Do NOT do business with this company. They will put you in touch with agents that have success from their program. I am not even sure these are real agents. You will pay the money, they won't set any appointments (I received one phone consultation) over the course of 4 months and that was it. When I voiced I was unhappy with the service they suggested I send more leads, which I did but the results did not change.

Again when I said I was not happy with the results, or lack of, I stopped hearing from anyone completely! Spend your marketing dollars elsewhere. Not worth the battle or frustruation. Read ALL the reviews first, then believe them.

FACT: Prospecting isn’t new… nor is it complicated!

FACT: We have hundreds of clients that love the service that we provide. Clients that love the tens of thousands of dollars that they’ve made working with us! Anyone who is interested in our service can talk to as many of these references as they need to so they don’t lose out on taking listing after listings simply because a handful of agents out of hundreds choose to tell their one sided story on sites like this.

FACT: As I type this, we have over 300 agents in our prospecting schedule and by comparison we have had very, very few complaints.

FACT: In today’s day and age, most companies have people that complain on web sites like this. The only reason I took the time to reply was so that a handful of people with a single sided story can’t rob you of what others have called the single best investment they’ve ever made.

FACT: YOU ARE SMART! Simply read my reply and ask yourself… Does what I wrote make sense? This is my side of the story.

MY REPLY is very simple. Just think for a moment about what we do. We Call. We are telemarketers “calling” for sale by owners and expired listings. Prospecting isn’t complicated at all. If you’d like to see what our prospecting looks like watch this video…


http://fitzgerald-coaching-prospecting.blogspot.com/http://fitzgerald-coaching-prospecting.blogspot.com/

If you hired a telemarketer to work form your office, what would they do? What would you do? You would give them a list of people to call… they would call and set appointments and you’d make the presentation, handle the seller’s objections and get the listing. Right? Prospecting isn’t complicated.

So why do some agents that have a problem with this? We have set thousands of appointments for real estate agents there are four mistakes that agents make which end up causing them complain on sites like this. Decide for yourself who is at fault.

We do not want our telemarketers to be the real estate “expert.” That is the job of the agent. Our telemarketers do not discuss the current market conditions with a seller. Our telemarkters do not discuss home prices with a seller. Our telemarkters do not handle seller’s objections or answers a seller’s questions about the home selling process. We let the agent be the agent and we simply make the appointment.

This is an actual example of a typical appointment that was sent to one of our clients… then listed and then sold!

1. WHEN THE HOME SELLS, WHERE WILL YOU BE GOING?
Nana is already moved into her new home. She married her husband in August and they decided that he had the larger home, so they would move into his. Her home is now vacant, and she moved about a mile away.

2. IS YOUR HOME CURRENTLY LISTED WITH A REAL ESTATE AGENT? No. The listing expired at the end of February, and Nana was very unhappy with the results from her realtor. She thought about leaving the home off of the market, but decided against that because she is extremely motivated to sell.

3. HOW SOON WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE THERE?
Nana is already in her new home, and she wants this home sold as soon as possible.

4. DO YOU HAVE AN ASKING PRICE IN MIND?
$307,900. She would like advice on her asking price though. She told me that she thinks she may have been overpriced because her agent started her at $316,000. She wants to make sure she is priced where she should be to get the home sold.

5. HOW MUCH DO YOU OWE ON THE PROPERTY?
As of October, Nana still owed $171,000. She has still been making payments on the home, so it is less than that now.

6. WHAT WILL YOU DO IF THE HOME DOESN’T SELL?
She hasn't even thought about that option. Right now, she really just wants to get the home sold and be free from it.

7. ARE YOU INTERVIEWING ANY OTHER AGENTS? Not at the moment. Jeremy will be the first since her listing expired.
8. IF WHAT (AGENT) SAYS MAKES SENSE… ARE YOU PLANNING TO LIST THE HOME?
Yes. She is extremely motivated to get this home sold, so if she thinks that Jeremy will be more productive for her than her last agent, she will definitely re-list with them.

Again, prospecting isn’t new nor is it complicated. The four most common mistakes that an agent will make using our service are…

1. The agent is too BUSY to actually do what it takes to follow up with a seller and convert the listing. Expired listings and for sale by owners are being called by a lot of great agents every day. It is very competitive and our telemarketers have had to stand out just to get the appointment for our clients. We IMMEDIATELY send the appointment to the agent but if that agent doesn’t follow up right away and confirm the appointment… what do you think happens next? If the agent doesn’t call back for days or in many cases even weeks then the seller doesn’t even remember that we ever called or loses interest and cancels the appointment. Without diligent follow up… generating that appointment was a waste of time. This is a challenge for some of our highest producers. They may earn six and even seven figures selling real estate but if they are too busy to follow up with our appointments then they are not going to get listings. Most of our agents will follow up right away, solidify the appointment and take the listings.

2. The second challenge that can be a problem with some of the higher producers is that they are already “buying leads” from so many other sources. Some have hundreds of leads from in their systems form lead generation services, web sites and services, marketing services, mailing services, call capture services… etc. The bottom line is that those top agents have so many leads that they don’t value nor follow up diligently with the expired listings and FSBO appointments that we set for them. In most cases this type of agent couldn’t even provide any feedback on an appointments that we set for them because they NEVER even looked at the e-mail with the appointment to begin with.. I don’t have a problem with an agent having far more leads than they can handle but unlike these other sources of leads, my team may have spent 3 to 4 hours and invested hundreds of dials to finally set that appointment. If they are too busy to open their e-mail or follow up with the seller to confirm the appointment then they aren’t going to like that I hold them accountable for not doing their job. This is a partnership and they aren’t holding up their end of the bargain. Most of are clients understand that it takes a lot of hours, dials and contacts to set these appointments and the value them as such and take listings.

3. The most common problem that I’ve seen after setting thousands of appointments for real estate agents is that some simply don’t have the skill it takes to convert a prospecting based lead. The first question that we ask every potential client is have they worked with expired listings and for sale by owners in the past? They are not “come list me” referrals. It is not difficult to handle basic objections about the seller’s price expectations or the fact that the seller may have a friend in the business but an agent doesn’t want to hear that other agents are listing the same type of appointments day in and day out. It is easier to simply “trash” our appointments because the seller had some basic objections rather then educate the sellers and take listings. I’ve spent more than a decade coaching agents and the bottom line is that if they can’t help a seller see the benefit of listing with them then they are going to have to stick with working with buyers. There was an agent that posted that we sent him 52 appointments and he didn’t take a listing so the program is a scam. Never once did it cross his mind that he only helped prove my point. We can set the appointments but we can’t take the listings. Most agents in our program would have listed at least a dozen of the exact same appointments. Again, only a handful of the hundreds of clients we are prospecting for complain at all.

4. Finally, how about common sense! If you hire a telemarketer you’ll need to provide them with phone numbers... If you don’t want an appointment in a particular area, don’t put that seller on your list… If you want to be in the call schedule this week, make sure we have your numbers in time… We work on referrals so you will have to communicate when you take listings or we will stop calling until you do…

When an agent writes a post that says they only received a few appointments… they never tell you that they haven’t sent in their prospect list in months and ignored every attempt to get feedback on any listings they have taken. There is ALWAYS more to the story.

Imagine a site like this for your sellers. The seller wants way more for the home than it is worth… they refused all the advice you gave them about the market and price reductions but they still went online to complain that you didn’t do anything to sell their house and that people should beware of listings with you. You’d simply direct them to sellers who took your advice and were thrilled with your service! If you are still unsure about our service, e-mail me and I’ll arrange for you to talk to as many agents as it takes to see that they are making thousands and thousands of dollars with us and so can you!

Bob Fitzgerald
[email protected]


This is a copy of a recent communication attempting to coach one of our clients:

We wanted to follow up on our first post from June 2, 2011 with the current results from the Fitzgerald’s leads program. As a review we paid $5, 000.00 up front for the program. This was to get us 10 leads that we would then split compensation with the Fitzgerald group. A win-win program. We have continued to subscribe to Landvoice for Expired and FSBO leads at $60.00 per month. These leads are sent to the Fitzgerald group for their team to call. We wanted to give this program time to produce results and try to achieve a decent ROI. Fitzgerald did not produce enough leads to make that happen even though we’re in Arizona with our fair share of Expired and FSBO listings. As of this date we have received less than ½ lead per month and some of these leads when called advised us that they were not interested in selling their home. A couple of leads were terribly upside down, in financial distress, and it was too late in the game for a short sale. I do not expect the Fitzgerald team to identify that kind of detail but just saying that the lead was dead on arrival. We love the idea of the program. Get us the valid leads - Our probability of success rate is high, so we have a good chance to have a great long term business relationship with the Fitzgerald group.

Now for those of you that might say we did not follow up, etc., let me say that year after year we have been at a minimum, the recipient of the triple gold award. For those of you familiar with Keller Williams Realty you know what that means. For those of you with other companies it suggest that we are a successful team.

We’re very disappointed we could not make this work. The Fitzgerald program simply would not delivery on their commitment. One of my concerns during this time was that we received a call from another agent with another company in Scottsdale, AZ and they wanted feedback on Fitzgerald. They shared with us the Fitzgerald promised them multiple leads each week. I had to tell them that was an interesting statement because we were not even getting 1 lead per month and we would be competing for the same FSBO and Expired listings. I called Cheri Washburn, a manager for the Fitzgerald team and she advised that they add additional agents in the area based on the available leads and Bob Fitzgerald manages that process. I emailed Bob Fitzgerald a couple of times with no response. My last email to Mr. Fitzgerald was on Thursday, January 19, 2012, at 1:35 PM MST. Still no response.

We received another call from another KW agent here in the Valley and she was told that when she asked for a reference from someone in the Valley that they did not have anyone working this are so it would be a great opportunity for her. We did check several references for Fitzgerald before we started the program and they did not have anything negative to say so perhaps the program is working for some but certainly the leads do not exist here in Arizona or we should have received them as part of the Fitzgerald program.

We wish we would have checked with the Better Business Bureau as well. We would have seen the current rating. On a scale of A+ to an F with F being the worst score, they are showing an F. It would have at least been a red flag telling us to research them further before entering into a contract. If I were to use the same rating system I would also grade them with an F.

There is more to this but I will include that in my Active Rain blog with all the facts, figures, and the names of the other agents that called me that have given me permission to use their name in the article. I will not use any information from any of these person that cannot produce authentic documentation to substantiate their statement. The purpose of this will is provide our experience that we had with Fitzgerald. It will just provide another piece of information. Those who are looking for references of Fitzgerald will have ours to add to anything else they find so they can make their own decision.

In closing, we cannot recommend Fitzgerald and their leads program. Read our Active Rain blog and you’ll have a much better understanding with facts, figures and dates included. BBB Rating is attached in a JPEG file.

The ScottsdaleAgent Article written on 4/9/2012 author is as follows:
Jeff Daley
Keller Williams Arizona Realty
[email protected]
Voice: 480-595-6412

I wish I would of found this web site 5 months ago, before I wasted $5, 000. I have had the same issues. They have sent me leads and I have NEVER MET any of them. They won't call back or they say they are not interested in listing. I agree that they badger the seller to the point that they give in just to get off the phone. I would be interested in a class action lawsuit also. Lisa, I also am a Keller Williams Agent. 724-933-8636.

It's great that you have seen results but I think these other complaints show that the integrity of this company is in question. If you or I wrote a contract with a refund in it we would stand behind it. He does not. He hides like a coward and does not respond.

I know with the Internet that word travels quickly. Unfortunately, it is the negative that always takes priority, hence the "complaint" board. Where are all the "Praise Boards"? I have worked with Fitzgerald Coaching for almost 8 months. I can honestly say that it is a service I will use for the rest of my career. I know I have a strong skill set as an agent and if I can get in front of motivated sellers looking to sell their home, I stand an extraordinary chance to take the listing.

What I tell other agents who ask me if they should join the service is simple, if you can sell yourself, do a great listing presentation and are able to educate the seller on price, there is no reason why you shouldn't join. I would be inclined to think if you are even somewhat of a decent listing agent you already do this!

Additionally, to date I have taken 21 Listings and have closed 11, 4 sales pending, 3 that sellers won't agree to a price reduction and 3 are still on the market. The great thing is that the 3 that wont reduce their price will be replaced at no additional cost.

I purchased the 25 Listings/Closed transaction package for 10k, let's just say that my first deal I closed from my partnership with Fitzgerald Coaching was $388, 000. I made all but 700 dollars back on my 10k investment. The other 10 I have already is purely profit. I still have 14 closings left!

My family and I sincerely thank you Fitzgerald Coaching!

I have had the same issue with him. His contract states that he will give a refund if you are not satisfied but as soon as you complain all communication stops. This guy is a scam artist and with the help of the Internet will be out of business soon.

I am an agent in So. Car. and I can tell you one thing, Fitzgerald will take your money and that the end of their servics. In about 3 months I received about 4-5 leads that were worthless. I an searching for a plaintiff attorney, call me, if you would to join or with your thoughts.S.C Broker-John-843-503040