Theres a lot of online real estate advertising websites like homepages.com, housevalues.com/justlisted.com, realestate.com, etc. They charge a large fee and make you commit for a certain number of months. I wonder if it is worth paying the charges? Do you get a considerable amount of leads? Do you get your money’s worth? Is there anything that you think is missing from their service?
Realtors, do you use online real estate advertising such as: realtor.com, homepages.com? Is it worth it?
19
Mar
tegan
March 19, 2010 at 11:15 pm
depends on which market
hungrypuppy
March 19, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Sorry, Im not a realtor..but I do invest in property and I will tell you that my wife and I use Realtor.com more than any other web site period. Especially since we have a tendency to move every few years. It is an invaluable tool. It gives us a chance to see many properties without having to invest the time with a person. When we are interested in something then we will contact a realtor.
Hope this helps.
bmwdlr
March 19, 2010 at 11:47 pm
I don’t like the companies that charge a lot of money. Example: 30% of your commission, or $40 per lead, or $300 per month. They make their money quickly and don’t care if you stay more than a month or two. Someone else will always take your place after you’ve given them $1,000 and quit.
Also, NEVER sign up with a company that requires a contract (time commitment). If they require one, then that means they’re worried you’d cancel if they didn’t require you to have one.
Also, for example housevalues doesn’t market your information on the internet when advertising for homebuyers or homesellers. Example of a good company that provides leads and advertises for you on the internet…. http://www.Homefindinginfo.com
For instance: http://www.homefindinginfo.com/top_agent_Fullerton_ca.html
Homefindinginfo.com advertises the agent, as well as Homefindinginfo.com’s services.
The agent listed above is found on yahoo.com when anyone searches “top rated agent Fullerton”, whereas you CANNOT be found through a search engine when you sign up with Housevalue. And this service is very inexpensive compared to other lead providers.
The BAD news… Homefindinginfo.com claims to be available in all 50 states within the next 90 days, but is now limited to California, & Florida.
Good news, you can get a free subscription to be listed as a Top Rated Agent in your area by following the instructions here:
http://www.homefindinginfo.com/realestateforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11
Hope this helps,
Cameron
P.S. yes, I am a subscriber & a forum moderator so I am biased.
SndChaser
March 20, 2010 at 12:00 am
I pay for Realtor.com Showcase listings and have found I get a good number of responses from it (plus it makes the clients happy when they look for their listing). I actually get more response from craigslist and a similar local free classifieds site than realtor.com.
Creative T
March 20, 2010 at 12:30 am
realtor.com is ok, but I find their listings rather expensive. Good response from them though. However I think SEO is a much better long term alternative.
Michael
http://www.web2earn.com
Jill B
March 20, 2010 at 12:33 am
Best to invest in a good website. NAR’s 2005 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers showed 77% of buyers used the Internet in their search! This is a HUGE number!
Everyone wants to be on page ONE of search results! If you think it will be EZ, I have a good deal on a bridge for you!
Best to….
I personally used a firm (link below) that did a 250,000 site submissions for my site. It worked great. But, results now take a few months.
Also, Get HIGH placement for your KEYWORDS!
Even when indexed by the search engines, it’s not going to help you if your keyword shows up on page 987. Sure, everyone would like their keywords to show up on page one, two or three of the returned results. But, I want to win the lottery! So? What are you going to do? One thing for sure….it will NOT be EZ!
You need GOOD/Informative content! Without this you will be wasting your time on other methods.
Below is some info that can assist you……
When someone types a specific phrase into a major search engine usually the results will show 10 site per page. These ‘organic’ sites are boxed in, usually on all sides by pay-per-click site ads.
So, in SEO theory you have to have your site placed on page one, two or three of the returned organic results to really benefit from the power of the Internet!
As an example. If someone in NY wanted a San Diego real estate broker, they would, perhaps type “San Diego real estate brokers’ into GOOGLE. If you do this today (standings change all the time), after the pay-per-click and the ‘local results’ you’ll see the first site is: http://www.brokerforyou.com You will also see (upper right)
“Results 1 – 10 of about 5,080,000 for San Diego real estate brokers.”
So, you will see that this one broker’s site (not a major real estate firm) has out ranked over FIVE MILLION other sites for this VERY POPULAR real estate search phrase!!!
Quite impressive!
After looking into the site, I also noted lots, of timely useful info in an EZ to follow site. This is VERY important! As without good ORIGINAL content you’ll NEVER have a top ranking site!
But, I also found on one of the internal pages, the name of the company that does the SEO for this site. They are:
http://www.websitetrafficbuild...
I also visited their site, and found it too had a high Google pagerank. Plus, they had great articles on SEO and software for learning to do your own SEO.
The bad news is that any true SEO work to get on page one of Google is VERY time intensive. http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.com has a guaranteed results program…but, as it starts at $3,950.00, it’s really not for the little person.
I have downloaded their free trial SEO software, just a few days ago, so have not used it yet! But, I’m really learing alot for the free software. If they put this into an ebook, I’m sure they could sell quite a few copies!
*Also, on first link below is a website that offers about ten website and blog awards. They are FREE & even provide a link back to your site! Plus, they show the visitors that your site is a noch above the rest. Keep in mind, to get the award you have to have good info on your site and not just junk w/jumping graphics and tons of AdWords!
So, bottom line, GET THEIR FREE TRIAL SOFTWARE and even if you do NOT do anything else…you’ll learn a great deal about SEO from people who make their livelihood DOING IT!
http://www.web-site-award-winning.com
http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.com
http://www.brokerforyou.com
http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.com/website-submission-plans.htm
http://search-engine-optimization-7.blogspot.com
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http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.com/search-engine-optimization-blogs.htm
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http://www.san-diego-for-sale-by-owner.com
http://www.la-jolla-ca-del-mar-san-diego-real-estate-encinitas-california.us
http://www.la-jolla-real-estate.info
http://san-diego-coastal-real-estate.blogspot.com
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