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Are REALTOR.COM Enhancements Worth the Money?

Are REALTOR.com enhancements worth the money?

Hell Heck no. At least that is my observation.

I drove 2 hours one way to go to a seminar put on by REALTOR.com. It was being billed as valuable information to show the agent how to:

Leverage the changes in your local market

Target expired listings with a proved marketing plan

Make your current listings be seen first and more often

Make your local expertise more relevant to sellers

Leverage multiple photos and new video listing tours to generate more showings

I had received several emails over the course of 3 weeks each building up the seminar. One of the first emails had, "Important seminar on Social Networking," in the subject line.

Consider:

Active Rain was not mentioned once the entire 4 hours
Twitter was mentioned in passing
We were given 10 minutes of instruction on Facebook
The rest of the seminar was nothing more than the speaker selling REALTOR.com enhancement systems

I have one of REALTOR.coms enhancement systems, which gives me more photos, increased description space, my photo on the listing, a virtual tour link and a few more items, which are designed to sell my listings. Do I find these enhancements worth the money? Absolutely not. I can not attribute one sale to these enhancements. I rarely get a lead from realtor.com, less than one a month, and only one click through a week to my website. For this lack of ROI (return on my investment) I pay more for these "enhancements" than for any other form of marketing (other than my website, which more than pays for itself).

Am I being too hard on REALTOR.com? Nope. Actually, I'm not being hard enough. I talked with an agent who pays $3000 a year for REALTOR.com enhancements. She strongly felt that they were not increasing her business, but that enhancing listings on REALTOR.com is one of the necessary evils of being an agent. Everyone is doing it, so you need to also to "be in the game."

Did I mention REALTOR.com is owned by the N.A.R., the trade association every REALTOR belongs to (pays dues to). One of the major perks of belonging to the N.A.R. is our listings are on REALTOR.com (well, actually all MLS listings are on REALTOR.com). Our listings do not have our name, any extra photos above what is in the MLS listing, or any other information that will lead the consumer to the agent, UNLESS WE PAY TO ENHANCE (what a great trade association, that has no qualms about taking it's members money to do what it should be doing because we PAY DUES). Well, we at least have the great N.A.R. T.V. commercials letting everyone in the U.S. know that the housing market is really much rosier than Americans think (puhh-leaze).

Consider:

Year to date, I have sold more listings in number and volume than any other agent in my market
I can not attribute any of these sales to REALTOR.com and believe me, I track this stuff
8/10 of a % or 1 out of 116 hits on my website is from REALTOR.com
43% of the hits to my website are from my participation on Active Rain
I CAN DIRECTLY ATTRIBUTE 2 OF MY LARGEST CLOSINGS THIS YEAR TO MY ACTIVITIES ON ACTIVE RAIN.
Joe Sesso, the speaker at the "Social Networking" seminar did not once mention the largest real estate social networking site on the internet (Active Rain). Why? Could it be because it is free and not linked financially (as far as I know) to REALTOR.com?

Do I seem cynical? Yes I do. About one quarter of the people in that seminar got up and ran to purchase enhancements being sold at exorbitant rates. Only a handful of agents in the room had their own website (Joe asked for a show of hands). If the agents purchasing REALTOR.com products put the money they spent that day into a website and blogging, they would realize a much better return on their investment. We all know the staggering statistics on how many consumers visit realtor.com each month (as told by realtor.com), yaddah, yaddah. I've talked with enough agents (and have my own experience) to know that those stats do not a sale make.

I was extremely disappointed that I drove 4 hours round trip for a bait and switch seminar that was billed as social networking and was nothing more than REALTOR.com selling their wares (that do not in my opinion, work).

I would love to hear from anyone out there that feels their ROI on realtor.com is worth it. Please mention which enhancements you pay for, if you can attribute sales to these enhancements and, if you don't mind, how much you pay annually for these enhancements.

My success so far this year is linked to my free activities on Active Rain, Twitter, Trulia, Zillow, Google Base, my website and my blog, my blog, my blog, along with giving really outstanding customer service and working full-time.

Joe Sesso mentioned, "If you aren't blogging, you should." That was the extent of talking about blogging at a social networking seminar. You tell me? Was that seminar a waste of time or what?

Thank you for stopping by. Your comments on this post are welcomed and appreciated.

Fran Gatti Del Norte County Real Estate Agent

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No one works harder for you!
Bus: 707-464-5400, Cell: 707-218-8162
Email: frangatti@remax.net
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Posted by Fran Gatti - Realtor®, RCDPro®, Crescent City CA Real Estate on 05/25/2009 08:50 AM

Comments (309)

Realtor.com in the Technology and Tools Channel

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Originally posted at: Crescent City Real Estate News: Are REALTOR.COM Enhancements Worth the Money?

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309 Comments on Are REALTOR.COM Enhancements Worth the Money?

MAY

Fran: I have several friends who are in an office where the enhanced Realtor.com listings were "mandated." Every agent in the office was charged a fee to cover the cost. I would have been furious if it were me...but thanks for an excellent post on the enhanced Realtor.com listings. Very thorough, and for me, very timely. And... that seminar that you have to drive two hours to... and then to have them totally skate over what the seminar subject was supposed to be... and then turn the darn thing into a Realtor.com sales promotion... I would have been furious about that as well. Again... thanks for sharing...

Thanks for sharing your stats. I have had Realtor.com enhancements for a long time and have not had many direct leads from them. I know the money would be better spent somewhere else.

I think it all depends upon where you are. I moved from Providence, RI, where realtor.com was the king. When I moved out west to Utah, the MLS-owned website is much more popular for realtors and buyers/

Fran, we had several agents in our area, get sucked into this seminar for FREE.

I knew it was just a sales pitch. I will not use them ever again, and haven't for 3 years.

Realtor.com is not about the Realtors regardless of what they mission statement is. It is a third party vendor making their money off our listings.

If NAR really cared about realtor. com and the agents and brokers who get the listings we would ALL have enhanced listings.

I agree. A few years ago I paid for this and never got anything at all from it. Did my client get better exposure? Debatable. Probably not. Save your money for something else.

They sucked thousands of dollars out of us for several years. We dumped them a couple of years ago. Didn't see any benefits while paying and haven't seen any loss since dumping. Why they get the stamp of approval from NAR is beyond me. They aren't serving our interests, that's for sure!

First let me say I have been prejudiced againsr realtor.com from the beginning. If amazon.com was the best example of a web 1.0 web site, realtor.com was the worst. Banner ads that took you out of the system, finding me 7 clicks deep after you scrolled down just to name a few of the cynical attempt to get your money. After that it has been one scheme after another. What they want is to create a sense of dependence when in reality the blend of blogging and social networking is freeing. I predict Active Rrain will surpass realtor.com in three years at the current rate as the No. 1 portal in the industry, and we can do it organically.

There are folks among us that would say AR is a waste of time, can not find the good that comes out. We know different. Realtor.com if used correctly works. Not everyone can afford to, or sees the need to have it in their marketing mix. When you send a link to the 25 images, video, extra write up and sign writer, headline animation to an owner, to a buyer it is impressive. When buyers and sellers for that matter are on realtor.com the largest real estate site, and your listing jumps out, all branded...think of which one you remember. The first insertion of feature property is clicked on, and then directed to your home site, your other listings. You got them first. Also, think branding the broker, promoting the area the property is in with the video and extra 17 images spaces. More images, video...not just the standard dog and pony splash like everyone else gets you customers, makes an impression, makes you stand out. You don't just pay for the enhancement, you expand on it, take it to the maximum.

Fran..I'm on the fence right now. My Showcase package was $39.00 monthly last year based on 6 to 7 listings and this year it went up to $130.00 monthly based on 40 listings. I have the package that allows you the 25 pics, the added banner and additional text. I am primarily a Listing Agent. I have kept the service up to now (remember I'm on the fence) because I use the banner and added text to promote MY WEBSITE.

I have listings in areas were there are 300, 500, even up to 800 homes in a specific zip code and 99% of the time my listing will appear on the first page of Realtor.com and usually, in the top 3 spots when consumers sort by pictures. I know it's a Realtor.com gimmick. Bold lettering encourages consumers to sort by pictures and then they charge us Realtors for placing more pictures.

My banner promotes my website address exclusively. I receive 5 to 6 Buyer leads monthly directly from Realtor.com. As long as I convert a couple per year my expense is covered. For me it's a self-promoting vehicle as most of my listings are sold by other Realtors.

On the fence as I'm not sure if it's worth more than $100 or so for me right now and next year it'll go up again.

Fran - ROI and NAR enhanced tools seem mutually exclusive. I don't use them but thanks for the heads up

Fran, thank you for sharing your thoughts on the REALTOR.COM enhancements. I have not tried them. Looking at all of the comments on this I am glad I am not taking the sales calls from the REALTOR.com sale people.

Bettina

Our office pays for the Realtor.com enhancement, which helps us stand out from other office in our marketplace. I find it's a good tool to use, at a listing presentation... sellers like the idea.

But I agree, that I haven't seen a single transaction that I can point to, where I've gotten a single lead from Realtor.com.

Fran - I have never paid a dime to Realtor.com, yet we get the vast majority of our business from the internet. Most of it comes from my primary company website, and the rest comes from my participation at ActiveRain. Nice post!

I too was sucked into attending that free workshop. Their sales techniques were great as they had people buying left and right. I will admit that they got us too. When I attended this workshop I was still wet behind the ears in regards to my real estate career.

I had about the same results you got, but I did get one referral that came directly from Realtor.com. I have had some sellers that love realtor.com- and saying I had these features probably did secure the listing- the latest was a $519,900 listing.

However, that being said- I thnk I may have been able to secure the $519,900 w/o Realtor.com features.

My subscription is up and they have been calling me non-stop and I am been politely ignoring their renewal phone calls...

When REALTOR.com first came out, I was a subscriber and found it to be a waste of money. Perhaps it has improved since then, but the cost is absurd. I've yet to hear any user in my SOI say anything about REALTOR.com other than "it is a waste of money." This NAR perk is NOT really a perk for members (how gullible do they think we are?), it is a source of revenue for NAR.

Yeaaaaah! I also have tried the Realtor.com packages and am down to the same upgrades you have chosen. No sales attributed to Realtor.com, either. I have been ignoring their attempts to get me to upgrade again. It's the same question as advertising in a newspaper where you know that less than 3% of the sales come from that source. So, how do you quit all this "necessary evil" stuff??? Lisa

I'm on the same band wagon with you. I dumped Realtor.com like a hot potato a few years ago and they will never get me back. I too cannot account from one sale over the 5 years I did business with them.

I can honestly say I have NEVER lost a listing because I didn't have enhanced Realtor.com. Never. I can't even remember when a seller asked me if I did. Just because others "do it" doesn't mean we have to. Someone commented above, wanting to know how we quit all this "necessary evil" stuff.....I say JUST DO IT!

Shame on NAR for raping all of us, or trying :) Could they kiss us first?

A few years back I signed up for the featured listings on Realtor.com and then never renewed. I don't plan on ever renewing. I don't see the value.

I am with you and the others, Fran. I subscribe to Realtor.com with enhancements for more pictures, and the rigth to be on the more visible pages. Allo for my clients. Will this help the sale? Not sure, but I am doing it to be just another venue for my clients.

Me too Fran. Realtor.com gets a little too much from me each year, like you said, it's a necessary evil. I will say I have picked up a few buyer leads from my show cased listings but I can't attribute a sale to them yet although I do have a sale pending thanks to them. If I'm lucky, that sale pays for the year on realtor.com.

Great post. I love this stuff. I stopped enhancing my listings a long time ago and, like many responders here, never felt the difference (except in my bank account). However, a few sellers complained. Here's how I answered them:

"I want to sell your house just as badly as you do. If I don't sell your house, I don't get paid. If I thought that having an enhanced listing on Realtor.com would increase the chances of selling your house, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I'm not being cheap, I'm being fiscally responsible. I use marketing techniques that work, and don't waste my (and indirectly your) money on ones that don't."

On Realtor.com for your area you're one of how ever many other Realtors are on there.

On your personal website you're one of one. I like my odds of being chosen as someone's Realtor of choice much better there.

Good on you Fran.

Tell it like it is! To often we just go along with the crap that is poured down our throats.

I have often said that Real Estate Agents are the easiest marks.

Had the enhanced package for one year and I got nothing. It is not worht the money.

Wow. Thanks for that info.

THANK YOU FOR THIS POST! I sat in the "2009 Marketing Survival Guide" that Realtor.com hosted. They did dig deeper for social networking but most of the folks around me had no clue what the speaker was talking about (from the convos I overheard). they did pitch the enhancement package and i was wondering what the results are.

I hate to recommend something to an agent without proof of it successes. I try to create marketing plans are cheap/cost effective to implement and while this is something I don't build in for them (because of no proof) I now know a little more about it.

Hope the answers keep coming!!! I want more info.

I used Realtor.com about 7 years ago when I got this low offered price.. Can only say I got one sale from it in month 12. The next year the wanted to DOUBLE my cost based on my listing count. I have yet to jump on board again.

Rently I was contacted by Realtor.com after a comment on a post simular to this and they wanted to show me the benefits of their system. Yes the 25 photos are great until some companies as a who totally ABUSE the system placing photos of everything except the home ( maybe 1 or 2 if they were lucky ) only to get top spot in Clarksville TN. Even the sales rep stated that was ABUSE, yet nothing has been done about it.

I feel the cost is absured.... Should be no more than the cost of hosting a regular website at best. But again.. don't we already pay fees to NAR ?

I totally agree that Realtor.com enhancements are a rip off. I signed up for the banner ads and had to compete with Avis Rental Car, Home Depot, etc. Their ads were comming up more frequently than realtors! Makes you wonder...

Fran....right on. Waste of money for sure. I had the enhancement part for two years for the whole office at my expense and it created nothing. I was every so glad when the contract was over. And we did go to a seminar last year and it was a waste of time and totally about selling their overpriced stuff.

Thanks for stepping up and saying something.......maybe when they (realtor.com) folks here this loud enough they'll make some changes.

Not a fan of Realtor.com either.

NAR/Realtor.com are still living in an ancient business model, and I believe they are losing money hand over fist by being so near-sighted by not offering the tools/training that create real value!

The membership is talking, anyone listening?

- Harrison Painter

Argh, the frustration of bait and switch! Sorry you had to endure that and we get leads from r.com on a normal basis but the quality isn't that great. You aren't missing anything and thanks for informing us of the bait and switch!

Yikes! I would NOT be a happy camper. For $3000.00 a year we operate 50 websites, it's a no brainer as to money better spent...

I also have heard Realtor.com is a waste and I do not spend my ad. money there.

I can't trace enough dollars back to Realtor.com in a year to show produced more than 1 sale - not worth the expense and the time you have to spend to enhance a site that could just be done by taking it directly from where they are already getting info - your mls - all doesn't add up - not user friendly and not enough ROI......the NAR really has a long way to go

Fran~ I have to agree with the others that it isn't worth the fees. But, I guess it just depends on the area ? Will be back to see what everyone says!

- Harrison Painter said,

The membership is talking, anyone listening?

No, they are not listening and probably won't. We pay good money to be called REALTOR® and I think we should get more benefit from REALTOR® dot com for that money. That they can use the word in their url without it being attached to a person's legal name and we cannot is wrong, in my opinion.

I think that if REALTOR® is the name of the site then all dues paying members should benefit from it without having to pay extra. But, of course, pigs will probably fly before that happens.

Fran, The 'ole bait and switch is never fun to be a part of. I have used www.Realtor.com for a while and have sold homes as a result. I am rather lucky though in that my company pays for it for me. Doesn't cost me a dime, that is the best kind of enhancement.

These comments are fascinating to me because I have a very different experience. I have been a subscriber for years of several of Realtor.com's enhancements, including showcase listing enhancements, a Featured Home spot for 07726, featured CMA (Market Snapshot), banner & skyscraper ads. Let's just say, I spend thousands a year.

Before you say, "She's really a sucker to spend all that money on Realtor.com!", please know these facts: My county's MLS has 6,500 members serving a population of about 650,000. Several of the expensive services on Realtor.com are limited to 8 or 10 realtors for my section of the county (Western Monmouth County, NJ). The realtors in this area spend lavishly on advertising online and in local print. There is a waiting list at Realtor.com for some of the advertising slots that I currently own. (If you'd like to see what I'm talking about, search for homes in Manalapan, NJ 07726, as one example).

I'm considering whether or not to renew when my contract is up for each subscription, and it's a tough choice. It is excellent branding, and I have closed transactions from it. . . enough to cover my expenses, but not enough to make it really profitable. However, when I'm on a listing appointment, I find that the seller is often already aware of my extensive advertising. Also, many buyers have found my listings on Realtor.com even if they were working with another agent.

However, As Active Rain, Trulia, and others gain more attention from the public, Realtor.com's importance will fade. My goal is to develop on Active Rain and other less expensive websites, and phase Realtor.com out over time. Just not yet!

I've been a subscriber to the Realtor.com Showcase listings for the few short years I've been an agent. I HAVE gotten leads from the service, and I know of many other people that use Realtor.com for their searches. I can probably only attribute 1-2 sales per year, though. But, while that may seem like a low number, since I know a lot of people use that website, there is probably a number that I can NOT count where other agents' buyers are searching the site and coming across my listings. So, when they see my listings, they make a note and send them to their own agent to schedule showings.

I do put as many photos as I can justify posting, but try not to be "abusive". I'm around 20+ photos on each, as far as I remember. I like the idea of using the scrolling banner to promote my own website, as mentioned above. I'll have to put that to use, too! :-)

Thanks Fran, for posting this! I too wondered if it's worth paying for the extra bells and whistles from them. For me, I decided it was not. I use www.realestateshows.com which is $125/yr. (I can sign up people for $100) It allows me to make a little video from my pictures, add all the info I want, all the pictures I want, and I can upload it to practically any site I can think of. To add it to realtor.com, it does cost $25 per listing. So you may not get "featured" listings and it doesn't show your branding on the first realtor.com page, but if they click onto the red "featured tour" link, all your info is there. This has worked well for me but I don't have that many listings. Depending on the number of listings, $25 for each may not be a good idea. I do get a good amount of hits from realtor.com (the shows have tracking) so for me it is worth it. Sellers really like it and they can easily email it to their friends and family-- all with your branding on it.

Thanks for that information. I have some people in my office who swear by enhanced realtor.com. But I think ActiveRain is the only way to go. Along with all the free blogspots and my own website, I think I get more without spending all this money needlessly. Its been very tedious getting everything set up. But once its done it should be easy to maintain AND FREE! (PS - they offered the same seminar in my state - I would have had a 4-5 hour one-way trip to take that thing in Raleigh!!!)

Fran,

I was told by 2 listings if I did not use the enchanced vesion of REALTOR.COM, I would lose the lsiting. So I did it this past year for one year, it cost me 2,500 for this. I ahve not gotten one lead from doing this. However I did this past year join Active Rain and I have had 2 referrals that have produced a listing and a sale. Also a buyer from my blogging. This is productive.

REALTOR.COM is not worth the money! I belong to 4 MLS and my listings goes to REALTOR.COM 4 times. Last the reps form REALTOR.COM calls me every day at least 1 to 2 times a day for the past 4 weeks to renew!. I do not answer their calls!

This is a great blog!

Fran, Our office just opted into the Realtor.com listing enhancements as an office. I have had 3 leads in the last 45 days from Realtor.com, but it's too early to tell if any of them will become anything. In contrast, I have one GrowthLeader deal under contract now, and another deal under contract because the buyer read my blog and liked me.

I am reserving judgement on the Realtor.com enhancements, but at this juncture, I feel like what I'm doing outside of the listing enhancements is much more meaningful.

What's R.com? hehehehe

Hi Fran,

We do use the realtor.com enhancement features for our whole office. Our company actually pays for it. We do find it to be a huge value. We do get a lot of lbuyer eads from the system, and agents have been contacted and recieved sellers leads as a direct result. I do believe it's an important part of our aresenal. The key is to doing it right. Our listings are updated by a key admin daily, and we update every feature.

Now, I also do a lot of trainings at our company and I recently did a computer training. Not only did I go over Facebook and ActiveRain, I did go over Twitter, MySpace (which also helps if used correclty), and showed them how to use different things on their computers (some of them didn't know how to mail merge or create postcards, etc.) I do believe that we need to be on these systems. I also recommend agents to designate a specific time of the day and a specific amount of time allotted to the internet sites per day, because it can get overwhelming and time can fly by.

Great post... it definitely does remind each of us that we need to be constantly evaluating where our dollars are spent. And, what works for one person, may not work for another.

Enjoy!

Melissa Gomez
VP of Operations
ERA Top Service Realty, Inc.
www.ERASuccess.com

A few agents in my office tried Realtor.com...we dropped it. It is not worth it in this area. Good post and thanks for this info, as I will pass this on to my office.

I talked with an agent who pays $3000 a year for REALTOR.com enhancements. She strongly felt that they were not increasing her business, but that enhancing listings on REALTOR.com is one of the necessary evils of being an agent.

Hi Fran,

I know there are agents who agree with that position. On the other hand, REALTOR.com is an effective internet marketing tool for some listing agents.

P.S. Move, Inc. owns the REALTOR.com website. Having the Move salepeople talk about ActiveRain at their seminar would be like you going to a Ford dealership and having the salesperson tell you about the great new Chevy. It's not going to happen!!! :)

Are REALTOR.com enhancements worth the money?

NO!

In my opinion, it is less an issue whether there is benefit or not from the enhancements. I just don't like that all members pay for the name REALTOR® but only those willing and/or able to pay extra get full benefit from the use of the name on that website.

If it were called by the website owner's name rather than the name REALTOR® I would be okay with that. As it is now, I think it is similar to double taxation... or worse. We pay for the name, they use the name and then sell it back to us at an astronomically high rate.

Fran, the basic realtor.com listings have the leads go to the broker and not the agent. I think we should get more from the basic dues.

We have done the REALTOR.com thing and dropped it when they changed their billing system to one that in our opinion was a penalty to listing agents (we had 150 listings at that time). We dropped the service and get far more leads from our website than we ever did on R.com...Don't even get me started on the NAR connection to them! Grrrrr....have a happy Memorial Day! :o)

I'm letting mine lapse this June. I have enhanced listings with my office, but I was paying for it with my other broker. I was also paying to have a zip code, but really, it's not worth it. $1200/yr can be better spent elsewhere.

@ Gary: I have the perfect solution for any office where the broker gets all the leads (if any) from Realtor.com., and not the agents directly. If the broker gets the leads... the broker should be paying your Realtor fees for you. That sounds fair, doesn't it ? :)

I totally agree with Fran Gatti. As one of the top Kansas City listing agents, I saw my expenses for the enhancements double over the past 3 years to almost $5000 a year. I also have 1/10 exposure on a top/bottom Kansas side banner ad. I am not sure there is much value in this. Has anyone tracked the click through rate? I am debating on cutting way back Realtor.com expenses. Now that so many Realtors have"caught on" to Realtor.com they are trying to sell thru "time limited" price reductions.

Sharon Sigman in Kansas City

I don't think so. I was on Realtor.com for years and never go anything out of it.

I do agree with Karen Anne Stone on her comments above.

Patricia Aulson/Portsmouth NH Real estate

I'm glad you posted this. Now I can see that there really is not a benefit. I will keep my money in my pocket.

I have the enhanced package and am underwhelmed. The problem is that sellers expect it the way they used to expect print advertising.

I don't have time to read all of the comments but I would like to add that I do like having the 20 photos and showcase property features because it helps me during a listing presentation. I have never found Realtor.com sales reps or their presentations at all worthwhile!

I know some agents who swear by Realtor.com and their enhancements, I personally dont use them but to each their own. The NAR actually doesnt own REALTOR.com it is owned by another company that is partially owned by the NAR, something i just found out recently

Hi Fran - I want you to know that I read your blog and all of the above comments. My renewal date is this coming week. I have been contacted by Realtor.com and they are offering me a low price, same as last year, which was reduced greatly when I questioned the value of the service. After 13 years of using Realtor.com and its enhancements, I may be able to credit them for 1-2 sales....and those are questionable.

I haven't utilized ActiveRain as a listing tool, but after reading the above comments, I am going to check it out.

I absolutely love ActiveRain and the wonderful new friends and contacts I have made.

Thank you for your post. I look forward to hearing more from you.

Hey, they forgot my photo....want other members to know who I am and think of me when they think of Denver.....sorry

Fran

I used it for years just as a listing tool. The results were mediocre.

So glad I found this post, Fran. I and three other agents from my office just attended a free seminar like you described a couple of weeks ago. One of the agents does use an enhancement program from realtor.com and has said she's gotten her money back on it. Just this morning I pulled out the information they gave us on the different options available, but after reading your post and some of the comments, I'll be putting it in the trash. Excellent information you've provided. And I couldn't agree more with your thoughts of ActiveRain.

I do pay to be on realtor.com with enhanced listings. I know that people are searching there and will pull up the ones with more pictures first. They may never contact you personally but will make their buyer's agent show them the house or send them more info. There is no way to tract the results with absolute results. If I plan to refer to an agent in another city I search realtor.com to find an agent. I also note that the most successful agents in my small town pay for enhancements. I guess it depends on how much I have to pay but I have paid for several years and find it has improved over the years.

Barbaras comments were well put and similar to what I feel. I pay for the enhancements and have actually seen my ROI with sales and listings. I really think it does depend on your location and how much you pay. I like what I've experienced so far.

Feel like you got suckered in! I can tell, you most likely did. Someone else is just trying to make a buck off your hard work and listings. My sellers have never asked about it. I used it for a year 7-8 years ago and dropped it. Feel free to vent. At least they did not sell you on effects global warming by not using realtor.com.

Hello Fran,

I went to the seminar for Realtor.com. I got sucked in to buying advertising space for the web site

(alot of money). Well, I never got my information on Realtor.com and I never got my money back. All I have to say is, our Brokers say watch out for the thefts that want to separate us from our money, and I say the biggest one is Realtor.com

Hi Fran...Many of us have found this post to be very accurate. I certainly do. I believe, as many others here, that we should not have to pay for enhancements. Realtor.com should be a tool for us without all the added expense to add additional photos, etc.

Thanks for posting (and thanks AR for giving this a gold star) as this may well help a number of REALTORS save their money by saying no to NAR.

Kate

Great blog Fran. I too am paying for the inhancements but have not had one sale I can attribute to it. I pay for the pic etc. Does seem like a waste of money. I am going to put more into my website...

I don't know if it has been mentioned, but NAR actually leases out the Realtor.com name to a for profit entity, Move, Inc. And they charge way to much to be a back-burner site.

Hats off to you for telling it like it is! I got suckered into attending one of those wonderful seminars last year by R.com and kicked myself for days for being so stupid as to waste my time to attend. I don't see the benefit, but watched many jump in line to pay big bucks for listing enhancements and buy zip codes. There is one broker in my area that already owns R.com as for as I'm concerned and I wouldn't give them a dime. To me it's not worth the money!

As nearly everyone else has said...thanks Fran! It really is great to hear that so many people are frustrated with the extra fees and it's wonderful to hear that you have gotten a majority of your business from free websites. I've had alot of luck with facebook, and am getting more active in trulia and active rain. It's a shame that keeping up with other agents requires us to have those enhancements. Thanks again!

Thanks so much for sharing the post & all the comments. I've also been debating on the renewal of the enhancement package coming due next week & I feel certain it's going to be higher than our last year's rate of $1,500/year because of our increased number of listings. We actually get about 4 referrals a week from them. ... but still debating on if it's worth it.

Fran - I am in complete agreement with your observations on Realtor.com enhanced listings. Our office has the enhanced feature package and as agents we pay per month based on the number of listings we had the prior year. I CANNOT attribute one ounce of business from Realtor.com with all their platitudes on how it's the place to be for those elusive buyer leads.

It amazes me when I get their marketing report on my listings and see the thousands of "views" and not one inquiry that I can relate to it.

Active Rain and my personal website have brought me more business for far less money than I've spent on Realtor.com.

with a bit of research I find many products that don't make a difference yet agents keep buying them and they keep paying for those enhanced listings too.

Fran - you are absolutely right on the money. I have had enhanced listings for 3 years now and cannot attribute 1 sale to it. I work with an Asset company that requires us to have enhanced listings on Realtor.com. My website and my blog provide me with so many more leads and sales!

Fran,

Great article. I agree with you on this post. I paid for enhancements in the past and now pay for it through my broker. We have seen nothing from Realtor.com in 3 years. I find that craigslist provides the most hits for FREE!!! Also, WATCH out for the contracts that Realtor.com locks people into. I had a double bill for 10 months because I was in a contract then went to a broker that had a office licence. They will NOT let you out of those contracts. Watch out with how many listings you carry too. The prices really jump up FAST if you carry some listings. REO agents need to watch out for that. Nothing is worth 3 grand a year, pay me 500 bucks and I will show you how to use social media and get your own leads.

Fran where did you get the buttons made up?

If my new broker was not offering it for free I would have dropped it. Those fees will buy a lot of AdWords.

I agree with you! I signed up my first year in real estate thinking I needed to do this for business. It's worthless for leads. I dropped them after my year was up.

Our company signed up for the enhanced services for a market where Realtor.com claimed to be getting 8 million searches and a lot more visits than was believable. The Stats Realtor.com mentions include the search engine robots indexing their site not just humans. As result, you as an agent think they have far more people than they actually do. in addition, Realtor.com is ran and controlled by Homestore.com not NAR. Homestore lost their MLS feed contracts across the board several years back. The NWMLS is an example of a large MLS that does not send it's listings to Realtor.com. The sales staff for Realtor.com continue to claim all MLS send to them even though they know for a fact it is not the case. None of our agents can claim good leads for Realtor.com, hits yes, but thats sort of like telling someone to go fishing and and never catch a fish, but they think the bites are worth it, never knowing if those hits are actual people or just search indexing robots from search engines.

I've hated realtor.com from day one. ALL CRAP in my opinon. I sure wish we could make them pay us to use our listings instead they charge us to advertise our listings on their site....HUH how did this happen? More importantly why are we letting them do this? It's all BS and I wish they would go away. I'm proud to say that in my 10 years I've never paid them a dime for extras. I was lucky enough to smell that RAT from day one.

Aaron -

One point of clarification, from the NAR's "History of Realtor.com" -

1. The National Association of REALTORS® owns and controls REALTOR.com. NAR’s subsidiary, RIN, also owns approximately 4% of Homestore’s stock, and maintains two seats on the Real Select board, and one seat on the Homestore board. In addition to their fiduciary responsibilities to those entities, the NAR appointees also:

I agree with those that say they haven't seen a good ROI from Realtor.com. My contract expired a month ago April after having them for the last 3 years and I can't say I've gotten 1 sale from all the money spent on the enhanced listings.

It is a good feature to present at a listing appointment, but lately I've noticed that sellers are beginning to care more for results than all the fluff that we try to offer. Especially with so much info available to a seller I think some can see that having the home on Realtor.com is NOT the magic bullet.

I've also seen many of the replys to this post mention that they've gotten more clients for AR then anywhere else and was wondering what they are doing to acheive that. I haven't been part of the community too long and could use a little help if anyone doesn't mind...

Thanks

Dustin Miller

I have bought in to the enhanced REALTOR.com as well in the past and did not find it to be worth the money. Thanks for the great blog on this. Both our money and our time are better spent elsewhere.

I have never paid for Realtor.com until last year, when I decided it would be a good strong incoming link to my website, so I forked over the $800 or so for it. Well, I have only a couple of click throughs, which was no big deal as I did it for the link anyway. I couldn't figure out why it never showed up as an incoming link, and then I found out that it is a no follow! So my $800 was down the drain. Of course, I got several calls asking me to renew, at the outrageous rate of $1300 this time, but I won't send any more money down that rat hole. I have learned my lesson.

Fran - I don't blame you for being annoyed. My websites and blogs bring in most of my business. I have never spent any money on these bad ROI schemes that rarely seem to deliver and I never will. NAR should distance itself from this bunch.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment on my post.

I attended the seminar to learn more about incorporating Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites into my business. I have had enhanced listings with realtor.com for four years and had already come to the conclusion that it is not worth the money, so I was not sucked into further purchases as one comment suggested.

My boss considers realtor.com as a necessary evil, but I do not agree. I am not going to renew my enhanced listings and I am going to invest the money I save into my website, which has paid for itself and then some.

I have NEVER had a client ask about realtor.com and enhanced listings. Many of my clients are highly aware of my internet presence and have checked out my website and blog and that is why many call me to list their property. I feel I need to be more prudent than ever before with every dollar I spend and realtor.com just does not pencil out as a good investment of my marketing dollars.

About 5% of the comments on this post had anything positive to say about realtor.com enhanced listings. That's not much of an endorsement is it? I am happy for those of you that said it is working for you, especially if you paid up-front as I do!

Thank you again for your comments,

I am pretty sure Realtor.com is NOT owned by N.A.R.

Realtor.com pays a fee each year to be the "official site" of the NAR however they are a private owned, for-profit site.

Thank you for sharing! I feel the same way about it. My coleague has all the enhancement and featured agent, featured listings and spends thousands of dollars on it a year. I find it to be a scam, our company gave all their agents a year free of the enhanced listings, and yes it looks good, more pictures, you can add video, but also there are so many other free sites who offer the same features for free, and you can add so much more to their listings. I do not feel like my yearly/quarterly REALTOR dues are of any value to me, I do think buyers go to realtor.com for listings, but I don't think it is worth $1000 of dollars. Other free sites offer the same service for free, and also give you the free stats and all. Blogging (for free) seems like a better idea to me.

Fran,

This is a great article.

You have basically said "the king has no clothes"

We have used the Realtor.com products for a couple of years with no measured results.

Last year we tried the featured home product to find out after the fact that our listing would be featured on the BOTTOM of the page.

Of course, no refunds!

Also I'm getting tired of being viewed as a profit center for NAR.

The majority of us are struggling to stay in business while fees stay the same or increase each year.

Had the enhanced listings last year for the lowest rate and was told this year that it would cost me almost FIVE TIMES as much to renew. Really???

I told the sales rep who called me endlessly to stop calling -- that I got nothing from it and was planning to spend my marketing dollars more wisely this year. I suspect from his unhappy reaction that he was hearing that a lot.

(Off topic, but I also told him I found it odd that an Internet service won't allow you to renew in a simple, online transaction. Wonder why that is? Possibly they're worried no one will renew without the hard sell arm twisting?)

Thanks for starting this discussion and saving others from possibly making the same bad choice I made last year.

One of the first rules in marketing is to track your results - and know what advertising, in what place, brings you the greatest ROI. Then do more of that.

You need to know if an ad placed in a homes magazine, an ad in the Sunday newspaper, or something you've done on the web brings you the most leads. And if no leads are forthcoming from a form of advertising, you need to take a big deep breath and drop it - even if all of your competitors are still using it.

Before I left real estate sales to write full-time for others who were still in the trenches, NAR had started charging extra for things like a click-through. I thought it was a rip-off then, and I still do.

The best thing you can do for you is to make your own website the best that it can be. Show why YOU are the agent to choose in your niche market and showcase each of your listings as if it were your only listing. Write descriptions that make buyers drool when they read them, and add enough good information to your site to optimize it to the top of the search engines.

Of course, don't completely ignore off-line marketing, but do track results and put your money where you get the best return.

Remember - Following the crowd is NOT always the best use of your money.

I have to agree with fellow activerain members that r.com is really just theft. While a few do have had some sucess with it the truth is you might as well throw them a few thousand dollars before anything close happens. Personally, for my marketing and branding Im using several microsites (growthleader,etc) and my blog, my company website,twitter and most important is my active rain account.

I thought the content of the seminar was a waste of time especially since it didn't deliver on the agenda that they sent out on the invitation.

I also track click-throughs and lead sources and only had one buyer that came from the Enhanced Listings and the Featured House upgrades last year.

I didn't renew the serivce in March when it expired and have no plans to renew it in the future.

Russ,

My website provider, Top Producer made the buttons for me. I have them on the home page of my website. You have my permission to copy them and put your own links to them if you like.

My foreclosure button brings up a lead capture form before the client can access the foreclosure/short sale listings. It has proved to be a very good way to get good leads. I incorporated that into my website after reading Shift, by Gary Keller. I highly encourage everyone to read that book. Even if you only incorporate one of his ideas, the time spent reading the book will pay for itself. Here is a link to a review I wrote on the book.

Fran

I just started out and only see it as a way to help sell my services for listing properties. I am a discount Realtor and do not work for a large name broker so I need whatever I can to set my self apart. However I can see your concerns and I spend a menial amount right now and probably wouldnt do much more than that. Plus it always sucks to get suckered into going to a sales pitch especially under false pretenses.

Great question. I also got sucked in to the marketing and have my one year contract coming up for cancellation. What a waste. Thanks for beinging it to everyone's attention.

Marte is ABSOLUTELY correct - - - if you don't track your results, you might as well be tossing all your marketing money out the window. And, everything else he said - - - well, put!

Realtor.com is WAY OVERPRICED. I have enhanced listings on Realtor.com, but for only one reasone: To show the number of views each of my listings is getting. Othewise it is a waste of time.

I just purchased a banner add to promote my website that displays when visitors search for homes in my city. It has been live for 3 weeks now, and there has been only one click... from me when I set it up to make sure it worked. A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY.

Learn SEO or hire an expert to position your web site and generate traffic that way.

I WAS SUCKED INTO THAT ALSO AND I WAS SOOOOO MAD WHEN I LEFT THERE.

THEY ARE PREYING ON US AND THE MARKET WE ARE FACING NOW. I THINK IT WAS A BAIT AND SWITCH FOR SURE.

I AGREE WITH YOU FOR SURE............

TRACEY COLE

296-4667

If it has not been said already in many different ways, please allow me to say this. Dump Realtor.com. I did 3 years ago, and I have not regretted.

Realtor.com is oh, so turn of the century.

OKAY, IT APPEARS THAT THE MAJORITY OF US REALTORS ALL FEEL THE SAME.....LET'S DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!CAN WE FORWARD THIS POLL TO NAR!!!!

FOR MY PART.....I HATE REALTOR.COM.....THEY TOOK UNAUTHORIZED MONEY FROM MY ACCOUNT FOR ENHANCEMENTS OF A BILLBOARD AD FOR FORECLOSURES....SAID IT WAS A MISTAKE...TOOK FOUR TIMES MORE THAN WAS AUTHORIZED AND IT TOOK ME SIX WEEKS TO GET IT RETURNED TO MY ACCOUNT.

THEY SUCK AND SHOULD BE RUN OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!!! Who do we contact. Let's raise hell......

I knew from the beginning the seminar was going to be all about Realtor.com, but attended anyway. There was some good information to glean from the presentation, if you are not savvy with the Internet or the computer. I am, therefore, I actually found the 4 hours to be somewhat, a waste of my time.

I have had enhancement features which did absolutely nothing for me in terms of sales. My business comes from my two real estate web sites (one personal and one provided by the company), my dedicated real estate page on Facebook and referrals from friends on the social side of Facebook.

My listing presentation only makes mention of Realtor.com as one of the many web sites a seller's listing will be on. Not one seller has ever made a point about having all the bells and whistles on Realtor.com, as they are impressed with all the video sites I make use of as well as approximately 40 realty based sites their home will get prime exposure on. My enhancement contract with Realtor.com expired a month ago, and I see no reason to renew it.

Thank you for this excellent post that gets everyone talking.

I never saw leads or any increase in calls or website visits when I had the realtor.com enhancements. And the stats they post have to be inflated. At any rate, they do not describe how they are derived. None of my clients use realtor.com because of the excessive advertising and cumbersome navigation.

Just another embarrassment brought to us by our "professional" trade organization.

And Fran, did you REALLY think anyone affiliated with realtor.com would know anything about social media?

I have used the Realtor.com enhanced listing services for about 4 years with no results to date. I now have it thru my office.

I would not recommend it to anyone. I get a lead once in awhile, so infrequently that it's insignificant.

Their reporting has been way off for months now.

Thanks for the heads up on the seminar, I won't bother to attend if one comes to my area.

Fran, Great article, especially the part about the racket NAR is, what a joke. This whole thing has always seemed to me to be a monopoly, you must be a member of NAR to be a member of our MLS, to get a key pad, and besides the newsletter and pontificating on "capital hill" and the commercials, oh those commercials (didn't you know the recession was over?) have sellers thinking they can jump there prices again....

I completely agree, and it doesn't end there....it really amazes me to see how other companies do the same as REALTOR.COM. I have been to so many of these "free seminars" just so the whole thing can turn into some sales pitch to you buying their product that doesn't even work to increase your business at ALL. To top it off, to see the line of agents actually going to purchase this so called top of the line technology, it just reminds me when I was a new agent and would purchase anything anyone threw at me. I guess thats part of the business, and as agents, we need to weed seminars like that out when we spot them.

I left 20 years of climbing the corporate ladder so that "evil" would never be "necessary" again! I LOVE real estate! Choose the life you love.

I have paid for the Realtor.com enhanced listings for about 3 years now, and although I can't attribute a huge amount of business to it, I can definitely say that I have gotten at least one sale and one listing because of this tool. The Buyer told me that the reason he called me over many other agents was because my listings gave him more information than the average listing and included so many pictures. One seller contacted me through Realtor.com because he had seen my enhanced listings. I agree with most of you on many, many points, but I've spend about $2100 in three years, and can honestly say that I've made about $7000 in comissions from those two sales, so was it worth it? I guess it was!

I have enjoyed a positive ROI for the enhanced advertising on realtor.com, which I've had since 2003. The contacts and resulting transactions made through realtor.com more than paid for the service, in MY experience.

That being said, I am annoyed that realtor.com is allowing FSBOs to purchase advertising. Also, I'm fairly new to ActiveRain and am not yet using it to its full potential. So, I may become a convert soon!

I think it does give you additional exposure. But, in no way would I ever pay more than $300 per year for it. It did not give me any leads when I used it, but obviously some peopel use the site. I stopped the enhancements because our market is fast right now, and they have a delay in picking up listings, so many times I wasn't getting one day of exposure! Also, contingent listings don't show up, so again I wasn't getting any exposure in our market which is currently dominated by short sale listings that go contingent in a couple of days.

They have a monopoly sure but I can honestly say that I have gotten at least 5 listings because I proved to sellers that many agents in our market do not have the enhanced package and those who do do not even use it to the best of their ability. Say what you want about the branding of Realtor.com but when someone is searching for homes outside the area they look there first. There are many free sites that offer similar amenities but this one has the name. I think it is like anything else if you do not utilize a product to the best of its ability it will not work for you. If you are not placing all 25 photos on there as well as your virtual tour, and uploading your virtual tour to a video..then you may not see the benefits. I have seen the benefits but really wish it was not so darn expensive.

Thanks for your insight Fran! I have not used Realtor.com before. I have read several blogs about them, and ALL come to the same conclusion.....they suck!!! I am glad that others like yourself can save me the grief.

I agree strongly w/ Missy Caulk, that it is a shame that NAR goes along with this! If they use our name, they should be paying US to use our listings.

I joined the showcase program as an independent broker for a reasonable monthly amount. After several months I upgraded my account for the benefit of the other brokers in my office. I have been paying over $130 monthly with absolutely no return on my investment. Nothing!! I am the only real estate office that appears under 'office' in a good-sized metropolitan area and have received NOT ONE call as a result of that appearance. Hence, I decided to end my affiliation after the TWO year commitment I had made. In spite of being told that I was merely upgrading, NOT extending my contract with Realtor.com...I was automatically billed for an additional year. Nothing I have done has succeeded in terminating this total waste of money. I have cancelled the charge on my credit card, only to have it appear the next month. Beware of false promises and lack of customer service. Apparently www.move.com is the subcontractor and they are predatory to say the least. I can't believe I pay dues to be subjected to this type of scam. It's almost impossible for a client to find the 'realtor yellow pages' and use them efficiently. I am very close to reporting their activities to the BBB.

I tried the realtor.com enhancement and banner for one year and by mistake got one sale out of it.

I decided to count my money and run.It was like hitting a jack pot in Vegas ,I got my money back, learned from it and quit.

I am open minded and try many things ,but if it does not bring me what I am sold ,I get out.

However I can immagine realtor.com might work for those realtors in areas where potential buyers /sellers are using realtor.com a lot.

We all understand that print advertising is on the way out and are looking for alternatives, like the social networks .I have not found the Holy Grail ,but keep trying ,searching and learning.

There are still lots of customers out there who don't particpate in Face book,Twitter and don't have the time or interest to spend on the computer to read blogs or advertising sites like Graigs list.

About 10 months ago I advised our agents(100+) to buy the Realtor.com enhancements and it has pleased them all(see current stats chart*generated by Compete.com below with Trulia.com*+5.37%*,Activerain.com*-14.24%* & Realtor.com*+24.40%* compares). Just look at the chart and also pay close attention to the # of Referral Sites and the Search terms that get people to each of those sites....."Homes for sale" is the most common used on Google and others to find a listing site and Realtor.com in this list is the only 1 of the 3 that has it as a top way that consumers find their site. In other words Realtor.com's SEO guys are doing their job well.

In Nov. I think it was Realtor.com made a big change and that change as you can see from the chart disrupted their traffic a bit but the changes all now in place are skyrocketing Realtor.com's traffic. I am though no fan of Realtor.com just type my name into Google with REALTOR.COM and you will see that several years ago I got refunds for ALL our agents directly from Allan Dalton......BUT now because of their changes and changes in the marketplace it has become essential in our market to gain market share on our competitors who are very predictably dropping it in order to save a few $'s :).

Few here seem to mention but the sellers first stop to find their listing is Realtor.com. There is also no better listing tool than to show a potential listing our listing on Realtor.com(embedded video tour, featured tour, 20 pics and a special headline that I teach our agents to use that gets them calls on others listings as well as our own). We can sink the naysayers on a competitive listing situaltion everytime.

HOW IS REALTOR.COM GETTING THESE HUGE GAINS? Much of the increase in these stats is an increase by Realtor.com in getting individual listings indexed by Google and other search engines more effectively than ever.

CO-MINGLING - There is also one more thing that plays in to these stats more an more especially as it relates to listings on the internet. Realtor.com operates with a different set of rules than an MLS IDX site in that they can "co-mingle" listings and aren't limited in the # of listings they can return on a search. Sure a consumer doesn't know what co-mingling is but what they do know is that if they go to Realtor.com they will often times get more "results" on the same search. The reason is because Realtor.com can mix 2 different MLS's listings together in the same search result whereas unless the MLS is datasharing with another MLS the results are limited on the IDX site to that particular Boards listings. This will play out big time in Realtor.com's favor as you can so plainly see from the chart below. Consumers are becoming more savvy and aware.

If I moved out of area I would use Realtor.com.....2 years ago I wouldn't have.

The chart below shows a very obvious trend of consumers that unless some other site does something radically better I would expect by this time next year that Realtor.com's share of the markets traffic will be huge and Trulia, IDX sites, Activerain etc. will be nothing more than faint lights far below.

Stats chart

Mark Passerby

Hi Fran-

I have to agree with the mass majority. I have been a subscriber to the enhanced listings for about 4 or 5 years. Have I ever gotten a sale from it? NO! Matter of fact, I only average 1-2 hits from realtor.com to my website. While I agree that it is not worth the money in terms of closed deals, I will tell you that I feel it has helped me land the number of listings over the years. I use it in my listing presentation and most sellers respond favorably.

I am considering letting it lapse this September when I am up for renewal, not sure yet. In the meantime I have taken Sergio's idea of promoting my own website in the notes and on the title banner. I will be curious to see if that increases my referral links to my site.

great post!

Realtor.com is a listing tool, simple as that. They are overpriced yet as said above it is an evil albeit a possible necessary one. And it's way too expensive. They could easily bring the prices down which in turn would allow more agents to use their services. I wish they would offer an ala carte service which would allow us to pay for the listing we want and not pay for the ones we don't.

There are numerous things I like about Realtor.com but there are many more that I don't. Maybe just maybe one of these days they will figure it out and we'll all be better off because of it.

Always trying to seperate myself from everyone else, I signed up for the complete package and ordered everything that was possible. After several months, I dropped everything except for the enhanced listing option. I spent countless hours studying and learning the systems. The only thing that worked was the ability to show on listing appointments, the enhanced listing option. I did not have one decent lead from all my efforts and time spent on the system.

I produced far better results from following the advice of instructors such as Craig Proctor, Craig Forte and spending the money on direct mail postcards.

R.Com should be much, much less expensive and should not be able to use the name that WE PAY to keep in business. The best thing about using the service from realtor.com is that it makes you look at your ad budget and track your results.

R.com never again at those prices.

Realtor.com has always been a ripoff! They used to pay our MLS as a third party vendor but because a majority of the public uses there site they have now gotten away with not paying for the information they receive from the MLSs. It is a shame that Realtors are charged so much for enhancements since we do belong to NAR. They will cut a deal with brokerages so the agents do not pay much to have their photos and information on their listings. We pay $90 a year plus $20 at the close of every listings. I know some agents are charged $200 or more for the same enhancement.

I've had both featured and showcase listings at one time or another and can attribute one deal to the additional cost.

I'm amazed with all the dislike towards realtor.com and NAR that nothing seems to be done about it.

Mike made some very good points. My success is driven by personal referrals and web sites. I have two well positioned personal sites. I don't regret a penny that I spend for them. I CAN also attribute sales to my enhanced listings on Realtor.com. The most interesting one was from a couple relocating from Boston. They had been extremely pleased with their agent there and the presentation of their home on Realtor.com.--so pleased that, when they looked for an agent here they went first to Realtor.com to find the agents who did for sellers what had been done for them when they sold their house. Their reasoning was that an agent who promotes properties well for sellers would probably work hard for buyers. Maybe not always sound reasoning, but they emailed me and then gave me my first conference call interview( in 24 years!) before they committed to me. They are happy in their new home and we consider ourselves friends.

Marilyn Robertson, Town & Country, Realty

When I first read the blog, I was in total agreement with you. Thankfully I missed the meeting last week on "the social networking" that Realtor.com put on in our area. I have been using the enhancement for several years and can't say I have ever gotten a lead. But, I do have seller's who look for their home to be marketed there. I have just recently drop the enhancements, but after the comments by Mark Passerby, I might re-think my decision.

Mary Lou Cherry

All in all, it all comes down to the ROI, doesn't it? If R.com's high-priced enhancements provide an acceptable return, then it is worth it. If it doesn't...dump it. We are all business owners here - and the bottom line is the true indicator of value.

I don't believe R.com provides me an acceptable return for my investment, so I don't use it. It really is that simple in my mind.

I agree -

They bill it as making yourself stand out.

The best way to do that is through your own website, and spend money on your listings there, so the few click throughs you get from REALTOR.com are worthwhile.

SEO, social networking (FaceBook, Twitter, Del.icio.us, YouTube) ALL outrank REALTOR.com enhancements, and they are free, other than time spent utilizing them!!

WOW!!! I have never seen such passion and consensus among REALTORS. Thanks Fran for midwifing it. :)

I guess between ActiveRain and REBarCamp.com, the real estate business WILL change for the better. First for the client, next for the agent, and of course brokers will make decent amount of money.

MAY

I signed up for enhanced listings on Realtor.com a few years ago for a few different reasons. I know many consumers are (or were) using to search for homes, so I wanted more than just my office phone number and 1 picture on my listings! It's almost blackmail, isn't it? I also wanted to be able to show my sellers that my listings will stand out. Anyway, a few months later our local mls included enhanced realtor.com for ALL listings. So much for standing out on Realtor.com, but that's ok, I've got other ways of standing out.

Hi,

I too, fell victim to R dot com in hopes of getting more exposure for my listings and as a result, getting leads. The first year it cost me $125 a month. This last year, it jumped to $300!! The cost is based on the number of listings you carry for the year. I only got two leads (which didn't turn into anything). I think money is better spent on personal websites. Yes, websites. More exposure...

Back about 7 or 8 years ago it didn't cost anything to subscribe and they had a way to "reverse prospect" on the site. You could go on and see different search results by areas searched, type up a short note and when the consumer logged on next, a pop-up who come up with your note. I used to get a LOT of leads like that! Funny what greed does...

After creating a realtor chat website located at www.americanagentonline.com which is for realtors only, which allows the public to find and chat with realtors who are logged on at the time. I contacted realtor.com and NAR. I offered the service for freein the beginning and needed the help to allow all agents across american to learn about it. After being a realtor for over 21 years I figured that I would give something back to the industry for free. The NAR did not even want to help. They wanted me to give them $4,000 to place a link on their website. What kind of association is the NAR. Where were they when our industry ran amuck with unscrupulous lenders. I decided to cancel my membership after 21 years. To me, it is a waste of money altogether to be a member of the NAR. I have made millions in real estate through the years and none of it has ever been atributed to being a member of the NAR. They have become a joke!!

If they cannot help a member of over 21 years give something to the industry for free then they are not worth being in existence. They are a waste of our money!!

Because of them, the only way to get the word out for American Agent Onlne was to charge per zip code. Like I said, it would have been free if not for the NAR. Please visit www.americanagentonlie.com and see if it will work for you! Thank you.

THATS WWW.AMERICANAGENTONLINE.COM

SORRY!!

I completely disagree. Here's why Realtor.com's enhancements are necessary: They enable you to add more pictures and additional copy to your listings. When your listing is showcased, it stands out. As long as the public uses Realtor.com to search for properties, it benefits your sellers to be there in a big way. I'm not talking about buying zip codes or anything. But, I really like the weekly tracking reports which I can forward to sellers. In fact, I can use it to reduce the price of listings when they aren't selling. I can show them that, for example, 600 people viewed their home on Realtor.com but we had no showings for the week. It is compelling evidence that their listing might be overpriced. I use the tracking reports on a regular basis. However, in my neck of the woods, it is not customary to carry a huge load of listings so it isn't as expensive for me as it might be for others. My biggest complaint is that Realtor.com fails to tell people they have an international site. In fact, I stumbled on it by accident! Now, they promise to always include my listings on the site, but it took a bit of prodding. It doesn't cost anymore and I don't know why they don't promote it. The site is : www.worldproperties.com.

As a REALTOR and former REALTOR.COM account executive ( sales guy ) I can only say that its not the paintbrush its the hand that holds it. I've sold millions of dollars ( no joke ) worth of enhancements, featured homes, CMA, websites, banners and what every else was new and hot at the time to REALTORS all over the country and I've found that those that ACTIVLY use the tools get the wow factor from potential listing clients and are able to differentiate and build brand awareness on the site. Unfortunatly for most REALTORs there is not enough time in the day to do everything that they can with the products and systems. The secret to REALTOR.com is the rep that you're assigned to. Some of the Reps are highly skilled professional marketing hired guns who will show you every trick in the book just to get your business. There are 2 key factors. First is the audience and the eyeballs that they attract, This audience tends to be starting their search on the site and are not yet real estate educated, motivated and loyal enough to depend on as a potential lead unless they are calling on one of your listings and dont have an agent yet. Second is that MOST REALTORs do not want to buy WORK which is what is required to get the full benefits from their systems. If you are a big listing agents with tons of homes on the market the leads will naturally flow in off your properties and the price is well worth it otherwise your listinbgs and 20 photos are just lost in the crowd and the leads will be few and far between

My opinion only - I have several listings that are enhanced fully and my office participates in the office plan. My pesonal leads come mostly from search engines and new home buyer registrations on my website and blog.

Mary Lou that is a wise choice and here is some points to maximize the benefit.

Go to COMPETE.COM and enter 3 sites say Remax.com, C21.com and Realtor.com then "print"
Print a Search Results Page from Realtor.com with one of your listings as one of the Ten results but be sure to do the points below first.
Use Realtor.com's FREE video upload system which by the way is encoded using a great company called Vidego....a top tier video provider/encoder. This will put a "video" icon on the Search Results page. Consumers over the coming months and year will pick those listings with videos out of the bunch. The "video" is also very sticky and if done right can capture a buyer for 3-5 minutes.
If possible do a regular tour or have your video tour company link up the video tour also as Featured Tour. This will give your listing 2 icons on the Search Results Page.....1) A featured tour icon 2) A video tour Icon
Upload 20+ Pictures....the new Realtor.com rewards the great photographer grandly and your seller will love and refer you to friends
In the Headline put "Contact (your name) at (your phone#) stay away from cheesy headlines like "this immaculate home is blah blah blah.....what you want is a phone call from that Search Results Page even if they are calling on another listing from that page :)
Also be sure to explain on a listing presentation how the recent downturn has driven many agents in your area to save money by neglecting to market their listings properly on the #1 Real Estate Search site in the world and oh by the way here is my listing on Realtor.com and some others in the area..."here I will leave this on top with you". You are there not only to win but also to leave a serious impression that you know your local market and that you can get their home sold in a very tough market.
Remember most importantly time is money. In business and especially in Blogging circles opportunity cost(the cost of what you do verses what that same amount of time could yield do something else) is the most unspoken, understated and expensive cost of them all. Those agents that leverage their time effectively and use tools that work and that require less of "their" direct effort and time will have the "truest" and best ROI. ......so find a tour company that can do the video tour and featured tour thing on Realtor.com as part of their service........find an assistant or job it out so that someone else can upload your pictures and update your headline on Realtor.com $4 or $7 per listing. Because 20 minutes of a $100k or $150k agents time has a very large opportunity cost. If your listing load is smaller you may have the time to do some of the Realtor.com updates yourself but don't do it during normal business hours instead use that time to contact new business, and past clients.
other than time spent utilizing them!! - this is from an earlier post above...and is example of the inability or unwillingness of agents to calculate "oppotunity cost".

An understanding and instinctive nature of opportunity cost is what sets apart a Top Producer from the legions of low producers.

Realtor.com a year ago was not a good investment.......now it is.

Things change and leaders emerge.....statistics like my chart above in an earlier post to this blog reveal the leaders and the changes in the market. They represent true "behind the curtain" facts about traffic and consumer trends.

Mark Passerby
Founder of HDhat.com & RE/MAX Real Estate Professionals tech/marketing person for 8+ years

I'm sorry to hear about the waste of time, but thanks for sharing with us and saving us money and time. At one point, I was going to sign us as well but now I'm glad that I haven't. I think the common census in Jacksonville is that it does not increase your chances of capturing a buyer or selling a listing quicker. I just stick to my website and sell an extra 2-3 buyers a year. Good luck!

Thank you to all of you who have commented. We are running at less than 5% who think realtor.com has any merit.

I am happy for those of you who feel it is worth the expense. As in all things, there are differing opinions. FOR THE AMOUNT OF MONEY it takes to enhance listings, realtor.com does not seem to make sense to over 95% of respondees to this blog. Put that same amount of money in your own website and see what happens... you will be glad you did.

I have consistently been one of the top five agents in my market and can not attribute ANY of that business to realtor.com. As I stated in the post, I spent more on enhancing realtor.com listings than I do on my website and for IDX, which is ludicrous considering I belong and pay dues to N.A.R. My website pays for itself and therein deserves the money that is being wasted at realtor.com.

As for the comment that we may not get the results because we do not properly enhance, I don't think that 130+ agents (respondees to this post) ALL DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY ENHANCE THEIR LISTINGS. It ain't rocket science.

Thank you again for stopping by,

Like many others in earlier posts, I subscribed to Realtor.com's enhanced listing service to placate a specific seller with a pricey property. (I didn't have much success with the service several years before and was reluctant to try it again.) There were very few e.mail or phone responses received by me. When it came time to renew the service, I didn't (renew it). Too costly for the meager results.

Three years ago I subscribed to a membership with Realtor.com. The leads were so unrealistic I had to use an attorney on my Pre-Paid Legal Services membership to get out of their contract. They continued to debit my checking account twice each month (paying double) and it was a big fight to get a refund. Once I engaged the attorney at Pre-Paid Legal Services they ran scared and tried to hide behind their legal counsel. It took weeks to get paid back and they only paid my partailly with an excuse. I would never use them again.

Hi Fran, Unless you have big bucks to throw out the window, there are many Free or near free sites that get just as good or better results. I have recently built a National lead generation website for Realtors that allows Free advertising for brokers and their listings, Free Referral Network, and for as low as only $5.95 per month Agents could own the MLS search link for their town exclusively! Check it out at http://www.HomeSeekerUSA.com Good Luck!

Hi Fran,

The bait and switch seminar came to the east coast too. I did not attend. They have a habit of doing this. I hate love seminars where they tell you "you should blog" with no further explanation.

As far as Realtor.com, I can directly attribute a pretty significant portion of leads generated by certain types of properties to leads that came from Realtor.com. It depends on what types of listings you have.

Good for you for encouraging people to rethink how advertising money is spent. It took more than 5 years of discussion about newspaper advertising to really see people start to change old habits and stop wasting money. It seems to be happening faster in the online world. I guess the key is to analyze the money you spend and make sure you're getting a return from it.

Fran,
Of course the irony is that greater success and ROI to the 5% comes from the increasing pullback of the 95%. That irony will be ever so more magnified by the increased traffic that Realtor.com is now getting. We absolutely love the 95%......in the marketing world you are the marker of where to move the marketing dollar......i.e. to sites with rapidly growing traffic and less or diminishing competition. :)

However, with that said I also have exceptions I can quote of agents who I work for who have never used or ever will use Realtor.com and they do fine....in fact these same agents don't blog, don't care about their website nor even know if they have one, nor do they do tours and seldom put more than 1 picture in the MLS. In fact one didn't even own a computer literally till 3 weeks ago and outsells 90% of our MLS. These same agents are in the Top 10% in Dollar Volume in our entire 1000+ member Board.

More importantly.......these "exceptions" because of their "style" of building their business through the years has given these "no tech" agents a higher NET PROFIT than every agent in our MLS. Net of course being what buys their boat and the 2nd home. This "style" won't work for most agents but it does for them.

Not every agent though can be these "exceptions" nor is Realtor.com or blogging(if everyone blogged heavily the law of diminishing returns would reveal its ugly head as well there) etc. for everyone.....but Realtor.com in my opinion because of the pullback of others, and an increase in Realtor.com's traffic does represent a great place to put ad dollars.

Mark
www.hdhat.com

Fran, I agree with you. I also suckered into attending this sell presentation under the guise of a "Social Networking Tools" presentation. There are a lot of ways that we all can get more exposure for our listings or satisfy the most demanding sellers and I don't think the Realtor.com option is either the best or the most cost effective.

Thanks for sharing this information with all of us. It appears that the subject definitely touched a nerve.

A couple years ago I decided to try the featured homes position on realtor.com and within a week, a tech savvy young man called me off it to list his TWO homes for sale at the same time just because I occupied that position on realtor.com I sold one of his homes and he decided to keep the other, I got a sign call off the home to list another on the same street, I sold that home, garnered at least 5 or more buyers from that home being marketed, got ANOTHER seller calling me because of the realtor.com featured home, got about 3 or 4 more buyers off that marketing. I have now been in that neighborhood for over 18 months.

I'd say that it IS expensive to have, but my listings have had MORE than 200,000 CLICK thrus just last month on the featured homes spot.

I'd say that my expenditure garnered me about 30fold profit on what I spent on it in the past 2 years.

YOU DO have to do more work, you do have to insert the photos and captions and all the other whistles, but I do get 1-3 calls or emails per month off the thousands of impressions, I'd say my face got out there.

BUT I also disagree with the fact that Realtor.com IS the reason why WE as Realtors cannot use the word Realtor anywhere but after our name...and Homestore IS owned by the NAR, they SAY that Homestore owns the copyright to OUR title, we DO pay dues and I AM tired of the riffraffy stuff they say and make Realtors think they ARE crooks if they thought about using the Realtor word with a geographic connotation even though we are one........YIKES! slap my mouth...

Hi Fran

Thank you for your post!
We use realtor.com and don't quantify the results. We use market snapshots for listing leads and get lots of them. I am sure the service more than pays for itself. However I will keep track of it in the future.

Kieran

Fran,

Thanks for the thought provoking post! Last year, I was sold a banner ad on REALTOR.com which cost me dearly. It was suppose to give me a big edge in Davenport, IA Real Estate. As with many marketing venues, it's difficult to tell where people get your name. Since starting the ad, the only real difference that I have seen is the void in my checking account.

Last week, my first call came as a direct result of that banner ad. These people are moving to Davenport, Iowa with a job at John Deere. They got on REALTOR.com to search for listings and clicked on my ad. After an hour long phone call, they have decided to use me as their Buyer's Agent.

I'm sure that the increased exposure has helped solidify other clients of mine but this is the first documented direct lead that I have received from it.

Thanks again for the post!

Lucky :)

Fran,

As "Meatloaf" said, "You took the words right out of my mouth!" I have had this debate in my head for over 5 years. I strongly feel Realtor.com should be a benefit to NAR not an added expense. I do pay for enhanced listings and my costs doubled this year because listing inventory is up. Crazy cause most of us are not making double the money. My sellers expect to see their homes on Realtor.com or I would SO not pay for it. You said you get about 1 lead a month. I get about 1 a quarter. I find that interesting because I get plenty of hits. Thank you so much for posting this and reaffirming what I have been thinking.

By the way, I am now following you on twitter. I am @oohDonna. If you looking for a great Social Media event check out Real Estate Bar Camps (#rebcphl this week.) I just attended one in Charlotte. Zillow, Altos, Seo, Active Rain and a lot of other amazing people were there. www.REBarCamp.com

Most of the Social Networking phenomenon is free and a lot of fun. I feel it is kind of like 5 years ago when hardly any agent had websites and now most do. This is where the business is going.

Thanks again for your post.

~Donna

I too believe that NAR and Realtor.com abuse their members and customers like they are animals in a factory farm. Besides the ludicrous fees, they are constantly dreaming up new designations that everyone must have (and pay pay pay for) in order to be 'succesful'. The Realtor.com enhancements are only useful as a listing tool - for an agent to show that they 'do more' for their Seller. Fact is - it makes no difference - and Realtor.com knows it and still plays this for all it is worth.

I have found Realtor.com works less and less each year. I had a website four featured homes at $1,000 each showcase and enhanced listings and made no sales from it for three years. I was paying them almost $6,000 per year. The featured home started off with four spots in my zip code. You could by two at less than $200 each. The next year they were $1,000 each. Then they went from four to eight featured homes in my zip at $1,000 each you could buy four. I found that if someone is searching for a $150,000 home it does not help you to have a $400,000 home on the page for them to look at.

They constantly dilute your exposure. The featured agent program seems the worst. I checked in on it it cost a fortune. You are put in a rotation to come up first when someone does a search. The problem is that they give you a large area, so large that I do not even know how to drive to some of the towns that I would show up as the local expert. Just think you get a call from a customer about a listing in a town you have never been to. How are you going to have a intelligent conversation with the buyer?

My broker now has the enhanced listing package for the office. I add a virtual tour for each of my listings. I can track where my tours are viewed they are hardly ever looked at on Realtor.com.

We finally gave up Realtor.com this year when they wanted us to renew. Paid them lots of money over the years. Felt that you HAD to be part of it. Then the light went on...they were not increasing our business, and the fees just continue to go up. Better to spend our money in other areas...thanks for being honest about Realtor.com...

Thanks Fran and very well written. It's nice to see somebody who measures so well! I totally agree with you on the $ spent versus return received with REALTOR.com. I'd rather save the enhancement budget for blog sites that really deliver traffic.

I'm so glad that I'm not the ONLY one who feels this way about Realtor.com!

We purchased Realtor.com as a company and each agent payed his share and it was less than $100 a year for each agent. As a solo agent I was paying almost $40 a month, so this was a big savings and it allowed the agent who has very few listings to participate and the agent who carries alot of listings to belong at a very low price.

To me the money, $100 a year is absolute peanuts! That's a 2inch by 3 inch ad in our local paper.

Like so many agents in these comments, Realtor.com is a listing tool. Sellers like it and it helps to justify our listing fees.

I was supposed to go to one of those seminars just last week. The emails were just as you said and sounded really interesting. At last minute, I was tipped off that it would just be a sales pitch for realtor.com and opted not to go. Glad to hear that I didn't waste my time.

Great post, great opinions, great information shared by all.

I was also contacted by realtor.com to become one of 20 agents in my locality. They wanted $20,000 per year to appear on the banners that popped up around the listings in my small city. I called an agent in Lake Tahoe to ask him how his experience was going. He told me that he wasted $20,000! He had signed a contract for the locality and never received one call in 6 months. I am glad I researched the deal before signing the contract and giving realtor.com $20,000!!!

You hit on a very hot topic. How to spend your marketing dollar?

I haven't seen any results from Realtor.com.

At least someone is profiting from all the money us agents are spending.

I too used to subscribe to the enhanced features at realtor.com however have decided to alter my advertising dollars elsewhere. I used the feature properties options which I was told would increase traffic dramatically. I never saw any increase in business in the entire 4 years we used their system.

We too attended the workshop as they called it andit was nothing more than a pitch session for their products. The prices have increased dramatically over the years and we have never not once could track back a client or anything that closed to realtor.com.

We decided in the beginning to use their systems because we THOUGHT it would make a difference in our listings or to be more direct perhaps offer it in our listing presentation as yet another feature we do. What we thought and what was reality was that people didn't care. They were more focused on the entire picture rather than whether or not we were paying HUGE amounts of money to showcase or offer enhanced visibility of their properties. All we ever received from our clients after showing them the reports were questions asking why hasn't it sold then?

All in all, realtor.com isn't a bad thing, just way over priced. I can say this simply, from a results oriented perspective, it isn't worth it. There are many other applications / means to enhance our own listings that have shown results.

I have the showcase enhancement package. I received about 4 to 8 leads a month from it and they are not that great. Most of them are already working with an agent and just want more info from you. However a seller did call me because she saw that I had a listing in her area. I listed two Condo's for her and one of them sold in the first week and we are closing the next one on June 8th. Its Time for me to renew with Realtor.com and last time I talked to my AE with realtor.com she was telling me I had to pay $2800 for the year. I'm not to sure if I will renew that crazy amount. That's over $200 dollars a month.. I think not!!

I have used them with zero results........Consumers have a "misguided" notion that Realtor.com is the exposure to have.....Myspace was once king.....Now facebook is the new thing. Realtor.com's day in the sun may be over and no longer the best method for marketing. As agents become more and more tech saavy, other agent communities will evolve and do it better, just like having a "National" MLS is needed versus all the local "rice bowl" MLS throughout the country - then we will really serve the consumer/client. NAR needs to provide this stuff for free.....or they will go the route of Woolworths and Kmart.

Realtor.com has been a creepy company since the beginning when they chose to do the automatic billing of credit cards for annual billing. They never had faith enough in their service people would want to pay for more than once. At one point our entire board banned them from our data because they made our directors so mad with the inaccuracies in their data. It's a shame they're still able to stay in business.

Dear Fran and Group,

I was just looking into enhancing some listings. I guess I will hold off for now and look to another avenue.

Kathy

I have been using both the enhanced listings and featured homes spots on Realtor.com for several years. Whether it works for you depends on what your expectations are. If you are expecting thousands of phone calls from unrepresented buyers that you can convert to clients or sellers who call you and say come list my home because I want to be in a featured home spot on this site, don't waste your money. However, if you care about your client's listing exposure sincerely and really want to maximize the exposure of their property on the most heavily used consumer web site then it is well worth the money. When I decide whether to do any paid advertising for my listings on a particular site, I look at the volume of traffic that the site receives. Agents too often focus on the benefits to them rather than the benefits to their clients and the two are not always in sync. Many agents view a listing simply as a great buyer lead generator for them and focus most of their attentions on maximizing the amount of buyer leads they get from the listing and if the house sells before the listing expires that is a bonus. Others sincerely want to sell their clients home. So, before you decide whether a particular form of advertising is worth the money, decide what your expectations are for the outcome.

York County Pennsylvania here!

I have never paid a dime to Realtor.com, yet I get most of my business from the internet as well as my primary website, and the rest comes from my participation at ActiveRain and good old fashion networking.

Realtor.com has got to be the highest ration vs leads compare to all the other ones. . This is not a national study. .this is mine one. . after $1200 of yearly fees. . the number of leads I got form them for the whole year is equal to what I get in ONE WEEK using FREE Craiglist

I have used realtor.com products for over ten years. I use the Showcase listing enhancements and Featured Home as listing tools to show sellers what I do that others in the marketplace do not do. My marketplace has always been a huge relocation destination so I have gotten buyer leads from out-of-towners who start their home search with realtor.com because they know the brand. In fact, I just sold a home to out-of-towners who called me about one of my featured listings. I rarely find locals who use realtor.com in my marketplace. But then, we have a regional MLS with all the listings so local company websites will give locals all the information they want.

All in all, I would say that realtor.com has been worthwhile to me over the years, helping me get listings and bringing me some buyers. Pricing can be a problem if you carry a lot of listings. That is one thing that realtor.com should work on so that the pricing doesn't drive the heavy listing agents off the site.

Hi Fran,

I just sent this communication to REALTOR.com:

Greetings!

I am a member of a Real Estate team that participates in enhanced listings with REALTOR.COM. We have been discussing, recently, due to the financial climate in our industry right now, which of our marketing efforts are producing the most leads for us and which are not... comparing of course to the cost involved and ROI. We feel, as a team, that our leads from REALTOR.COM have decreased substantially in the past year since we have been doing these enhancements that were supposed to increase visibility and leads.

I ran across this blog post on Active Rain.... looks like we definitely are not alone in our assessment of REALTOR.COM. I thought I would share it with you in hopes that it might effect some changes in your company ... to put the REALTOR back in REALTOR.com!

Here is a link to the blog post:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1088988/are-realtor-com-enhancements-worth-the-money-

Not sure if REALTOR.com will respond, but will let all of you know if they do!

My subscription just expired on my enhanced listings. I am getting calls everyday to renew. While they do make your listings stand out on their site, I cannot atribute one sale or even lead from them while my listings were enhanced. I am not rushing to return their call.

Fran, you are right!

In the past 10 years I have (still do) paid for Realtor.com enhancements as well as advanced showcase and it did not pay off.

I get a lot of internet calls and emails, bit they come from advertising my listings in 15-20 Real Estate sites. Most of my business comes from repeat clients & personal referrals. We all forget that our listings will ALWAYS be on Realtor.com even without paying extra. I am considering using that $$ on other avenues to market my listings.

What I find disturbing is when REALTORS say " I got my money back". If all you want to do is get your money back I have a better plan. Put your money in a drawer, wait a year, then take it out again. You then have your money back.

I will say one more time, there is more money made selling TO REALTORS than there is selling real estate.

Wow, a great discussion here.

My office provides enhanced listings for all our listings. Since I don't pay for it directly, I haven't done the cost benefit. I do like the enhanced listings because I do a lot of photos and individual property websites, and there is no additional charge for the links, etc. I know that consumers troll Realtor.com heavily so I do believe that I need all the photos there. Hopefully, they then have their Buyer Agent call for a showing. But I don't really have stats on that.

What concerns me more is allowing FSBO's on Realtor.com. I am just startiong to see this. If NAR undercuts us members on this point (and they are if they allow FSBO's on Realtor.com), they will ultimately put themselves out of business. They are taking away a major reason to join NAR. They just don't know it yet.

I think it is more of a listing tool than anything else. Sellers always want to see more more more when it comes to their homes. Most listing agents will push Realtor.com hard in my area because they arte still #1 in traffic.

Fran Great post. You stirred a hornets nest. Many Realtors seem to hide and refuse to make adverse comments about the hallowed Realtor name and trdemar, I for one am somewhat of a non conformists. I have read most of the comments and find that I agree that Reltor.com is a sham organization backed by another sham organization NAR. I made a post a while back question