In this article you can read about the lead tool from PriceHubble, which we mostly recommend. There are a few important points about the implementation that you should take into account. If you want to know more about getting seller leads, you should read this article from us: Onlinemarketing for Real Estate agents.(only in German)
Pricehubble offers one of the solutions for an automatic price estimation for residential real estate. We have used the both their solutions. In this post, we give an overview of our experience. This tools is mainly used by real estate agents. It doesn’t work well for land.
PriceHubble is a company that was founded in Switzerland. It can give calculations for all German speaking countries. And I think they are expanding in other countries too.
We don’t recommend to use it without a strategy. So many real estate agents offer these forms that it is not real a unique solution.
Product overview
As a client of Pricehubble, you are given access to their API. That means that you can connect your forms with their API. If you don’t have the knowledge to set up an API, you can use their “widget”.
the product includes
- Real Time prices for real estate
- Automatic mails being sent to clients
- simple customization for your brand
As mention above, they have an API or you use their Widget
Are the prices realistic compared to what real estate agents estimate
Based on the estimations of 2 clients who tested it with different real estate from their regions, the prices are quite realistic. Because the price is given in a range, the correct price is in the range given.
Land is miscalculated
You get problems, if the real estate is a little unusual. For example, we noticed that land is not given enough weight in the calculation. If we take a house and enter 150 square meters living space and 1500 square meters land, it still takes the average price of the region, neglecting that the land itself much larger than the average and is very valuable in a region like Munich and it should maybe double the prices.
Since the data is not verifying, if the data from the users are in correct, it can also give false data. But is a general problem computers have.
75 % of prices are very accurate
PriceHubble compares prices were quite correct in 75 % of the estimations done by our clients, when they tested the tool. Some of our clients use the tool to make an estimation instead of using their usual methods. I think that is acceptable and offers a good reason why people should talk the agent.
PriceHubble Lead Generator – Widget
Installation is very easy. Once you sign a contract with Pricehubble and you give your details, you are sent a code that you just add to you website.
We only had a few problems to get the mails from pricehubble to be sent from our mail client. It took a few phone calls but they then set it up. Getting the automatic mail set up, was easy but it took a few attempts until all the text was adjusted to our taste.
Test their widget
When someone fill in the form, you also receive a mail that a lead has been gotten.
With very basic coding skills, you are able to get started.
We first tried it as using their “widget” but we stopped pretty quickly, because we were not able to adjust the form, and it didn’t work well on mobile phones.
Positive
- Easy to install
- No limits on the number of requests for appraisals
- Looks good on desktop
Negative
- Not really responsive, some views of the form are so big that one has to scroll up and down to use it.
- Data is not sent into a CRM, if you want them there.
- Conversion tracking limited to Google Analytics, not GDPR compliant, which makes it not good for performance marketing.
- In addition, because the form is loaded in an iframe, google doesn’t recognize that the user of the form is the same user on the site. This means that people who submit the form are classed as “new users” and not attributed to an advertising medium.
- One is unable to customize and maybe changes fields
- No custom calculations are possible. For example, some people like to show lower or higher prices depending on their marketing strategy.
Pricehubble API
In truth, Pricehubble is an API and the PriceHubble Lead Generator is really just a DYI, get started easy solution so they can sell their software to more agents. However the real magic is when you use the API.
The API offers many data points, meaning that you can make a form very simple or complex based on the exactness of price you want.
In some cases, we found that certain options didn’t affect the price, when it should have. We concluded that Pricehubble didn’t have enough data for the area and was not able to consider the datasets.
Example API Solution made by RUESCH.Tech
We used it to create several forms. As you can see here:
We also used it to create a custom form for “Erbpacht”, meaning that we took the data from Pricehubble and manipulated it based on the experience of our clients Rainer Fischer in Munich.
Erbpacht – Calculator
We ended up using this solution longterm as we didn’t have the problems mentioned about.
Of course that is quite time-consuming but in the end we got more leads and we were able to pump the leads directly into a CRM system and send them automatically to a call-center, to get the leads verified. That saves us time and increases the value of the tool.
The API is stable and the documentation quite clear. We did have a problem because our API requests exceeded 500 in 30 days. There appears to be a block on it, but the company fixed it for us.
Positive
- Flexible
- Can be adjusted to your needs
- Documentation is complete
- Developer had little difficulty to work into the system
Negative
- No cheap or easy
- Needs more regular maintenance
- Documentation only available in English
Is PriceHubble GDPR compliant?
As more companies are taking steps to keep up with GDPR rules, we have also taken a look at how PriceHubble handles this.
PriceHubble Widget is NOT GDPR compliant
While data is only sent to the server from PriceHubble once consent is given, the installation loads code and saves cookies which is not compliant.
As you can see on this page, the moment you load the page, many requests are made to the server of Google and PriceHubble. While one could argue that the requests to PriceHubble are legimate interest, the same can’t be said of Google. Take a look at the the requests:
- Google Analytics
- Google Fonts
- Google Maps
To be compliant, each of these things may only be loaded once the person has given consent. To avoid warnings from lawyers, I would not load the form on page load. Only when people click on a pop-up. That way the risk of a bot discovering the requests to Google are minimized. Better would be, if PriceHubble changed their form to load locally or server-sided.
In addition to the above, once these tools from Google are loaded, cookies are saved on the computer, which is no longer allowed without consent.
API Solution can be made compliant
Due to the nature of the API, one can use whatever technology of forms that one wants to. That means one can use a form which is loaded locally on one’s own server, which doesn’t use Google Scripts etc….
In the example of our forms given here, the forms are not compliant yet.
Summary
We will continue to use the product. It is stable and delivers what it should. For the future, I hope that it offers more data for land.
Since one is able to manipulate the prices and create one’s own calculator, we definitely recommend it.
GDPR is an issue and can’t be ignored. If you want to use the widget, you are taking a risk that you get fined.
