So I just got hung up on by a Realtor.com account manager after he heatedly discussed with me why I was stupid for not wanting to keep my showcase listings. I was wondering if many people on this forum ever get any leads from Realtor.com. Showcase listing, agent profile or basic listings.

This sales person asked what I could possibly do on the internet that would be better then realtor.com. I tried to explain, but he kept interupting. Silly guy. When I search my market for realtors, listings, agents, realtor.com is no where to be found. But my personal website and blogs are there. And those don't change in price from one year to the next based on my past years listings.

I had the most listings I ever had last year and had the showcase listing package. I had a bunch of great priced REO listings. Not one contact or lead from Realtor.com. Not a one. For some reason realtor.com thinks I had less listings then the year before, which wasn't true.

I know realtor.com has been discussed on here, but I wanted some updated answers from newer members and the veterens as well.

If you have had success with Realtor.com tell me how.

I have sold two listings to customers who found them on Realtor.com; one was double ended. The other involved the buyers seeing my listing on Realtor.com and calling the OFFICE, instead of ME, and speaking with the floor time person, who sold it - that one went under contract in less than two weeks.

That said, I haven't had a bit of activity from Realtor.com since early 2008 other than a few inquiries that disappeared into the woodwork after I answered their question...and the property is still for sale....

I did showcased listings up until this past year... I gave it a shot, didn't get much/anything out of it... They tried to sell me a "foreclosure" ad campaign for $1,000/month...I said no, they pressured me (even offered me a 2-month trial (which I had to pay for)!), I dropped the whole thing.

I do better on my own and have better ways to spend the marketing dollars.

Exactly what I told them and I was called an idiot.

I have wasted a lot of money on r.com. if I had spent that money on my own websites i would be better off today.

If enough agents stop paying them they will eventually give up and we can get our website back.

If everyone hasn't figured it out yet NAR is nothing more than a conglomerate of companies they own or are in bed with to suck the LIFE out of agents.

You can do much,much better on your own and locally many are now achieving top placement in search engines above homegain,housevalues,realtor.com for keyword searches.

It's all about getting to the leads first so you don't pay a middleman that increases your business costs and reduces your potential earnings.

Do you have to be a member of the NAR in order to get your listings on Realtor.com? Or do pretty much all MLS listings get put on there but you just have to pay for extra features?

I'm pretty new if you couldn't tell :silly:

I could be wrong, but I believe that your office has be a member of NAR for your listings to be on Realtor.com. You don't personally have to be. Several years ago, I opened my own shop and decided against joining NAR (it's not required in my market to access the MLS; in many markets, you must be a REALTOR to get on the MLS, in which case, it's a non-issue). However, I figured out immediately that my listings weren't being fed to Realtor.com, so I grudgingly joined the Board. Things may have changed since then, but that's my understanding.

Last year I was not a member of the board for most of the year and my listings did go to Realtor.com because my broker was a member.

I think membership on Realtor.com is a decision of the local board of realtors. My board, with some objections from a few, finally joined within the last year, and our listings can now be found there. Our adjacent MLS has not joined, and so their listings are not to be found on Realtor.com. So it's not automatic, even if you are in your MLS.

In our board, you must be a member of NAR if you want your listings on the MLS and Realtor.com. I also believe you must be a member just to work at an office that belongs to the board....meaning, a broker can't have licensees that aren't realtors, too. But I could be wrong about that.

Where I come from I think the same rules that Perky stated applies as well.

Most everywhere the "Perky" rule is in effect (I couldn't resist) . In Florida & parts of Georgia, there was a court case brought by someone named Thompson that applies in that federal court district wherein board membership is not required for MLS membership. I think parts of California had a similar court case so membership is not required.

If it was not required here, I would no longer be a Realtor. As far as Realtor.com is concerned, I had all of the perks back in the late 90's, then one year my rate jumped from about $600 to about $2500. That's when I just dropped out of it.

NAR signed a Deal with the Devil 12 or 13 years ago when they sold the rights to Realtor.com for a bag of beans and some stock.

That's the way it's supposed to be everywhere I've been too. Why ? ? ? Because, believe it or not, some people actually share the MLS Information with Non-Subscribers.

We also used to have a similar problem with Agencies having multiple Offices. One Office would be a participant and other Offices not. Same thing ! They'd share the information with the other Non-Participant Office, and next thing you know, the Non-Participant Office is milking all the Expireds . . . . even BEFORE they're expired.

We only have to have these rules because we're dealing with Human Beans !

I know here that you don't have to be a Realtor to be in the GAMLS system... and that all listings on there are actually sent to Realtor.com.

I have the enhanced listings on Realtor.com and I have had several leads and sells from it. What I have also figured out is that most buyers are savvy and pretty much have already done there research. Just like some of my buyers have walked in with a list of homes that they found on Realtor.com that they want to look at, other agents have had my listings in their buyers hands.

Now the enhanced listings are very, very expensive. Mine was up to $1600.00 a year and I was getting ready to cancel it. I lucked out and my office went in and bought it for the office. So it costs me $20 a month to have it. THAT is worth it!

So, your broker bought the enhanced listings for all of the agents in the whole office? That sounds like a good idea.