit card services to refuse the payment…………….

3. I am going through the same thing. Have you made any progess or are we just out of luck? EPERKS IS A RIP-OFF AND A SCAM!

4. It is against Oregon Real Estate License Law to offer “incentives”, “KICK BACKS” or other RESPA violations to buyers and sellers. The only referral fee arrangments which are valid are to licensed brokers/brokerage.

   I am reporting eperks, and the agents in Oregon to the Real Estate Commission. This type of pimping, and you whores that participate, erode the very system that you are working in. No wonder the buying / selling public has no faith and/or trust in Realtors. You keep cheapening yourselfs, and your services. Keep dreaming that eperks, or any other lead generator has your back . . . HA HA HA. They don’t. They are only making money, or trying to make money off your agents. And you idiots let them.

5. @Oregon Broker

   Thank goodness some one brought it up. For those Realtors unfamiliar with RESPA here is section 8:

   Section 8: kickbacks, fee-splitting, unearned fees

   Section 8 of RESPA prohibits anyone from giving or accepting a fee, kickback or any thing of value in exchange for referrals of settlement service business involving a federally related mortgage loan. In addition, RESPA prohibits fee splitting and receiving unearned fees for services not actually performed.

   Violations of Section 8’s anti-kickback, referral fees and unearned fees provisions of RESPA are subject to criminal and civil penalties. In a criminal case a person who violates Section 8 may be fined up to $10,000 and imprisoned up to one year. In a private law suit a person who violates Section 8 may be liable to the person charged for the settlement service an amount equal to three times the amount of the charge paid for the service.

   I have just recently received my license and I am surprised at those who praise ePerks- guys you better not cross my path in this business. To those who feel deceived by ePerks I have one thing to say- where was your brain?

6. First off I want to tell you how happy I’m am to see your passion for the ethics of our business, and going by the book. It will serve you well in your first years of real estate, and that’s the way all RE agents should be.

   I wanted to touch base on the RESPA sec 8 remark. Like the person above you said “The only referral fee arrangements which are valid are to licensed brokers/brokerage.” I do know that the rep I spoke to a ePerks is a licensed real estate agent, there for they can profit from the transaction. Just as an agent referral from one to another can profit. It is done in Texas all the time, and legal.

   I’m still not sure ePerks is the “real deal” as far as producing real leads, but guess I’ll find out very soon. I will let everyone know how it goes.

   Thanks
   Jill

7. Sure ePerks does not participates in “kickbacks” but all the “Realtors” on ePerks offer “kickbacks”

8. I am a Florida Based Real Estate Agent who signed up with both ePERKS.com and Propertymaps.com services. Here were my results Although propertymaps has a great site, and a lure of free leads 10, that is nothing as any of us seasoned agents know its take 200+ leads of these types to convert into sales . On the other I bought 2 exlcusives zips pre-launch with eperks.com and closed my first transaction with them this month so my 3 month investment of $300 paid off for me with immediate results as the potential buyers directly contact me thus providing a superior lead if you will vs spam leads that are unverified at propertymaps Here are my calculations on the 2 programs you can judge your self. Knowing that I would have to buy atleast 50 llive leads from propertymaps minimum with even the slightest chance to maybe land a customer which I did not. propertymaps would cost me about $1000 investment to maybe get one potential buyer or seller with my $300 investment with eperks a I have already closed a deal and have able & willing buyers & sellers contacting me directly . So you be the judge my choice is clear the results speak for themselves. Florida Broker..

9. Warning: The above message is left by some on associated with ePersk- maybe even an ePerks employee.

10. How did you come to this conclusion?

11. Well maybe this Virginia agents lacks propert closing techniques.

    Because I have closed 3 transactions in Virginia,MD,Pn off my ads on eperks.com

    Its a great program just novice agents expect immediate results realistically programs like this are a 1 year investment or more

    So plan ahead agents improve your profiles and content on the sites like eperks.com

12. I used to work for ePerks in Pleasanton and I have to say, the business model is good but the company structure is not. They have their sales people looking up realtors at google and on sites such as realtors.com. No CRM whatsoever. So if you have them calling you even though you’re already a customer, that is why.

13. I just canx my eperks account. I signed up with them when they first rolled it out. My broker also signed up with them and took 2 zip codes. While they were supposed to be exclusive eperks sent the same leads to agents who were on the regular plan and share zip codes with other agents. In two months I recived three leads. One which was a refi, one who is just looking and can’t qualify and one who never even aswered any emails or phone calls. After several converstaions and a lot of digging I’ve arrived at this conclusion. While the concept is great and the potential is there eperks has not done the advertising campaign that should have been done. they seem to be advertising as they get money from their accounts every month and using the agnt to cover their startup costs. After three months I closed my account and it was to close 9/30/07. I went into the account to check for activity on 9/28/07 and found that they had closed it 2 days early. While this may not seem like much it is the principle of the matter. I paid for a service and did not receive the service promised. I would urge all agents to think long and hard before investing your money in this service.

    1. This is exactly what happen to me and other agent I work with as well.

14. Terrible experience as well… they don’t return emails and canceling is becoming a hassle. I think it’s time that the Pleasonton, CA district attorney’s office looks into this one!!!!!!!!!!

15. maybe some areas are better marketed then others. I’ve been fairly successful with eperks. I’ve a member for just over a month now and have listed one home (hasnt sold yet 🙁 ) and have several prospects looking to buy shortly.

16. Linda,

    What state are you in? And how many leads from ePerks would you say you have had in that time? You didnt give a number in your comment. ALSO, how much of a rebate are you offering the buyers? ePerks starts it at 19%, but I see agent offering up tp 50% on the site.

    I just signed up with ePerks, but the feed back on this site has me concerned.

    Thanks!
    Jill

17. Jill,

    Im located in California. To date I’ve received 8 leads and 3 phone calls. I’ve been offering 15.5% cash back but may increase it a couple points. Good luck.

18. WOW, well great! I did sign up, and I’m on the site. However, I was very surprised when I found agents on there UP their cash back to the buyer at 50%. Of course ePerks only stressed their 19% fee (and 80% of that is what is rebated to the buyer), I wasn’t expecting to see agents offering 50% to the buyer (which is 53.5% total w/ePerks split).That means regardless of my zip code, if I’m not willing to match that agent in my general area offering the most back, I’m wasting my time/$$$ ….And ePerks collects my $130.00.

    They did tell me when you cancel you have to do it before the end of each 30 days, or it goes another 30 days automatically. I have the rep’s cell phone number, so I hope that will help me, sinc ea lot of you complaints were not being able to contact your rep.

    In my 5 years in RE, I have not ever used one of these referral companies till now. I finally try and this is what I get …. Well, there ya go!!

    I will let you know how it goes.

19. Im going to have to say its a gem. I have two zip codes exclusive. I’ve received several contacts and hope to have one close soon. Became a member in August. I agree that the site lacks in content.

20. I’ve left a few comments now, but I have a new major concern with ePerks. I was told by the marketing rep that signed me up; the zip code I bought was getting 24 leads a month. She went through several other zips and quoted me lead statistics, and based on that info I signed up.

    WELL, after the fact, I called all the other agents already signed up in other zip codes she told me about. They said they had received no leads so far. I called several different agents in different zip codes in Dallas/Ft. Worth. Not one of them had received a lead yet.

    NOW, how this possible if is what the ePerks marketing rep told I was true. I do believe she was quoting written figures, because the other agents were told the same figures. If no agents have had a lead, who is getting 24 a month?????

    Now that I know that the lead generation info I was given isn’t verifiable, I feel more like I was taken to the cleaners. Especially after hearing that some of you tried to cancel and they are still billing you. Did any of you cancel and not have a problem doing it? Not given the run around, and were not charged again after you cancelled. I sure would feel better know that some one cancelled and that was the end of it, no problems. Please Reply!

    I do hope this is just the sign of a new company with bugs that need to be worked out and not a scam as so many of us are feeling. It’s only been 3 days since I signed up, and I’m waiting to hear back from my account rep to go over these concerns (it’s the weekend). I’ll continue to keep you updated.

    Jill

21. Jill,

    Thanks so much for your feedback. All I can say it that ePerks spent way too much time and efforts on marketing the product while neglecting the product itself.

    They would benefit much from bringing on board real estate agents. I still think the idea is good, but as long as they go and lie about their product they are doomed.

    By the way, they also claimed that most of these comments are written by me and not by real estate agents. 😉

22. Well guys, I am going to try eperks.com. I know, I am a sucker. I will let you know what happens.

    Besides, when joining this forum did anybody else get confused by the human tester and place the numbers in the box instead of add them together:

    ? Please add 2 and 10. sorry, this is to make sure you’re a real person

23. John,

    Sorry about the math test. It really cuts down on “bot” spam.

    I hope this is just small inconvenience and none of the real estate agents have trouble to do the math, if you know what I mean 😉

24. John,

    Just to clarify. This page is not a forum, it’s part of the blog and there is no need to join in order to leave a message.

    The plugin in place wich protects from computer-generated spam. I am working on modifying it, I think + in place of and may do the trick. By the number of comments though on this post it does not look as if any one had a problem with it. 🙂

25. Jill, as far as the numbers that Eperks were quoting for the “leads” – I was initially told that these were going to be actual contacts, not just visits to my profile page in Eperks.

    After speaking to another representative I was told that these are their estimates based on historic sales data for the zip codes (they would have to assume that every home buyer was aware of their program). As far as I’m concerned their numbers are useless.

    I have received one lead to date, which was from someone looking for a 1800 sq. ft. home for $120,000. The prices here are three times that!

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