Is Realtor.com A Rip-Off?

I agree with the Mike...They really have us in a position that they can charge what they want.  Until other sources like Trulia, NLS, Yahoo and other national real estate portals start to replace Realtor.com as the top real estate websites - we can not tell our clients no we are not going to be promoting their listings on R.com!  At the same time the very fact that R.com is able to display all our listings allows them to continue to charge higher fees.

Good idea with the emails - I will see how many Realtors in our market I can get to email :)

THanks

Bob,

Good post & follow up discussion.  I am in the same boat as MIke Costigan - a heavy listing agent who feels that I bring a lot of value to Rcom. I do use them like Ron mentioned - in a listing appointment to get a listing, but I can see that the cost of doing business w/ them is just going to continue to increase.

Hmmm, a lot to ponder!!  I did question the association w/ NAR & Move, but until I read your post, I just didn't know how it was all related.

Wow!! I am a relatively new Realtor and have learned so much on AR. This post is eye opening. I was unaware that the Realtor.com website was not maintained by the NAR. The cards seem stacked against us getting reasonable representation! Thanks for the awesome info.

Bob thanks for this blog. Like many agents most of us are not paying attention to what's happened to the Realtor.com site the last few years. We pay national, state, and local dues just to belong to our local MLS and Realtor.com does not have the decency to list ALL the realtors of each state on their site but only list the ones who pay extra fees. I could not believe that when I looked today. I thought Realtor.com was for all of us not just those with big budgets to pay money to whoever is getting rich off Realtor.com.

Not only that, I have a friend who purchased two web pages from Realtor.com to promote her listings only to find that a local broker's information and photo appear on her listings making her web pages worthless.

Bob you hit it right on the nail when  you said " It's a member based organization.  It owns it's allegiance to the little guy as much as it does the Realtor "who has the revenue to back them".  

I hope all Realtor's take a look at Realtor.com to see how they have been forgotten by the organization that purports to be for Realtors.  

I also cannot understand why it is mandatory for agents in my area to pay all those Realtor dues in order to belong to the local MLS to put our listings in so Realtor.com can use them free and sell the rights to other agents listings to whoever wants to pay them. Anybody know? Is Solid Earth hooked up with Realtor.com too the way Move.com?

Somebody's getting rich off the Realtor.com scheme.

Bob - This is a pimple on the tip of the NAR's prom night nose. You are correct if you think it is a money making company. You are correct if you think it is part of the problem. The real culprit is the NAR. which has thrown the barn door open and allowed our greatest assets to be pilaged by anyone with a buck.

Take back control of all listings. Use ONE multiple listing service and do not allow the information to be sold to any brokers, agents, re-sellers, idx services, etc.

The clock is ticking the the world wide interweb is expanding. Our ability to control our destiny lies within our ability to control access to our listings.

I'm not crazy about spending more money, either, but in this case I happen to think it's a good business decision.  Once info gets onto the web, it's no longer yours - it belongs to 'the world.' Your MLS and my MLS are already doing that via IDX arrangements and the feed to Realtor.com

If I have to pay a fee to have my name, phone number, email address, and picture on my listings at Realtor.com, I'm going to do it. Why? Because I consistently get more consumer calls and emails from that venue than from all of the print ads I've ever run (and I've run more than a few). Dollar for dollar it gives more back to me. I don't really want those calls going to the floor agent at my office. Call me greedy, but I want them to come to me.

I don't think the Realtor.com agent websites are necesarily the best out there and I don't use that component, but the Showcase listing program seems to work. Of course, you pay based on your zip code and the number of listings you had last year. Top Producer? Yep, you'll pay more.

I quit doing print ads because they weren't cost-effective. I quit pay-per-click because it drove huge amounts of traffic but very few qualified leads to me (and for quite a bit of change every month, too).  I'll put the bucks where they seem to work.

I know there are a lot of strong feelings out there on this topic, but it remains that Realtor.com is the number one consumer Real Estate web site.  If you're going to spend money on internet advertising anyway (and we all do), why not spend it where it'll do the most good? (Just my 2 cents, not trying to convert anyone or diminish the valid points raised.)

I can see your point, Bob, and as I said I have mixed feelings about the whole internet 'services' thing. On the other hand, can you find an industry that does provide free internet marketing sites to its members?  We do get a lot for our dues money from NAR, in my opinion. The info at Realtor.org alone could keep me busy for years. 

At any rate, I don't want this to turn into a battle between us. I accept that you feel stronger about it than I and that's fine.  It would be a boring site if we all agreed on everything!!

I'm on record as being no huge fan of Realtor.com but you do have to give them credit for continuing to try.

Here's a news item I just received from NAR about some upgrades and promotional stuff they're doing for our benefit.

I'm not impressed with what Realtor.com is doing.  Those upgrades and promotionals won't benefit any Realtors but the ones who can afford the big bucks for the enhancements that go along with it.

The majority of Realtors don't so much as have their name listed on the Realtor.com Roster where the consumer looks for a Realtor in a particular area. Only the big bucks Realtors who pay extra have their names there.

I think that is disgusting and the NAR should be ashamed to not even have the courtesy to list all dues paying member Realtors on their Realtor.com site.  That is the very least they can do.  We have 1,600 realtors in our local MLS and when you go to Realtor.com you can only pull up the 20 who paid extra to be listed as a Realtor.

I do feel strongly about it. We all should since that supposed non-profit organization is suppose to be for the benefit of everyone who is a member.

Edited:  Since this post was written I have been told that Realtor.com is a for profit company and not owned or controlled by the NAR by a agent friend who I trust does his homework. I  didn't know that.  I would have thought a "for profit" company should have had a name that would not mislead the public into thinking that it was a site for Realtors by Realtors.

I built my own version of realtor.com all by myself. (working prototype too) I honestly don't know why they need all that money from the agents.  It can be done for much less and for much less cost.

If one person can write the code and organize the data structure and photo management for every MLS in the nation... What are all those people doing?  My office sites and agent sites are 4 times more complicated to code compared to the National System that imports all your IDX feeds into it.

Granted I would need a few more people answering the phones around here if you all called at the same time and a couple more servers (45 - 50 more)  but honestly.  What are they doing with all that money???

Yes i think your right both realtor.com and top producer are rip offs. Since they are market leader they feel they have your by the cajones and can take advantage of you. There are other alternatives that are out there. we must use them to keep the costs down.