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I'm curious and maybe this needs it's own thread....
How effective do you think your MLS is vs. Realtor.com as a marketing tool to attract buyers for your listings?
I personally think it's super important to market well on both. Great pix, great ad copy, great VT, etc. I think the difference comes with how ready a buyer is. Oftentimes Realtor.com is used by people who are just starting to explore relocating to a particular area(s), so that's how they start their search. Realtor.com is an easy way to compare locations and get a handle on area prices.
However, I think when buyers are starting to look seriously, they're more apt to head to a local MLS site to do their search. Oftentimes there's more detailed info about the listings and many MLS sites allow the person to search by specific neighborhoods. So depending on how user friendly your local MLS websites are, serious buyers may prefer that.
And, of course, with the MLS, you're marketing mainly to other agents who will show your listing to their buyers, if they think it's a good match. So, again, a great MLS presentation is vital. And any buyer who is working with an agent is probably much more serious than someone just browsing Realtor.com.
Both have their place and are the ultimate marketing tools, IMHO.
Listing agents are trying to market to two different targets - Realtors with buyers and Buyers w/o Realtors.
If we only needed two advertising venues (MLS & R.com) that would certainly lessen to the cost of doing business.
But there are millions of ILD sites, agent pages, brokerage pages, aggregator sites, local MLS sites, local newspapers, local TV station sites...endless.
We should be advertising we they will find us. I think the main issue is where are they and how to make my property one of the ones they want to pick.
I get the r.com enhanced package as a perk from my broker. I wouldn't subscribe to it if I didn't. Well, let me say this...I probably would have, been disappointed, and then let it go. The MLS of course is very important. As with anything else, r.com brings the people into an office. IMO the real search, the actual down and dirty search begins or is refined when they go to a Realtor's office...and what are they looking at there? The MLS. I get a lot more action on my own website than I ever could think of getting from r.com.
Marketing on the MLS is effective in helping other agents find your listings provided the forms are filled out correctly. So often, in a master planned community, agents will have the wrong information listed in Homeowners Association field. So it's difficult to search for the properties in the association and bring up all of them.
Therefore, when a careless agent fills out forms incorrectly it hurts the property because it may not be found in searches.
Also, the descriptions on the mls are many times very bad. They do nothing to help the agents looking at the listing to help sell the features of the home.
Photos. What can I say that hasn't been said already.
If the forms are filled out correctly
If the descriptions are very good
If the photos are good
If the directions to the property are explicit
The property will be effectively marketed to the other agents.
This listing will be propogated to Realtor.com in it's basic form.
Now the agent has more work to do:
Add to and improve that description
Add more photos
Check to see that all the information is correct
Earlier on s/he should have tried to get the pricing into the proper search range where people will be searching for that property.
The additional marketing on Realtor.com at higher monthly fees will also help to market to the public:
I don't have that problem in our MLS. Actually, our MLS search is quite effective and easier than the r.com. Also, from our MLS agents are using the feature which sends out listings to the customer fitting specific criteria so they are getting the listings anyway. Most of my customers, once they've been on my website are just looking at the listings I send them via a link through email. They don't go searching on the net too much after that. I'm not saying R.com isn't a good avenue to get it out there, I just don't think it's the all and end all they try to make themselves out to be.
I think both are crucially important and both tend to be under-utilized by a majority of agents.
I am amazed at the number of agents who will not pop for the enhanced listings on realtor.com. It is the #1 consumer real estate portal. 'Nuff said as far as I'm concerned. Realtor.com is where most people go to start their home search. The are much more likely to look at homes with multiple photos and virtual tours. If I'm going to competently market my listings, they must be on Realtor.com and they must be tricked out to attract the most traffic they can.
Atlanta has 2 MLSs. One is bigger in the suburbs and one is bigger intown although most brokerages in the city belong to both. Intown agents tend to completely disregard the suburban MLS but that's the one that has it's own consumer portal and advertises it to intown consumers. So while many of my colleagues are doing a competent job of customizing their listings on the intown MLS (which is good because intown agents use it), they just let the other MLS do the 1 photograph (taken from a speeding car) that that MLS includes in the listing. Therefore, unrepresented buyers trying to search "the MLS" -- the only one they can access and see advertised all around town -- see only the most basic listings.
I'm constantly amazed at how little most agents really understand the potential of internet marketing and how to use the resources available to them to market their listings.
I am a bit confused by this post. Realtor.com is nothing without the MLS system as listing details are IDX linked from the MLS. Now different MLS systems may have different requirements that don't fit in Realtor.com and so there is some data manually added but the basic info comes from all the MLS.
I will say, I have received more exposure and hits to my listings on my web-site via blogging then any added $$ spent to feature my listings on Realtor.com.
If I have clients who like to do their own searchs I direct them to my web-site and have them search direct as it is linked to the local MLS and updated more regularly then Realtor.com
But Internet Advertising is a must today............
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