Real Geeks vs BoomTown: Price, Features & What’s Best
This article is part of a larger series on Real Estate Lead Generation and Marketing.
Real Geeks is an ideal all-in-one package for growing teams and brokerages, and starts at $299 per month. BoomTown starts at $1,000 per month for more advanced tools and lead generation features better suited to a high-volume brokerage. Overall, which is better depends on your specific business’ size and needs, as both otherwise have very similar IDX (internet data display) and CRM (customer relationship management) tools.
Here’s a quick look at when to use Real Geeks vs BoomTown:
- Real Geeks: Real Geeks’ IDX and CRM features cost substantially less than BoomTown’s and are more user-friendly. Thus, it is ideal for small teams or individual real estate agents. It is also a great fit for small teams that want to invest in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or Facebook advertising, as it offers a straightforward flat advertising fee.
- BoomTown: BoomTown offers similar features but includes a large variety of advanced tools in its packages like best-lead matching functionality, predictive analytics, and dynamic retargeting, making it an excellent option for large brokerages or teams that need more technical lead generation software.
Real Geeks vs BoomTown at a Glance
Website and CRM Pricing | $299 per month for 1 to 2 users, $250 onboarding fee, additional $25 per user, per month | $1,000 to $1,500 per month + one-time setup fee, onboarding fee equal to monthly fee |
Customizable, IDX-enabled Property Search Website | ✔ | ✔ |
CRM + Lead Nurturing | ✔ | ✔ |
Automated Email and SMS Responders | ✔ | ✔ |
Home Valuation Lead Capture Website | Included | Included in Seller Lead Suite |
PPC Advertising | $600 per month + ad spend | 15% of ad spend ($250 minimum) |
Facebook Marketing Tool | Included with PPC advertising cost | Add-on |
How We Evaluated Real Geeks vs BoomTown
To compare Real Geeks vs BoomTown, we evaluated each provider’s ability to help real estate agents, teams, and brokerages scale their businesses based on specific features.
The criteria we used to evaluate the providers include:
- Pricing: In general, pricing for real estate lead generation and management tools varies based on how comprehensive the platforms are and how many agents you have on your team.
- Customizable, IDX-enabled website: We compared customization options, design, and ease of use for each platform’s IDX-enabled websites for buyer lead generation.
- Lead capture capabilities: We compared the lead capture forms and tools offered by each platform, like home valuation and pop-up forms.
- CRM and lead nurturing: Comprehensive real estate lead management platforms include a CRM tool to organize leads by location, search urgency, and favorite properties. These tools enable agents to target potential buyers and sellers and follow up with strategic emails and calls.
- Advanced features: Real estate lead management companies offer a variety of additional features like real estate valuation, social media marketing, and integration with other real estate tools.
- Ease of use: We compared user reviews for each platform to evaluate how easy the IDX websites, CRM tools, and agent platforms are to navigate by real estate agents and potential buyers and sellers.
- Customer support: We contacted customer support teams, evaluated online resources, and looked at user reviews to compare customer support for each provider.
Best IDX Website Provider: BoomTown
IDX-enabled property search website with customizable design, but viewers must create an account to view properties | All IDX websites optimized for conversions with advanced search features |
Real Geeks makes real estate lead generation through an IDX website easy while also enabling you to customize your logo, headers, toolbars, feature images, and other content. It also captures leads by requiring visitors to create an account and input their contact information in order to view property details. It’s ideal for smaller agencies who want an efficient way to create a website and adjust it to their needs.
On the other hand, BoomTown allows new visitors to view one property before prompting them to create an account. Although BoomTown does not allow for customization of your website, its tools and techniques have been tested and proven to generate leads and conversions. According to Hooquest, 25% of the top-producing agents and teams in the U.S. use BoomTown. In addition, the design of BoomTown websites feels slightly more modern.
However, it is worth noting that while both providers offer an IDX website as part of their services, there are other website builders that can be integrated with MLS data and offer additional benefits to agents. You can read about these options by visiting our article on the top real estate website builders.
Sample BoomTown IDX website
Winner: BoomTown IDX websites offer advanced search filters like square footage, community type, exterior features, style, and financing. This is especially fitting for teams who want a fully optimized lead conversion machine without spending extra time on the front end.
Best Contact Management System: BoomTown
Real Geeks offers advanced filtering, finds social profiles, automatically assigns leads, and email and SMS autoresponders | BoomTown’s predictive CRM includes actionable insights based on data, tracks popular listings and automatically pairs them with fitting buyers, multiple methods for assigning leads, and a mobile app to access your CRM on the go |
Real Geeks’ CRM dashboard is designed to maximize conversions by assigning leads and re-assigning leads that aren’t addressed within a certain period of time. You can also filter activity by agent and send targeted follow-ups and related searches to leads based on their behaviors. Real Geeks also uniquely offers the ability to find their social profiles in order to retrieve more data.
In addition, all agencies have access to the same lead generation features in Real Geeks regardless of their size. However, smaller agencies will benefit most from the tools available on the platform because of the low cost and user-friendly tools.
Both Real Geeks and BoomTown assign leads round-robin, but BoomTown offers additional sales team models for lead assignment. Moreover, BoomTown’s predictive analytics presents you with the leads most likely to convert, making it easy for the team to prioritize lead follow-ups. While Real Geeks’ CRM offers very similar features, BoomTown’s CRM is slightly more advanced.
Winner: BoomTown wins because the mobile app allows real estate teams to access the CRM from their devices. Moreover, its lead prioritization and customizable action plans keep the team focused on the tasks most likely to move the needle.
However, it is also worth mentioning that there are a number of general-purpose CRMs that offer this same capability at a fraction of the price. You can learn more about these options by visiting our guide on the best contact management software.
Best Lead Capture Capabilities: Real Geeks
Lead capture forms on all property searches, home valuation tool, Facebook and Google PPC advertising | Lead capture forms after the first property search, home valuation tool, Facebook, Instagram, and Google PPC advertising |
Both Real Geeks and BoomTown offer a variety of lead capture methods, like pop-ups that prompt website visitors to create an account in order to view properties and free home valuation tools. When users enter their address to receive a home valuation, they’re directed to a pop-up requesting their contact information.
Even if they choose not to enter their information, their address is still logged as a listing lead in the CRM. Once the lead inputs their email address, Real Geeks will automatically send them monthly market reports.
Sample Real Geeks lead capture form
The property valuation tool also enables you to create a landing page with real estate market reports for specific neighborhoods. You can create an unlimited number of these landing pages and ensure that your website is a valuable resource for your entire community.
In addition, both platforms provide tools and expertise to run ads on Facebook and Google, with BoomTown also offering ads on Instagram. When comparing Real Geeks vs BoomTown advertising capabilities, the major difference depends on how much you plan to spend on pay-per-click advertising. If you plan to have a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising budget of less than about $3,670, BoomTown’s percentage fee is a more affordable option. With a larger ad budget, Real Geek’s flat monthly fee will be more favorable.
Winner: The benefits of the property valuation tool from Real Geeks push it ahead of BoomTown. On top of all of its features and capabilities, Real Geeks’ home valuations are instant, so potential sellers don’t have to wait for an answer.
Most Advanced Features: BoomTown
Includes marketing and productivity tools like an IDX website, lead capture forms, a robust CRM, and Facebook and Google ads | Includes marketing and productivity tools with additional integrations, automations, in-depth tracking, organizing, and reporting capabilities |
Real Geeks and BoomTown both offer incredibly comprehensive tools and features to help real estate agents, brokers, and teams with marketing and productivity. However, BoomTown clearly pulls ahead of Real Geeks when it comes to additional advanced tools.
BoomTown offers four pricing tiers, with each tier offering more advanced options. The entry-level plan, Launch, is designed for one to two users and includes integrations with Zapier, listing promotion, drip campaigns, extensive advertising expertise, and hot sheets to track popular properties. Upper-level plans add even more features like lead matching, tagging, segmenting, and an advanced reporting dashboard.
Winner: BoomTown offers extensive options like automated dialing, making it a great option for larger brokerages. Automated dialing can increase conversions and agent efficiency while maintaining a large volume of calls.
Most User-friendly: Real Geeks
Website builder and CRM are intuitive with plenty of automated tools, making it easy to use even for real estate professionals who are not tech-savvy | Website builder is easy to manage and easy for leads to navigate, but the platform has so many advanced tools that can be overwhelming |
Real Geeks was designed by a real estate agent for use in his own firm, so it’s easy to customize your IDX websites and navigate the CRM even if you don’t have experience building websites. The Real Geeks platform also features a visually appealing agent dashboard that makes it easy to monitor leads and agent activity. Plus, it lets agents create and save unique searches, so you don’t have to waste time looking for data you need regularly.
Screenshot of Real Geeks agent dashboard
On the other hand, agents who use BoomTown generally find the platform easy to navigate. Notably, some agents found that the IDX website for buyers is extremely valuable and easy to use, but the property valuation tools for sellers can be difficult to use. In addition, agents have reported that the extensive features and tools within BoomTown can make it confusing to choose what tools to use and how to maximize them for your agency.
Screenshot of BoomTown agent dashboard
Winner: Real Geeks is more easily customizable with user-friendly tools designed for easy navigation
Best Customer Service: Real Geeks
Customer support for current users available via phone, ticket system, Facebook community, and blog | Customer support available via phone, email, live chat, and blog |
We contacted Real Geeks and BoomTown customer service departments and looked at reviews to see how accessible and helpful they are in answering user questions. Both platforms offer email and telephone support, plus online resources.
Winner: The support team at Real Geeks offers the highest level of customer service according to customer reviews. BoomTown offers strong customer service as well, but some users report that customer service sometimes fails to adequately answer questions.
Bottom Line
It can be a difficult choice between BoomTown vs Real Geeks since they both offer extensive tools and features for real estate professionals. Although these providers have similarities, we found that Real Geeks offers the most user-friendly IDX website with high conversion rates, a robust CRM, and effective agent management at a low monthly price. It’s a better choice for smaller teams or agencies, while BoomTown may be more fitting for larger brokerages that need more technical and advanced tools.