How to Stop getting hosed by REALTOR.com…
October 13, 2007
I read one of the BEST posts in recent memory on REALTOR.com and how they are screwing the REALTORS of the country out of MILLIONS every year. Kudos to the bloodhound blog for posting that. A picture TRULY is worth a thousand words!
Yet woefully, I started reading the comments….”We will leave R.com if they charge us more than $3,500 this year ” (paraphrase from one comment). Others were similar.
How about this comment! “We don’t negotiate with extortionists!”.
Then I thought to myself…Maybe the reason that folks are continuing to use REALTOR.com is a combination of ignorance and fear. They are afraid that they might lose one buyer (even though they cannot remember the last one that they GOT from REALTOR.com). So i figured I would share my recipe on ERADICATING the extortion pressure from our business.
Want the secret? Here it is!
Step 1: REALIZE that R.com is our competition!
They compete with US for exposure for OUR listings and then CHARGE us to ENHANCE them. Isn’t that the classic definition of extortion! Sure sounds like it to me!
Step 2: EDUCATE SELLERS (and yourself)
Well, it is actually quite simple. Take your customer to REALTOR.com and SHOW them that only a SMALL percentage of the listings are actually “enhanced”. The percentage is ONLY those who have multiple photos. (Check this out)
So in Louisville, just at 12% of the listings have multiple photos. Ask your customers, why do 88% of the REALTORS NOT use REALTOR.com’s enhanced services. (HINT: If they were attracting buyers in today’s market, they’d be all over it!) It DOES NOT WORK!
Go to Google (if REALTOR.com is not on the TOP of the search engines–which they often are NOT) and SHOW them that they are NOT getting traffic (at least in your location) from the search engines!
For the coup de gras, ask them if they would rather search for a home on a site where 88% of the homes have only one photo or would they rather go to (insert site at the top of the search engines here).
STEP 3: TAKE ACTION
Take the money that you would spend on going to REALTOR.com and use it to develop your OWN web presence. Even if all you did was to take that $3,500 mentioned in the comment of the Bloodhound blog and plunked it down on Pay per Click advertising, at $2.00 per click it would still bring 1,750 RELEVANT clicks to your site. Your odds of closing more business than what you are getting from R.com are MUCH better!
Talk to other agents and get them to get out of R.com as well! Explain to them that it is not benefiting them (this will not be a tough sell!).
Here is what we did…
We put our efforts into getting ahead of the interlopers. And they ARE in my opnion the KING interloper. We started going after the channels that THEY dominated like:
a) Getting to the top of the search engines with ALL of the photos and much more of what the customers actually want.
Seriously Errol and Alan…you cannot expect us to buy that the customer ACTUALLY wants to look at that presentation you call a site.
b) Teaching our agents the art of new advertising channels like Pay per Click (another favorite of interlopers) see above. Our agents are getting great results and making sure that we are staying ahead of the competition. We do not go there, because we do not want to bid against them.
The results? Check out your extortion eradication metrics in your town:
Metric #1: Percentage of multiple photo listings on R.com! You want this as low as possible.
Metric #2: Search Engine Rankings on Google and Yahoo for REALTOR.com for city real estate, city homes, city homes for sale type of keywords, etc.
There you have it. A simple recipe for focusing your marketing expenses in a useful direction, thoughts?
Oh boy. Not really sure how to start with this one Eric…
Before I had a website, I got sucked in to “web marketing” from the big R. I got about 5 phone calls and one email in a year. Needless to say, I did not sign on again.
I think that there are a lot of agents who don’t know that they could compete if they really wanted to. R.com is not one of the 5 biggest players in the Atlanta market and I imagine that is the case for lots of us. Couple that with a system that doesn’t even pair up listings with the correct MLS numbers and that leaves buyers and agents even more confused. Fortunately, we don’t have to be bullied by them and we don’t need to give them a penny.
I use a number of venues to market my listings that they cannot compete with. Was it easy? No. Is it more effective. Absolutley. Blows them away. I wouldn’t spend 5 minutes marketing on their website and it is extortion.
Here are a few things that I ave done that have been succesful:
I placed a blog on my own website. I can feature listings directly to buyers and get more traffic than they can for my listings.
I have another blog with a great slidshow for all those extra photos they want to charge thousands of dollars for. It costs me about $50/year and it outranks them.
I have a customized version IDX on my websote that blows away their ability to market listings to buyers.
Not a chance would I waste money or time on that website.
Spot on Ryan.
They have no hold in Louisville either. They are not even on the first page of Google for Louisville Realtor…
I am with you guys. The money spent on Realtor.com is much better spent as an investment in starting your own website or improving what you already have. NAR took a wrong turn early on and virtually lost control of the site. Since then it has not been in the Realtor’s best interest or the best interest of our clients to continue to invest in them. We need to invest in ourselves.
First of all, congrats on the nomination from Greg on Bloodhound for this post. Second, I could not agree more. I really see no difference between R.com and anybody else trying to sell leads to Realtors.
R.com, Homegain, etc., they are ALL our competition and we would be foolish to support their efforts. Thanks for getting the word out.
@Mike-You are right the word needs to get out. Collectively we can change much of the effect they are having, but REALTORS have to be aware.
@Wayne–You are right. My only regret is that I didn’t link to Ryan’s original article in this post. When I get a chance, I will do that.
So that you guys don’t think that I have “no-followed” you. I just set my blog to wait until you post a couple more comments (it lowers the hand moderation that I have to do…). Just FYI
Eric
Eric: You’ve given me the nudge I need to reconsider my contract with what I had perceived to be the 800-pound real estate gorlla: Realtor.com I don’t think the stats will be much different in the San Diego market–and my results from Realtor.com have not been any better. Congrats on the well-deserved Bloodhound nomination!
I set my nofollow at 3…I am going to write a post and link to your artice and the one I wrote. Don’t set it. THey really are our competition and we should really try to get the word out.
Now you guys are on a mission! Go get em. I cancelled my contract with Realtor.com at the end of September.
[...] I stumbled across an article written by Eric Blackwell about how to avoid being ripped off by REALTOR.com. Eric’s article made it clear to me that I did not originally go far enough – I even tried to [...]
@Roberta- Thanks a ton. That’s kind of you.
Re:The Bloodhound Blog–yeah…it is a true honor to be nominated. Greg and the rest of the writers there are outstanding. I agree with 95% plus of his takes on things, but read 100% of the content simply because it is EXTREMELY well written (crafted more like)and it is AUTHENTIC.
@Ryan-Just saw your trackback. Very solid points there.Kudos.
I know I’ll get flamed for this but I see that most of the posts here are misaligned from reality.
Realtor.com does not compete with us, they keep us (the Realtor) at the center of the transactions (unlike most if not all other online RE marketing firms).
To my knowledge, no one hosts more relevant consumer traffic that reaches 100% of the targeted RE consumer 100% of the time than their network. There will always be some sub pockets of online consumer traffic in specific local areas that my appear to be higher, especially in text search contexts, but Realtor.com is not a text context consumer search environment.
We have had, and continue to have excellent results using their marketing systems, not just an the enhancement pieces, but the entire online and offline systems they have.
The fees they charge allow us to differentiate ourselves on their network to consumers (sellers and buyers) both within our local markets and to those searching from outside of the area. The services drive consumers to us, as opposed to your content. It’s a near perfect platform for that.
Seriously folks if there is currently a better provider of consumer RE search/research experience, interface,reliable content and reach—show me.
Go sell some Real Estate…
First off, you are NOT going to get flamed. BUT you will get challenged to defend your position with something besides “Go sell some real estate.”
Just curious what market you are in so that I can address your concerns factually. I will concede that in about 10 percent of the markets REALTOR.com may still have a dominant position in the search engines.
The part that is NOT arguable in my opinion is that they offer a BETTER presentation of MLS data than a REALTOR website. They are in fact using the EXACT same feed as I am and yet they are only presenting 1 photo and garbled text unless I pay the extortion fee…ummm…how is that better?
Just curious!
Best
Eric
Lynne -
Your blind devotion to Realtor.com makes me wonder if you are somehow affiliated with them. What is your website? How exactly how you benefited from their “online and offline systems that they have”?
“Seriously folks if there is currently a better provider of consumer RE search/research experience, interface,reliable content and reach—show me.” …Ummm try to search any city real estate and take a look at their IDX. It will be far superior to anything NAR has to offer.
Lynne, we are all willing to learn and admit if we are wrong, but please provide some details so that we may learn from your infinite wisdom and devotion to the “near perfect platform” that NAR provides.
Lynne,
Show me your market and I will show you much better examples with in your market of “search/research experience”. No way are they providing the best possible user experience.
Hi Lynne;
Since you did not respond, I tool the liberty of looking up the IP address of where you sent the comment from. Assuming that you are not on vacation, that would be Anaheim California, no?
So I just did a Google search for “Anaheim Real Estate”. (i recommend you do the same.) The number one listing in the SERPS for my DC is kevinkeaty.com…hmmm…take a look at his site and PLEASE articulate for me how his details pages (with ALL of the photos) are inferior to your (errr…REALTOR.com’s) presentation of OUR (collectively) data?
Once again, trying to be respectful. I will not flame you, but you DO need to come here with opinions that you can back up.
we like our opinions like we like our links…DEFENSIBLE (grin).
I welcome your response…
Eric
And FTR, REALTOR.com is (at present in my datacenter), NOT in the top ten for Anaheim real estate…from whence cometh the traffic?
I didn’t see them (at the moment at least) doing PPC there either…
Eric and all that responded,
My sense is that you all have a better way and I respect that. Please, by all means go out and assess better ways, no matter how complex and convoluted they might be and spend money down whatever avenues/channels outside of the Realtor.com consumer lane your convinced will bring you better results. In fact please spend gobs of time and resources figuring out a “better way” and pour money into non NAR/Realtor channels. It just makes our brand better on their network to the consumers.
We benefit consistently by having systematic approaches to our marketing systems, with continued results and reasonable annual costs.
It is a near perfect platform for us since we need not spend any time or energy trying to find a better way to reach a lot of consumers within and outside of our area of operations on a sustaining basis and LOVE the fact that not everyone’s listings are exactly alike—only advertisers and their listings stand out amidst a very large sea of competing listings and companies!
I requested and received some additional information today. Realtor.com says they now maintain an average of more than 6 million unique consumers/users a month actively searching and researching real estate listings and information on their network and that more than 85% of their consumer traffic is now organic! They stated that this is by far the dominant level of consumer traffic within all Real Estate exclusive content providers. I also received a back door into their beta labs where they will soon be releasing a couple of innovations to reach more consumers than ever with the content (AND OUR ADVERTISING I MIGHT ADD) and a seemingly, industry leading front end and very rich additional content for real estate search and research. I got to the Beta labs here http://labs.realtor.com/
Frankly, other than jumping out to quantcast.com and getting a quick look analysis of consumer traffic measurements of websites, we are not concerned with the issues many of you claim to be. Quant cast’s credentials can be viewed here: http://www.quantcast.com/team.jsp
I am not comfortable revealing my RE firm or location at this point, but will say that I frequently travel throughout California.
My (our) devotion is simply that the different marketing systems they have work for us and work well, not just the bits, bytes and pieces.
-ls
Lynne,
Has it not occured to you that the reason we went out to find better ways was because:
A: We have used r.com in the past.
B: We did not find it satisfactory.
C: We found better ways.
What I think that you might be missing in your defense of them (unless you are them)is that we have been there, done that and bought the t-shirt. So we already know the capabilities offered by r.com.
It is directly from MY experience that I can say with 100% certainty that my current method produces results at 1000% or more times that I achieved at r.com.
You have a choice here; you can continue believing what you believe or you can listen to those that have walked your path before you and take some time to evaluate whther or not you should trust in our advice.
We did not make this stuff up. We know what they offer, have done it and we are trying to explain that there is a better way.
Lynne Staples said:
“I am not comfortable revealing my RE firm or location at this point, but will say that I frequently travel throughout California.”
Wayne responds: ROFL
Lynne;
I am a little uncomfortable with you NOT revealing who it is that you work for…if you look on the comments, you can SEE that I work for a brokerage in Louisville Kentucky, Ryan works in Atlanta. Wayne in Columbus Ga…Roberta in San Diego…Mike in Indy…ummmm and all of us are PROUD to be transparent about where we are from and you are not.
I sense a credibility issue here.
I would be THRILLED to have a representative from R.com comment. No need to hide your identity…(apologies if this is not in fact the case, but…)
We are not vindictive and have flamed NO ONE here. But we ARE being honest and upfront about who we are and what we are.
I guess I have that problem with R.com in general…I think it is a character flaw that they need to consider (IMO) in their organization.
Do you agree?
Exactly! Maybe we could all learn something about why it is beneficial for Realtor.com to do things the way they do – if a representative would articulate that position.
As is it is now we can only lay out what we have seen and experienced as outsiders looking in.
Hey, I am just sharing facts as we know them. There is no defense I am trying to mount and you all just seem to dance around whatever is brought forward anyway. Thanks but no thanks, my brokerage will remain anonymous on these open boards and blogs for now.
Simply put, we have had great results. There are likely hundreds of thousands of other Realtors throughout the US, as far as I can tell, that are receiving and producing similar results. I will have the opportunity to interface with many other Realtors from around the US during the upcoming NAR meetings. Just curious, are you all attending?
Sorry to hear that you’re marketing and advertising experience with them in the past did not pan out to the results your firm was looking for. We don’t always stay with the exact same programs with them year after year, we shift around some our participation in their stuff to keep things freshened up. In addition, not every form of marketing and advertising we have done be it numerous types of print campaigns, radio, TV, online, local or regional always pans out all of the time. No matter how expert we may think we are at marketing it is still not exacting science for anyone.
I am not certain what character flaw you are referring to about realtor.com? Every media outlet has “flaws”. They had corporate accounting issues in the past I’m aware of but I don’t own their stock.
***********We are not vindictive and have flamed NO ONE here. But we ARE being honest and upfront about who we are and what we are.*************
Yeah, to my best estimate there are about 20 of you on the blog/board that appear to be really sour on the subject. It isn’t my charter to change your minds.
I would rather see the overall Realtor brand continue to stick and grow with consumers and we will continue to be able to differentiate ourselves to the LARGE amount of consumers that use their network through use of their advertising and marketing programs–it’s really that honest and straight forward.
Lynne,
You certainly have that right to believe what you want and if you don’t want to listen, you have that right. We will just go on blowing away the marketing they offer and laugh all the way to the bank, meanwhile thanking ourselves that we found a better way. We know this because we used to do what you do.
Just so you know, staying anonymous takes away from your credibility and gives the impression that you either don’t believe in your heart that you are strong enough to stand by your convictions to convey them openly or are claiming to be someone that you are not.
Either way, posting anonymously does not help your case.
I am very comfortable with the belief that I personally get more from my marketing than you do from R.com and would be more than happy to share my numbers with you privately if you are open enough to share yours. You can call me at 404.630.3187 anytime…
A final offer Lynne…
If you don’t feel comfortable with ID ing yourself in public, no worries.
Contact me via email or on one of the contact forms and let me know your brokerage. I will verify it PRIVATELY and promise not to disclose to anyone your identity.
I will then let everyone know PUBLICLY that you are not a shill for R.com.
If you do not do so, then I have NO choice but to assume that you are.
I do not have time right now, but will talk about the character issues that I see with R.com in another post…
Please realize that we STILL are not flaming you and we are giving you EVERY opportunity to prove yourself.
We want to be respectful. You obviously have something that we have not thought of and we’d love to trade ideas. That way we BOTH win…
If you can show me a good way to ROI via R.com…I am all ears.
Eric
Nice article, Eric. Personally, I don’t have a big beef with the big R. I don’t participate in the featured listing promotion that they offer so for me the big R just isn’t a factor or concern.
Regardless of my own personal opinion, I think a lot person’s concerns regarding the big R is that they are less viewed as an advocate of their members, and more viewed as a competitor for internet visibility.
Add in having to pay a lot of additional money to get listings made “featured” – and some view it as nothing more than high priced extortion.
On the same token though, most of the persons that are spending the bucks with the big R – would most likely not otherwise have an internet presence at all.
So, I guess in that sense, the big R does provide a service.
Though, I think if you really believe and agree with that line of reasoning, you could say the same thing about the mafia providing a service as well.
Update:
I own brokerages in more than 1 state and the Las Vegas MLS board just signed an agreement with Realtor.com that will provide listing enhancement services for all agents and all listings from hereonout. I think they are called showcase.
An article on this can be found here:
http://www.glvar.net/site/esnr.asp
Leadership at the board told us that Las Vegas wanted ALL listings branded with mulitple photos, and open, fully editable advertising etc… against all other competing cities/counties/states and MLS’s listings. Also by aggregating, came up with a lower cost than individual agents and brokerages would otherwise be paying them for the service.
Interesting move by an MLS on behalf of all of it’s members. We were already using, so we got a pro rated credit back.
OK Lynne;
Good to have you back…
You STILL have not taken me up on my offer and told me where your brokerages are and what their names are, but let’s assume Las Vegas…are you a member of GLVAR as a broker?
If so, I have an offer for you. If you will work with me for 6 months. I will TRIPLE the return on investment that you are currently getting from REALTOR.com (you do NOT even have to get out of REALTOR.com or anything like that…just run a parallel test with an open mind).
Your investment is a small amount for online marketing. I will charge you NOTHING other than lunch in Las Vegas at the restaurant of my choosing if I succeed…for myself and one of my sons (fair warning–he is a budding chef and will choose an upscale restaurant!)
All you have to do is provide me the name of your brokerage in Las Vegas and your phone number. I will prepare the rest!
Whaddya say?
BTW-The Las Vegas thing in my opinion is an entire board selling themselves out to save themselves from REALTOR.com irrelevance. It is a sign as well that REALTOR.com may be going after the boards because they have burned bridges with REALTORS. Smart move on Errol’s part IMO.
Are you willing to try it? If it works for you in one brokerage,,,wouldn’t you want to do it in others as well????
Best;
Eric
Cool offer Eric! Lynne has everything to gain and nothing to lose. You guys have to report back how you come out with the experiment.
FTR–Lynne
I just checked the GLVAR member search and your name did not come up…
Forgive me for sounding the FRAUD ALERT here.
I do not want to accuse anyone without cause BUT the only one I find in their membership is:
Staples , Lawrence
Realty Marketing Group
8681 W Sahara Ave Ste 220
Would that be your husband, or etc??
I have proven that I want to help you and you refuse to disclose your true identity.
My email is ericblackewll@insightbb.com…
Waiting for full disclosure…
Eric…if Lynne doesn’t take you up on your offer you can work on my site for six months for free:) I will give you my name, address, phone number, SSN, mother’s maiden name, and I will even tell you what state I work in.
LMAO–
Kinda the point!! I know 4 out of the six!!! (and I DON’T want your SSN OR your mother’s maiden name!!!)
Simply want to prove it one way or the other.
If I can do it (and I can), you can be damn sure that it is going to get posted all over the internet under the title “Why SPEND MONEY on REALTOR.com?” or another catchy title like “Firm TRIPLES the return of REALTOR.com”…oh wait…that one is kinda old news…we have been doing that for quite a while…
…anyway, I will think of better titles.
You would think that a broker in these tough times would take me up on it…that’s for sure.
Hope all is well in Indianapolis, at Rebate Real Estate! (Hope I did not hurt your business by putting it on my site…**SARCASTIC GRIN**)
Best;
Eric
For a small company performing full service real estate at a discounted price I can never afford to pay the outrageous prices to a organization that I thought was there to help us not hurt us. I refuse every time the agents from Move and REALTOR.com call because in the end they can never support the outrageous prices with the expansion of the internet.
[...] word, Realtor.com has established itself as the kind of parasite you can´t get rid of. Here is a great article you should [...]
Educating real estate agents is key. This is 2007 (almost 2008). Seeing real estate professionals still dependant on companies like realtor.com and not utilizing all of the other opportunities to get leads (including many free ones) is rediculous. The problem is that the NAR is not likely to go away. Owning the trademark for the term realtor in itself makes them hard to ignore.
What we need is more blog posts like this one to help educate the public.
Mike D;
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. For those who may not know Mike, he is a friend who does real estate related websites (and a directory) in Costa Rica.
One of these days I’m gonna take a tax deductible trip to Firetown, my friend. (grin)
Eric
“One of these days I’m gonna take a tax deductible trip to Firetown, my friend. (grin)”
When are we going Eric? I think I have a free kitchen pass from my wife coming up. Maybe I could use it to go to Costa Rica.
Ummm…I am still digging out after PubCon!!! (grin) Would be a fun trip though!
Sorry for hijacking yet another blog/forum thread with the subject Costa Rica. I have a habit of doing that. Would be cool to have you guys here for sure though.
Realtor.com will be launching a beta of a redesigned site very shortly. The intent is to improve the overall consumer user experience in a way that will benefit everyone involved. Whether or not they’ll deliver on that intent is up for grabs, but the more eyeballs on it and commenting on it, the better chance they have of getting it closer to right this time. Assuming, that is, that they’re *aiming* to do right this time…
Ernie;
That’s good news and I hope it goes well…Since you did not post a url, are you on the inside of R.com?
I do think that whether they are aiming or not, they should get much closer to what the user wants..can’t help but do that. Are they planning on changing their revenue model as well…because the main problem with things is only showing 1 photo without an extortion fee (I mean enhanced listings fee) to be charged. Please keep us informed…
Best regards
Eric
Nice Post Eric,
I wish my areas big hitters would stop paying to enhance all of their agents listings on REALTOR.com. It is just crazy that Weichert, CB, and Pru and doing that, though I am sure they are getting a big discount on it for doing it in bulk.
Well Stated and yes it is Extortion!!
Eric – your post was great to explain how r.com works against us.
When it first came out, I thought it was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. However, it never turned out that way.
As my contract came up for renewal each time the price increased, until one time it was expotential in nature. In addition, the local board decided not to transmit our listings to r.com. I was stuck with a nice fat bill and no listings on r.com.
I thought a great r.com would have some method to upload listings from a brokerage/agent that had a contract. Nada – nothing. But sure kept my money – no offer of refund.
BTW – as of today 34.4% of the listings have multiple pictures on the listings.
yes, please take your whole $50 per listing and???????????????????????????? buy internet service???????????????? starbucks for a month. realtors aren’t on Realtor.com cause they wait fr thier to pay for thier ads – the ones that area on realtor.com are the ones not waiting for thier broker to control thier destiny.
i keep reading this – wondering if you will even post me – most likley not – awaiting moderation on a blog?? I think that you should sell houses for free if realtor.com should advertise them for free. Just cause they have the name – that they pay the NAR to use… if they changed thier name – would you pay???????????? If Realtor.com is your competition than I am a firm believer that you hate RDC cause your sellers like it – or you are some start up – trying to get people to use your stuff… have you not seen the NAR 2006 tech survey they spent $1000000 on. Realtors who advertise on RDC make 54% More than realtors who dont. And that should be free???????????????? How much more do the houses showcased on RDC sell for more than the houses not shown there???????????do you even know?????????? read the survey – hit me back
Matthew-
As you can see from the other folks that appear to be insiders at R.com, I am happy to post many views. I happen to disagree with yours.
Best;
Eric
For the record, I teach REALTORS to MEASURE their results. Of the 120 agents in the office where I work MANY were not receiving ANY return on their investment in R.com. Seriously.
I don’t need your survey or anyone else’s to do that math. Since I am concerned with Louisville pretty much exclusively, can you kindly have the good folks from R.com provide me with the traffic figures for LOUISVILLE locally?
That would really help me convince REALTORS of the need to participate.
Best
Eric
@Matthew – a few responses:
1. Real estate is a business. My spouse and I have been full time in real estate since 1992. Its all about return on investment to generate results. I personally have never known anyone to have ever generated a sale as a result of being on R . com. Do some persons get sales? I’m sure they do. But the money can be much better utilized through other advertising/marketing efforts that have a much higher return on investment.
2. Using lots of “??????????????????” does not impress most persons that are past their teenage years.
3. As far as your stats. Theres an old saying: “There are liars. There are damned liars. And then there are statisticians.”
Lets take a look at just one of your stats: “Realtors who advertise on RDC make 54% More than realtors who dont”
So what? Its a completely meaningless stat. You are trying to infer that it was RDC generating the additional income. In reality, it can be attributed to a lot of things including that those persons were advertising in many other places in addition to RDC that provided results in getting their listings sold.
I just read an inman news article last — the headline was Nar Teams with Move. Inc on database. Apparently they are putting together the some Realtor Property Resource. That would be a database of all property information and history.
Why is NAR strengthening their relationship with MOVE.com ( RDC) You would think that with all the complaints that NAR would be trying to figure out a way to get out of bed with them.
We need to demand more transparency from NAR. When does their contract end? When can it be renegotiated? If we knew the answers to these questions — then we could certainly lobby our own organization just when the timing is right.
Is Nar just oblivious to our needs? Shoot — Trulia does more for Realtors than Realtor dot com.
The industry leaders must change their focus to the consumer instead of the Realtor. If they continue on this path, more companies outside the industry will continue to come in and offer other options to brokers and agents. They seem to offer better tools, results and ROI. In the New Hampshire real estate market, very few agents pay for upgraded services as they do not see the value.
Great article Eric. I wish you wrote this about 4 years ago when I started with SEO for my real estate business. REALTOR.com is the biggest ripoff and waste of money for REALTORS. I am sure they are hurting right now with the slow economy. They finally quit calling me about a year ago about buying services!
R.com $300 listing enhancement was completely worthless for me too. I got no leads from any of my listings for the whole year. I paid for it in 2008 only because one of my sellers asked for it. I canceled it this year as it’s the waste of money.
Thank you for all the posts here since 2007. I sure wish I would have seen this several years ago. I have been “putting up with” R for many years and paying the big fees since I usually list about 50 homes a year. However, I am so hopping mad right now I’m ready to end the contract. Today I went into my account for some reason to double check it and ALL of my listings are missing the remarks, the headlines, photos are out of order, etc.
Several weeks ago 2 of my new listings didn’t even have photos uploaded for over a week and I didn’t even realize it until the client called it to my attention. How embarrassing. They would only “extend my contract for the few days I was inconvenienced.”
With today’s realization of the catastrophe I have on my hands of having to go back and enhance each listing, I decided to either post something or find some other disgruntled users. I landed on this site and have read from top to bottom, thoroughly enjoying the banter.
In all fairness to my current sellers, I feel like I should leave their listings on there until it sells (since some of them specifically asked me if I market on R) and then cancel my contract with R.
I am a 25-year veteran with RE/MAX Results in St. Louis, Missouri.
Happy New Year,
Sandie
Hi Sandie;
It has been a long time since I wrote this, but it remains true today.
Happy New Year!
You hit the nail on the head. 2010 was the first and last year that I will pay to enhance my listings on R.com. I am always willing to try something new but clearly the return on investment was not there. I’m shifting the money into seo this year.
Hi Carmen –
Glad you liked it.
Good to meet you!
Eric
Hi Eric and Others!
I’ve tried to cancel my contract with R.com…but they wont let me…apparently no cancellation clause, no way to get out?? Help!
I have used the showcase listings yearly, and yes I feel ripped off. I do get a few leads from them but have gotten far more from sites that were either free to use or very minimal. In 2008 when everyone thought the sky was falling, I stuck my nose in every article or blog about SEO and learned it. Boy it does take commitment and a lot of work but it does pay off if your committed to doing it right. Feel free to visit my site and email me suggestions or ask advice. I use to spend tons of cash, but found out you don’t need to.