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Real estate professionals say they fear the impact of problems caused by ongoing technology outages at companies that power their businesses will last for months as they eagerly wait for BoomTown to bring their sites back online.
Since April 10, the entire brokerage has been without access to operational tools that are core to its business, from its contact relationship management system (CRM) to accounting management, lead generation and marketing materials.
Last week, real estate agency websites across the country went completely offline, while BoomTown suffered an unknown issue that disrupted its service. The outage prevented real estate agents from gathering or contacting leads, marketing properties and performing other critical tasks.
As brokers and real estate agents anxiously wait for service to be restored, some worry the outages will cause immediate and lasting damage to their businesses.
Cody Harvey | #1 Property
“I probably lost $130,000 in business,” said Cody Harvey, a real estate agent in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “I had a new client who was on a home drip, and they went to Zillow. They asked for a showing through their new agent, and they got (the house).
“That’s our entire database. We have over 100,000 prospects out there,” said Brad Weiner, an agent with Realty On Main near Atlanta.
The company has not yet said the cause of the outage. Instead, it said the issue was caused by a “server outage” and that they would focus on resolving the issue before April 14th.
By Monday morning, the company’s website using BoomTown was back up, but not fully functional and unable to display homes for sale. Realtors say they don’t have access to the backend and remain largely on the sidelines during the busy spring home-buying season.
BoomTown, which said it had more than 100,000 customers when it was acquired by Inside Real Estate last year, placed a banner at the top of its client websites notifying visitors that the site was experiencing technical difficulties. The company did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
It’s unclear whether all of the company’s clients were affected by the outage, though Inman confirmed that public-facing real estate agent websites from Bend, Ore., to the Financial Times were down. As of Monday afternoon, Myers, Florida, was still reeling from the issue.
“I don’t have access to any aspect of my business,” said Rachel Ford-Wilkinson, an agent with a team of six in her Colorado office. “They have my entire client database. They have all my accounting, financial, transactional information. All the data on everything I communicate with buyers and sellers.
“We all wonder how we’re going to pay our bills next month,” she added.
Brokers told Inman they were attracted to BoomTown because it offered a diverse set of services to help them run their businesses, making the impact of outages greater.
Over the years, many people have been adding and maintaining customer information and have entrusted BoomTown to store and maintain this valuable database.
Rhonda Dunning | JPAR Mulan Group
“Boomtown has it all. They hold the key to our business now,” said Rhonda Dunning, a real estate agent in Charleston, South Carolina, where BoomTown was founded.
Dunning and others have wondered whether BoomTown was illegally hacked and held to ransom, although the company has given no indication that this is the case.
“They have access to our finances. We allow direct access to our bank accounts,” Dunning said. “If this is ransomware, I’m a little uneasy today.”
Real estate agents want to know how many potential clients will come in and find a website that isn’t functioning properly.
“We’re probably missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions right now,” Ford-Wilkinson said. “Every potential customer, every customer who needs help will have an alert listed. They’ll go somewhere else.
Rachel Ford Wilkinson | Rachel Ford Wilkinson Ranger Real Estate
It’s too early to tell how much revenue BoomTown may have lost due to the ongoing issues, either from customers who left after this outage or from funds it might have provided to brokerage firms as compensation for the outage.
In a video update to clients on Friday, Inside Real Estate CEO Joe Skousen said the company is fully focused on resolving the issue but expects to award credits once the issue is resolved.
“Rest assured, we plan to issue Platform Credits to all affected accounts, and for those accounts that spent on digital marketing and lead generation services, we also expect to issue additional Advertising Credits,” Scorsen said.
However, the company appears to be considering how to retain customers, who have said they’ve heard from BoomTown’s competitors and hope to take advantage of the problem by signing them up as customers.
Ford-Wilkinson said her BoomTown account manager told her the company planned to honor its 12-month contract with the customer, and her contract runs through December.
“I’m moving on. I have people creating a new website for me,” she said. “BoomTown claimed they would not let me out of the contract. I know how contracts work; if one party does not abide by the contract, the contract is void.
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