About two and a half years after launching its agent referral network, real estate technology startup OJO is now debuting two new lead generation programs — including one geared to the highest-performing teams.
Chris Heller
The company calls the two new programs OJO Pro and OJO Pro+. Both programs build on OJO’s existing referral program, which provides live lead introductions and concierge service, among other things, to both teams and agents. However, Chris Heller, OJO’s chief real estate officer, told Inman that in the case of OJO Pro+ the goal is to work exclusively with just a handful of top performing teams in each market.
“We partner with those teams on a very deep level,” Heller explained.
That specifically means teams participating in OJO Pro+ will get bimonthly calls with success managers, data insights that track the program’s return on investment, and exclusive introductions from OJO’s referral network, among other things. Users interact with the program via a web-based app that works on mobile or desktop computers, and which includes a “performance dashboard.”
Two images showing the user interface of OJO Pro+. Credit: OJO
Jerimiah Taylor, OJO’s vice president of real estate and mortgage services, told Inman the intended target for the program are “the top teams in any given market looking to reserve a share of opportunities.” That means OJO plans to limit the program to between two and five teams in any given market.
Jerimiah Taylor
The company began quietly rolling out OJO Pro+ in late March and today has about 200 teams signed up, Taylor said. The company envisions growing to about 500 participating teams by the end of the year, with potentially even faster growth taking place in 2024. Taylor said the company has already had inquiries from nearly 1,000 teams interested in participating, though OJO is being selective with who it signs up.
OJO Pro+ uses a hybrid payment model. Users will pay an upfront “platform fee,” as well as a “success fee” based on leads that turn into closed deals. The company tailors the program and its costs to the needs of each team, so the fees vary considerably. But Taylor said current participants are typically paying between $3,000 and $5,000. However, the smallest participating teams are paying in the neighborhood of $1,500 while the largest are paying as much as $50,000.
One thing that can influence the price is how many referrals teams want. Among other things, OJO generates leads via residential search site Movoto, which it acquired in 2020. However, unlike other online lead generation programs, OJO uses a call center staffed by actual people to receive and vet leads. The company can then connect would-be real estate consumers to agents on a live phone call.
Teams using OJO Pro+ sign up for six month contracts.
OJO Pro, the other new offering from the company, is a similar product, but geared to individual high-performing agents. The service is structured similarly, with both a monthly platform fee and a success fee. The fees are tailored to the needs of the participating agent, though they are generally lower than those that teams using OJO Pro+ are paying.
Like OJO Pro+, OJO Pro provides users with lead referrals, a concierge service and data that keeps track of ROI.
The launch of the new products comes as competition for agents’ business is fiercer than ever. Companies such as Zillow have long pulled in significant amounts of revenue by sending consumers to agents. However, more recently other companies, such as CoStar, have been encroaching on the incumbents’ turf. Competition intensified as the market shifted over the last year; with fewer deals to be done and fewer consumers able to close a deal, the value of leads that actually generate revenue has only increased.
Against that background, OJO has positioned itself as unique, arguing that the quality of its leads — thanks to its human vetting and ability to connect people live, among other things — offers a competitive advantage.
OJO also believes that the new Pro and Pro+ offerings allow it to build stronger ties to the agents it serves, which further boosts the company’s value proposition.
“We want to create these partnerships,” Heller concluded of the teams using OJO Pro+, “and have long lasting relationships with them.”
