Fello centers itself around a series of lead-capture website add-ons that can be easily customized, turned on and off, and fed into any number of integrated CRM solutions used by the brokerage, team or agent.
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Fello blends seller lead-generation and management tools with cash-offer solutions.
Platforms: Browser; iOS app
Ideal for: Brokerages; teams; agents; sellers
Top selling points:
- Customizable website widgets
- Cash-offer facilitation
- Seller dashboards
- Popular CRM integrations
- Agent landing pages
Top concern:
Fello executes on a number of things very well, but it’s arguable that it’s an amalgamation of several existing products within a brokerage’s tech stack. It’ll have to sell it as a replacement to what a team may already be using.
What you should know
Here’s what I wrote about Fello only a few months ago, in Sept. 2022:
Fello layers a direct-to-seller cash offer model over agent-integrated services, which collectively rest on a sophisticated data modeling solution for home valuations. This is technology and boots-on-the-ground agent expertise melded into something new that provides agents with leads, nurture campaigns and smart consumer calls-to-action.
Admittedly, Fello is somewhat hard to summarize, but know above all else, it is agent-forward and technology-driven. No one is getting left out of the deal here, especially the consumer.
In about five months, the company has adjusted its model rather significantly, learning that the iBuyer concept is stumbling, but sustaining its conceptual merit enough for them to hang on to that aspect of its offering. It’s now secondary, though.
What Fello also learned was that its technological prowess is better applied to helping agents secure seller leads and turn them into clients. Quite a bit remains from what I saw in September, mainly the company’s clear commitment to helping agents be better at buying and selling real estate. Sounds like a pedestrian characteristic for a proptech, right? Executing on that mission is much harder than simply writing it on a whiteboard. Fello calls an active agent one of its founders, and a heads-down user experience designer, a true technician, as its other. And while the former will dominate the conversation, the latter’s work shines.
Fello centers itself around a series of lead-capture website add-ons that can be easily customized, turned on and off, and fed into any number of integrated CRM solutions used by the brokerage, team or agent.
I like this revised approach for a number of reasons, but primarily for its ability to greatly amp up an existing website lacking in its ability to hang on to visitors.
For example, there’s a module to solicit home value requests from potential sellers, and those form submissions get translated into an agent-branded user dashboard presenting a series of tools for the consumer. The screen presents as if the user has logged into a custom back-end solution, offering them local comps, value histories, market data and calls-to-action to insert more information about their house, which a person is very (more) likely to do given the value offered by the dashboard content. This is the key — consumers want something of value in return for their data.
I see this as a contrarian tactic to drip campaigns or a catalyst for them. Sure, the lead capture forms will send the person to an appropriate CRM-based campaign, but most of what they want is given to them in the dashboard, and they can log in and out of it as they wish. It’s a pull, not a push. It gives them control, and the agent the ability to monitor how they interact with the software.
The user can be presented with cash offers when the agent turns on the cash-offer widget for them to see, among other calls-to-action and content modules controlled by the agent’s admin panel. In addition to the cash-offer widget, the list of tools includes a CMA request and a video panel for agents to insert anything from a standard greeting to a quick listing presentation.
The iBuyer component lives on in the Cash Offer option, through which Fello submits listing info to affiliated companies and sorts their prices according to preference. Like all modules, it can be turned on/off, and remains a solid tool for keeping sellers’ interest in the relationship. The agent can also plug the pipeline to iBuyers, meaning user-submitted listing information won’t be automatically sent to them.
It’s a similar approach to Zoodealio and Zavvie in terms of comparing offers, and when one is presented, the customer is notified to log in to their dashboard. Know that the offers are coming in without a listing agreement in place, and thus serve as a strong draw for the consumer to then sign one, should a number pique their interest.
The agent is clearly informed of all engagement types upon log-in and is able to drill down into new leads, dashboard actions, campaign metrics, and lead types, among other standard day-to-day activity needs.
There are agent landing pages that can be published with QR codes linked to a number of different forms of content, as well as the ability to support multiple offices, teams or brands under a single account and its primary dashboard offers a run-down of new contacts, activity within the system and updates on page views and lead submissions.
Fello essentially took its engagement tools from its iBuyer-first iteration and revamped them into its core competency through the custom widget experience, and finalized its CRM integrations, which can link the Fello customer with their BoomTown, Followup Boss, Hubspot, Brivity and Sierra Interactive accounts. Expect more CRMs link-ups as the product evolves. And in that department, Fello also provides record auditing, meaning it’ll improve the quality of your database through a combination of data provider partnerships and its own outreach tactics.
I think Fello could do some very cool stuff by adding partnerships to enhance how the seller sees their home. It could partner with firms like Plunk, Revive, Curbio and Freemodel to suggest pre-market home renovations, or even Inspectify to compel them to get an inspection before moving forward. MoveEasy and MooveGuru link-ups would make sense, too. There’s real opportunity to lean into offering more value with the growing cadre of proptechs servicing the built-world.
In essence, all the bones are intact from the product I initially reviewed. It’s clear the company has been putting to work the $25 million it closed on in June 2022.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.