Looking back over the twelve years I have been in real estate, marketing dollars spent have been my biggest expenditure by far. The past few years have been lean and I have tried to really watch what I spend and where but I just got sucked in again!
REALTOR.com called to get me to renew my enhanced listings feature on the site. They created a sense of urgency, prices were goign up, lock it in now etc, etc. I told the representative that while I was planning to renew, I couldn't say I had received one lead from Realtor.com in the last year. He commiserated and asked if I was more interested in listings or buyers right now. I said, probably buyers, only because the vast majority of listings that are actually moving in our area are the foreclosures. Regular listings are sitting. WELL! Was I aware of their new Buyer's Assist program? "NO" It is the best thing since sliced bread, you buy certain zip codes and all the leads get sent to you!
OK, I have zip codes on Zillow and Trulia and they have paid off. Realtor.com is the biggest site, right? More vistors than anywhere else? It seemed like a good idea. He checked to see which of the zip codes I work were available and he quoted me the unique visitor stats for the zips. It would cost me $105 per month to have 50% of two zips. I fell into the old trap of "if I sell just one house , it will pay for itself!" I wasn't happy about having to committ to a year contract, no contract with Zillow and Trulia but that was the way they do it at Realtor.com and well, he would throw in a couple of extra months for free!
I was hooked (there is no more receptive customer to a sales pitch than a salesperson!) That was in November, I have received exactly one lead so far. Total number of impressions since November? Thirty-two...for both zip codes!
$315 for thirty-two impressions and one lead. Will the one lead pan out? Maybe, they are six to eight months down the road from relocating . I called my rep at REALTOR.com to let him knwo I wasn't happy. He asked if I had watched and implemented their tips to make Buyer Assist work for me? I told him I had watched. The big suggestions seems to be to buy urls that promote my zipcodes and place ads on craigslist directing people out to these urls which are redirected to my REALTOR.com Buyer Assist url. Once they are there, fi they want to search for other areas thatn my zip codes, it will redirect them to other Buyer Assist agents!
So, let me get this straight, I pay $105 per month and then have to try to generate traffic to their site?! If I was going to do that why not direct them to my site and my listing search engine and not run the risk of exposing them to competitors?
I let REALTOR.com know that I was very unhappy with the program so far, they responded with we are sorry it hasn't worked for you but you have a contract, so too bad. I told them I was aware I was locked in to this but at the very least I would do all I could to warn my fellow REALTORS not to spend their marketing dollars here. In this tough economy wouldn't you think that REALTOR.com which is owned by our own organization would be more supportive of it's members?
I guess my first warning should have been the contract, Zillow and Trulia have no need for contracts because if an agent gives up a zip code, other agents are ususally fighting to be the first in line to get it because they actually generate viable leads. So once again, fellow REALTORS, IMHO, Buyer Assist should be named Buyer Beware!
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