Equifax, a data and analytics firm best-known for handling credit scores, announced Thursday that it has created a new lead generation tool to help real estate agents win new clients.
The company calls the product “Lead Accelerator,” and in a statement framed it as a response to research indicating most would-be home buyers simply go with the first agent that they talk to. In that context, Lead Accelerator is meant “to help agents become the first contact for prospective home buyers,” Equifax added in the statement.
Tyler Sawyer
Tyler Sawyer, Equifax’s vice president of rental and real estate, also indicated that the product is a direct response to a younger, more digitally connected home buying demographic.
“If 79 percent of millennials use their phones at least three hours a day, you can guarantee they will expect a technology-driven home buying experience that is fast and intuitive,” Sawyer said in a statement. “In order to meet this demand, real estate agents need sophisticated data and analytic tools at their disposal to move at lightning speed.”
Lead Accelerator specifically works by using Equifax’s proprietary data to give real estate agents insights into the leads they receive. Using those insights, agents can then prioritize which leads they want to focus on.
The tool has “modules” that provide insights in three categories. First, the personal wealth module provides “anonymized insights” regarding a lead’s “financial capacity and estimated household income,” according to Equifax’s statement.
Second, the property value module “uncovers property data to determine whether a lead is likely an existing property owner or a prospective first-time home buyer.”
And third, the propensity score module “identifies the likelihood that a lead will purchase a home within the next six months,” the statement added.
Equifax calls this approach “intelligent prospecting” and argued in its statement that agents “can expect improved productivity and a reduction in time spent with leads by as much as 75 percent” thanks to the new tool.
“Lead Accelerator enables real estate agents to qualify leads faster using data to make prioritization decisions; utilize the propensity score to help understand a lead’s transaction likelihood; and convert more leads to closed deals by identifying and prioritizing top lead clusters, connecting the right buyer to the right home,” Sawyer also said.
Equifax did not say in its statement how much Lead Accelerator costs, or if it integrates with other systems — such as customer relationship managers (CRMs) — that agents might already be using. The firm also did not immediately respond to Inman’s request for additional information.
Though Equifax is a huge company with thousands of employees, it is perhaps best-known among consumers for a massive 2017 data breach that exposed millions of Americans’ sensitive information. The breach created significant blowback for the company and resulted in a critical report from senator and n0w-presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.
However, Equifax also offers a number of products related to fraud prevention, workforce management, credit monitoring and many other services. Earlier this year, Bryson Koehler, the company’s chief technology officer, also joined the board of real estate giant Realogy.
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