Edmunds Appraisal Alternative for Car Dealerships

An appraisal tool tells an owner what the car might be worth. A seller lead is an owner asking your store to call. LeadLocate delivers the second kind, with the tools to appraise, buy and follow up.

Edmunds is one of the long standing names in car research. Shoppers use it for vehicle reviews, model comparisons and pricing guidance, and owners use its appraisal tool to see what their current vehicle may be worth as a trade and as an outright sale. That makes it a common first stop for someone who is only starting to think about changing cars.

For dealers, Edmunds offers advertising and lead programs that connect its audience with participating stores. Where an owner checks a value and opts to hear from a dealer, that contact becomes a trade or acquisition conversation for the store that receives it, so ask the vendor which appraisal related programs run in your market.

Programs, packaging, pricing and terms change over time, so confirm current capability, pricing and terms with the vendor directly before you plan around any of it.

Checking a value and asking to sell are two different moments in an owner's decision. An appraisal tool meets people at the research stage, often weeks or months before they act. Plenty of them are curious, plenty are preparing to negotiate a trade somewhere else, and some are ready to talk this week. A research audience is large for exactly that reason.

A vehicle offer request is a later moment. The owner has decided to find out what a dealership will actually pay, fills out the request, and asks to be contacted. That is the moment LeadLocate seller leads come from, and it changes how a buyer spends the day: fewer conversations that start from zero, more that start from the owner's own timeline.

Both moments matter to a used car department, which is why the strongest stores work the ready owners fast and keep the researchers on a real follow up plan until their timeline arrives. LeadLocate is built to do both from one inbox.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

Features change on both sides. Verify anything that will drive your decision with each vendor directly.

The first gain is owners who asked for the call. On the Marketplace Acquisitions plan, local owners who filled out a vehicle offer request and asked to be contacted by a dealership arrive in your CRM, and every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you. Leads are prescreened at capture with the questions you choose, such as timeframe, mileage or whether there is a loan on the car, and backed by a replacement review through Quality Control Requests, so a bad lead costs you nothing.

The second gain is a campaign shaped around your lot. In Leads Manager you draw the zone in the zone editor, check zip stats and a market scan, pick the campaign type, and add Custom Offers, with See Samples previewing the ads. Our team builds and runs the campaigns from those selections on the webXintel Ads Network, included with every plan.

The third gain is one system from the first text to the purchase order. Every call, text, MMS, email and voicemail sits on one timeline on the lead record, the phone validator and email validator show validity right on the lead, and the same record moves into DealTracker when the owner arrives. The consumer vehicle acquisition software page covers the whole toolset.

Most of an appraisal can happen before the owner leaves home. When the request lands, round robin assignment or your distribution rules route it to a named buyer, Manager Lead Copies put it in front of the used car manager, and the Automated Templates for the seller feed send the first text within moments. That text can ask for the photos your appraiser wants: the odometer, each corner, the tires, the interior and anything the owner mentioned.

RCS messaging with automatic SMS fallback and MMS bring those photos straight onto the lead, and the deal jacket takes uploads by QR intake from a phone camera. The trade info scanner and trade VIN scan put the vehicle on the record without retyping seventeen characters, and document AI reads the paperwork. Your appraiser can give a firm range with the photos in hand, and the walkaround becomes a confirmation.

Click to call from the lead places the call through the browser softphone or the LeadLocate app, the call is recorded and transcribed, and Call Alerts flag every call where words like payoff, lien or accident come up. The remote vehicle appraisal software page goes deeper on this workflow.

Not every owner sells this week, and the ones who say next spring are worth keeping warm. Follow Up Processes run multi step drips per lead type, so a seller lead that says three months gets a cadence of texts, emails and a voicemail drop spaced across those months without anyone remembering to send them. Scheduled sends let a rep write the check in message today and set it to go out the week the owner named.

Email automation carries a longer message, such as a market update on what the owner's model is bringing, and trackable short links show who clicked through to the offer, so the buyer calls the owners who are warming up first. Reminders and appointments on the Workspace keep the dates in front of the rep, and the calendar booking link lets the owner pick the appraisal time on their own.

Owners who started an offer request and stopped halfway are worth a call too. The abandoned trade in lead follow up guide lays out a cadence for them.

The move is quick and leaves buying uninterrupted. In the first week, the account is set up for you, usually the same day. Import your contacts, set the zone, campaign type and prescreening questions in Leads Manager, and review the sample ads in See Samples. Training is included with every plan through the video library, Live Training and Schedule Training on the top bar.

In the second week, connect your website forms so any trade or appraisal request from your own site lands in the same inbox with the fields mapped, write the first text your seller feed sends, and build Follow Up Processes for owners who are ready now and owners who are months out. Set Call Alerts for the words your used car manager cares about.

From the third week, tag every unit by source and compare landed cost against auction purchases with fees and transport included. The vehicle acquisition ROI calculator helps structure that comparison.

Marketplace Acquisitions for seller leads starts at $999 a month, and the Buyers and Sellers Hybrid plan adds inbound buyer leads from $1,599, so the cars you buy from local owners have shoppers asking for them. Every plan with leads includes the CRM, and every plan is month to month with no long term contract. Current details are on the pricing page.

Measure the seller program by source: owners reached, photos received, appraisals set and shown, cars bought, and landed cost per unit. Watch one more number that research traffic rarely shows well, the share of owners bought within the timeline they gave you, because it tells you whether the follow up plan is doing its job. The activity, company and management reports read all of it.

We cannot guarantee how many owners will request an offer or how many cars you will buy, and no vendor can, because that depends on your market, your appraisal numbers and how quickly your team responds. LeadLocate delivers owners who asked for your call and the tools to appraise, buy and follow up in one place. Call 844-376-2274 and we will map a zone around your store.

How is a LeadLocate seller lead different from an appraisal tool lead?

An appraisal tool meets owners while they research a value. A LeadLocate seller lead is a local owner who filled out a vehicle offer request and asked a dealership to contact them, delivered to you and only you inside your zone.

Can we appraise a car before the owner comes in?

Yes. Ask for photos by text, and they arrive on the lead through MMS or RCS with SMS fallback. The trade VIN scan, trade info scanner and document AI capture the vehicle and paperwork, so the walkaround confirms a range you already gave.

What happens to owners who are months away from selling?

Put them on a Follow Up Process built for their timeline. Texts, emails and voicemail drops go out on schedule, scheduled sends land on the week they named, and trackable short links show who is clicking.

Are seller leads shared with other dealers?

Every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you. Leads are prescreened at capture with the questions you choose and backed by a replacement review, so a bad lead costs you nothing.

Who sets the purchase number?

Your appraiser does, after the conversation and the photos or walkaround, using the book and market tools your used car department already trusts. The owner hears a number your store stands behind.

What does the seller side cost?

Marketplace Acquisitions starts at $999 a month and the Buyers and Sellers Hybrid plan starts at $1,599. Both include the CRM and are month to month with no long term contract.

We will map a zone around your store, set the questions every owner answers, and show you seller leads arriving with photos and a timeline. Month to month, no long term contract.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.