Realtor.com renewal time is here and I don't know what to do?

REALTOR.com has always been slow in uploading the listings and I agree in this day and age the service should be better.  Maybe that's why my post about the new REALTOR website is being ignored by Rainers - the track record is poor for REALTOR.com, or as one blogger stated, Rainers are apathetic.  I just posted on Felix's blog a compliment about his new list of listing sites and gave him what I had.   

Like all of these comments, it's sad that our own Association is not meeting the need of membership.  Keep your comments coming.  I teach real estate and push Active Rain to all who take my classes.

Kathy Howe

I agree that it has limited value and with out our listings      what do they have we give them the reason to exist and they are not very customer friendly and have limited value. I vote NO.

Dennis, as a member of NAR,your listings are on realtor.com but not the showcase or enhanced version, true. If your listings get on the site as part of your board dues, then take the $800 you'd pay for the enhanced version & do something (anything!) else with it.  Reading some of the comments to this post and realizing how many free website advertise listings, I certainly wouldn't renew.

I have to agree with the majority so far,,,I cancelled and was "harassed" and blamed for not spending more money with them as the reason my listings were not getting more hits..At the FAR (Fla Ass Of Realtors) show yesterday in Orlando, Fl, I showed a Realtor.com salesperson that a listing I had uploaded five days earlier without a picture, was still posted without a picture. I had put the picture in the next morning..Apparently, the site sweeps the IDX feed and it may be up to me to notify them...I say may because the Realtor.com rep was not really sure as to the procedure...however, If I had continued to pay for my enhanced (read more money for ??) then I could go and add more pics and do my own maintenance........I cannot find anyone who says that Realtor.com is worth the extra money...but so many are afraid that cancelling the services MIGHT, Just Maybe, cause one potential customer to not see their listing.....PS....After I did cancel, I received calls from several sale people, warning me of my impending doom...Finally, I got a pitch for a very reduced rate to renew my subscription...I still declined.....My business is working ....I too like Point 2 Agent, for free.......and my own branded website from A La Mode, which is less than Realtor.com for sooooooo much more for my money...

Many agent in my office cancelled because they received no leads from Realtor.com.  If you doing the same thing and getting the same result it's time to put your money somewhere else that you'll get better result.  Good luck!

Most of the agents that I work with have told Realtor.com to shove it also.  Between the lack of leads and the increasing costs, its not worth the money.

Aggregator sites are losing the luster they once had. The best coarse I have found is to do the things that work for clients. The listing i think still go on this site. The enhance portion is all that is lost. Good Luck

Bonner

Work on your search engine recognition with Google, Yahoo and the like.

It is expensive for what it is but I only use it to get more exposure for my listings but I have never received any leads.

This subject has been a hot topic since AR started. General consensus has always been that people don't get anything from it. However, if we don't pay, our name and photo aren't included in the listing. The fee they charge is based on the number of listings one has during a 12-month period. So some people can pay in the thousands! Supposedly their fees this year have increased substantially. My time is up in May, so we'll see what the new charge is. Can't say I've ever had a lead from it, but I do like using the Report Tracking as I show it to clients, and since I include my web site and blog address, I do think I direct people there.

There's no Google Juice from R.com. I do think it's pitiful what they charge us - their members - especially when my broker places our listings on so many other free sites.

I think you already answered your own question.

My dues are due in 15 days to Realtor.com and they are over $800.00.  I'm not going to do it.  I'm tired of their greedy hands for what you get.  I told them I never got leads from it.  I was told by my rep that it's purpose is not to get leads but to market my listings and did I not use all the bells and whistles I paid for?  I was pissed!  They blame their paying "clients" for the poor return!  It's amazing how they stay in business treating the Realtors as they do.  It's time to stand up to them!  Hopefully they'll become "humble" and realize who is putting bread on their tables.  Or maybe not!

More from the peanut gallery -

I only recently paid for the "enhanced" version of Realtor.com, but only after 3 listing appointments in a row where all the sellers were concerned about was whether or not my listings on realtor.com had additional photos. After enhancing my listings I had 5 calls within 3 weeks. But none for a month now.

I base my reasoning also on this - free sites are nice as part of the big picture, but the bottom line is  realtor.com is ranked #1 as far as sites where consumers go to look fo a home. The top 5 are something like realtor.com, homegain.com, remax.com, apartments.com and maybe housevalues.com. At least that is what several articles I've read said.

Go to alexa.com and you can look up rankings. Realtor.com's rank (out of all websites, not just real estate) is 1,690. homegain.com is 19,351. homes.com is 14,318. remax.com is 9,919.

With that being said, when it comes to websites as a whole, yahoo is #1. Yahoo real estate is #9. Trulia (which includes postings) is 7,134. Zillow is 3,398. apartments.com is 7,559. craigslist is #65. Kijiji is 8,413 (by the way, does anyone know that kijiji is swahili for "village"?)

I'm sure this has served to confuse the matter more, so sorry. I just know it has proven value to me, at this moment. I only pay $65 a month for it, though and I don't have a contract, so can quit at anytime with 30 days notice.

As a disclaimer, the rankings for these sites were taken from alexa.com at 10:45 this evening. I'm sure if I searched again the numbers would be different, as they change constantly.

I so agree that if something works for you, no matter what others say, keep on keeping on. Believe me, though, if push comes to shove in regards to my budget, it will be one of the first things to go if I don't start getting leads again!

I went to lunch with a realtor friend of mine today and was telling her about realtor.com.  She said her office bought an "office" subscription that was a lot less.  So, I called realtor.com today and waw given a p;rice of 1566.00 for my entire office to have all  the bells and whistles plus a link to my company website.  I have 12 agents now and will have around 15 next month.  So, what I'm suggesting to all of you is get your Broker to get an office subscription and then divide among agents if they won't pay for it.  it's a LOT CHEAPER that way!

Wow! If that is actually true I will be taking this info to my management meeting tomorrow. We have 360 agents, give or take, divided up between 5 offices. That could be a nice little bonus to give our agents.

Thanks!

I think this blog brought me good tidings. As you can see by several of my comments above, I was not opposed to scrapping realtor.com if I didn't get another lead soon ... and lo, and behold, voila ... a lead. We have a tentative appointment for Saturday.