Yahoo Real Estate? - The Jury Is OUT!

I don't use yahoo, and so far I have dodged their SPAM bullet and Yahoo has been in the Real Estate arena for a while already.

Bettina

We syndicate to yahoo and get inquiries occasionally, so I guess there is nothing to lose.

Hi Brad!  Yahoo Real Estate has been around for a long time but, I'm not sure at what point they began selling their clients' leads back to them, which is exactly what they're doing.  That, to me, is what should be of concern to those paying customers, like Terri, above.  We all talk about Google but, Yahoo is a powerful search engine as well for many who use Mozilla, it is their default search engine (they don't go in and change it like you and I)--which I think is why they're capitalizing on the real estate end--and taking the agents who are paying advertisers, to the cleaners!  NOT fair!

Have a good one...

My company belongs to a group what puts our listings on Yahoo, but I don't have to pay for this service. I use Google for searches, nothing else. I do have a yahoo email address I use for junk mail.

Thanks for the post. Yahoo used to have an agreement with Prudential real estate so if my listing came up and somebody wanted to see it, it would default to a Prudential national site for one of their agents to show it. Seems now that it is a FISBO, or flat fee promoting site. Recent statistic, Google share of search queries 59.2%, and Yahoo 22.2% and Yahoo is falling. Not to be ignored but the fight for search engine supremacy is over.

Brad.  You wrote: 

Do you think it might have something to do with the fact that, because they are a portal and have THOUSANDS of backlinks might have something to do with their ranking???? 

Brad, yep - Prudential did enter that agreement with YAHOO! real estate a few years back.  At the beginning it was I believe an exclusive agreement - but that has since gone by the wayside for obvious reasons.  I have been a strong opponent to any 3rd party selling our leads back to us for years.  I stopped our relationship with one big one out there because their fine print advised we owed them a referral fee on anyone we closed with for life.  We do still receive a lot of inquiries from the YAHOO! real estate arrangement.  Even though I don't like it - it comes with our affiliation.

Checking back to see the general consensus.  I noticed the statistics posted by Jonathon, and your response to him.

Just wanted to say that I haven't gotten any e-mails from them. And I haven't checked the ranking sites like Jonathon provided, but I do check my own web site stats, and other personal hit trackers. I just wanted to say that my personal leads come from Google first, then MSN... that surprised me when I first saw it... then Yahoo. (I still don't like it =P)

Love your blog and it appears others do too. As for me I do not use Yahoo and I believe that they will maintain doing this as long as there is big bucks in it for them.

There are now more real estate sites out there for people to use and I cannot believe that this is sustainable. Things have a way of correcting themselves eventually and Yahoo unfortunately will be here to stay (just not the way they may have thought).

I don't like Microsoft, but use their products because they work with everything else.  I don't like the DMV but have to go there once in a while.  Wal-Mart's business practices make me want to spew my cookies, but they are a market force to be reckoned with.

Yahoo is a big market force, and they are everywhere, just not the biggest kid on the block.  To ignore their impact is to give up a big chunk of the search engine market impact.  Whether I buy their products or not is a choice to make, but it really comes down to ROI.  Right now, I don't give them any money, but look to improve my results in their results index.

The Prudential "deal" with Yahoo was a joke, as is Prudential's "selling you leads" on your own listings.  That comes from the corporate behemoth, not the franchise owners--the same kind of mindset that would have employees pay for parking in the company lot in order to provide private "security." (Don't know if Pru does that anywhere, but have heard about other faceless conglomerates doing crap like that).

Bottom line is that to ignore Yahoo completely is a mistake, whether to pay for their products or not is something else entirely.

Hi Brad!  You sure know the right questions to ask, don't you? 

Prudential not only is partnered with Yahoo, but also Google and many many others.  It is a individual agent's choice to join in on the Lead Generation program or not.  (I did not)

Personally, I do not use Yahoo and my individual website stats shows Google at 75% while Yahoo is at 5% of the other search engines. 

Like Kent in his comments above I do not believe that you can ignore Yahoo, but they do have a place in the market force, just not a leader.

In our market area Prudential is #1 in sales, so they must be doing something right.

I heard a rumor this week that Yahoo and Google have some deal with Real Estate Leaders such as Prudential, RE/MAX, KW, etc. and if they don't have some kind of agreement with them...agents can be black balled to advertise using the brand name. Heard anything on this?

I have to admit using Google seems to be more natural for me. I have a Yahoo account.. Not a key searching tool for me.

wow, lots of feedback on this post.  Good stuff as always.

Yes Yahoo has "been into it" for awhile now. I believe (like most sites that offer free email, etc) they track what we discuss in our email messaging, and send us spam based on that data.  Also, Missy makes excellent points. My brokerage is simple. The thought of paying 35% to off the top to do biz with buyers who are interested in home listings that I secured myself (with no help) is still I concept I have a hard time grasping.

I have a Yahoo mail account that I've used for years - though not for business and have no problem with it.  As a search engine, I prefer Google.  Yahoo has been in real estate for years and Coldwell Banker has a relationship with them (much like Prudential used to).  I can't see a big difference between what Yahoo does and what Trulia and Zillow do. 

Hi Brad - we syndicate our members listings to Yahoo Real Estate and they are one of the top traffic generators to our members listings. Any contact made from a Yahoo Real Estate listing goes directly to the Agent associated with that listing.  Yahoo Real Estate does generate a lot of leads to our members.  They are in the top 3 for directories that generate the most leads to our members listing.  So for a leads and listing exposure standpoint, Yahoo does a decent job.  I can't speak to the email you received though or what they may be doing with the buyers they capture from that??

Brad - I have several yahoo email accounts..mostly setup before gmail.  I use each for separate purposes, but most of them have lots of spam and I do not read them on any regular basis. My preference for search engines is Google.   I haven't seen alot of the Yahoo Real estate marketing, but I'm aware that it exists and they have relationship with brokerages and others to get listing data.