A regional real estate brokerage built its own platform instead of paying Zillow for leads.
A 14-agent brokerage was spending $6,800/month on Zillow Premier Agent leads — for leads that were also sold to 4 other agents. Building a proprietary search platform with MLS integration, lead capture, and CRM eliminated the dependency on third-party lead generation. Custom software as the competitive moat.
A real estate brokerage was paying $6,800/month for leads that were sold to competing agents, with no control over the lead quality, lead exclusivity, or the long-term economics of the lead dependency.
The brokerage's lead generation economics: $6,800/month to Zillow Premier Agent for leads in two ZIP codes. Each lead was also sold to 4 other agents in the program. The brokerage was converting leads at 4% — meaning they were paying approximately $1,600 per closed lead, before agent commission. The leads who converted were from buyers who had searched on Zillow and submitted an inquiry — meaning they were already in the purchase mindset.
The brokerage owner's insight: buyers in their market were searching Zillow because the brokerage had no alternative. If the brokerage had a property search platform with the same MLS data, buyers could search there — and leads from the brokerage's own platform would convert at higher rates (no competing agents, higher brand trust, longer relationship before the inquiry).
The build-vs-buy analysis: the MLS data feed for the two ZIP codes cost $200/month. The platform development was a one-time investment. The monthly cost of the platform vs. the Zillow program made the payback period calculation straightforward.
A proprietary property search platform with MLS data integration, lead capture, agent routing, and CRM — replacing third-party lead generation with an owned customer acquisition channel.
MLS data integration
Real-time MLS listing data for the target ZIP codes via a regional MLS data API. Listing sync every 15 minutes. Property detail pages with the full MLS listing data, photos, map, and nearby listing comparison.
Property search with filtering
Price range, bedroom count, bathroom count, property type, square footage, and lot size. Map view with listing pins. Saved search with email notifications for new listings that match search criteria.
Lead capture and routing
Property inquiry forms, showing request forms, and a "get a home value estimate" lead capture for sellers. Inquiry routing to the agent assigned to the ZIP code, with fallback routing rules. Lead notification via SMS and email.
Agent CRM
Lead pipeline for each agent: new inquiry → contacted → showing scheduled → offer made → under contract → closed. Lead activity logging. Next action reminders. The CRM built around the real estate transaction lifecycle.
SEO-optimised listing pages
Static generation for listing pages (Next.js `generateStaticParams`) with revalidation on MLS data updates. Schema markup for property listings. Individual listing pages indexed by Google, driving organic search traffic for "[neighbourhood] homes for sale" queries.
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
A proprietary property search platform with MLS data integration, lead capture, agent routing, and CRM — replacing third-party lead generation with an owned customer acquisition channel.
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
The business case was a defined monthly cost being replaced. Fixed price against a measurable monthly savings.
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Read moreQuestions, answered.
Organic search traffic built over 3 months. In month 1 post-launch: 12 leads from the platform. Month 3: 34 leads. Month 6: 67 leads. The conversion rate from platform-originated leads was 11% — 2.75x the Zillow lead conversion rate.
At month 6, the brokerage reduced their Zillow spend to $2,000/month (one ZIP code rather than two) and maintained the platform-originated lead volume with the freed budget invested in content and SEO for the platform.
A regional MLS that provides a REST API for member brokerages. The specific MLS varies by region — the architecture works with any MLS that provides a data API or a data feed.
$43,000 for the full search platform with MLS integration, lead capture, agent CRM, and SEO optimisation. 13 weeks.
The platform generates 67 leads/month at 11% close rate = 7.4 closed transactions/month. Average commission on a closed transaction in their market: $8,500. Attribution to the platform: approximately $62,900/month in commission revenue originates from platform-generated leads. The $43,000 platform investment has a measured 3-week payback period at maturity.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.