‍Placester vs. Real Geeks- Pros and Cons

If you're an agent who wants to grow your business, Real Geeks and Placester are both very strong contestants worth checking out. They offer various features and tools, but they also have some key differences. Real Geeks is explicitly designed for lead generation, while Placester focuses on providing a complete real estate website solution. But which one is a better fit for your real estate business? Let’s compare their offers to see.

Pricing

Real Geeks

• The pricing list starts at $299 for monthly service, which grants access to one or two users. You’ll pay an extra $25 monthly for each additional user and a one-time $250 startup fee.
• For this price, you get an IDX-enabled website with the Real Geeks CRM and access to their vast library of how-to's & strategy guides effectively using our tools. You can also add Facebook ad marketing features, which start at around 600 dollars. 
• There is an additional payment for extra modules, such as Geek AI ($200 per month), Brand Boost ($300 per month), Traffic Blaster ($300 per month), Real Leads (Price: Tier one starting at $500/month (Facebook) $600/month (Google & Bing)
• There isn’t a free trial, and if you want to learn more or start straight away to launch your website, you have to fill out the form and set up a DEMO meeting. 

When you calculate the costs of all modules, the overall amount might be surprising, but considering what you get for that money, that is not so bad. Where Real Geeks should be more competitive with pricing is when your team or brokerage hits a higher number. For example, if your brokerage has 100 members and you have to pay additional for each user, you may want to search for another provider since you could have up to 100 members on the account for a flat rate.

Placester

• Pricing is transparent: you can see how much you pay directly on the website: https://placester.com/pricing. 
• There are no hidden fees or payments and a 20% discount on annual plans.
• Placester offers 3 plans:

• There is a 30-day free trial in the Do It Yourself (DIY) plan (no credit card required), and you have 7 days free that will be spent on building your website by our experts if you choose one of the DIFM (Do It For Me) plans.
• An IDX is optional, so the lowest package refers to the website without an IDX (you can add it for $25), but the price is very low for the market standard.
• If you decide to move your website to Placester on the DIFM (Do It For Me) plan, you won’t pay $500 of a one-time setup fee. The best thing is that the transfer is smooth and hassle-free, and Placester does it for you, so you don’t need to worry as every bit of your content is migrated, and your website isn’t down if you want to know how it works or start your website transfer - BOOK a quick call with us. 

Features and Functionality

Real Geeks

The real estate platform helps agents and brokers connect with potential clients. It offers lead capture, lead management, and a native CRM. While Real Geeks can be a valuable tool for agents, it has drawbacks. One downside is that the platform can be expensive, and its design is not always competitive.

Real Geeks allows you to tailor your website, marketing, and email marketing tools to your needs. However, customization can also be a downside, as changing things once you've set them up is challenging. It is not a substitute for paying for an actual marketing strategy… but it’s a good starting point for a brand-new agent looking to save on cash. Still, if you’re a busy agent who isn’t tech-savvy but needs added marketing for your large and productive team, Real Geeks may not be the best solution. 

In the basic package, Real Geek products include:

• IDX Real Estate websites
• Lead Manager CRM
• Property Value Tool
• Client Mobile App

Placester

Placester offers an online codeless website builder with a straightforward interface that makes your life easier as an agent because everything falls into place naturally. There is no need to waste time figuring out how things should work when they're already before us. For example, Placester's Do It For Me (DIFM) subscriptions mean that you can focus on your business without doing anything yourself - Placesters experts prepare the site and content. You can also choose a more hands-on approach with the Do It Yourself (DIY) plan, where you create your real estate website yourself. So, in a nutshell, Placester is built for scalability, and its features reflect that. 

More than 20,000 real estate websites are created with Placester across the US. Clients can integrate with many third-party tools and software, and there is also an extensive range of built-in add-ons. 

Top functionalities:

• Code-free site editor, making website building accessible to anyone in the Do It Yourself (DIY) package,
• Options for unique content creation and social media posting,
• Dedicated CRM is included with every package,
• Unlimited updates and maintenance forever with the Do It For Me (DIFM, DIFM+ content) packages,
• Great website features (Property Search, Featured Listings, Testimonials, IDX Listing Display Tools, Mortgage Calculator, Lead Capture Forms, Area and Community Pages, Sold Listings, Blog, etc.).
• Placester mobile app, so agents can work on the go from anywhere they want.

Placester Designs 

Contract terms

Customer support

User Reviews and Reputation

Real Geeks reviews

Real Geeks have reviews on different platforms (G2, Capterra, Clutch), but Google is the primary source, with a 4.5-star rating from 209 reviews (September 2023). There are, of course, other rating websites featuring opinions about Real Geeks, i.e. G2:

Most positive and negative reviews focus on the CRM and lead capture tools, as these are the most advertised and highlighted features by the Real Geeks. Typically, clients complain about the same issues: not working up to scratch CRM, with a lot of self-work required, and difficulty of the agreement termination if the service is no longer what they need. 

Placester reviews

Google is the main source of Placester reviews (there are also reviews from Trustpilot and G2), where there is a whooping 4.9-star rating from 675 reviews (September 2023). This number has steadily grown as more happy customers add their reviews to Google. That number changes so quickly that while preparing that comparison, we had to adjust it a few times. More importantly, it shows that the web-creation process is fast, and satisfied users are willing to express their gratitude immediately after joining Placester and receiving their completed website. 

The highly positive reviews cite the most significant values of the company: responsive customer service and professionalism. 

More than 70 reviewers on Google commented that the Placester team was helpful and “got all of my questions answered confidently.” According to them, responses were quick, polite, and knowledgeable. 

Furthermore, 52 customers highlighted the patience and politeness of support, and 22 people stressed super fast response time and how helpful the chat feature was. They also mentioned friendliness and lack of distance or formality: their issue was treated as very important and dealt with asap.

Summary of pros and cons

Real Geeks might not be the industry front runner, but that's not its intended purpose; it's a cost-effective solution designed for agents new to the market.

They offer the means to jumpstart your real estate marketing efforts and ultimately enhance your business. According to numerous reports, they excel in customer service and provide exceptional support for their tools.

If you want to create a custom lead generation website or launch an extensive Google marketing campaign, the Real Geeks platform may not be the ideal choice. However, if you're an individual agent or a small real estate team looking to experiment with Google Ads to some extent, it's a highly suitable service.

The reason you want to go with Placester is to stay flexible and save money. The number one advantage is that in Placester, you will get a business partner. Everything that's hard about working with other providers is incredibly easy and enjoyable in Placester because you are messaging a human being and having a real conversation! 

In Placester, you can request unlimited changes and updates to your website without any additional payments. Basic changes you can do yourself (Do It Yourself plan) or leave a request for them, and they are done within hours (Do It For Me plan). There is a free trial, so you can easily decide which option is best for you and check out the features and functionalities.

Also, they release numerous new features, which you can access automatically the moment they’re released. No need for an upgrade or renegotiation of your contract because you can always choose the pay-as-you-go model, where you pay your monthly subscription. When you wish to terminate your agreement, you can do so. If you want to upgrade your package, it is for different reasons: your business grows, so you need to scale up, and it is not dictated by the sales team pushing you to pay more for new features or changes to your site. 

When you are considering migrating your site to Placester and doing it right now, you will get the 3 months for free with the Do It for Me plan, and we're gonna clone your old website. If it comes to just the capabilities of maintaining SEO, Placester can do it with ease and on a budget. On top of that, you will get an amazing support-friendly team on your side, ready to help immediately, without waiting for hours for a response. 

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