I'VE BEEN THROWING MONEY AWAY INTO A DUMPSTER...I MEAN REALTOR.COM
This past year I have been throwing my money away into a dumpster! Well okay, not really a dumpster but it sure did feel like it! I signed up for enhanced listings, featured homes & featured CMA with REALTOR.com and have been paying close to $500/month for these services. Did I close any homes from it? NO!!!
Here are the facts. Another local agent had the zips I wanted for the featured CMA so I was told I could buy more, further out zips and just farm the towns I wanted with the postcards they mail. This brought in very minimal leads. The actual zips I paid for brought in about 20 leads give or take from the entire year!!! That's a year of people visiting REALTOR.com and asking for a CMA in as many as 9 major zip codes. You mean to tell me that there are only 20 people throughout the year visiting your site, signing up and asking for my help and I'm supposed to be able to have a good return on my investment this way? I don't think so!
As far as the featured homes and enhanced listings go, I got very minimal email inquiries from people on the site looking at my listings. Not much to work with. As month after month passed I cringed dishing out the cash to pay for these products.
When my Featured CMA was nearing it's end I was asked by my sales rep to give up some of the zips if I wasn't planning on renewing because they had an agent interested. I was very happy to let it go early, but it almost cost me the extra month for NO advertising! That was crazy! Luckily I asked for them to not charge if they were selling it to someone else and they didn't. Now they're acting like they gave me a big break, which is not the case. They did what they should have done, what was fair.
I was going to keep my enhanced listings just to keep sellers happy until they told me that they were going to charge me MORE money because I am carrying more listings than last year. If you've never had enhanced listings, here is how they work. You go on REALTOR.com manually and add more photos, tag-lines and info to your listings. They do nothing for you automatically. So why then would they charge ME more money for having more listings on their site? It doesn't cost them anymore money or time or effort. If anything, it takes up more of my time so they should be giving me a break!
I've decided to say Sianara to REALTOR.com since there has been no real benefits to having them and they're trying to scam me into paying more for less on year 2. I think my marketing dollars will be better spent on Zillow or Trulia.
Kathleen Cooper Best Option *** RE/MAX Professional Associates *** LICENSED IN MA!
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Don't feel bad. It's not just you. At one point, I was marketing more than 10 new home communities in two counties with dozens of enhanced listings on Realtor.com. Nada, nyet, nothin'!
Adios to Realtor.com, Howyadoin' to my much missed cash flow!
Kathleen,
You are not alone! I haven't gotten anything from that site either! There's so many more avenues now for a buyer to find you.
See you Tuesday!
Check your area stats for Zillow first - another gal in my office and I took the 2 featured spots in our area for a year & got absolutely nothing from it!
good thing I read your post, I came from one of their seminars yesterday and to see what they were selling.
$99.00 a month to buy a zip code in my area, I thouoght that was a little bit stip. One of their salesperson just called me for a follow up to see if I was interested, I passed on it.
I only pay a fee of $10.00 a month to have more pictures added and my personal info next to my listings. So far this being the first month, I received two leads from it. Not sure if I will get anywhere with these leads, but it makes my clients happy to have all pictures displayed. I have found blogging to be the most beneficial when farming certain areas.
Thanks for the heads up! I'll be looking at some more effective, less expensive places to spend my $$$$.
I used to get a lot of inquiries from my enhanced listings on Realtor.com. These days, I get nothing. Thankfully though my broker in charge is now paying for the enhancements or I wouldn't invest my money into it.
The problem with Realtor.com is that it is saturated with AGENTS and listings... I used to get leads from Harmon Homes in my area since not every agent had their listings on that site... go where the buyers are but more importantly go where the agents are not... or you are just another fish in the fish bowl
Realtor.com is a rip off, as of this month I will no longer do business with them. I produce more buyer leads on my own. It makes me sick to my stomach every time I pay the bill. I might as well throw my money in the toilet..
Lately, we haven't received any leads from REALTOR.COM...Re-evaluating the featured homes portion of our contract when they come up....Thanks Jen
Thank goodness you took a look to see what was going on! Just one of many things we have to do as business owners - it's not easy to keep them all under close watch.... kudos to you and James!
I couldn't agree more; they act like the "Mafia" of the Real Estate Industry..
If they AUTOMATICALLY added my pictures and "enhanced" my listings, I think I'd probably pay around $60 tops yearly if I had to. I don't see why I should' my Realtor fees are more than enough. Oh, wait, I forgot. They are LICENSED by the Realtors, NOT OWNED..
The way they have their model is sickening. Plus the fact that I had NO leads at all worth talking about. I do better with Trulia and Zilllow.. Zillow especially.
Good for you, Kathleen.. Don't waste your money. You need it to use it smartly for your sellers!
Jim
Don't pay for Zillow. It was a waste of money and they are a pain when you try to cancel.