Updated
This case study follows Jerryll Noorden, who has bought houses in Connecticut since 2016, as he moves his own house-buying website, webuyhousesinconnecticut.com, from Carrot to Apex Vivus. He kept the same web address, the same pages and the same words, and gained a design built around him, plus a tool for every step from a seller's first message to his paycheck.
In case you are new to this: Carrot builds websites for real estate investors, people who buy houses directly from the owners. Apex Vivus builds those websites too, and adds a full CRM (the software where you keep every seller, every call and every follow-up) and the tools to price, offer and sell each deal. If you are still weighing your options, our Carrot alternative comparison puts the two side by side, prices included.
One thing to know up front: Jerryll created Apex Vivus, so this is not a neutral review. What it is: the real steps, the real before-and-after screens, and no invented numbers.
Jerryll started on Carrot because, when he started buying houses, it gave him something most new investors don't have: a professional website that sellers could find on Google, without hiring a web designer. He still credits it for getting his business off the ground. He left because three things then changed his mind.
Credit where it's due: a ready-made investor website, built to show up on Google, that he could run himself while he learned the business.
Carrot sites start from templates that other investors use too. To stand out, he and the students he coached added a lot of custom code (CSS, the code that decides how a page looks), until Carrot stopped supporting their sites as "too customized".
One day a seller told him they had already sent him their details. They hadn't. They had filled in a competitor's form, on a site that looked so much like his that they thought it was his.
"I started on Carrot. One day a seller told me they'd already sent me their information. They hadn't. They'd filled in a competitor's form, on a site that looked so much like mine they thought it was mine. Most of the time you would never even know that happened. That's why I built Apex Vivus: so an investor's website looks like the investor, and nobody else."
Jerryll NoordenBuying houses in Connecticut since 2016, former NASA robotics scientist, creator of Apex Vivus
So he built Apex Vivus to be three things at once: a website that looks like its owner, a full CRM for the whole team at one price, and a tool for every step after the lead. Then he moved his own site first, before asking anyone else to.
The move from Carrot worked step by step on one simple rule: sellers should never see a broken site, and Google should never see a missing page. So the new site was built and checked out of sight, while the Carrot site kept running and bringing in leads.
The address of the Carrot site goes into the Apex Vivus importer, which copies every page, blog post and picture, word for word. His leads came across from the download file Carrot gives you.
The new site was built on a separate test address that nobody is sent to and Google does not see. The Carrot site kept running exactly as before, so no seller and no lead was lost.
Each page kept its exact web address, like /sell-my-house-fast or /blog/sell-your-house-during-divorce, so Google recognizes it as the same page. Any address that did change forwards visitors and Google to its new one automatically.
Before anything went live, every page was checked, and a test lead was sent through the form to make sure it arrived.
The domain is the web address people type, here webuyhousesinconnecticut.com. Pointing it from Carrot to the new site is one setting where the domain was bought. Email is a separate setting, so it kept working.
With every page checked, Carrot was cancelled right after the switch. No paying for two websites, and no gap where sellers saw nothing.
The full manual, with where to click, and every worry about moving, from rankings to email, are on one page: Moving from Carrot to Apex Vivus.
Before and after the move, the site looked like this: the same address, top to bottom. On the left, his Carrot site as it was in 2020. On the right, the same address today, on Apex Vivus. Scroll inside each window and ask yourself which one you would rather spend time on as a seller.
Scroll inside each window, all the way to the bottom.
His words survived the move, and he did not start over. Every page and blog post moved over word for word, at the same web address, with the date it was first published. Then he went further on some of them: Humphrey, the assistant built into Apex Vivus, rewrote his short Carrot post about selling a house during a divorce into an in-depth guide, with Connecticut facts, the steps in order and the questions sellers in a divorce ask. Long, genuinely useful guides are what Google and AI tools like ChatGPT quote when a seller asks who can help.
Scroll inside each window, all the way to the bottom. Two pictures missing from the archived Carrot copy were filled in.
His site now does things it couldn't do on Carrot, for each seller and for Jerryll. A website is only the first step of a deal: it brings in the lead, a homeowner asking about selling. Here is what each seller now meets on webuyhousesinconnecticut.com, and what happens on Jerryll's side after they reach out.
The seller first picks what is going on, like a foreclosure, an inherited house or a divorce, and the whole page rewrites itself for them. People who feel understood finish the form.
An instant offer from the seller's own photos, with the repairs priced item by item; a free forecast of what the house might sell for; and a seven-question check of whether a cash sale or a listing fits them better.
Humphrey walks visitors through the site out loud and answers their questions, at any hour, the way he is walking you through this page.
Every seller, message and call lands in one place, with follow-ups that go out on their own. His whole team can use it, with no price per person.
Deal Room shows what the house is worth, EstiMate prices the repairs from walkthrough photos, OfferAid works out the offer, Buyer Match finds the cash buyer, and MaxFee sets the highest fee that buyer will pay to take over his contract.
The Cinematic design, Apex Vivus's best-selling design, carrying his own photos, his crew, his trucks and his story, not a stock photo of a handshake.
Vivus is Latin for alive. Something alive learns from what happens to it, and repairs itself when something goes wrong. Most software forgets a deal the moment it closes. Apex Vivus learns from each one, so every deal Jerryll closes makes the next one easier to find and to win.
When a deal closes, Apex Vivus tells his Google and Facebook ads which seller became a paycheck and what it made, so they look for more sellers like that one, not just anyone who fills in a form.
He sees which ad, Google search or letter brought each closed deal, so he spends more on what pays and stops paying for what doesn't.
When something on a site is wrong, the owner tells support, and Humphrey can repair common problems himself, like a page that lost its design or tracking that stopped working.
What changed after the move is shown here in real numbers only, because numbers are only worth something if they are real. These come from Google Search Console (Google's free report of how often a site appears in search and gets clicked) and from the site's own lead records, for the same months before and after the move. Nothing here is estimated.
| What we measure | On Carrot (before) | On Apex Vivus (after) |
|---|---|---|
| Google clicks per monthVisits from Google search, from Search Console | — | — |
| Google impressions per monthHow often the site appeared in Google search results | — | — |
| Position for "we buy houses Connecticut"Where the site shows up on Google for that search | — | — |
| Seller leads per monthHomeowners who filled in the form or called | — | — |
| Average time on the siteHow long a visitor stays, from the site's analytics | — | — |
His move means you can move your own Carrot site the same way, and you don't need to be the founder to do it. These four lessons apply to any investor leaving Carrot.
Years of pages and blog posts, at addresses Google already knows, are what you built. Keep both, and Google has no reason to treat your site as new.
Build the new site on a private test address, check it, then switch the domain. Sellers see your old site until the second they see the new one.
Once every page is checked and a test lead has arrived, cancel Carrot the same day. There is nothing left to wait for.
A better-looking site is the first step. The real gain is everything between a seller's message and your paycheck, and a system that learns from every deal.
It isn't only Jerryll. One month after his website moved to Apex Vivus, Šemso Gagulić sent Jerryll these two messages:
Šemso Gagulić, one month after his website moved to Apex Vivus. Shown with his permission.
And Shade Forkner in Seattle posted this when the first lead came in through his Apex Vivus website:
I got my first Lead on my Vivus website! She filled out the info box.
it's a multimillion Dollar house on the lake, looks like a low repair costs by the pics. ARV of 15 million.
I will be contacting her today to get some info, and schedule a walk through, for some solid numbers, including actual repair costs.
This Carrot case study is about Jerryll Noorden, who has bought houses in Connecticut since 2016 and is a former NASA robotics scientist. He is also the creator of Apex Vivus, so this is the founder moving his own house-buying website, webuyhousesinconnecticut.com, from Carrot to Apex Vivus, with the same steps any investor follows.
Jerryll left Carrot because its sites begin from templates other investors use too, even though Carrot got his business started. He and the students he coached added a lot of custom code to stand out, until Carrot stopped supporting their sites as too customized. Then a seller filled in a competitor's form on a look-alike site, thinking it was his. He wanted a site that looks like him and nobody else, a full CRM for his team and tools for every step after the lead.
Jerryll moved in a way built to keep his Google rankings: every page kept its exact web address and its words, so Google can recognize each one as the same page, and any address that did change forwards automatically to its new one. A move done this way gives Google no reason to drop a page by itself, although rankings can always move for other reasons, such as a competitor improving. His real Search Console numbers from before and after the move are being added to this page.
His website was not down during the move. The new site was built and checked on a private test address that nobody is sent to and Google does not see, while the Carrot site kept running and bringing in leads. Sellers saw the Carrot site until the moment the domain was switched, and the new site from then on.
His blog posts moved over with every page, word for word, at the same web address. He then had Humphrey, the assistant built into Apex Vivus, rewrite some short posts into in-depth guides, such as his post on selling a house during a divorce, which now covers Connecticut facts, the steps in order and the questions sellers ask.
Jerryll kept both his domain and his email. The domain, the web address people type, belongs to him wherever he bought it. Switching it from Carrot to Apex Vivus is one setting. Email is a separate setting, so it kept working the whole time.
A move like this takes about an afternoon of your own time. Copying the site takes minutes, and looking it over takes an hour or two. You can take as long as you like on the test address, because your Carrot site keeps running until you switch.
Moving from Carrot to Apex Vivus costs nothing for the move itself. The only extra cost is a page you ask Humphrey to rewrite into a longer guide, sixty cents each. After that you pay your Apex Vivus plan, which starts at 97 dollars a month for the website and a full CRM with unlimited users.
His Carrot site was not a typical Carrot site, and that makes this comparison generous to Carrot. His Carrot site had already been reworked with a lot of custom code. An everyday Carrot site looks plainer, so next to a typical Carrot site the difference is usually even bigger.
You can see his website: it is live at webuyhousesinconnecticut.com, so you can open it and try the seller form and the tools yourself.
Each guide answers one question an investor on Carrot asks, in plain words, with Carrot's own prices and pages as the source.
You can make the same move for your Carrot site, and the move is free. Your pages, blog posts, pictures and leads come with you at the same web addresses. The new site is built on a private test address while your Carrot site keeps running, and you switch only when every page is checked.
This is a true story: Jerryll's own move from Carrot to Apex Vivus. Let me tell it out loud: why he left, how the move worked, his site before and after, and what you can take from it for your own site. About four minutes, and you can stop me or ask me anything.
Turn your sound on