I was wondering what your thoughts/experiences are on using websites that showcase home listings? I have talked to several agents and the majority believe in Realtor.com and MLS only. Some really like any free exposures. I would like to know what you think.

Real estate listing sites were among the first websites to pop up on the web as soon as the web was invented. The idea is not new and over the last 15 years or so it has become pretty apparent that Realtors do not find the idea of manually entering listing info onto a website appealing. The sites that take the listings right from the MLS get used and those that don't - don't.

I have been putting all of our listing on all of those sites for as long as they have been around and have gotten nothing in return except the privilege of watching those sites move up in the search engine rankings to compete with my site.

Thank you very much for your well respected thoughts on this subject.
@Doug - How do sites take listing straight from MLS?
@Bigtoe - I have spoke with some agents on the web and they are upset with sites that give no follow links, which in turn "compete with your site". What do you think about uploading your listings and creating profile which is able to be optimized and give follow links to your site? This would help your site and profile together.

I don't care about links when I advertise listings. I am looking for results and these sites do not give results.

Now someone is going to jump in here with an example of how they sold a house with a free internet listing but they are not understanding the true cost of giving up search engine ranking to sites that are looking to compete for those buyers.

I have been working internet buyers since the mid 90's and I have yet to see anyone buy a house off the internet. Many of them say they found the house on the net but they always take the time to look at it and the other similar houses for sale, so they would have found it during the drive around looking process with an agent internet discovery or not.

When I get caught up I am going to revamp my advertising campaign and eliminate all of these sites from my program.

I may have used the term "MLS" a bit too freely. What I meant was that some real estate companies have arrangements with listing sites that will display their listings - the individual Realtors do not need to enter the listing info. That was the case with my old company.

I think most Realtors understand that a listing ad does not sell a home. Realtors advertise listings to attract buyers and sellers - if an advertised home sells as a result of the ad it is the exception and not the rule.

As Bigtoe is saying, if a Realtor is intent on promoting him or herself on the net and attracting leads then the most effective way to do that is with a personal website. Some Realtors who want their website to attract those leads from search engines see listing sites, directories, etc. as competition and not a benefit.

Thank you for your opinions on the major problem with internet listings.

What do you want out of a listings website? Obviously sales but what else. A hub/community that will connect agents, home buyers and new home builders? The perfect site would have???

At one point in time I had automated submission to all my office listings to trulia (I guess), and I had used Vflyer for an automated submission to every listing website from trulia to zillow.

In my years of usage, I NEVER had a call from those websites displaying my listings...

I had received few cals: 3 or 4 from realtor.com and from our MLS website.

I was looking for exposure and direct links to my websites, however I think that everybody has a 'no follow' rule at this time, so you might get a click to your website, but not a link.

Since everybody else is my competition, on the web, I will no longer enhance their websites with my listings. If this will be possible I will opt out even from realtor.com

My expectation from a listings website was: exposure, then to receive call from buyers/prospects, click to my website and links to my website.

Absolutely dead on from my experiences as well.


All they do is compete with YOUR internet visibility by climbing ahead of you in the rankings - and they produce very little (if anything), in the way of results.

What if you were able to optimize a profile on a listings site? One that would give you do-follow links to your personal website(s). While you are optimizing for your own website you are optimizing your profile page as well. Is this something that would be of interest to you? If not what would you like to see from a listings site, to better service you as an agent?

Something that actually gave you something in return (like do follows) would be something of more interest I'd think for most people. But, I think spam control would be a very difficult job. If its a high quality non-spammy site, that had a decent amount of traffic to it, and gave something back - it would probably be something I'd take a serious look at.

I bought my house as a result of seeing it on the internet on a property portal, so the agent won my business through the internet.

1stforCanada, I see from your site's contact info that you are in Great Britain and , correct me if I am wrong, I believe there is no MLS system there. That would make a huge difference in how consumers - and agents - view property portals on the web.

This is going to me more than just listings. It will give you the ability to not only list property but list yourself as an active agent and increase traffic to your website/other projects. We have almost completed the project and will be converting the old site to the new one. 301 redirects yaaaa! I would like to have my friends here take a look and tell me what they think. I appreciate everyone's thought on the listings portion. The thoughts have really helped us adjust the features to meet your needs, I hope.

The free listing sites are worth the amount that you pay. I do not know of any that receive a lot of traffic. However, some for pay listings site can be very useful. Look for sites that have good market saturation in the local area. Go for a local site instead of a nation wide site for general real estate. (This does not apply to specialty real estate)

I would say I have had maybe a dozen or so serious enquiries from free sites in teh last year.

But I have seen them climb up in the results as a result of our listings.

If you rank below them, and they rank above competition, then maybe ad listings is a good idea.

yup submitting on free sites helps your site to optimize searching in Search engines and also boost up your Search engine rankings...

What sites are you referring to? Craigslist? If so, i have gotten a ton of business from craigs... I also sold my first listing through Craigs, since i did not have it on the MLS (it was out of my range and i was a new agent). I also get a bunch of inquires about our present listings through craigs.

Craigslist is one of the best sites out there. This site is a little different. The profile that you are able to create about yourself and the cities you serve is really unique. You are able to use do-follow links to send people to your website and or blog. There are several things that you can do to that will strengthen the link(s) back to your website.

I think you need to have a central website you own. Once that's in place with your listings, having them on other sites is great exposure, especially if it's free and you can get a link back to your main website, building your web equity.

Another downer is having to much information in front of the potential buyer. If you do that then IMO makes the sale harder. You are not getting to talk to the buyer face to face.

I got my last listing from the seller seeing me advertising everywhere she looked on the internet. Has it lead to a sale? Yes. Will I continue to use a shotgun type marketing on the internet? Yes! My job as a listing agent is to use every method possible to let potential buyers know about the property.

I may never have the time to compete as far as PR and search results to beat the big time RE websites. So what if my listings are already on these same sites, with links back to my little site. My job is not to be the number one RE site in search results, my job is to sell my clients property for the most money in the shortest time possible with the least amount of hassle for them. Not become an internet guru! But I will admit I enjoy the whole aspect of internet marketing since it gives a little guy like me an equal footing with the big guys!

what he said.

FREE is all you need to know :)