HouseValues.com Ripoff Leads Scam - How can they call these leads, Kirkland Washington

My hometown newpaper had a link to "find out how much your house is worth". I have no desire to sell, but clicked on the link anyway. Out of curiousity. I had to enter my home's info, and check the boxes. All the boxes asked the time frame that I wanted to sell (the longest being in 12 months), so I clicked that one. Then, at the end, the website stated I would be contacted by a realtor with the value.

Had I known that a realtor would contact me, that the value wasn't just an approximate amount generated by a computer, I would have never wasted the realtor's time running my CMA.

So, now HouseValues can state they gave the realtor a lead when, in fact, I really am not a viable lead.

Like a fool I fell for the sales pitch of HouseValues' JustListed.com buyer lead program. I was told I would close approx. 20% of my leads. I was fed the same crap about working the leads 6 to 12 months. I was also told that all leads were verified by whoever signed up clicking on a link in their email to confirm that their email was valid. However, my first lead did not have a valid email address! (Red flag #1.) So I began doing a web search for housevalues scam and was overwhelmed with all the complaints I saw. (Red flag #2) I began finding good articles and complaints and printed them out. I also found a copy of the court documents from 2007 where the state of Washington sued Housevalues over cancellations and bogus leads. (Red flag #3 and the clincher) It was at that point I typed up a letter to send and emailed the same info demanding immediate cancellation of the contract. I also filed a complaint online with the Washington State AG's office which in less than 3 days already had sent the compaint to Housevalues. Just a day later I got an email from housevalues stating my contract had been cancelled and my login was disabled. I avoided this potential costly nightmare. Luckily I caught their scam before any damage was done to my bank account and it only took a week from the time I signed on to the time the cancelled my contract.
For anyone caught up in this mess I urge you to cancel the credit/debit card you gave them. next file a complaint with the AG office in Washington State. Send them a certified letter demanding cancellation based on their misleading people with deceptive sales practices.
Good luck and I think we all have learned a lesson here: Never get into contracts over the phone and always do your homework before even calling a company that offers a price per lead system.

Like a fool I fell for the sales pitch of HouseValues' JustListed.com buyer lead program. I was told I would close approx. 20% of my leads. I was fed the same crap about working the leads 6 to 12 months. I was also told that all leads were verified by whoever signed up clicking on a link in their email to confirm that their email was valid. However, my first lead did not have a valid email address! (Red flag #1.) So I began doing a web search for housevalues scam and was overwhelmed with all the complaints I saw. (Red flag #2) I began finding good articles and complaints and printed them out. I also found a copy of the court documents from 2007 where the state of Washington sued Housevalues over cancellations and bogus leads. (Red flag #3 and the clincher) It was at that point I typed up a letter to send and emailed the same info demanding immediate cancellation of the contract. I also filed a complaint online with the Washington State AG's office which in less than 3 days already had sent the compaint to Housevalues. Just a day later I got an email from housevalues stating my contract had been cancelled and my login was disabled. I avoided this potential costly nightmare. Luckily I caught their scam before any damage was done to my bank account and it only took a week from the time I signed on to the time the cancelled my contract.
For anyone caught up in this mess I urge you to cancel the credit/debit card you gave them. next file a complaint with the AG office in Washington State. Send them a certified letter demanding cancellation based on their misleading people with deceptive sales practices.
Good luck and I think we all have learned a lesson here: Never get into contracts over the phone and always do your homework before even calling a company that offers a price per lead system.

Like a fool I fell for the sales pitch of HouseValues' JustListed.com buyer lead program. I was told I would close approx. 20% of my leads. I was fed the same crap about working the leads 6 to 12 months. I was also told that all leads were verified by whoever signed up clicking on a link in their email to confirm that their email was valid. However, my first lead did not have a valid email address! (Red flag #1.) So I began doing a web search for housevalues scam and was overwhelmed with all the complaints I saw. (Red flag #2) I began finding good articles and complaints and printed them out. I also found a copy of the court documents from 2007 where the state of Washington sued Housevalues over cancellations and bogus leads. (Red flag #3 and the clincher) It was at that point I typed up a letter to send and emailed the same info demanding immediate cancellation of the contract. I also filed a complaint online with the Washington State AG's office which in less than 3 days already had sent the compaint to Housevalues. Just a day later I got an email from housevalues stating my contract had been cancelled and my login was disabled. I avoided this potential costly nightmare. Luckily I caught their scam before any damage was done to my bank account and it only took a week from the time I signed on to the time the cancelled my contract.
For anyone caught up in this mess I urge you to cancel the credit/debit card you gave them. next file a complaint with the AG office in Washington State. Send them a certified letter demanding cancellation based on their misleading people with deceptive sales practices.
Good luck and I think we all have learned a lesson here: Never get into contracts over the phone and always do your homework before even calling a company that offers a price per lead system.

Like a fool I fell for the sales pitch of HouseValues' JustListed.com buyer lead program. I was told I would close approx. 20% of my leads. I was fed the same crap about working the leads 6 to 12 months. I was also told that all leads were verified by whoever signed up clicking on a link in their email to confirm that their email was valid. However, my first lead did not have a valid email address! (Red flag #1.) So I began doing a web search for housevalues scam and was overwhelmed with all the complaints I saw. (Red flag #2) I began finding good articles and complaints and printed them out. I also found a copy of the court documents from 2007 where the state of Washington sued Housevalues over cancellations and bogus leads. (Red flag #3 and the clincher) It was at that point I typed up a letter to send and emailed the same info demanding immediate cancellation of the contract. I also filed a complaint online with the Washington State AG's office which in less than 3 days already had sent the compaint to Housevalues. Just a day later I got an email from housevalues stating my contract had been cancelled and my login was disabled. I avoided this potential costly nightmare. Luckily I caught their scam before any damage was done to my bank account and it only took a week from the time I signed on to the time the cancelled my contract.
For anyone caught up in this mess I urge you to cancel the credit/debit card you gave them. next file a complaint with the AG office in Washington State. Send them a certified letter demanding cancellation based on their misleading people with deceptive sales practices.
Good luck and I think we all have learned a lesson here: Never get into contracts over the phone and always do your homework before even calling a company that offers a price per lead system.

Seems you got the same lies as an employee that we got as consumers... I dont think you understand the situation very well... We signed a contract to get verified leads. In most of the responses here, like me, the leads were either junk or made up... It is my personal feeling that HouseValues is actually creating these false leads in order to keep us on the hook. I commend you for not signing up agents with unrealistic expectations, however to have an expectation that the promise contained within the contract is NOT unrealistic, in fact it is required BY the contract, and there is where HouseValues is in breach. So, maybe YOUR info thru HouseValues was authentic, but in the 5 months I was with that crap company, I got NOT ONE!!!

As a former Account Executive of the company, and someone who has held a real estate license, it was hard to read everyone's frustration. I worked for HouseValues for 9 months, and for any Account executive (sales rep) to say that they LIED to agents to get them to sign up, well, I am completely disappointed, but not surprised. When I worked for the company, it was stressed REPEATEDLY by my team lead and our Sales Manager that under no circumstances should we ever lie to get someone to sign up.

In fact, we were ROUTINELY e-mailed and talked to about common "misstatements" that would come up on the sales floor. Do SOME AE's lie to get someone to sign... YES, unfortunately. The AE pay structure is commission and quota based, so there is some "incentive" if you are wired that way, to lie to make quota.

I fell short of quota most months while I was there. In fact, I had agents I would talk to who sounded like they were wanting to see transactions in the first 60 - 90 days and I would refuse to sign them up based on their unrealistic expectations. For the record, I only left HouseValues because my husband took a new job. I was not fired, my job was not in jeopardy, I was not lying to agents.

Let me say this... prior to my joining HouseValues as an AE, I WAS one of those home selling leads. I was thinking of refinancing my home, and said as much on the form that was sent to the agent who got my lead.

Guess what? I never heard from that agent. Guess what else? I had to sell my home 6 months later when a family emergency required I relocate to Washington state, and I subsequently joined Housevalues. For those of you who wonder why, if I had my license, I would need an agent. I worked in the multi-family industry, and did not have access to the resources I needed to list my own home.

So, for all you folks who think HouseValues is a SCAM and who are investing a lot of time ranting, raving and trying to form class action lawsuits, form credit card disputes, etc. I suggest you take a deep breath and re-evaluate what your expectations were when you got into it. If you were promised something like a magic bullet, shame on you for believing such a thing exists. THERE IS NO EASY ANSWER.

Real Estate is a tough tough business. You may want to rededicate yourselves to the system houseValues offers, and has seen success with. Try doing business the way Housevalues suggests, instead of thinking you are smarter than what they have created.

Is the system for everyone? NO. Can it work? YES. And, by the way, they have a new lead guarantee, where you must receive working info from your leads or they can be removed from your system. Again, take a deep breath and try working with the reps there and you may find solutions to your problems.