General Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Zichron Internet Marketing and real-estate-agent-lists.com?: Zichron (zi-kron) Internet Marketing (ZIM) is... well... an internet marketing company founded in 2004. real-estate-agent-lists.com is a web service of ZIM which specializes in marketing realtor database products.
What kinds of realtor databases do you sell?: Our complete US Realtor Database includes 1.3 million real estate agents for $4000. We also have an email-only list containing 1.14 million unique email addresses for $2500. The complete list has been divided into state and metro area subsets and you can also create a completely customized list. Please visit the realtor database FAQ page for more questions related to the data.
How do you deliver the data once it is purchased?: The data can be downloaded immediately after purchasing from the order confirmation page. You will also receive an email with download instructions if you wish to download later. The full-record complete database can be downloaded in three formats: Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel CSV, or Comma-Delimited Text. The Microsoft Excel CSV format has been divided into individual state spreadsheets for your convenience since Excel is limited to 65K rows. The email-only database is in Text format. The customized databases (including the state and metro area lists) can be created in Excel CSV format. All files are compressed in a Zip format for faster downloading.
What guarantee do you give on the quality of the your databases?: The data is guaranteed to be 95% accurate. If you receive "undeliverables" (bad address, phone, fax, or email) exceeding 5%, we will refund your purchase on a pro-rated basis.
What are the restrictions on the use of the databases?: The "terms of use" agreement always appears on the checkout page but can be summarized simply as follows: the purchaser is entitled to use the data repeatedly for marketing or internal purposes but cannot resell the data nor publish it so that non-customers can benefit from the data.
How do you monitor and enforce restrictions on the use of the databases?: Due to concerns about low-priced competitors misappropriating our data, we have populated ("seeded") our list with a small number of fictitious agents. The contact information for these agents redirects to us so we can verify that the sender is one of our legitimate customers.
How often do you update your data and do you provide discounts for updates?: We are continuously updating on a state-by-state basis. The release date for each state database is published on each state's page. Some states will therefore be more current than others. As we update individual states, we update the national list. We do provide significant discounts for updates to existing customers. The discount varies depending on the amount of new data in the update but all previous purchasers of the list will be notified by email when the new list is available.
Do you provide free samples of your data?: Yes, there are two ways you can sample our data. First, you can use our realtor search engine to look up records. Second, you can download a free sample of up to 100 records for any specified zip code. Additionally, you can also use our customized database tool to create, purchase, and download a smaller, less expensive list to test before purchasing a larger list. If you later decide to purchase a larger list, of which the smaller list is a subset, we will give you a full-credit towards the puchase of the larger list. Likewise, if you purchase a state or metro area list, you can upgrade to the complete national list for the difference in price.
Do you provide customer references?: Yes, we have a list of satisfied customers that we would be happy to refer you to. Please also visit our testimonials page.
Do you broadcast emails? faxes? direct mail?: We WILL broadcast your emails. We do not do fax broadcasting or direct mail. Please visit our Email Broadcasting page for complete details on this service. Please visit our email marketing page for tips on how to broadcast emails if you want to do it yourself.
Are your email addresses opt-in?: All of our email addresses are what we call "soft" opt-in, in that they were collected from publicly available sources in which the recipient has willingly published their email address. The email addresses are not "hard" opt-in in the sense that the recipient has specifically agreed to have his email address sold by us or has specifically signed up to receive commercial email. Even if the email addresses were "hard" opt-in, the opt-in status is not transferable.
What is the law for sending emails?: The new federal CAN-SPAM law (see FTC Regulations) permits unsolicited commercial emails to be sent if you follow a few simple rules:
1. Your subject line must be an accurate and honest description of the contents of the email
2. Your physical business mailing address must be attached to the body of the email somewhere (usually at the bottom)
3. You must include instructions (preferably a link) to allow the recipient to unsubscribe (i.e. opt-out) from future emails.

However, as a practical matter, "spam" is not usually an issue because you are sending a targeted email concerning a product or service that the recipient might reasonably be interested in. If you clearly identify yourself and your product, then the worst that will likely happen is that the recipient will simply ask to be removed.

Obligatory Disclaimer: If you are in doubt as to the legality of any business activity, including broadcasting emails, you should consult a qualified attorney.
What is the law for sending faxes?: The law for sending faxes is slightly more complicated than for emails. We recommend you read the following FCC document describing the regulation of faxing. As a matter of practice, we have never had a customer complain of legal difficulties resulting from sending faxes using our lists. Again, this is likely because you are not sending "junk"; even if the recipient is not interested in your product or service, at least it was a solicitation related to their profession.

Obligatory Disclaimer: If you are in doubt as to the legality of any business activity, including broadcasting faxes, you should consult a qualified attorney.
Where did the name "Zichron" come from?: Zichron is short for Zichron Ya'acov, a small village in Israel, which has a special place in our hearts. In Hebrew, Zichron means "memory" or "memorial", which perhaps is not a bad thing for a company that specializes in data!

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FAQ - General