In today's market, making money is many times done by selling information. Lead aggregators are companies set up to collect information about people interested in a product and then selling that information to vendors who provide that product. Business people pay large sums of money for lists of good potential leads.
It's no different in real estate, except the names are changed (to protect the innocent? Probably not!). When the consumer does an internet search for a house on one of the national sites like Realtor.com or Zillow.com, the buyer's information is collected and resold to REALTORS for a fee. The buyers are signing up for additional information but additionally their contact info is being sold.
To avoid having your name collected and then resold to the highest bidding agent by a "lead aggregator", you can go to individual agent's sites to do your home searches. Most agents will have a "search for properties", "search listings", or "find a home" tab (Minnesota does not allow the term "Search the MLS") for the consumer to search available listings in the local market. The only person to get your name from an individual agent's site will be that agent. It gives you more control over who contacts you and when you are contacted!
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