Opcity vs ReferralCloud

A comparison of Opcity vs ReferralCloud.

Opcity is a Realtor.com owned lead generation company for real estate. ReferralCloud is a real estate agent powered referral coordination network. While both appear to do the same thing, give clients to real estate agents for a referral fee, there are many differences between the two companies. It is important to understand the difference from a real estate agent perspective.

What are the Differences in Referral Fee?

Opcity charges a 35% referral fee at closing. ReferralCloud charges a 30% referral fee. While 5% may not seem like a difference in referral fees, there is a substantial difference from a perspective of where both companies get their referrals from. Since the ReferralCloud referral comes from an agent in the platform, 25% is paid back to the original referring agent. So the agent who placed the referral still gets 25% plus they get an inbound client referral on top of that. We will discuss that after a detailed explanation of how each company gets its leads/referrals.

Where does Opcity get its leads from?

Opcity doesn’t actually have “referrals” in the sense that most real estate agents understand. They have leads. There is a big difference between a lead and a referral. The different to Realtors is that leads tend to be much more work, a longer time frame and also a much lower chance of closing. Go on any real estate agent Facebook group and start a post entitled “Are Opcity leads any good” and see what the comments are.

The problem isn’t that Opcity is trying to make life hard for agents. It’s that they are trying to make money. They make money from buying leads from various sources, as well as leads that come through the Realtor.com webpage just like Zillow is selling leads that come through their site for their Premier Agent Program. Zillow also uses their “Zillow Flex” to try and copy Opcity’s model of extracting more money from agents. Opcity has a robust intake funnel of leads that get submitted into their system from a multitude of places. Some of these include OpenDoor plus many other sites where prospective buyers put their contact information in.

Where does ReferralCloud get their Referrals from?

ReferralCloud gets its referrals from other agents. 100% of the referral assignments in the portal come from agents, who are also in the portal. The reason they are called “referrals” and not actually leads, is because they aren’t random inquiries about a house. They are vetted by the agent that put them in the portal in the first place. Furthermore ReferralCloud doesn’t sell the client information once they are in the portal. Only one agent is assigned the referral and if for some reason the agent can’t work with the client (not in right area, outside agent’s expertise, etc) then it gets reassigned to another agent.

Once a referral is put in the platform, there is an area where the agent can provide updates about the client and their home selling or buying process. These updates are visible to both agents, the agent that gave the referral and the agent that accepted it. Also the ReferralCloud admin team is also able to see to better track the transaction and make sure that at closing the agent that placed the referral is given their 25% referral fee. The system automatically prioritizes outbound agent for future assignments in their market.

Opcity vs Zillow Flex

Opcity (Realtor.com) is a lead generation source that provides real estate agents with potential closings, provided the agent is willing to sift through an indeterminate number of leads until they find someone that is willing to buy. It is highly likely that these potential customers are also talking to Zillow Flex and Zillow Premier Partner agents because they are actively putting their information on real estate websites. It is also likely that these are either assigned to numerous agents, or frequently reassigned and recycled since Opcity has a strong intent to get paid for these leads to recoup their purchase costs. Only Opcity knows the conversion rate of these leads, but it is likely much less that 10% and likely even closer to the 2-3% that NAR has quoted as a conversion rate for online leads.

One benefit to real estate agents is they do not have to come out of pocket for these leads. So if they end up being “dead leads” they are effectively free. The downside is that real estate agents are not used to working extremely hard to sift through a bunch of “leads” to find a buyer or seller, and then also pay a 35% referral fee on top of that.

Zillow Flex and Opcity are actually very similar in all ways. They get leads from their own sites and buy other leads, they give those leads to agents for a high referral split and both have low closing ratios because they are not agent-sourced exclusive referrals.

Advantages of ReferralCloud vs Opcity

ReferralCloud has a couple advantages over Opcity. They are easily categorized and compared in a few different categories: cost of referral, quality of referral, source of referral, bonus for having a closing.