Thanks for the info Sara.  I am actually really surprised that the HUD site is even on this list. 

I guess eveyone has their favorite web site they prefer to use. 

Sara, Thanks for the update. This does show that the impact of Realtor.com is decreasing.

Sara, Thanks for the update. This does show that the impact of Realtor.com is decreasing.

Sara, with all due respect...Hits and Sales are two different things.  I've had 40,000 hits on a house in Realtor.com but it didn't sell. 

Thanks for the post. But I have to agree with David Bolick. There is a big difference when talking hits and sales.   My own home has had a ton of hits and and I am getting no where.  I get more activitiy using Craigslist.

Note that RE/MAX is way up there.  I get so many leads from RE/MAX's Leadstreet which they started about 2 years ago.  Evidently the advertising is paying off and they will probably surpass realtor.com soon.

Sara

You might also note that Yahoo and Zillow have the ability to give very poor information.  I received MLS #s from a Buyer recently of which many of them had sold over a year ago.  Local sites can provide much better info, the trick is getting people to the local sites.

Wow, that is interesting, and I thought everyone knew about realtor.com

Sara - I'm surprised that Coldwellbanker.com is not on the list. 

Great points. Love it! It is a bit surprising how little the market share these sites actually have. 47.5% is not a whole lot at all.

Cheers,

Cindy 

As a math major, I love seeing stats like these...it reminds me of the old saying..."Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics". 

Bob

Sara, I think your point that people only star off on the Internet.  When it comes time to jump in, they find an agent, and I don't think they find many on Realtor.com or any other web site.    I think it's some kind of face-to-face contact or a referral from someone the buyer likes and respects.  

Sara - Thanks for the update, I watch the stats every month...  I think that REALTOR.com will be surpassed by REMAX, or at least I hope so... I feel that REALTOR.com doesn't have the best interest of agents.. 

I think one thing to keep in mind is that most consumers don't surf for homes... unless they are thinking about moving.  The rest of the time, we are pretty invisible.  I would bet that there are a lot of other things that we would think people would be looking at, but that they aren't. 

Without a doubt, when people are looking for real estate in the search engines, they use a local geographic area as part of the search term.  This gives the little guy the ability to compete with the national companies.  Focus on the local search terms!

Very intersting.  I think a lot of people are searching individual realtor websites which send them free listings. 

What's really interesting is that the 2 rental sites would place them second on the list if combined..real interesting

Sara, I think that real estate will become more national in the future.  With more and more activity is being done online, there will become favorites.  Both zillow and google seem to be putting the infrastructure in place. aj

Sara- great info and its nice to know which sites are over rated than others. I cant believe that Remax is so high... thats good for them. :)

You are so right.  None of those sites command any big lead.  I guess I need to get my site up there.

Thanks for the information. I am excited that ReMax is high on the list. I agree with Joan, people are searching individual agent's web sites .

I'm surprised to see Remax up there so high on the list!

Interesting. It's great to tell a seller their listings will be on 10 sites but in my market buyers find properties either through their agent, from brokers websites or the NY Times.com.

Sarah,

 Thank you so much for that information. It truly is a real eye opener. There are major national companies with huge leads on number of search engines, but nowhere on the hit list. Very interesting. However, I guess it's all in how to use the numbers to your advantage and the follow up on the hits.

Rose Stanisewski

Century 21 Agawam, MA

Very interesting stats, thanks for posting them!  Good to know, but it would be interesting to know how much of that filters out to us.  Thanks.

Folks should keep in mind the real "real estate sites" and the sites designed to derive advertising revenue through the use of real estate listings, participation of the real estate information, i.e., Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, et al. 

It would appear from any fair measure of true real estate sites, that RE/MAX is the leader.

Sarah you are correct. It is very important to leverage all types of marketing platforms online. Having a high ranking website is very important for a Realtor. Using sites like Zillow and Trulia, ect are other means of leveraging your exposure. Of course blogging is another powerful tool. RE/Max is a very powerful platform and honestly the traffic stats could be even much closer than presented because much of Realtor.com's traffic is by Realtors themselves. My guess is that there is less of that through the RE/MAX portal. I for one don't visit it much but know the traffic is great.

Very intersting stats.  I am surprised where Century 21 falls but your conclusion is very accurate - real estate is local!

I thought I had brought up MapQuest for a second. I like the look. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Sara, Thanks for the stats, Interesting info.

Best - Sash

PS: FREE blog traffic strategy video...click here

Hi Sara,

Thanks for the stats.  Quick question.  My company, Coldwell Banker, just joined with Zillow.  I have gone on and gotten a profile page.  Thanks to one of your other posts.  But I can not figure out why the listings don't have pictures on them?  Can you help me?

Thank you in advance!

I've got to tell you, I'm not one to be a raving fan of a franchise, but the hits, leads and outright deals we've received from being a RE/MAX Franchise have been worth every penny.  Our agents are getting leads from 'out of left field'.  Every day, purchasers call just because they've seen a listing on RE/MAX.com.  They don't care that it's actually another company's listing, whic is shown clearly on each page.  It seems like they like the branding of RE/MAX and would rather use them than another company.  I'm sure other companies will catch up with RE/MAX, but I hope by then we are even farther ahead. 

Think, Realtor.com requires users to pay for their services.  RE/MAX agents get the use of leadstreet for free, just for being agents!!!  Not bad.

This is very interesting to me. I wonder if the lack of market share on this larger websites has something to do with individuals kicking up their sites and people actually using them more than they once did?? Obviously consumers are looking on the internet more now than they ever did...just not on the same sites that they used to..

interesting comments

thanks for the post Sara 

 Sara, I'm very pleased to see the numbers. I called and complained to Realtor.com that they were basically a dinasour as far as their way of doing business and the things they are still charging for. They might not realize the only people in my opinion who would pay for their services are the same people who bought in the 90's but yes, please... please Realtors don't give it all away to big companies, build your own presence we need to keep the shares of the market.

Sara...You are right in that it appears to be a small percentage that go to the big real estate sites.  And their numbers are scewed: all the major companies direct their own agents - including Realtor.com to go to the site and log in...in most cases this counts as traffic - totally scewing the numbers in favor of the company...but the reality is the majority of the hits are agents not consumers.

I've been in the real estate industry since 1985...I can count the number of NAR ads I've seen - for the general public - on one hand.

If you asked 10 people - not in real estate - what real estate sites they would go to to do a search most would say:  the local #1 company and Google.

We really need to rely on our own marketing and our own internet presence to generate our business. 

Whew...I feel better!

On the surface it really does not matter how many people visit a site...what matters is the actual business generated from the site.  It may stand to reason that more traffic equals more buisness, but when it comes to real estate that is not always the case.  It's great to show potential advertisers, as that is really the "value" from most of these sites, they make money selling ads...so market share comes into play there.  But the amount of traffic does not dictate the actual number of sales being done from a particular site.