I did a side by side comparison of Sierra Interactive and other similar websites and CRM’s
My comparison started with an end-user license and part of this review does a feature by feature comparison. In my opinion, you should consider Sierra Interactive if…
If the return on investment is part of your requirements when investing in a new real estate website then Sierra Interactive is best for veteran (3-15 years experience) real estate agents and brokers with a medium to a high level of technical and SEO experience. If you fit those criteria then Sierra Interactive is one of the best (Top three) companies to buy a leased real estate website from. If branding or appearance is more important than ROI then I suggest you look at Agent Image, Luxury Presence, Inboundrem, or Real Estate Webmasters. You can find these companies reviewed side by side on an article I wrote comparing the Top 10 real estate website companies. I also explain that different companies make websites that have different areas of focus. Sierra Interactive is a search based lead generation website.
What you learn from this Sierra Interactive review
This is a technical review written for agents and brokers. The objective is to provide an expert level overview of Sierra Interactive and some of it’s closest competitors. If I do my job right I should save you 25-50% of the time required to make an educated decision based on an ever-increasing field of options and differences between real estate websites.
I obtained an end-user single-agent license/login and spent about 40 hours going through and using Sierra Interactive features. I went through and followed the technical documentation Sierra Interactive includes as part of the website package. You will find a feature by feature analysis including some comparisons to Sierra Interactive’s four closest competitors. Those competitors are Kunversion/KvCore, BoomTown, and InboundREM. I can only include three additional companies in this review. If I had to add a fourth it would be Real Estate Webmasters.
The term “competitors” is used loosely and based more on what people are searching for than actual side by side similarities between websites. I do hope to clarify some of the confusion and explain where Sierra Interactive is similar and different from the companies I just mentioned
Sierra Interactive Features VS. Boomtown-Kunversion|KvCore-InboundREM
I’ve gone ahead and added Boomtown, Kunversion, and InboundREM to the features list for a quick “eyeball” comparison. Features perform quite differently from website to website and this should only be used as a quick surface comparison. A great example of how a listed feature might be different would be making and logging calls from the CRM that’s included with some of these website offers. Even though most of these systems offer that feature some require additional add-ons and carry additional expense. Some also allow for “marketing” numbers so callbacks get tracked and routed to various “source” buckets for a better understanding which leads are performing better based on their “source”.
 |  |  |  |  |
| Website Ownership | ||||
| Mobile Responsive | ||||
| SEO Ready | ||||
| Featured Listings | ||||
| Community Pages | ||||
| Drip Email Marketing | LIMITED | * Add on | ||
| Lead Capture | ||||
| Automated Funnels (Action Plans) | LIMITED | LIMITED | * Add on | |
| Lead Management System (CRM) | ||||
| Landing Pages | LIMITED | |||
| Customized Landing Pages | LIMITED | LIMITED | ||
| Content Management System | LIMITED | VERY LIMITED | ||
| User Facing Customize Site Navigation | ||||
| Blog | * Add On | |||
| Saved Searches | * Add on | *Add On | * Add | |
| Agent Manager | *Add on | * Add On | *Add On | * Add |
| Lead Routing | * AO | |||
| User facing third party integrations | LIMITED | |||
| Lead import | RESTRICTED | RESTRICTED | ||
| Automated Lead Import | RESTRICTED | RESTRICTED | ||
| Dialer | *Add On | *Add On | ||
| Ringless Voicemails | ||||
| Mass Messaging | *Add On | |||
| Lead Source Filters | LIMITED/RESTRICTED | *Add On | ||
| Search Activity | *Add On for advanced tracking | |||
| Listing Alerts | ||||
| Market Reports | ||||
| Ad Management | *Add On | *Add On | ||
| You Tube Video Intgegration | *Add On | *Add On | ||
| Google My Business (Hyper Local) Creation or Optimization | YES | |||
| Google Maps Integration | ||||
| You Tube Video Optimization | ||||
| Content Creation | LIMITED | |||
| Agent Websites (as a sub domain) | YES *add on cost standard feature | |||
| Customized Design as an Option | *Add On | *Add On | ||
| Lead Ponds | *Add On | |||
| Lender Assignement | *Add On | |||
| Andriod or IOS APPS | ||||
| Deal Tracking/Management | *Add On |
Sierra Interactive Pricing and Website Examples
Sierra Interactive joins a long list of real estate website providers attempting to create a suite of back end tools effective enough to justify a high monthly subscription and no true ownership or control of the website. Once subscribed, even moderate success will usually keep the client “locked” in place and any desire to expand or change strategies will require a new or different website provider. The difference between Sierra Interactive and most of its competitors is they actually DO make an excellent set of tools and if you have the money and time to invest it is likely you can realize a decent ROI in a number of different ways.
 | PRO SITE | PREMIER SITE |
| Set-Up | $300 (TEMPLATE) | $8995 (CUSTOM) |
| PRICE M/O | 1-5 USERS $399.00 | 1-5 USERS $399.00 |
| WEBSITE EXAMPLES | VanCouver Pro Template Site | Atlanta GA Custom Website |
| COACHING | $200 M/O | $200 M/O |
Sierra Interactive Features – PRO or CON?
As part of this Sierra Interactive review, I got access and used a pro site license. I reviewed every feature as I used them. It’s the longest video I ever shot at an hour and one minute in length. There is a VIDEO INDEX in the description of the video so you don’t have to sit through an hour’s worth of stuff you don’t care about. This written list of pros and cons is a summary. The video review has two bonus comparisons. Follow up boss and commissions inc.
PRICING – PRO
Sierra Interactive is more expensive than real geeks. It’s also better. Sierra Interactive is the same price on the low end as Kunversion|KvCore but gives you a significantly better website that will deliver a much higher ROI if used correctly. Sierra Interactive is less expensive than BoomTown, and Commissions Inc. While they both have better team management features they are charging 60-80% more per month to get them. Sierra Interactive is slightly more expensive than InboundREM for similar features. For custom work, Sierra Interactive is right in the middle of all real estate website providers making their pricing structure a pro.
LEADERSHIP – PRO
Ben Peskoe is the owner and founder. Here is his LinkedIn profile. He is a very experienced developer with skill sets that have helped deliver one of the fastest cleanest website experiences around. The first real estate website contract I could trace back to him was in 2009. This was before he started Sierra Interactive. He’s got great glass door ratings as the CEO and had great personal ratings from clients before he established his agency. My only comment would be I’m surprised he hasn’t sold Sierra Interactive. If he hasn’t gotten offers he will soon.
KNOWLEDGE BASE – PRO
Once you sign up you get access to a knowledge base. The resource center has text documents that are brief and pretty straightforward. There are also videos. You do have to hunt around a bit to find stuff but what they have is head and shoulders above most of their competitors so this is a pro.
Global Settings – PRO
This is where you control access to the information contained on both the front and back end of the website. This includes lenders and agents. The system allows for a lot of options. It also allows for a lot of “on-off” lead generation settings
LEAD SOURCES – CON
They have a way to identify lead sources. This is a manual process. It’s good they have the feature. It’s not nearly as good as other systems like Follow Up boss.
REVENUE BY LEAD SOURCE – CON
Also a manual process. Very good that they have the option. But not at the top of the list of real estate CRMS in terms of this particular piece of functionality.
INTEGRATIONS – PRO
I’ll make this easy. Besides InboundREM Sierra Interactive is the best I have seen. Bar none.
Agent Accountability – Right in the middle
It’s pretty basic and might be effective for a few users. At higher levels or bigger teams, I think you would want more features and there are real estate CRMS like Commissions Inc, Follow Up boss, and BoomTown that provide more. A lot more.
Custom Email Templates / Campaigns – CON
The feature once you figure it out is ok. Something that is there to say that you have it. Email providers have gotten SO advanced in terms of AI and ready to use templates the only reason I can think of that ANYONE would use ANY of these real estate CRMS for email delivery would be a lack of time. And this email system is hard to learn. I think it is a main driver of their $200 a month coaching fee.
Manage Auto Responders – PRO
One of the easiest to use and intuitive features of its kind that I have seen. One dashboard with buttons you turn on or off with tons of options.
301 redirects and other technical non-content SEO features – PRO
For technical SEO features Sierra Interactive is as good as you will find for a lease to never own real estate website.
New Features – PRO
While I was in the process of doing the review Sierra Interactive added a feature that is a clickable button for “Virtual Tour” COVID 19 became a reality for most late March. The review was filmed in mid-April. It takes a lot more time and effort than people realize to add new features to “website stacks”. They must have immediately decided this would be important kicked other projects to the side and rushed this feature. That indicates a well-built stack that can adapt quickly.
Sierra Lead Management Features
- Filters – Pro
- Last Activity – Pro
- When Registered – Pro
- How Many Properties Saved – Pro
- E-Alerts (How many emails are sent) – Pro
- How many market reports sent – Pro
- Assigned Tasks Activities – Pro
- How Many Phone Calls – Pro (with a hidden cost)
- How many texts – Pro (with a hidden cost)
These two images show the entirety of the lead management dashboard with all of its features.
- Lead Routing – Pro
- Lead Ponds – Pro
- Action Plans – Con
- Market Updates – Pro
- Lead tags – Con
- Drip Campaigns – Con
- E-Alerts- Pro
I review each one of these features in the video at the top of this blog post. They all fall under the ”
lead management” category and as you can see there are a lot of features that do different things. The reason I take the time to get access to an actual and user license is that even though real estate website companies SAY they have the same features when you see how they operate you discover they are NOT the same. If you’re seriously considering using this company then you should watch the last 20 minutes of the video review and make sure you understand what these features are and if it matters to YOU whether I gave them pro or a con.
Closing thoughts on Sierra Interactive and some final recommendations
Sierra Interactive is the perfect website for those looking for a little bit more than real geeks or a little bit less than boomtown. Commissions Inc and BoomTown are both set up better for teams. But not by much so you have carefully measure the cost versus the perceived value. InboundREM (the company I founded) also stands up against Sierra Interactive in a number of categories. Sadly there is no way to write a blog post that covers EVERY scenario. The reason these real estate websites and CRM combos have gotten so diverse are the real estate agents that use them have diverse needs. No one size fits all. If my blog didn’t address all of your questions and neither did my video you can roll over to my SEO CONSULTING page and see if you qualify for a free call with me personally. We can go through your exact requirements and goals and I can recommend the company that I think would fit your specific needs and price range.
If your not ready to do a call I DO have some other reviews you might find helpful.