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Takeaways
- Inquiso helps agents and investors find hard-to-locate property owners.
- It also offers investing and sales coaching opportunities.
- Another entry in the “every house is for sale” trend in real estate tech.
The pitch
Inquiso is an online search tool to locate phone numbers and contact information for property owners.
Top selling points
- Bull’s-eye: Inquiso provides several points of contact for a property owner, similar to a debt collection service.
- Numbers game: Each search result provided by Inquiso includes a percentage estimate of the result’s accuracy.
- Don’t distress: With distressed sales slowing, tool could keep you above the market in this category.
Type of software: Sales
Platform: Browser agnostic, mobile-responsive
Ideal for: Real estate agents who work with investors or who have reason to contact owners of off-market properties
Things to consider
Inquiso’s services do not result in you violating the Do Not Call list. But you need to be a savvy sales professional to overcome the nature of this cold contact tactic.
The close
Tax records have proven effective in gathering basic data on a property and its ownership history.
But more counties around the country have caught on to that tactic and now use access to property tax records as a revenue stream.
If a home is under an LLC, data miners are provided one more barrier to reaching the deed holder. Most agents don’t have the bandwidth to probe much deeper.
Thus, many just end up leaving a letter on the doorstep; the more brazen and experienced are OK with knocking.
Inquiso’s search tech is the alternative to that process.
The online property ownership search tool lets you type in an address and get a phone number. Usually, many phone numbers.
Each number provided is labeled with an estimated percentage of accuracy. However, sometimes the number with the 45 percent chance of being right manages to be the one.
Other Inquiso results include lien information, business contact data and a number of other crucial property details that can help you get more than a foot in the door.
Plenty of tools like this exist, but Inquiso’s mixes a secretive formula of search tools to produce what it calls a “creepy good” cocktail of property ownership information.
Agents need to use this information carefully, of course.
While all of what Inquiso provides is uncovered in the public space, many people are not at all ready to field calls from real estate agents.
This is why it’s a tool best for traditional, seasoned real estate sales professionals who can combine tech with old-school assertiveness.
Inquiso provides a list of numbers, even those of the neighbors.
Phone calls are certainly more immediate than direct mail. Calling also greatly improves your chances of reaching the actual owner instead of a tenant.
Naturally, uninterested sellers become future leads, if handled correctly.
I envision Inquiso as a powerful tool for specific property outreach efforts. For example, if you have information about a potential nearby development or know of soon-to-be-public reasons why residents will want to sell.
I also see it as a good way to task new agents with farming communities in which a team lead recently closed on a house. It’s more immediate than direct mail.
Inquiso could also help agents beholden to specific coaching programs who encourage cold calling instead of marketing budgets.
Inquiso has room to grow, and I was told that’s the intent. There are plans to build a library of members’ listings and also brokerage licenses for larger companies to offer Inquiso to agents.
Do you use Inquiso — and what do you think? Leave a comment and let us know!
Do you have a product for our tech expert to review? Email Craig Rowe.
