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Top 20 real estate websites in February

By
Real Estate Agent with Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Cal-BRE # 01734464

I always find it interesting to see what consumers are up to and how they are getting their data and information.  Yahoo Real Estate was in the top spot with Realtor.com in second.  So what real estate websites do you use?  I know some clients that only use one site and one site only.  I know other clients that go all over the place looking at 10 different real estate websites a day.  What do you do?

clear skies,

Doug Reynolds

www.BuyWithDoug.com

Hitwise: Yahoo Real Estate maintains No. 1 spot

By INMAN NEWS

After falling to third place in a monthly ranking of the most-visited real estate websites in January, REALTOR® com reclaimed the No. 2 position last month, behind Yahoo Real Estate, according to the latest rankingsfrom Web metrics firm Experian Hitwise.

Yahoo Real Estate has ranked as the most popular "real estate" category website since November. The site's market share fell slightly, to 6.24 percent in February, while REALTOR® com's rose slightly, to 5.87 percent.

Zillow ranked third in February, with a slight jump in market share to 4.94 percent. FrontDoor Real Estate moved into the No. 4 spot with 4.49 percent market share. The site had previously jumped to the No. 2 in January, from No. 53 the month before, partially due to traffic from an ongoing sweepstakes competition that ended in mid-February.

Trulia and Rent.comheld their No. 5 and 6 spots, respectively. Trulia's market share rose above 4 percent to 4.12 percent, while Rent.com's share stayed essentially flat at 2.52 percent.

MSN Real Estate moved up two places to No. 7, bumping Homes.com down one spot to No. 8. ZipRealty also fell one spot, to No.9, while Apartment Guide and MyNewPlace kept their No. 10 and 11 rankings, respectively. Rentals.com and Apartments.com switched places to No. 12 and 13, respectively, as did Re/Max Real Estate and ForRent.com at No. 14 and 15, respectively.

AOL Real Estate climbed two spots to No. 16, with LoopNet sliding down to No. 18. Vacation rental site HomeAway, which just filed for a $230 million initial public offering, held steady at No. 17.

HomeFinder jumped two spots to break into the top 20 at No. 19, with Weichert.com down to No. 20.

The top 10 real estate category websites received 35.8 percent of category traffic in February, while the top 20 websites accounted for 46 percent of visits and the top 100 made up 71.7 percent of visits, all essentially flat from January. The average visit lasted 9 minutes, a two second dip from January.

Three sites joined the top 100 in February: Texas Unclaimed Property, Monmouth County Association of REALTORS®, and Condo.com.

These sites displaced My Unclaimed Property, Realestatebook.com, and Seniors for Living.

The top 10 most popular real estate-related search terms in February were, in order, "REALTOR® com," "zillow," "REALTOR® " "zillow.com," "apartments for rent," "remax," "century 21," "houses for rent," "trulia," and "real estate." All except "trulia" have routinely appeared among the top 10 terms.

Fast-moving real estate-related websites in February -- those that have made leaps in the overall Hitwise rankings -- included HUDhouses (up 106 places to No. 191), HomeForExchange.com (up 387 places to No. 739), TheMLSonline.com (up 298 places to No. 589), Second Porch (up 196 places to No. 462), www.foreclosedhousesearch.com (up 169 places to No. 427), Prudential Northwest Real Estate (up 387 places to No. 1,243), CLRSearch (up 58 places to No. 198), Kaiser Realty (up 169 places to No. 603), www.bankforeclosureslist.net (up 51 places to No. 184), and Marriott Vacation Club (up 276 places to No. 1,006).

Vickie Nagy
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate - Palm Springs, CA
Vickie Jean the Palm Springs Condo Queen

Doug, I thought that even if you 'credit' the post, it's not okay to re-blog copy righted information unless you have written permission. But this one is definitely worth a re-blog.

Mar 31, 2011 06:48 AM
Sarasota & Manatee Counties FL
SaraMana Properties - QuickFreeMLS.com - Bradenton, FL
QuickFreeMLS.com - Listings In Paradise

You have included lots of great links in your blog post.

Mar 31, 2011 06:49 AM
Charles Gardner-Realtor/Investor
ZIP Realty, Inc-Houston District - Humble, TX

Hello Doug,

Thanks for the information.  Seems more people are beginning to begin more interested in real estate of all kinds.

Mar 31, 2011 06:52 AM
Mark Schweller
A. Meadows Real Estate - Oakley, CA
Building Communities; One Home at a Time

Doug, great information!  I use a few of the top ten sites that are listed and a few others.  I like the idea of using different websites to get your name out in the public.  With the top ten list constantly changing, I feel its always a good idea to spread the marketing around to cover all bases.

Mar 31, 2011 06:54 AM
Bryan Robertson
Los Altos, CA

I've been tracking which search engines hold the most market share and it's nice to see I'm not the only one.  I think Realtor.com has the potential to retake the #1 spot if they could just work on a better user interface.  Yahoo has been "eating their lunch" for a long time now.

Mar 31, 2011 06:57 AM
Reba Haas
Team Reba of RE/MAX Metro Eastside www.TeamReba.com - Bellevue, WA
Team Reba, CDPE

this article to went out to many, but I do find it interesting that Yahoo Real Estate was the highest ranked site. I'm thinking my status as an insider in the industry clouds my view of what sites are realistic to go to regarding real estate. I'd never think of Yahoo for that, but there you go.

In my specific area, most people go either to Redfin or Zillow - which kind of makes sense since both of those companies started in Seattle.

Mar 31, 2011 07:00 AM
Li Read
Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring) - Salt Spring Island, BC
Caring expertise...knowledge for you!

Interesting info...wish I  had access to all of these...in Canada, still "not here".

 

 

Mar 31, 2011 07:02 AM
Adam Brett
The Adam and Eric Group - Fullerton, CA
The Adam and Eric Group, Fullerton's Finest

Great stuff Doug! Yeah I definitely use a lot of those websites. I think as real estate agents, we definitely need to be kept in the loop about the cutting edge tools and technology. And the internet is definitely one way to keep ourselves on top of the industry.

Keep the good work and good luck with everything!

Mar 31, 2011 07:04 AM