I was doing some real estate keyword research for my area in the Google keyword tool and it seems to me that most of the RE keywords can be sorted into two categories. Either they're buyer based keywords or seller based keywords.

The buyer keywords are along the lines of "homes for sale in [area]", "[area] homes", "[area] home listings" etc. While the seller keywords are more like "[area] realtors", "[area] real estate agents" etc.

I realize that the agent focused keywords could possibly be searched by buyers as well, but it seems that most of the agent focused keywords are more from sellers and the home listing based keywords are more from buyers.

Do most of you find this to be the same way in your areas?

Interesting question. I've been thinking on this as well. I even asked my facebook friends how they would search for a listing agent. Some of them made good suggestions I could do something with others just city and real estate related keywords. One I found that has been working for me is. Sell my house or sell my home [area]. But I guess you are right about searching for agents. I feel when it comes to online keywords it's hard to get the sellers. Most sellers already know a Realtor unlike buyers who might be new to an area, first time buyers, or just cruising the internet looking at houses and not so much for agents. And the sellers don't usually search for listing agents. If they want to interview listing agents they either know someone or call an agency in the phone book.

Yeah my thinking was if someone was looking for an agent to list with on the Internet instead of looking in the phone book then they would type in keyword phrases containing words such as agents, brokers, realtors and so on.

I didn't really see any area specific phrases that were more along the lines of "sell my house" or "list my house" at all.

All the keywords were either agent based phrases or home listing based phrases. So, I thought the home listing phrases were mostly being done by buyers and agent phrases were mostly being done by sellers.

The sell my house or list my house keywords came from my facebook poll of my friends. I didn't even think of those keywords myself. But after using them in my property listing services webpage I've noticed a few visitors a week with those search terms.

Were the sell/list my house type keywords specific to your area? Or did you mean more generalized non-area specific?

If they are specific to your area it could be due to the local market. I'm in a small to medium sized market. If it's a larger market I'd say those types of keywords may be more common due to the larger number of people.

Around here property owners can hardly get through dinner without being called by someone who wants to list their house so they typically don't go to the internet to look for an agent.

I have utilized as many seller keywords as I could find and come up pretty good in the serps for them but there has been little response over the years.

But lately I have noticed more sellers starting to ask questions off my sites so I think they are finally starting to come around. I think as time goes by there will be more and more. I am actually working with 3 owners right now who are considering selling and they came from the internet.

It is only a matter of time before sellers come around to the internet. It will really take off when some agents get nailed for do not call violations.

I think sellers would focus on looking for an agent [area] realtor, [area] real estate agent where buyers look for home searches [area] homes for sale etc..

From my experience the majority of both searches will end up being buyers though.