SmartZip Review: How Does It Work?

In today’s digitally advanced world, strategic real estate lead generation is the secret to creating and maintaining a healthy pipeline of leads. It can be done organically through referrals from friends and family, or via advanced lead generation platforms like Smart Zip. 

The platform uses predictive analytics to generate lead lists of high potential sellers and claims to have a set of automation tools guaranteed to ease lead nurturing. Is it really worth the hype? 

Learn more about it, in this Smart Zip review. 

• What Is SmartZip?
• Who Can Use SmartZip?
• How Does SmartZip Work?
• SmartZip Competitors
• SmartZip FAQ
• Final Thoughts About SmartZip

What Is SmartZip?

SmartZip is a leading data-driven marketing solution for real estate professionals, mortgage providers, and other related industries. 

The platform combines big data with advanced SmartZip analytics to generate high-potential lead lists allowing realtors, wholesalers, and other real estate professionals to improve overall marketing efficiency by reaching the right people, at the right time. It generates smart data which includes important contact information such as the phone number and property condition allowing users to easily reach out to prospects. 

SmartZip also includes a set of multi-channel marketing automation tools that drive smart, targeting lead nurturing, enhancing the success of a real estate professional’s marketing efforts. 

SmartZip is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Pleasanton, California. It’s a rapidly growing startup backed by renowned conglomerates like Intel Capital, Crest Capital, and Cue Ball Capital among others. 

SmartZip opened its doors in 2008 under founders, Avi Gupta, Ashutosh Malaviay, and Jason Tondu but was acquired by Offrs.com and the Constellation Real Estate Group in 2019. 

The platform’s popularity has since grown in leaps and bounds, and it even has companies like BoomTown, Homes.com, and other reputable names reliant on Smartzip analytics. Learn more about each of its features below. 

Who Can Use SmartZip?

Although SmartZip offers a set of tools that can potentially enhance every real estate professional’s marketing efforts, and lead nurturing processes, the platform is better suited to realtors, and real estate investors who:

• Are looking to establish themselves as experts, and primary authorities in a particular rei firm
• Are new to the business, and looking to generate effective lead generation lists, and simultaneously build their business on listings
• Want to maximize marketing efficiency

Note that most of SmartZip’s innovative features come at an additional cost from basic package costs. Also, new users are required to commit to a 12-month contract, making the platform more ideal for agents, investors, and rei professionals who are serious about lead generation and nurturing.

Where Does SmartZip Get Their Customer Data From?

SmartZip gets its customer data from up to 25 different sources. Primary sources include 

• Multiple listing services websites
• Search engines like Google
• Social media platforms like Facebook
• Credit card companies 

How Does SmartZip Work?

SmartZip comes with an array of features each designed to enable Smartzip users to achieve certain goals. Find an in-depth review of each feature, and how it works below:

SmartZip Home Value 

Proper property valuation is of the essence if a real estate professional is to earn good returns from an investment property. SmartZip’s home value feature eases property valuation by automating it, consequently eliminating the need and costs of a physical appraisal. 

The Home Value feature has a proprietary automation valuation model (AVM) which uses different mathematical algorithms to generate instant, accurate market values for over 100 million properties in more than 70,000 neighborhoods across the country. 

Smartzip’s AVM mathematical algorithms evaluate important investment property variables such as transaction history, monthly rent, comps, listing history, and even an area’s demographics to accurately determine and generate a specific property’s overall market value. 

It also evaluates real estate data on different levels from the state, and city to a neighborhood area. As a result, the resulting value isn’t just highly accurate, but also helpful to a Smartzip user trying to determine whether a property they’re interested in is worth the investment. 

For investors looking to invest in properties in a non-disclosure area, SmartZip’s AVM uses existing mortgage data, and transaction prices from homeowners with public records to generate an accurate market value estimate. 

It also borrows and adapts data from publicly-available market values of properties with similar features, or in similar geographical areas to generate property value estimates. For instance, if a user is trying to determine the market value of a 3-bedroom home in a non-disclosure area in Wisconsin, SmartZip’s AVM borrows and adapts data from other 3-bedroom properties in the area to provide an accurate estimate of the home’s fair market price. 

SmartZip’s Home Value feature also boasts the neighborhood-level house price index. This feature further enhances the value of real estate marketing strategies such as real estate farming by comparing how the same homes perform in different market conditions.

For example, if a wholesaler wants to invest in a mansion in California, but isn’t sure whether it’s profitable, they can use SmartZip’s NHPI to determine its market value in different past markets. If it has been on a constant decline, then it’s not worth the investment.

Note, unlike most AVM SmartZip’s home value AVM uses actual sales over listing prices to generate average property values. This makes it more reliable since a home is usually worth the price potential buyers are willing to payout. 

Reach150 SmartZip 

A few years ago, referrals from friends, family, and colleagues is all it took for a motivated seller to trust the services of a realtor, wholesaler, or any other real estate professional. Fast-forward to this digitally advanced era, home buyers and sellers still rely on recommendations but in the form of online reviews from past clients. 

Generally, generating and using these reviews to market a real estate business takes a lot of time and effort but with SmartZip’s Reach150 feature it’s so much easier. It offers agents and investors templates they can use to prompt new, existing, and past clients for reviews. 

With Reach150 users can also create websites specifically optimized for Smartzip reviews. They can then use these websites as an element of social proof when marketing their services to potential sellers in new markets. 

Even better, Reach150 enables users to incorporate online reviews they collect into their marketing ads, providing the much-needed social proof the modern-day seller or buyer expects before they can transact with a real estate business. 

Smart Targeting 

Smart Targeting is one of SmartZip’s most desirable features. It uses the platform’s generated smart data to build automated marketing campaigns across different platforms such as direct mail, and email marketing. 

This automates repetitive and unavoidable follow-up tasks in every marketing campaign such as calling, texting, and emailing every new lead conversely saving time, and enhancing productivity. Although they’re typically automated, note that SmartZip users have the option to review every campaign before it’s sent out to ensure it fits their brand image and marketing goals. 

Besides automated follow-up marketing campaigns, smart targeting also allows all users, whether tech-savvy or not to create customizable, branded landing pages to reach potential home sellers in new markets. It also launches marketing ads on social media platforms like Facebook, and reputable search engines like Google, further enhancing a real estate professional’s outreach efforts. Simply put, Smart targeting automates monotonous marketing campaign processes, increasing the user’s productivity, while simultaneously expanding their reach. 

Check out this quick video below that talks about SmartZip Smart Targeting!

Other SmartZip Features:

Sphere

Reaching out to past clients is often a hassle for most seasoned real estate agents as it often means browsing through contact lists trying to figure out who’s who. With SmartZip’s sphere targeting, the task is less taxing as one only needs to upload their past lists, and SmartZip’s analytics will automatically identify clients you’ve worked with, and who among them is likely to sell their property in the near future. 

Audience Builder

With this feature, users can create customized marketing campaigns for each of their target audiences. They simply need to define the geographical area they want to target using SmartZip’s mapping tool, to generate a list of all viable contacts within the area and then hit send to share their customized marketing mails.

SmartZip Outreach 

Sometimes qualified listing leads are lost because you didn’t contact them soon enough. The Smartzip Outreach program aims to ensure this doesn’t happen to its users. It offers access to a team of inside sales agents(ISA) who make calls and reach out to targeted homeowners on behalf of the user. 

These agents use scripts designed to non-invasively determine whether, and when a targeted property owner plans to sell. Once they identify an opportunity, they immediately transfer it to the SmartZip user for follow-up. And if a property owner plans on selling in the future, this team of inside agents handles lead nurturing on behalf of the SmartZip user, until the home seller is ready to close or speak about listing. If the property owner shows no signs of selling, the agents will first try to generate referrals before completely disqualifying the targeted homeowner from the user’s lead pipeline. 

SmartZip Outreach saves time and offers users a competitive reach by allowing them to reach out to potential sellers before anyone else. It also greatly eases marketing for solo real estate investors, and professionals looking to generate more quality leads, but lack the time, or cannot afford to hire an in-house team. 

SmartZip Competitors

SmartZip is an innovative predictive analytics tool, but not the only one in the market. Here is how it fares against similar platforms:

SmartZip vs Zillow 

Zillow is a popular web-based marketplace for real estate buyers, sellers, and even renters. It allows sellers to list and market their homes directly, and even work with an agent. The platform also boasts Zestimates, a tool designed to allow sellers to evaluate, and determine the market value of their properties. 

Although Zillow estimates are highly valuable, SmartZip’s home value tool offers more value to its users when it comes to identifying possible property values. SmartZip home valuer uses an AVM with mathematical modeling to assess real estate data on different levels and features a wide array of variables that greatly enhance the quality of each property’s market value estimate. 

It also includes a neighborhood house price index, yet another innovative feature designed to enhance the quality of property value estimates by evaluating, and comparing how a specific property’s market value fared in different market conditions. 

Read Also: Zillow Premier Agent Review

SmartZip vs Offrs 

Offrs is also a Constellation Real Estate Group Product, and similarly, a platform geared towards easing lead generation through big data, and artificial intelligence. Besides predictive analytics, Offrs packs nearly all features available on Smartzip.com such as Reach150 for SmartZip reviews, customizable online ads and landing pages, digital and print marketing tools, and a real estate CRM. 

The primary difference between the two platforms is pricing. While Smartzip offers monthly, semi-annual to annual subscription plans, Offrs pricing is more A La Carte meaning you can buy only the features you want. In a nutshell, both platforms are pretty powerful data-driven marketing tools for real estate, and whether to choose the former or the latter depends on individual budgets and preferences. 

SmartZip vs Redfin 

Redfin is a real estate brokerage platform for buyers, sellers, and even mortgage borrowers. It pulls its listings from MLS databases and allows buyers to find properties using filters like zip code, price, and square footage. SmartZip on the other hand is a comprehensive and data-driven marketing platform for real estate agents, investors, mortgage lenders, and other related industries.

It offers users more value by providing lead lists of motivated sellers, and high-quality market values. If you’re only looking to buy a home, Redfin is ideal, but if you’re looking to buy an investment property, and market it, SmartZip is the way to go. 

SmartZip FAQ

How Much Does SmartZip Cost?

SmartZip does not disclose any pricing information on its website meaning real estate agents and other professionals have to call in for a quote. However, based on our research, online user reviews, and mock sign-up, the company offers a basic subscription at around $40 a month, $450 semi-annually, and $984 annually while its other products come at an additional cost. For instance, to access the Smart Targeting feature users need to part with about $1000 while Reach150 costs $30 per month. 

The basic plan features a SmartCRM, seller predictions for up to 50 contacts, 4 lead capture websites with your branding, and allows users to reach up to 150 recommendations. It also includes access to a library of up to 400 postcard design templates, and a variety of marketing campaigns including direct mail, online and Facebook ads campaigns, and email drip campaigns. 

Note, SmartZip pricing plans are solely based on the target market size, and the median property values meaning subscription costs might vary monthly. Also, for all subscription plans available, the company requires its users to sign up for a 12-month commitment contract. 

Can You Get A SmartZip Promo Code?

SmartZip doesn’t offer any coupons on its website but you can find plenty of SmartZip Promo codes online on reliable sites like DealsPlus, Dealsportr.com, RetailMeNot, and Slick Deals. These sites partner with retailers, and brands like SmartZip to aggregate tested and verified coupon codes and sales. Also note, during our mock sign-up process, we noticed SmartZip does offer first-time user discounts. We got 52% off the semi-annual plan, and 57% off the annual subscription. 

How Accurate Is SmartZip?

SmartZip uses a proprietary algorithm to collect, and analyze real estate data from about 25 different sources including MLS, and search engines like Google. The platform accurately predicts about 72% of all its listings. 

Who Owns SmartZip?

SmartZip is a private for-profit company under the management of Avi Gupta. The company was initially founder-owned, but some of its main assets including SmartTargeting, and Reach150 were later acquired by the Constellation Real Estate Group (CREG), lead generation, marketing, tech, and transaction management company for real estate.SmartZip is another one of CREG’s recent real estate marketing solution acquisitions after Offrs.com. 

How To Register In SmartZip

Go to Smartzip.com, click “Login” on the upper left-right of the homepage, and then select create an account from the drop-down list to register as a SmartZip user. You’ll be redirected to a sign-up page where you input your personal and billing information. 

How Often Is SmartZip Real Estate Updated?

How often SmartZip real estate data is updated depends on the data type, source, and purpose. In general, SmartZip’s patented AVM(Automated Valuation Model) and pre-mover ranking data are updated monthly, while other forms of property information are typically updated in real-time. 

Final Thoughts About SmartZip

SmartZip uses a proprietary predictive analytics algorithm to identify and generate lead lists of high-potential sellers. With such lists, investors get a competitive advantage since they can now focus their marketing efforts on listing leads with a high probability of selling. It also includes smart targeting, a feature designed to ease marketing by creating automated marketing campaigns. 

And if you’re looking to establish a real estate farm, SmartZip lets you identify the most profitable areas by providing highly accurate home values of each market you plan on targeting.

The catch? SmartZip marketing data isn’t exclusive. That means users often get the same data if they’re targeting the same area. It’s a yearly-commitment requirement that also makes the platform expensive, especially for first-time users. 

But other than that, SmartZip is an innovative real estate marketing tool worth adding to your tech stack as a real estate professional as it allows you to reach the right people, at the right time.