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Buying zip codes on Realtor.com

My office recently decided to stop paying for specific zip codes on realtor.com. These zip codes allow the holder to list homes that will appear on the left side "Featured Homes" section of the pages when RDC displays listings.

The cost of a zip code is in the thousands per year depending on area. My question is: does anyone have experience with featured homes and the return on such an investment?

Our listings used to appear in a cycle here. It is a good selling point to a client but do they or we get any real benefit?

Thanks for your responses.

George

Posted by George Anton on 02/22/2008 01:27 PM

Comments (26)

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26 Comments on Buying zip codes on Realtor.com

FEB

2008

George,

I quit paying the fee for zip codes over a year ago. You just need to start posting listings to localism and to your own website.

I used to do it and I could not calculate a return on investment because you can't divide by zero! Always remember Econ 102: Any money spent on Realtor.com is a waste of money!

Money spent on Realtor.com is better spent somewhere else. AR Localism is a good choice.

But Dennis, how do you really feel?

I am glad to get the feedback. There are so many services out there that get tremendous hits on their sites but the ROI is usually zip!

Do you put your listings on RDC or are you out completely?

I have the enhanced listings and get occassional calls but it seems that the lion's share comes into the office.

I spent one year with the featured homes on realtor.com. I received zero business from it- no calls, no e-mails, no nothing!

One would expect better results because Realtor.com is the #1 real estate search engine in the world...

We used to have 4 of 8 featured listings in our market (about $3700/year) and although our listings had a huge number of page views we never found anyone that actually closed a deal because they saw the property as a featured home. We dropped the program over a year ago and don't miss it at all.

George advertising dollars are at a premium these days and it is important to make sure that they are spent wisely. Some times things like buying zip codes seems like a good idea, but if the results are not there, then it is time to move on to something else.

Posting to Craigslist via Postlettes and Vflyer is another idea for you George.

I had the featured homes for years. When I began using the service, I found that it was a good investment. At first, I was the only person on those towns. I thought it was a good visual for me. Then, they started offering more agents the opportunity, for the same town, and that was not good. The photos of my listings rotated with others. I am no longer a fan of Realtor.com. I think the value is gone. You can post your own flyers, name the town and get better results on Google! Save your money for a client party!

It's a Good Life!

Fran

I do have the enhanced listings on Realtor.com but have dropped the featured homes. I think that your money is better spent in other areas. Enhanced listings still keep you on the top on realtor.com.

I quit realtor.com because I never received leads. Spent a lot of money for nothing.

MAY

2008

George,

I know i'm a little late commenting on this post but I felt it would still be worth the effort. Featured homes on realtor.com link seamlessly into your showcase listings. That is why, many times, people do not see the traffic coming from their featured homes. It is impossible to tell if someone clicked into the listing from a featured home or a regular search. The one thing that is indisputable is that more exposure comes from being a featured home.

Still, the featured home product has gotten a little stale, which is why Realtor.com is in the process of revamping the product's location on the site. Featured homes will soon be appearing on the top of every search results page instead of just the left side of the interim search page. This change will be a major benefit to all of our featured homes clients.

Lastly, the reason why Realtor.com is still a great investment is because it is the number one website on the internet for real estate traffic, by far. We had over 7 million unique users in the month of march alone and they spent more time per visit than on any other website and came back more often too. Marketing is about crafting a message and getting that message out to the largest qualified audience, to build your brand, and produce results over the long haul.

If you're looking solely for leads, (and many agents are at this point) then you would be better served by products other than featured homes and showcase listings. These products are for marketing yourself and your listings to people searching for real estate. They are great when leveraged in a listing presentation and are a solid addition to any marketing plan, but they are not a lead capture system. We can't make people connect with you, that is ultimately your responsibility.

After using Realtor dot bomb for years I cancelled my own accounts. Even though I am nationally known for my Internet marketing, not one deal in my career ever came from it. I have not lost any business from cancelling it. In leaner times we have to reevaluate expenses and make adult choices. It is called "Survival of the fittest!"

I use to do it and the best return that I got was the tax write off! It didn't work for me but one can only try.

George, I'm starting to think that people just don't know what featured homes are. Neither Jim and Ellen Crawford or Josette have ever had featured homes with us. I know because I just checked. Josette has the showcase listings through her office and Jim and Ellen are no longer showcased on the site.

MAY

2008

Brian, I would be interested if I could get some kind of statistical data like hit counts etc. The thing that makes me think twice is why would a brokerage of our size stop using them.

I do feel that their location on RDC is prime real estate but the investment would be a big chunk of an agent's budget.

I had the premier zip code in Bucks County, but I stopped paying for it. I now only have showcase homes. I did not feel that I benefited from owning the zip code especially considering the astronomical amount of money it cost

Thanks for the question George. I thought about investing in Realtor.com but now I won't be. Thanks to all the other agents who responded and gave valuable feedback. I'll spend my marketing dollars somewhere else.

MAY

2008

Thanks for the post, the comments are great. I'm glad I got a chance to see this

THere are some very interesting comments here. WIth the addition of Zillow and Trulia and Active Rain and many others, it is clear that Realtor.com is declining in popularity. It is just like the Home Depot and Lowes scenarios. Competition is good. We need to adjust to the market trends. Realtor.com is not worth spending all that extra money on.

Don

Don, et al. - How is realtor.com declining in popularity? Would someone please explain this to me using logic rather than hearsay? Our traffic numbers are higher than ever, we have 3 to 5 times as much traffic as zillow, trulia or any other real estate website and we have the most content as well as the most up to date content. There is no better option than Realtor.com for getting exposure online. Even the author of this post agrees that Showcase listings are of great value. The Home Depot and Lowes scenario that you refer to Don, only applies if other sites can offer exactly what we do, which as of today, no one can. Use free resources? I'm all for that. But why disparage Realtor.com? Clearly there are many people who could benefit from seeing the facts about our (and your) site.

MAY

2008

Linda, did you use it as a selling point to your sellers? If so, it would seem to be a real benefit to your marketing plan. I would be curious to know if you won over any clients as a result.

I'm not sure I agree that RDC is declining in popularity as much as there are more options out there that don't "cost" anything.

Not too long ago all of our listings in Yahoo showed up under the Prudential banner. Our cost was "0." Or was it? No offense to Prudential.

I think RDC still has the number one position. Look at it this way. Currently, the number one search engine is Google, Ask Jeeves had that honor among I T types. Yahoo is still tops with others. Sometimes it's a matter of what people prefer to use.

Thanks

I have 20 Yearss experience in ad sales and management prior to going into real estate as well as a degree in communications and after trying my primary zip code for 1 year was totally disappointed with the high cost, poor results. I've talked to their sales staff about the poor ROI from this product, and the fact that somebody there should be figuring out they're charging WAY too much for this venue as illustrated by how few Realtors still choose to use it. I track my advertising meticulously and this just didn't pay. The only positive I can post about it is my Sellers did like the reports it generated, but they would have preferred buyers to lookers.

I have had those spots for years and am phasing them out too. In the beginning they brough in tons of leads because realtor.com fed it's stuff to many other sites. Now they feed far less places so it is less exposure creating less leads. In addition, the fees have drastically gone up. Not worth the money any more in my opinion.

MAY

2008

Jenniffer -

A) We do not feed our content to less sites than before (we actually feed to more), we are simply being more strategic with what sites we do feed. For example, we no longer feed data to AOL because we were paying for that partnership and it was not giving us the ROI in terms of traffic? I realize that many realtors use AOL and they would be upset at this change, but I think anyone who knows anything about the internet would agree that AOL is declining in both traffic and popularity.

B) Who cares who we feed our content to when 90% of our traffic is organic. In the month of November 2007, for the first time ever, "Realtor.com" was a more searched term than the words "real estate."(according to Comscore MediaMetrix) Our traffic is larger than ever. Leads have decreased per property/agent due to the fact that buyers have many more listings to choose from and all the time in the world to make that choice. Both reasons why you should seek to differentiate yourself as much as possible.

C) This past year we did not have a price increase for our showcase listings, in fact the prices for most of our products stayed flat. On top of that, we are doing promotions on almost all of our systems in the lead up to the launch of the new Realtor.com. Also, to reiterate my above comments, we have improved the placement of Featured Homes to give them much more value. (Not that anyone actually reads the comments.)

Sherri - The changes we've made to featured homes are designed to address your ROI concerns, as were the price changes that took effect January 1st. Some Featured Homes pricing was reduced by as much as 72% to compensate for the changing market. Also, it is not designed to be a product for "many" agents as there are only 8 spots per zip code. Rather, it is designed for the "few" who are interested in truly differentiating their listings.

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