At $34 a lead and 2% to contract, the subscription model never works

The seat leads aren't worse, the county is. Unlimited in one county means they've already sold the volume counties on a per-lead basis and the seat is how they monetize the thin ones. Ask them for the last six months of lead counts by county on that seat product and watch how fast the conversation changes.

For comparison I'm building the outbound side instead. A 12,000 record absentee list with phones ran me well under a nickel a record all in. Nothing about those is a lead until someone answers, which is the real difference. Your $34 person raised their hand. Mine has no idea who I am.

Your $1,700 per contract isn't the number that matters, it's cost per closing, and contract to close on motivated seller stuff gets talked about like it's 90% when nobody I've asked will show me a figure above 70. Run 2% to contract and then lose 30% of contracts and you're near $2,400 of lead cost per deal, plus whoever is calling those 50 leads at 6am. bramble is right that the seat is inventory dumping, but $16 a lead in a thin county with no competing buyers might still beat $34 shared three ways in a hot one.

Read the consent language on their form before you price any of it. The whole per-lead resale model depends on the consumer having agreed to be contacted by the specific parties who end up calling, and how tightly that gets read varies by state and by court. A vendor selling one lead to three buyers who all dial it has three sets of exposure and only one consent record. I'd want their form text, their retention policy on the recordings, and a clause saying they indemnify me if the consent was defective. Two of the vendors I asked couldn't produce the form text at all, which told me more than the pricing sheet did. Ask a lawyer who does telemarketing compliance to read it, not your closing attorney.