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IDX - Friend or Foe!

By Fred Miller

Real Estate Agent with National Real Estate Pages

September 11, 2007 02:49 AM

Has anyone noticed that when you go to Yahoo and click on Real Estate, that Prudential has framed all the listings and is channeling them to a call center and selling those leads on our listings to their agents at a 35% fee! How in the world are agents supposed to compete with this type of business model. Would love to hear from someone on this.

I have been branding myself, my website, getting back to basics, doing farming, door knocking, and a host of other things that we keep being told will work. These are futile efforts to say the least.

I have over 300 clients that I stay in contact with consistently, but lets face it folks, very few people are buying homes today anywhere in this great country. Those that are looking to buy or sell surely will have difficulty finding one of our branded sites on Yahoo or Google. Is it just me, or are we being misled about IDX and how much it will help us.

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Renée Donohue~Home Photography

Savvy Home Pix - Allegan, MI

Western Michigan Real Estate Photographer

Getting out of the box can help you compete. Pick a niche and work it! Yahoo and Google haven't been my number 1 source for traffic to my website. The ranking goes like this (in order): Me, Active Rain/Localism and Craigslist.

Sep 11, 2007 02:54 AM

Simon Conway

Orlando Area Real Estate Services - Orlando, FL

Not sure I get this. isn't the point of having a listing to sell it? What does it matter to you if it is a Prudential agent (who apparently is making less than 2/3 of a pay check) or somebody else?

Work on your website and your seo. People usually look for "Roseville real estate" or "Roseville homes for sale" and unfortunately I didn't find you on page one of Google or Yahoo for either of those terms.

Jennifer Monroe

Indigo Home Team powered by Compass - Charlotte, NC

Real Estate REALTOR®/Broker/Designer

I agree that Craig's List and Backpage are the stronger contenders in my area. Google and Yahoo are just too enormous and always changing to keep up with or worry about. I also KNOW there are buyers out there. I just keep a positive attitude.

Sep 11, 2007 03:00 AM

Fred Miller

National Real Estate Pages - Roseville, CA

Simon, I guess I am missing the point. Would we let any other agent market our listings and keep all the leads. I think not. My point is, that when we allow others to market our properties on the web and keep the leads, we are loosing our pipeline of prospective buyers and sellers. I am an SEO Expert. The problem with SEO, is that most of the people that are looking up those terms, are agents that are looking to see where their placement is? Another dilemma facing agents is that there are only 10 spots and the fact that Yahoo and Google change their algorithm to prevent folks from staying there. Ever wonder why Google paid 1.6 Billion $ for You-tube. Why Lending Tree spends $24 Million per year on Internet advertising?

Sep 11, 2007 03:04 AM

Jennifer, I use craiglist and backpage and in the last year have gotten more leads from either of those sources, than from any of the others. The reason for this, is simple. The leads from the other sources are being captured by third parties and being sold back to us. This is a well documented fact. For anyone that would like more info on this, please contact me. If you are happy letting others take your prospectvie buyer and seller leads, well, best of luck in the future.

Sep 11, 2007 03:08 AM

Joe Zapata

Keller Williams Realty Media World - Burbank, CA

Your Burbank Real Estate Expert

I understand your point but I cannot say that I totally agree with it. On my site when a client looks up listings on the IDX it private brands that listing with my info to contact for a showing. So in a way I am doing the same thing as they are. I do not worry about Google and Yahoo either as they do not bring me nearly as much traffic as other sources.

Sep 11, 2007 03:18 AM

Hi Joe,

I can have the same thing on my site and I do. The point is, as an independent agent, I stand little to no chance of acquiring a client with a limited budget and limited reach with my ad campaign. You probably know that over 85% of buyers beging their search online. Google has almost 40% of this market and Yahoo has about 37%. What does this leave for the rest of the agents in this world.

Sep 11, 2007 04:07 AM

Fred - Yu are correct about the budget issue. Unfortunately this is true in any business. We are quite simply put, small business owners competing against the Larger companies. I owned an Auto Parts Store for many years and had the same issue when AutoZone came around. My store however still managed to make a nice profit every month as I found my particular niche and adjusted to my local market. While rankings in the major engines is important there are many other ways to market yourself on-line to capture leads. I agree that it is a very frustrating thing to have to battle but it is they way of the world.

Sep 11, 2007 04:14 AM

I too have owned several businesses in the past 20 years, however, the IDX issue is different for this market and than any other time in the history of our country. Real Estate agents need a cost effective marketing platform that allows them to compete in a global economy. Please take a look at www.nationalrealestatepages.com and let me know what you think. I personally think that this format is great for agents that want to market on the net nationwide and retain their leads. The site also allows your service providers to access you and your buyers and sellers for a fraction of what they would pay for a yellow page ad, SEO, pay per click or other marketing program.

Sep 11, 2007 04:27 AM

Fred - Thanks i will check it out and let you know what I think.

Sep 11, 2007 04:56 AM

IDX - Friend or Foe!

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