How To Stop Real Estate Websites From Stealing Your Clients

A few years ago, a lead magnet from a leading website started circulating called Best School Districts in the Portland Metro Area. On the surface, it looked like a helpful resource. 

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The brokerage I was with at the time advised agents to give it to clients who wanted to learn more about local schools without the liability of sharing personal opinions. It sounded like a win-win: Clients got valuable information, and agents avoided risk.

But here’s the catch: The tool wasn’t built for agents at all. It was owned by one of the largest real estate conglomerates in the country. And its real purpose wasn’t education; it was lead capture.

I found this out the hard way. After giving it to a client, they later got a call from another agent who said their information had been passed along from the “school districts tool.” That’s when I realized: I wasn’t helping my clients; I was handing them off to a competitor.

How to stop real estate websites from stealing your clients

Learn how these tools really work

On the surface, tools like Best School Districts in the Portland Metro Area look like free value-adds. But behind the scenes, they’re engineered to capture leads at scale. Once a client downloads the guide or enters their email to access it, that information is routed into the company’s ecosystem. From there, it gets sold, redistributed or directly worked by agents paying for placement.

And it’s not just this one example. Many large platforms use the same tactic, building shiny “free” lead magnets for agents to share. In reality, these magnets funnel your hard-earned clients away from you and into someone else’s database.

Understand the ripple effect on your business

Losing a client to one of these traps doesn’t just sting in the moment. It undercuts trust. 

Think about it: You hand your client a tool, they assume it came from you, and then they get a phone call from someone else. It makes you look less reliable, even if you didn’t know what was happening.

The other problem is leverage. By using someone else’s magnet, you’re helping build their database, not yours. Every client you send into their funnel is another future deal you’ve lost control of.

Take a smarter approach to lead magnets

So what’s the alternative? It’s not avoiding lead magnets altogether. It’s building and controlling your own.

Here’s what works better:

• Create local guides yourself. Instead of Best School Districts in the Portland Metro Area, create your own version with public data, school links or parent testimonials. Put it on your website, not someone else’s (making sure to stay in your lane and only being the source of the source to limit your liability).
• Duplicate reviews and resources. If you collect testimonials on third-party sites, also host them on your own domain. That way, when you share reviews with clients, you’re sending them to your ecosystem, not a competitor’s.
• Always research ownership. Before sending clients to any resource, find out who really owns it. Use free tools like Whois Lookup to check domain ownership or business filings. If it ties back to a national lead-generation company, think twice.

The lesson for agents

When it comes to stopping real estate websites from stealing your clients, the moral of the story is simple: If you’re going to provide clients with research tools, guides or educational resources, make sure they don’t come with hidden strings attached. What looks like a neutral lead magnet is often designed to capture your clients and resell them.

Owning the relationship means owning the tools. Keep your clients in your ecosystem, not someone else’s.

Protecting your client relationships

At the end of the day, this isn’t only about avoiding liability. It’s about protecting your most important asset: your client relationships. When you hand people resources you own and control, you keep the trust, the attention and the lead. When you outsource it to a big-box company, you’re taking the risk that the client won’t come back.

So, build your own tools. Vet everything else. And never forget: The best lead magnet is one that works for your business, not against it.