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.

Yes - well sort of... Realtor.com came in an offered a package deal for the whole office based on how many listings the office had and how many agents, etc. It came up to right around $20.00 a month for everyone in the office so it is part of our office fees.... you just cant beat that.... that is better than the price if you are a brand new agent and had no listings... I believe it is $169 a year for that.

If I had to pay the $1600 - I probably wouldnt have stayed the course. I am not sure why Realtor.com prices based on how many listings you have... it can get confusing.

They must think if you get alot of listings that you are making more money and can afford to pay them more. They should base it on listings that actually sell.

Ursula each mls operates differently. Personally I do not like GAMLS. It's cumbersome to use and the tax records are very bad. In my opinion FMLS is much more user friendly and reliable.

As far as REALTOR versus NON-REALTOR many don't want to pay the fees and belong to NAR,state,and then the local (county) chapter as they see no value in it.

Your brokerage has to join NAR for agents to be REALTORS there. So as a broker you have to set up 2 companies. One that belongs to NAR and one that does not.

This way I sing up agents that want to be REALTORS and also get the others who could care less and do not want to pay the fees. It's a win for everyone I just assign them to the respective brokerage.

My broker gets this too - we pay a relatively small fee for Realtor.com enhanced listings. I wouldn't pay any more for it for imho, $20 a month is more than it's worth. If my broker stopped offering it, I probably wouldn't miss it.

[quote=super realtor]Ursula each mls operates differently. Personally I do not like GAMLS. It's cumbersome to use and the tax records are very bad. In my opinion FMLS is much more user friendly and reliable.

Hey Super - in a lot of ways I absolutely agree with you. I actually use both. I work alot in Rockdale and Newton Counties which unfortuantely are not well represented in the FMLS (as of right now GAMLS has 873 homes for sale in Rockdale County and FMLS only has 556). I only use the FMLS tax records because GAMLS tax records are awful. GAMLS has implemented a new tax record system called CRS Power Tool... I havent had a chance to look at it to know anything about it... they also have another new program called MLS Pro that has some interesting tools in it.

With GAMLS you dont have to be a Realtor which irritates me some... for example... buyowner.com can list on our mls and do. A family member of mine had called byowner.com in to discuss the option of listing their home (I know- you just have to love family members that think you dont do anything for a living and that they can sell their home better than you can - another topic for another day). I decided to sit in to listen to their presentation. It was very, very eye opening to say the least... I truly can't believe they can sell this to people... anyway one of the things that made me furious was how the agent said that they list in the MLS with only a $25.00 co-op commission because they really don't want real estate agents to show the house but that by putting it on the mls the listings go out on everyone's websites... you know Remax, Keller Williams, Prudential, GMAC, anyone that shares the listings on the MLS... so your home will show up on everyones websites... oh and dont worry about the competition because we dont have to give access to our website...

I about fell off the chair... I could not believe this was her marketing campaign - and I couldnt believe that GAMLS would allow that... shameful in my opinion. I think that if they can list on our websites and use our MLS we should be able to use theirs also....

Sorry for the soapbox but it made me mad...

Ursula GAMLS gets it's fees from monthly dues. FMLS get theirs from a percentage of each closed transaction.

The NAR could care less about the mls's,the mls's could care less about the NAR or the real estate commission,and the real estate commission could care less about any of them.

The reality is they will always spin it as how can we show we are giving VALUE to our customers and get lots of revenue from them at the same time. Everyone is out for themselves and it will never change.

A shocking statistic most do not know is new brokerages have as high or higher failure rate than new agents do in the first year.
This is why mls's take big deposits to join as if the broker goes under and doesn't pay fees due they just take it out of their deposit instead of throwing good money after bad to get a judgement that is worthless.

Alot of my business is in Cherokee County which is strong FMLS. You are on the other side from me.

I just paid $199/yr for unlimited enhanced listngs.

A lot of buyers will look at that site for homes. I think its well worth it, if you can load up your listing with lots of good pictures.

Grexley I had that same program last year. I had the most listings I ever have had. Most listings were fairly good REO listings priced well. Lots of pictures, descriptions the whole thing on realtor.com. No calls, no e-mails nothing from Realtor.com. Oh wait I lied. I do remember one call. From a foolish agent using Realtor.com instead of the MLS. It was not worth it at all. I'll take my money this year and do something much more worth it. Like buying lottery tickets. I think the chance of a payout is better then with Realtor.com.

Buyers look for houses on realtor.com, and then they go to their agent and tell them they want to see the property. I don't expect to get buyers to call me directly, but I know that it does increase the listing's exposure.

I don't have any data to back this up, but many buyers I know tell me they look on realtor.com.

I've done enhanced showcase listing for 2 yrs. w/ Realtor.com now and my renewal is coming up again. I haven't gotten but 1 lead from them. It's a waste of money. Not renewing this time.

Be prepared to be firm with them and take the insults.

Had showcase listings for 2 years. 2007 - 2008 Never got anything from it. I would get an email once in a blue moon. I wish all the MLS's would just not participate with Realtor.com
They are blood sucking money machine for agents and advertisement. If it were not for the agents listings who would advertise on their site.

Here's another complaint I have with Realtor.com and it has to be with the enhanced agent profiles or whatever they are called. My office is in the small town of La Salle, CO. It's a very small town. I serve a much larger area, but this is where my office (home) is. There is one other small agency with two agents. In my opinion if you go on Realtor.com and search La Salle, CO you should find me and these two guys. But no Realtor.com has allowed the large franchises and companies to purchase for all their agents enhanced profiles or yellow pages for all areas. I'm sure half of the agents listed in the LaSalle, CO don't even know where La Salle is. So if I decided to throw away my money and get an agent yellow page for La Salle, CO I would be buried there with 300 other agents. So I choose to stay hidden as a white pages kind of guy. If someone dares find me on realtor.com through an agent search I will think they are stalking me.

I've had about 2 leads from Realtor.com in 5 years of paying for it (on and off). Neither of them came to anything.

I have had issues with them in the past, and have posted on here about them. My company pays them extra money and then hijacks my listings so that their button/link gets more prominence on the page than my information. It really makes me angry.

My listings this year have been nothing but trouble so I'm stepping back from listing properties and thinking more of buyers and rentals. So when they called me to renew, I just said "oh, I have no plans to renew" and they said that was fine. I was expecting the song and dance, but they probably see how useless I've been this past year and want rid of me anyway!

So guys I agree with you, NAR is a monopolist I do not like this. However statisticly Realtor.com is site #1 used by consumers. It has lost position last two years, so my previous broker removed enhanced listings from there.

I bought showcase package from them three months ago. They had two options to pay, per month or for a year. So I wonted to buy paying per month because I did not want to pay when I do not have listing. How much I was surprised that I need to have a contract for the whole year does not matter if I will pay per month or for a year. And then came the biggest surprise, there was no way to walk out of the contract even I pay per month. So where is the logic. I asked the guy why don't they offer only yearly and he did not have an answer.

Any way I bought it, for this money that I pay for Realtor.com I wont be able to keep my site up in Google and others. I am not a top agent, if I am I would not pay for Realtor.com.

"However statisticly Realtor.com is site #1 used by consumers."

This is changing. Local brokers and agents do it faster,better,and can offer better seo content than REALTOR ever could.

Everyone is finally waking up and controlling their own business.

I have to say I still consider myself a fairly "new" agent. I'm going into my 3rd year. I've never bought into that site or any other to pay for leads. I've always done my own seo and it's worked out great. Between that and my soi I've definitely been holding my own. I started with the town that I live, and I feel it's time to market the next town over.

I feel like I have to start from square one in regards to seo. If anyone has tips that would be great. I don't know anyone there really, so no soi.