After co-founding real estate search site, Roost.com and acting as its CTO, Alex Lange has now taken his talent to Market Leader as their CTO. Alex is a strong contender in the real estate industry as well as in the tech field and is a certifiable tech junkie.
Alex’s unique background includes his start as an Army paratrooper and intelligence analyst, Business Systems Engineering at Wells Fargo, he’s consulted at Charles Schwab and the City of Los Angeles, was the Chief Technical Architect at IKON, VP of Art.com/AllPosters.com and currently serves on several Advisory Boards from RealAgile to KONA.
Formerly known as HouseValues, Market Leader celebrated its 10th year in the business last year. According to Market Leader, they “provide real estate agents, agent teams, and brokerage companies with subscription software and advertising products that enable them to generate a steady stream of prospects, as well as the tools and training they need to convert these prospects into clients.”
Market Leader (an AG advertiser) is seemingly on a path of expansion and growth via reorganization and branding campaigns.
When asked about his new role, Alex told me, “I’m excited to join an organization that has such strong focus customer satisfaction and performance. We have aggressive plans toward improving the platform, consumer facing sites and most importantly… lead conversion. Stay tuned for details…”
About Alex, Market Leader CEO Ian Morris said, “His deep technology experience and real estate domain expertise will be invaluable as we extend our category leadership.”
Lani is the COO and News Director at The American Genius, has co-authored a book, co-founded BASHH, Austin Digital Jobs, Remote Digital Jobs, and is a seasoned business writer and editorialist with a penchant for the irreverent.
Erica Ramus
October 5, 2010 at 10:03 pm
I posted this on Active Rain tonight:
Thanks for the update but I this makes me cringe and honestly makes me question my involvement here.
I did try ML. They were on here years ago giving free trials to some members, in exchange for glowing blog posts. I read them
I signed on to a trial. Immediately I felt it was a mistake. In my rural market, I had to join an adjoining MLS to participate. I did this.
I tried to explain to ML how buyers here search (by school district not by town). They promised to fix this in next upgrade. They did not. I sent emails explaining how in our area we needed a few things changed in the search. They ignored my emails.
I explained how the search had to change to be effective to me and they did not reply. I sent email after email. I called. They just said NO IT IS NOT THIS WAY in other parts of the country, we cannot comply.
I cancelled.
All real estate is local. What works in your area might not work in mine. They ignored me. I was not impressed and I wasted money.
I will never trust or like Market Leader.
This makes me question my involvement here. I do not trust or like Market Leader.
I am distressed by all the news the past weeks. I cannot absorb it all. From Realtor.com to Zillow to AR to Market Leader. What the heck is going on????
Lani Rosales
October 5, 2010 at 10:16 pm
“From Realtor.com to Zillow to AR to Market Leader. What the heck is going on????” There is a lot of shuffling right now, it’s a part of the natural growth of companies, we’ll see a lot more of it in 2011, I’m betting.
Bruce Lemieux
October 6, 2010 at 8:44 am
I tried ML a few years ago as well. It didn’t work for me, so I’m not a fan either. When everything around me seems to get out of whack, I put my head down and focus on my business, clients and leads. Everything else is just noise.
Paula Henry
October 6, 2010 at 9:19 am
Bruce – that is the secret to success!
We do have a lot of companies vying for our attention and $$$. I tried House Values years ago and definitely not worth it. I only pay for what is mine, not what another company promises.
Candiance Jones
October 6, 2010 at 2:39 pm
I agree with you here. I signed up for ML and was with them when they were Housevalues. A much better business model. Now they are only interested in getting your money for very little assistances. I just recently dropped my contract with them after they squeezed close to 300 more dollars out of me. They are not worth the $180 or more that they charge. I was with HV for 9 years and loved the service. I wish I would have checked them out ML on the BBB first; twelve months wasted.
Paul Zubrys
October 6, 2010 at 11:34 am
Market Leader is a perfect example of a good thing gone bad after a corporate acquisition. Realtygenerator, when run as a startup, was a great solution. The developers would implement suggestions and make changes based on individual requests. I’ve since moved on to custom solutions and BoomtownROI.
Janie Coffey
October 6, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Have to agree with everyone here. We tried ML for at least 18 months. They won’t segment your leads in any way that makes sense, they won’t tell you how they market or how they get your leads, you can’t target the proper demographic for your business and the junk just keeps coming. I cannot even tell you how many conversations I had with them. Maybe thing will change now with a new CEO, let’s hope so. The backend of ML is really terrific, it’s just their lead sourcing is going to ruin a good application. Prime example of NOT listening to your customers…