Real Estate Blog - Yahoo Real Estate?

Home : Blogs : Brad Andersohn ~ Community Manager : Active Brads Blog

Yahoo Real Estate? - The Jury Is OUT!

I'm looking for a "Verdict" on this one, and need your help.

Do you use Yahoo for searching the web or for any other reason? Do you advertise on Yahoo? Do you pay for your Yahoo.com email address? Are you in on this Yahoo Real Estate thing? I was not aware the Yahoo was in the business of selling Real Estate and quite honestly I was rather shocked this was available. I received this "spam" email and it really got me thinking wondering...

I'm just curious what your thoughts are about the idea of Yahoo trying to capture the "Buyer" market? Just because they have the presence, power, money and ability to do this on the web, does this mean they should? I was spammed to boot. Don't get me wrong, I believe in equal opportunity, just wondering how this might affect those who are using their tools and paying for some of their services only to have them trying to take the very business you're after away. I'm a big fan of the many Yahoo tools and services, but this one, I'm not too sure about.

The jury is still out on this one, will you be the Jury?? What are your thoughts and wonders....I'm parked!

"RainMaker" Special - Signup Here and Get New Member Discount
RainCamp™ - "Because The Way We Do Business Online Has Changed!"

Posted by Brad Andersohn ~ Community Manager on 05/14/2009 05:41 AM

Comments (63)

Yahoo Real Estate in the ActiveRain Channel

yahoo real estate

Originally posted at: Real Estate 2.0 Technology : Yahoo Real Estate? - The Jury Is OUT!

Post is included in group: The Lounge at Active Rain
Post is included in group: The Art Of Marketing You
Post is included in group: Real Estate Technology
Post is included in group: Dedicated Bloggers
Post is included in group: Almost Anything Goes

63 Comments on Yahoo Real Estate? - The Jury Is OUT!

MAY

I think it is words that aren't politically correct. That is not a biased opinion whatsoever : ). Seriously though, I will have to check this out, because my off the cuff answer is I don't like it, what does that say to us and about us as agents. And I feel like I speak for at least 1/2 of us that I am not liking the crud(really $#%@) leads that come from some of these less reputable companies, so ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, QUIT JERKING US AROUND those of us that are ethical and really want what is best for our clients and advise them correctly, not based on our selfish needs don't want taken advantage of by yet another company.

I utilize google for all of my searching, don't ask me why, a long time ago I would have said because I felt they gave me the best results, and now out of habit would be why.

Tucking my soap box underneath my desk now!

Heather - keep the soap box out, this is exactly what I am looking for. Honest, transparent responses. I do use yahoo tools but primarily Google for searches and I count on the google results to be accurate and useful. If yahoo is in the business now of selling or directing Real Estate related inquiries by interested consumers, what is and does that do to our industry? Thank you so much for your response, I'm still parked... :-)

Brad - Not too much of a soapbox here but, I used to pay for inclusion into the business directory for Yahoo on a yearly basis but found this was a waste of my money. Not sure about this issue yet. Looks kind of spammy to me. There are just too many of these quote unquote services popping up seems on a daily basis and we being led to believe that we need this stuff. Just my 2 cents. Thanks Brad

Brad,

I can't blame any organization for seeking new or expanded ways to generate income. I think it is a mistake for Yahoo to get into real estate just because it can. What next, AR providing movie showtimes?

I do not use Yahoo at all - it gets zero Kennedy cash.

I think Yahoo is just doing the same thing a dozen other internet service providers are doing. Trying to offer services that in return brings business. Doesn't A.R. do a little of that?? We certainly don't want to become secret agents... so take advantage of Yahoo and learn to use it to your advantage. How is this different from what Trulia does?

In my community and sphere of friends, I do not know a single person who uses Yahoo as a homepage, a search engine, or for any other reason. They have a 0 market share of internet usage among my peers. A quick survey of my firends revealed that 90% of them use google exclusively for searching, msn was the only other major company who had any popularity for searching and homepage services.

I dont know anyone with a yahoo email address, very few even using hotmail for the past few years.

Cant imagine any other service by Yahoo being well marketed or received here.

Brad - This is not a new thing, I have seen them at the top of the search rankings for most keywords in my area. I personally wish that Yahoo, Google, and all other search engines would stop trying to sell us our listings back. Did I include the worst one, Realtor.com.

I'm wondering also, do any of you get these emails? I think I just deleted them in the past. For some reason, this one caught my eye.

How many other millions or billions are getting them too? If there's a Yahoo Real Estate, does this mean there are Yahoo Real Estate Agents? With the size of their database, and reach, my wondering and inquiry mind wants to know?

I wish I had more time to research this... thanks for all your comments and help here.. I have nothing against Yahoo whatsoever, I just wanted to know your take on it. :-)

Hey Brad~ I have a hard time taking Yahoo as seriously sometimes..from a search engine standpoint it doesn't really come close to Google, and to be honest don't they sell out to RE Franchises on their RE home searches..?? That bugs me..they just sell out to the highest bidder.

Hey Brad!

I dislike Yahoo, but I guess they have a shot. Unfortunately it's the way it is whether we like it or not. The new ruling coming up on the 14th may help the situation, but I wouldn't bet on it. If Yahoo wants to try and sell homes, good luck I say! >.<

-Lisa

Brad...this has been around for quite awhile.

This is a rider that we use. We are assigned a certain ID number on the listings so buyers can search by that ID number. Sorry, I don't know the stats to compare its effectiveness with goggle searches. Just thought I'd let you know that its been around awhile.

Yes, Brad, it has been around a long while. As a matter of fact, Prudential at one time even partnered with Yahoo online for listings. It was a big deal roll out for Prudential a few years ago. Looks like Yahoo has gone out on it's own, which may be why that partnership went to the wayside. I'm guessing this is much like Zillow or Trulia?

Debi

Never been a fan of 3rd party interlopers who use their technology advantage to dilute the buyer and seller prospects and sell those leads (regardless of their means of compensation) back to the very agents who generated the content (listing inventory) in the first place. Many of us have worked for years, some even decades, to build a reputation of professionalism, integrity, honesty, thoroughness, etc. Thanks to the whole "our pre-screened agents will bid for your business" mentality, number 1, turns us all into a comodity that the consumer is led to believe has no difference other than "price", and number 2, these interlopers never bother to tell the consumer that "prescreened" SIMPLY MEANS THEY'VE AGREED TO PAY THE PRICE OF ADMISSION. No other screening is done. You must have a valid license and the ability to pay the fee.

Not a big Yahoo fan, Brad. Use it for 1 email address, and listings are syndicated to Yahoo Real Estate but I don;t pay for these. You do see the Yahoo Listing riders (see Terri's comment above) but rarely. I like Google searches and the tools adn see no reason to change. Yahoo has some work to do to convince me. I haven't been spammed yet, BTW, but expect it is coming.

Jeff

I haven't even looked at Yahoo in... years? Seriously. I used to work for Prudential real estate, and the lame partnership they had with Yahoo was ridiculous. What little respect I had, was completely depleted back then, and since then, I've all but forgotten that Yahoo even exists.

Hi Brad ~ I certainly have used Yahoo to search - in fact I'm not really enthused about google dominating search so try to spread my searches around. I'm also really agitated by everybody and their brother trying to get a (big) piece of our commissions by using our own listings against us. Even NPR was trying to get in on the party. I considered paying to submit my new website to yahoo but when I realized how this sort of thing had taken over the real estate section on their site I abandoned the idea.

Liz

Brad,

I didn't get the spam and I do not use Yahoo for anything. Can't imagine why anyone would when there's Google.

MAY

I will check it out. i have not received any emails about this.

Everybodys a dreamer and everybodys a star in the world of real estate until it comes to follow up and service to the buyer and seller. For that the best way is and will always be a Realtor with feed from the MLS in the area. It is the most up to date and they have the most knowledge. All of these types of sites take our listings and try to make us pay for "leads" that they gather that often turn out to be dead ends.

I use a couple of their free tools but find them lacking when it comes to real estate . They were the big dog and unless they come up with something to attract searchers they will I think continue to slide

Brad, I think that Realtors are the defining source of knowledge of real estate and these lead hogs are in it for the money and for the most part the leads are $%^&#&!

Brad, I am getting tired of companies trying to capture a buyer's name and selling to the industry. I don't think the virtual real estate companies will replace a good real estate professional. In our valley one must know not only what subdivisions have cc&r's, but where you can have horses, what areas have arsenic or fluoride in the water, how deep are the wells, what open land is private that could be developed and which is BLM (public), etc. There is so much that can't be quantified by a computer other than the human brain that there is no substitute for a good agent.

Brad,

According to Hitwise, Yahoo is the #2 real estate destination on the web.

Jon - thanks, #2 is nothing to snicker at for sure.

Do you think it's because they are sending out emails like this to the millions billions of users in their database and creating a marketing campaign that no one else can compete with? Is it sheer marketing that has put them in this position or is there value to their site and Real Estate Services? I can see our jury here has some mixed opinions....

Brad - First, I don't care for Yahoo's services in general, but that's just my personal usage opinion. I have an address or two there for mail, but I just use them when I'm signing up for something (like registering at Pizza Hut to place an online order) - that way they get all the junk mail advertisments, not my work or personal email. I wonder if we will approach a point of critical mass with real estate sites at some point. Surely they all can't maintain enough ad revenue or lead generation sales to support themselves as different ones come on the market and "steal" some of their thunder. Yahoo is a giant company though, so I think they would have a decent chance at survival. We all question however how it can be justified to pull leads out of our hands and sell them back to us. I think somewhere along the way, real estate abandoned sensible business and became a great place for companies to leech off of agents. There are so many places for all of us to spend our money it's ridiculous. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't know how to say no in this industry...they'll probably be broke sooner rather than later.

I'm not a big fan of Yahoo Real Estate, mainly because they have some deals with big franchisees that they feature listings for. Not an even playing field in my book.

Brad

This is not new, Yahoo, Google, Zillow and many others have been grabbing a larger slice of the pie every monthly that goes by. Their Business Plans call for them to grab the large market share and then sell the leads back to the agents who are will to pay.

I know one new company that is only a few years old that has the lions share of leads for South Florida market. I have been in side the company and they compete with a staff of about 20. They are good at what they do. A Real Estate related search will bring then up in the top 5, almost every time. That is there goal to on the first page of every search.

That is why we are here we believe that we can make technology work for us in the same manner. It will not be easy they are professional programmers and very good at what they do. We are REALTOR, and professional at what we do also, programing is our second hat.

Chuck Mixon

I don't like Yahoo. The only thing I do with Yahoo is Yahoo groups because our homeschool support group uses the yahoo echain for info and our Freecycle group is on Yahoo groups.

I hated it when mybloglog signed up with yahoo because ever since that happened I can not get mybloglog to work right for me, problems w my password, etc. Just had to sign up again, now it is even more messed up and I can not get to my webstats that I liked so much from mybloglog.

Next, I hate the fact that Yahoo has some deal with Prudential ( I am not sure if that has changed- but that was the last I had heard) and then they sell those leads back to the agents that work at Prudential who then have to pay referral fees for having their own listings sold back to them. That is why I would never work for a company like that either. What a rip off. Katerina

Hi Brad, I had seen this any number of times in my searches. It points up tho the fact that the real estate industry still has a long way to go in getting real estate participants to embrace SEO and reposition themselves on a more equal platform. We are making inroads daily but not nearly enough or fast enough. The 3rd party aggregators are alive and well.

MAY

I tried a Yahoo website when I was learning about websites. Once I learned a little, I didn't like the Yahoo site. It was very difficult to cancel - took many phone calls.

There are a number of people who use Yahoo for searches and emails and probably other things I'm not aware of. I often google search and yahoo search the same thing just to see what comes up where. I prefer Google. When time permits, I do some Yahoo answers because an SEO guy told me it would help and I need all the help I can get. Like Jonathon says, Yahoo is second.

I also agree with Elizabeth about not liking one particular company to be the only choice. I like choices.

I hate Yahoo search. All the junk they have in the toolbar. I really don't know why people use it, google is a lot easier to use especially if you use advanced search and then search within results. It is so easy to find EXACTLY what you are looking for that way. I don't use yahoo email either. I also leapfish.com for searching. And yes, everyone and their brother is taking in our info and selling us back our own business. Or trying to.

Brad, They're probably leveraging what they learned from their relationship with Prudential to now go out on their own. I too, use Yahoo for many things but have never been a fan of their real estate section. Rich

Brad, where are they getting their listing feeds?

If they have it then every other Broker and Individual Agent should have one.This is the issue going on at AG and my post here.

We get the listings, market them, service them and our customer. They get the leads sell them back to us.

I quite using Yahoo when they entered into that relationship with Prudential.

All the Prudential agents here put in their remarks PRUXXXXXXX.

Not fair, stupid.

Of course the local Prudential offices gather them up, then give them to their agents and make them pay 35% referral fee. That is just unbelievable. When Remax was closing here I interviewed with Prudential.

I flat out asked the Broker, so you mean, "IF someone hits my listing, you assign it to me, I pay a referral fee?"

Her answer, "Yes, but I can watch for your listings, Missy if you come and we will assign to you w/o the referral fee".

You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?

After being with Remax for 12 years, and getting all calls, leads etc.. on my listings with no referral fee, I was not going to EVER agree to such foolishness.

A few weeks ago, one of our coaching clients Laura Duggan of West Austin Properties advertised a $13.5 million listing on Yahoo's home page. Within a short time, it was featured as the number one most viewed listing on there. It rotated through the list as one of the top 10 most expensive homes viewed for five days. They got over 2,000 leads who registered to see listings on their website at www.WestAustin.com in two days!

In terms of driving traffic to the website and pulling in leads, Yahoo did an amazing job of promoting thispecialized property.

I used Yahoo PPC for years before I got my Google Organic SERP to a point where I could rely on it excusively.

Hi Brad this is nothing new. Yahoo has been a player in the online Real Estate game for a long time. As John points out they are one of the dominant players for traffic. Yahoo classifieds is one of the sites that my web platform (Point2) syndicates to.

Love Missy's comment about Prudential...that is laughable!

I have two email accounts. Yahoo, that I use for my family/freinds and ordering. Google, for all my real estate, and searches.

I use google for searches, and analytics. Have not opened my Yahoo account to ever use anything. My home page is MSN, which my wife uses for her searches.

Don't know why I don't use Yahoo, no real reason.

Richard

Yahoo's been in real estate for years, wasn't it partnered with Prudential? Is it still?

I am sure they have agents who use it and find value in it like any other online real estate portal.

I started using Yahoo long ago for email I have at least one old Yahoo account. I use Gmail now instead of Yahoo because it offers so much more and is integrated with so much that I have on Google now. I search with Google, use Google analytics, use Google Voice... have a Google profile. I don't use the Google email account for business but I do use it for all the social network sites.

4% of my traffic on my website comes from Yahoo search engine. I rank better on Yahoo than on Google as well. I don't use the engine personally but I do know people that use the homepage and email as well as the engine. Either way Ill take the 2300 hits.

I use Yahoo for al my email and have many client's folders stored there for years. . never really had a problem. as far as real estate. .the reason why they can't catch Google is that they control their organic searches for a fee. . and Google does it from content. (at least, that is what I heard)

Brad-I pay for my yahoo email address and I am a yahoo fan...it doesn't bother me at all...and it should not...just like the rest of the big boys in real estate.. Yahoo serves it purpose just like the rest...just as Bill states they have been at it for years!

p.s I do use yahoo as my home page...I search both...google more so than yahoo. But yahoo has been my home page for years.

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...

I know yahoo has been around for years and dabbling in the Real Estate thing, but was not aware of the Prudential relationship, at least till now. I too have managed to dodge the bullet from these spam emails, but as I said earlier, this one just got me for some reason, maybe it was the cool animated .gif file where the magnifying glass kept zooming in and out on the houses, I don't know.

This is all great feedback and exactly what I was looking for, I wanted to get my thumb on the pulse of what you all feel about it and how you think it effects you, your business, the industry and consumers. I got much more than I bargained for here.

Thanks for all the comments and feedback, you've helped me establish a great resource post for the next person who asks me about Yahoo Real Estate and what I know about it. Now, I know more than I ever could have learned by researching this out on my own.

Members on ActiveRain "RULE" when it comes to information, experience, support, and getting results. I can't thank you guys enough. :-))))

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:

Jon - thanks, #2 is nothing to snicker at for sure.

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.

MAY

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?

MAY

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.

Sherry - I have not heard that rumor, nor was I able to find anything on the web about it. I'll keep my ears and google alerts out there and report anything I can find that pops up. Thanks. :-)

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.

MAY

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??

JUN

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.

This blog does not allow anonymous comments