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!

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

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

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

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! 

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.

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. 

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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!!

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

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,

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.

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...

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!!!

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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 questioning the value of NAR, and received one response which was to rebuke me and tell me how great NAR iis.

If you think about it, NAR is much like the teamsters union or the auto workers union, where the union takes the dues from the workers and spends it on whatever agenda they have, in many cases supporting politicians that I sometimes disagree with, but we as Realtors have no say in how our dues are spent. 

Just read the NAR newsletters and the monthly magazine.  Look at all the advertising.  Most of the advertising is for gimmicks and rip-off's.  Craig Proctor is among the most advertised.  Talk about an expensive seminar, with dubious ROI.  If programs like this are so good, why not stick to selling real estate and forget the seminar.  Not just Craig Proctor, but all these people who are willing to give you their secrets in exchange for your money.

Even with the Internet and other high tech innovations, selling can still be boiled down to the basics, Good service, Personality, Friendliness, Referalls, etc. 

Stan Cobb Savannah GA

Please excuse the spelling errors in my previous post.  I thought I would have a chance to review it prior to actually posting it.  Henceforth I will be more precise and also use the spell checker.

Stan Cobb Savannah, GA

Realtor.com is a parasite in our industry.

Realtor.com is owned by Home store

Google the phrase

Home Store Executives sentenced

Dear Fran,

I can honestly say that the enhanced version of Realtor.com is definitely money well spent!  I have had this enhancement for the past 5 years and I can attribute much business from both buyers and sellers from the site. 

80% of buyers and sellers look on the Internet first.  This is fact!  Without the enhancement, you have minimal pictures, perhaps one, someones name/brokerage next to your listing and in small letters, perhaps your brokers information and yours.  Not the way that I want my listings to be seen.

But, there are many other factors in terms of marketing.  There is blogging on sites like Active Rain or social networking on sites such as LinkedIn, Trulia, Zillow, and more.  Many of the testimonials that are written on my LinkedIn site are past clients, some of which I first met on Realtor.com.  So, it is the whole package and for me, the enhancement on Realtor.com is only one aspect of my aggressive marketing campaign.

Please contact me if you have any questions reagrding my success stories about Realtor.com

Sincerely,

Frank Dolski

Coldwell Banker Hearthside Realtors Lahaska, PA

I have used Realtor.com since its inception.  I have the basic enhancements.  In the early years I had 3 or 4 Featured homes spots.  The price at the time was minimal because they were in "outlying" areas of my state and no one else had them.  The price of these Feature home spots skyrocketed a few years ago.  Since it was impossible to track if these spots brought buyers to my listings, I dropped them.  Recently, I have been approached by Realtor.com to pick up the Feature homes spots again.  I have politely told them that I felt the whole thing is extortion.  It seemed to me that if the popularity of this stuff went up and additional Feature home spots were added (there used to be only 4 spots...now there are 8 in one of the zip codes) the prices should come down.  I guess I was very wrong.  What once cost me $1400 had escalated to $3000!  And with no way to track the results!  I also did the Banner and Skyscraper with no trackable results.  When I first got involved with Realtor.com, there were no other sites to advertise listings on the internet.  Realtor.com was the only "kid on the block."  I did get a few leads every year back  then. Not anymore!  My own Mls has a great public site.  I find many of the potential buyers in my market area are there...not on Realtor.com.  My own website and other avenues that I use on the internet bring me more business than Realtor.com.  Since my company picks up the cost of having pictures and I only pay $99/year to have my photo and contact info on the site, I will at least keep that.  It's a Listing tool. The rest, as I said before, is complete extortion!

Thank You Fran,

Realtor.com is nothing more than our own organization taking advantage of the opportunity to advertise a product for PROFIT to a select group of people, they call us members.  Oh golly gee!!!!  What a JOKE. 

I have also been victim of the FEATURED SPOT, and ENHANCED LISTINGS.  I can say, it did what the salesman told me.  All I needed was one sale to pay for it.  Well, I got that ONE sale, that barely covered my expense, but the ROI just isn't worth it. 

I ask:  How is it that a guy like me, with some understanding of internet sales and a really small advertising budget can outplace and posistion my website above REALTOR.com? 

Fran - thanks for the great blog on this subject.  I was with Coldwell Banker and paid over $1000 a year to have my listings enhanced.  When I joined a brand new Keller Willaims office (White Plains, NY)  the Realtor.com people enticed us with a very low number for the office because we had few listings at a nice savings.  But we have grown rapidly and  this year we carry 350 listings and they wanted to charge us $13,000 - it came to about $30 per listing per month.  Our agent leadership council in the office is in this dilemma - do we not force the agents and charge them monthly or make it an individual decision (which will cost more)?  Our office philosophy is "lead with revenue" and many agents do not feel the leads we get from this site are any greater than the free sites like Zillow, Trulia, and active rain.  The office asked me to study realtor.com stats.  Does anyone know if there is a way to see what percentage of the market they have in my area, Westchester County NY?  Even the latest national stats would be helpful.  I used to have a slide in my listing presentation that said 86% of the traffic was realtor.com (of course, they gave me the slide!) I am sure it is significantly lower now.  PS I put a rental listing on the market and got several inquiries right away from realtor.com so I do believe on the lower end properties it works.

Not only is Realtor.com too expensive for what you get......the salemen are overbearing

calling every week, even with a firm NO. 

Dear Fram,

I totally agree with your commentary.

I had a very negative experience with one of their reps a couple years ago as I enquired about one of their programs. One of the questions I had was if he could give me the name of maybe two or three Realtors I could call to check how the service worked for them, how effective it was, etc. and he would not even give me one name!!! He simply told me that would not work.Unbelievable! As we spoke further, red flags were flying in front of my eyes, and I had started the process of signing up as we started our conversation, so at one poit I told him I didn't want to proceed, didn't want to subscribe to the program, only to learn he would not stop the process and cancel the request right away. This all happened during the same phone call!

It took me months to get them to cancel, numerous calls to the credit card company, numerous calls to them. The people I spoke with at Realtor.com sales department were testy, pushy, uncultured, rude...I'm running out of adjectives. I felt I didn't have anybody to complain to, anyone who would rectify the situation promptly. Certainly the Golden Rule we so much stand for, was not in their  minds, very disappointing and outright agravating. The only reason they exist at all is because we exist and thanks to us, they get the blood they require to live: our hard earned listings!

These days, with all that's happening on the market, all sorts of unnecessary services are constantly bombared and offered to us at a cost, of course.  I've developed a thick skin by now to disect and analyze anything that comes along and look at whether it makes business sense to subscribe, whether it would benefit my clients.

Thanks to the evolution of social networks like Activerain as well as so many other available portals where we can effectively market our properties and services, we have choices.

WOW. I SURE HOPE REALTOR.COM READS ALL OF THIS!!  CALIFORNIA IS MAKING A STATEWIDE MLS SERVICE. I REALLY HOPE THAT REALTOR.COM DOESNT HIGHJACK IT IN SOME WAY. I HAVE HEARD THAT THE CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (CAR) DOES HAVE A HAND IN IT.

I do know a broker in the area that always belonged to the MLS but never belonged to the NAR or CAR. He has quite a market share here in ventura california. He just networks with people.

I was one of those agents that got sucked into the enhanced listing package and featured home several years ago while attending one of their sales meetings. I should've done my homework but they have you as they only have "4" spots and they go fast..... I looked at the statistics and the leads that I was receiving and it may have been about 1 a month and 1/2 were cold leads. Then last year I signed up for zipcode to attract sellers looking for a CMA, I've had 3 and they were just looking to see what their house was worth and not really looking to sell. So I didn't renew my enhanced listing package nor will I renew the other package a savings of over $1500. I'm going to concentrate on the new website that RE/MAX is providing along with the other "free websites" to advertise my listings. For those agents looking at realtor.com, look at the stats first and not what they are providing either. If this is supposed to be the official site of the NAR then why isn't every agent provided with at least the enhanced listing package. Did you notice all of the advertisements on the website and popups?

I do agree with most of your regarding the Low ROI for R.com.  I also agree that it is market specific. I believe they spend a good deal of money in the larger metropolitan areas to con agents into using their services. When people type searches for homes in Houston, they have a strong presence.  They have however lost ground here in Houston since our MLS has given it a run for their money.   Every year I see less sellers who are familiar with R.com and think it will eventually fade out for lack of true service with the realtor community it should be serving.  I receive a few leads a year from my R.com advertising but their yearly increases are retarded.

Diego Jaramillo
Keller Williams Realty
Houston Metropolitan
www.HoustonHeritage.com

Fran, thank you for your very candid assessment on this subject. We agree with you 100% about the lack of value from Realtor.com... After about 8 years of using it and then not renewing our account a couple of years ago, the rep who was strong arming us to "buy in" again was outright rude and basically said we were making a mistake... Well, we have put those funds to other forms of marketing and only wish we would have done so sooner..

Thanks,

Steve & Lorri Hose

www.HomesByHose.com

Littleton, CO

Fran, thank you for your very candid assessment on this subject. We agree with you 100% about the lack of value from Realtor.com... After about 8 years of using it and then not renewing our account a couple of years ago, the rep who was strong arming us to "buy in" again was outright rude and basically said we were making a mistake... Well, we have put those funds to other forms of marketing and only wish we would have done so sooner..

Thanks,

Steve & Lorri Hose

www.HomesByHose.com

Littleton, CO

I guess I am in the minority, but I would like to say that Realtor.com enhancements are well worth the money..at least they are in my market.

My office pays for the "company showcase" enhancements for all office listings. I can't tell you how many transactions we have that can be attributed to realtor.com. I have found that many people in my area feel as you do because they are not fully utilizing the program. It takes a little time and effort to make sure you are on the top of the realtor.com searches, but it is well worth it.

Regardless of how many sales we get, it pales in comparison to using it to leverage against the competition in obtaining listings. I will sell SELL THE HECK out of the benefits of realtor.com enhancements. I hate to see agents stop using this program, even though it makes my job that much easier.

Fran;

Unfortunately over the past 10-12 years we all have fallen in the the "sales" trap of a company's "gotta Have It" next best marketing plan for us. These so called plans work great...for the company selling it to you. The missed point.. they were "sellingyou" the "it", their system; something most Realtors today do not know how or really want to do..so they buy someone elses "system" in hopes of equaling the success touted.  Some of these plans may very well work, but nothing works for everyone like the art of actually "Selling".

We are all supposed to be "Sales Professionals"   but the last real estate boom has eliminated most of the selling and left only order takers with wheel barrow loads of cash- prime targets for those companies seeking to relieve us of some of it.  And, like Sheep, most of us follow right down the path. Quite often into the wrong pen.

Apparently by your success, you are not in this category, congratulations!

Like you I have been very successful in this down market. I'm a professional salesman. I can sell anything in any economy. I spend money on improving my sales techniques and because I am not the "professional blogger", spend my advertising dollars on someone who does it for me. 

For most others, I'd consider spending my hard earned cash, (harder these days), on learning professional sales techniques from a professional sales coach. For some of you it will be the first time you have actually spent money furthering you professional knowledge, but it will be the best investment you ever spent on a marketing program.  That $3,000.00 would better spent on a monthly class on the fine art of blogging or with a face to face coach.

What may come out of this all; You'll become the person standing up in front of a  crowd selling your services from your own seminar and there will be a line at the back signing up for what you have to offer.

Novel concept?  Naw, just old fashioned selling with a modern twist!

It is all about marketing and those costs. I have had the enhanced features for 18 months and paid for the service with one sale. However, my renewal comes up in Dec. and I expect that my costs will go up tremendously. My initial contract was based on a startup brokerage with few or no listings , I will have to evaluate the costs in Dec. to decide which way to go.

Nice blog.  Yes, what all does NAR do for the fees that we pay them?  I looked at the enhancements and was tricked into the FREE blog only to find out after reading the 20 pages of agreement that MOVE.com would be charging me.  I quickly declined.  They want us to blog so that they can use it.  Interesting.

I did the REALTOR.com branding to put my face on my listings, but, I don't know why because I get very few leads.  I did it under pressure.

Thanks for your post Fran. Very honest and true. I've paid for enhanced listings. I never got one lead from it. I still pay a monthly fee through my office and nothing from it. I've even gone on there as a buyer to locate my listings and they don't pop up! Mad as he-- about that! I've called them several times and gave up. I mean I can type in the address and it doesn't pop up several other homes in the area do. They blow up my phone constantly trying to sell me more saying my enhancements are not good enough. I am so sick of it. I hate wasting money. They look good when you are able to locate them. What is embarrassing is when a client calls me and says hey I can't find my home on there!

After about 5 attempts I finally located it. What is up Realtor.com?

Thanks fran for being honest...I had Realtor.com enhaced listings 2 years ago for approx $800/- a year, I never received any leads from it. I used it as a Listing Tool. I am still learning how wonderful exxperience people have from AR and all other social media and now that's the way to go.

I dont know where the $3000 dollar amount for enhanced came from, wow, last time I talked to my account rep. it was 800 for enhanced if you have over 10 listings. I know my agents get leads from Realtor.com. and leads they can work with. I guess if you think the money is better spent somewhere else then go for it. We all need to make money and have reliable sites like realtor.com where a listing that sells is no longer on the site frustrating the public with unavailble properties. (Who's Guilty?) We all have a choice. I choose to go with what works.

Wow!  I will not make that mistake again.  I was considering going back with the enhanced listings and could not track any leads back and thought it was just me.  I then asked to be notified of new comments!  Wow again!  How do I stop them?  I think I know what I need to do! 

I have never understood how NAR could give us a tool and then in order to be at the top of the search you had to purchase additional programs.  Maybe they need to stop building new buildings and looking out for the agents who are out in the field every day asking someone to hire us.  People complain that they are on unemployment and have to go look for a job to continue to qualify.  We look for a job everyday and do not get any compensation.

Fran

I to had Realtor.com for many years and never closed one deal. I gave it up a few years back and relied on a web site furnished by the company I was with. Now I am looking for another site to replace that one. They all say their site's the best. I have been thinking about going with Active Agent. If anyone has used it and thinks it is good or bad, please let me know.

Thanks

Skippy Giles

I agree, Realtor.com is taking advantage of agents to make more money. It makes me really upset going to their seminar and find out how they abuse agents' trust on making sales that produce nothing.

I'd say we need a movement to send a massive email to all agents and ask them if they want to start a new organization which is going to be a true represantation of all agents or vote to get ride of existing board of directors.

Fran,

First let me say, your area is GOD's county I'm envious. My wife and both use enhanced listings, and while we do get a few leads I'm not sure if it's worth the money. I do think AR, and other electronic media is more effective. I will continue to use the enhanced listings for a marketing tool to keep my sellers happy, but I'm going to continue to explore other oppertunities as well.

Fran, I would have to totally disagree wiht you as to realtor.com being a useful tool. I think as long as you use it correctly it is very useful. There is something that most realtors are not bringing up, that is using realtor.com as a listing tool. As of now it is the #1 website in the world for real estate searches, what seller would not want to be on that website. It also has features that will reprt to your seller the amount of traffic they have recieved on their property. This is a very useful tool when it comes to price reductions (if needed). Most of the time when I show my clients the weekly report and it shows we have had over 300 hits a week and no offers, they agree that we need to reduce the price. Back to the marketing to sellers, I was interviwed by a builder that had 3 homes valued at 1 million dollars each that they needed to sell and after getting the listings, I asked where they got my name from and the woman told me she was searching realtor.com to see who was marketing in the area. I think marketing to the seller is as useful as marketing to the buyer!

 good luck,

Aaron

Thanks Fran,

Was planning to go to the same presentation in our area until I noticed it was by REALTOR.com.  Can't track any closed transactions from them in the past 3 years.  Tried the enhanced listings and the featured listings, both were a waste of my money.  I happen to agree with the points you made and if enough agents would wake up and quit giving money to REALTOR.com it would probably be a good thing for our industry.

Sincerely,

Roger

I too have bought into the Realtor.com bit and accomplished nothing.  This is not in regards to the seminar that started this post but rather, the general idea of these "enhanced" listings.

Frankly, I'm not angry at Realtor.com  I'm a legal adult, paid my money, didn't work, time to move on.

I can speak with some authority as a few years ago, I purchased the featured listings zip codes.  To the tune of $900 per month and a 1 year contract.  Yes, you read it correctly, $10,800 for the year.

The result?

NO SALES.  Not one.  In addition, I spiced up my ads with tons of html driving them to lead capture pages etc.  Spent hours on that.  By the way, they don't offer the flexibility of doing that anymore.

I used to think it was a great tool to get listings.  I refuse to buy junk to impress a seller when the reality is, Realtor.com does not help them.  I have not had an ad in the Real Estate Book for 7 years now.  Not one.  I was nearly ousted out of the office a few years ago when I announced publically (office wise) that it was a dying book.  Guess what?  Our RE Book is less than half what it was 2 yrs ago.  ONE HALF.

By the way, the same year that I gave Realtor.com $10k, I spent about $15,000 on a stealth site using PPC and closed 22 transactions.

Others can do as they will but I will not contribute to them.

I read a quote somewhere the other day that was cool.  They said the Albatross has forgotten who built her nest.

John