I just received this email--- and thought others would benefit from reading it. I too am giving serious thought to canceling my affiliation with them too.
I'll probably follow Rich Kruse-- and focus my money on internet marketing.
This is not my writing-- but he shares my thoughts.
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Dear Fellow Realtors and Brokers across the country. If you received this E-mail and you're not in charge of the print advertising, please forward this to your broker or office manager. I am an agent in Southern California in Long Beach and a current advertiser in Homes.com magazine, formally Harmon Homes.com. Below you will see an E-mail that I wrote to the Executive Vice President Ernie Blood of Dominion Media. I got his E-mail address from my billing which had a personal message to us about the name change of the magazine which quietly took place last November. I asked him some questions that concerned me and I did not get the respect of a response. Please read the letter I wrote to him and if you have questions like I do please speak up to your account reps or E-mail Mr. Blood yourself. We all are having a rough time with the current market across the country and if I did not feel something was not right, I would not be E-mailing all of you. Dear Mr. Blood: eblood@dominionenterprises.com 12/31-2007 I have been an customer in Harmon Homes magazine from almost the beginning of my Real Estate career starting in 2003. The presence of Harmon Homes name and the already long established value that was always presented to me in all the various Website's that linked to Harmon Homes.com sold me on the marketing model. Harmon Homes name and presence being taken over and swallowed up by combining it with Homes.com might have been a good business decision for Dominion but to tell us it's an advantage is not true at all. The Southern California MLS along with probably every MLS board in the United States pays a fee to have all their listings sent automatically to places like Homes.com, Realtor.com ect. So when the Realtors lists a property in an MLS it already goes to Homes.com. We are already paying for this service in our MLS fees? No one will be going to Harmon Homes .com anymore since it basically will not exist. So when I place my ads in Adnet to be sent to Homes.com they are already their anyway? And since I am a buyer's agent so I am using other Realtors listings to obtain client's for myself, I am entering into Adnet the same MLS number and address of a property currently in your system. The odds are more slim since now we have 2 advertisements for the same property in Homes.com. And when I have tested this and entered the MLS number guess what pops up? Not my ad but the listing agents ad in Homes.com. So the only advantage left for me of what has been done is a lead from someone picking up the print book. You have taken away my Internet advantage by having an already long time established name of Harmon Homes.com going away. Then I get solicited from Homes.com to pay hundreds of dollars for programs that guarantee me leads by placing my ads ahead of others by using key words. Something is so not right here. ____________________________________________________________________ This is my point everybody. I think when Dominion bought Harmon Homes the plan was to simply to get rid of Harmon and use the magazine to promote Homes.com. They have every right to do that. But I think it is at our expense. Like I pointed out in my letter, our listings already go to Homes.com from our MLS boards. Since the name change I hardly ever get a lead from the Harmon Website. And Homes.com bragging they have millions of listings makes it harder for us to get a hit? It seems to me I would have rather have a well known established name as Harmon that was the alternative Website for people to use that was not so inundated with millions of listings. I want to know what I am paying for? Is Homes.com sending our listings to other Website's like Harmon did? Dominion owns E-neighborhoods.com, is our properties being sent there? Be smart everyone, ask questions because I get no answers. We all pay for this service, you need to be informed. I am still a current advertiser in the magazine, my purpose here is to make all of you aware of my concerns. Ask questions, it's your money and mine, and our magazine. Hope you all have a good year selling. Peter Solomon / Realtor
ERA West Coast
562-420-1307
Fax-562-684-0326
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