Posts Tagged ‘realtor.com’

Inman news this morning reported that Move Inc, the operator of Realtor.com expects further revenue declines, and I for one am not surprised.

Of course, in this climate one could argue that revenue declines are hardly news, however perhaps this indicates something larger.

Having worked with real estate agents for the last 10 years we’re often asked our opinion of certain websites, or services that the our agents are being sold.

A year or so ago a company was seemingly going through the roster of every real estate office saying they could help agents lock down the keywords for the sponsored ads at google for a few hundred dollars a month. The odd thing was that company who was selling these things wasn’t google, which was a major red flag, and secondly they didn’t offer any transparency regarding hits, cost/click etc.

We received many calls from agents who felt if they missed this they were missing a once in a lifetime opportunity, (despite the fact that no one can lock down keywords, you just pay more than the other people are prepared to pay for the same keyword and you can always be at the top_.

We’ve also fielded many calls from agents thinking about Realtor.com, should they upgrade to such and such a product, should they join, they’d like us to design them a banner ad for their zip, etc.

Now, we wholeheartedly agree with the mantra that every small business should try new things if common sense suggests their might be some gain in doing so. However, we don’t know a single agent who subscribed for more than one billing round of an extended/or add on product. That’s not to say they don’t exist, as I am sure they do, but we haven’t talked to them, and the numbers coming out of the company suggest that may not be far from a wider truth.

My Dad Always Said, “You Can’t Go Wrong With (virtual) Bricks & Mortar”

Ok, so i added the word ‘virtual’ there, but this what i mean. You can conceivably spend a few thousand dollars on a banner ad campaign for a zip or two which runs for 6 months or a year or whatever.

Ask, yourself this, how many times have you clicked on a banner ad? And, if you did, did you buy the service or product?

Once you have paid for this, and perhaps didn’t get the return on your investment what do you have to show for it, other than a piece of artwork shaped like a bookmark in your ‘My Pictures” file. And that’s just it, agents are spending thousands for try out, once they don’t want it, they have nothing to show for it.

If those thousands of dollars had been used to create a niche focussed real estate website it remains. Your next advertising spend continues to promote your storefront.

Buyers Are So…Promiscuous…

On a more fundamental level the problem with Realtor.com is that of buyer promiscuity. Once they have seen your listing, they are off to the next, and then the next. If you have more than one listing where they are looking the odds are, at best marginally better, but not much. The main issue is that at Realtor.com you do not control the inventory.

We were talking with an agent this week about a proposed website and they were eager for us to link to Realtor.com . This is the last thing you want to do. It’s like sending them to the homepage of your local MLS in the public section and say, “Go find a home, ooh and when you find one, don’t call that agent who’s name is on the listing, call me”…good luck with that.

Controlling The Inventory

Sounds hard huh? How do you control the inventory? Easy, IDX.

Let’s face it no one cares about your listings, well a few people do, the home owner, you do, your manager does, …who am I missing? I think that’s it… So once buyers see it, rejects it you better have everyone else’s listing displayed on your site for them, which of course you do through IDX.

At Realtor.com it’s always been about your listings, and of course how nice to sell ones own, however normally…

your listings probably don’t comprehensively represent the real estate market in your town…oh, and that reminds me, that’s what people are looking for.

Make sure your IDX website does.