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The Curse of Realtor.com

I have always been against Realtor.com and the other real estate portals - Trulia, Zillow, etc. Our believe is in building the best website we can and them compete for local online marketing space. Supporting my competition is only a business model that appears to work in the real estate industry.

I was just notifed that our bill for Realtor.com enhanced listings was up - and was I excited - knowing that more listings in 2008 will now cost me more for 2009! But what really gets me is how shamlessly Realtor.com tries to promote their own products, with one of the best being the Featured Tour.

If you don't want to use the Featured Tour, you can upload video - which is good. However, when you look at your statistics, you only get information on how many people viewed Featured Tours - not videos. (and featured listings, etc). Now why would I want to sent that listing info to a client with all these NA's reported. It just causes more questions.

First, you can't even created a good PDF of the stats, second its filled with all kinds of NA's if your not using Realtor.com products and third we get to pay more for it.

What a deal!

Posted by Laura & Michael Sosnowski on 12/01/2008 05:14 PM

Comments (7)

Realtor.com in the ActiveRain Channel

portland, maine, realtorcom

7 Comments on The Curse of Realtor.com

DEC

I have never used them. I dont see why it wouldnt be free and a part of our dues. They get enough money as it is.

I agree there is a lot to be desired with Realtor.com and their stats.

I create my own PDFs of all the stats I provide (from realtor.com, zillow, trulia, realestateshows.com, my blogs, my website, and craigslist clicks) using a table and a document. I then turn it into my own PDF. I put the info I want to put on there....making it look complete, rather than lacking.

Yes it takes time - but since I provide stats from all over, it's easier for the seller to understand when it's all in one spot anyway.

If I were clever enough to create my own graphs I would but that's not my thing.

For the record, I HATE Realtor.com. I am of the mindset that Zillow should kick the bums to the curb!

Thanks for the post.

I personally don't mind the sites & I'm happy to post on them. Some do get very good traffic. I do agree with you that Realtor.com has a long way to go as far as improving their site & charging to much for what it is.

Anything you can do to get the word out there is helpful and maybe productive for sure! Patricia Aulson/ Hampton NH Real Estate

I've paid for advertising with Realtor.com for years and haven't gotten anything from them! Hampton NH Real Estate Patricia Aulson

DEC

Thanks for the comments. If we are "stuck" with Realtor.com there should at least be some way we can provide input into changes. If adding more photos is "listening to their clients" then they obviously have a long way to go.

It would be great to collect a laundry list of improvements that could/should be made and submit them in some organized way.

The problem is, when it comes to Realtor.com we, as users, really have no voice.

-Michael

DEC

I have always been against the Portland Press Herald and the other newspapers. Our believe is in building the best newspaper classified ads we can and them compete for local classifieds marketing space. Supporting my competition is only a business model that appears to work in the real estate industry...

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