Why would you want to register on a local real estate website?
Realtor.com is an advertising site owned by a company called Homestore and while it’s licensed to operate using the Realtor name it is a for profit company that has yet to turn a profit… forever squeezing out pennies and irritating the agents and companies that it is charged with helping. The properties are used to draw you in so that they can build ads around the listings… this makes the site painfully slow. Realtor.com is an opt-in site missing lots of data… it is notoriously out of date and doen’t let you know if a property is under contract… creating an unfriendly and tiresome homesearch. MLS systems are starting to pull out of Realtor.com as it has been discovered that eventually almost everybody chooses to find a local connection.
Eventually, as you get more serious in your home search, you will want to “go local“.
Most people don’t understand why agents ask them to register on their sites to get more information about properties for sale. The truth is that we don’t need it for our own listings or even those of our company (unless they have a rule) the problem lies with showing you another companies listings.
IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange. This is an opt in (or opt out… depending where you are) system. No registration is necessary.. the listings that you are looking at should say something about “compliments of” the listing company (probably in really tiny letters) This is kind of like walking into my office, plopping down in a chair and going through the various homes magazines… it’s fun, there is great information but it’s lacking in depth and missing a bunch…. and you are so close to all of the information.VOW stands for Virtual Office Website. This means that I can treat you like the person who walked into my office asking about homes… meaning we plug in your criteria and go through the whole Multiple Listing Service so that you don’t miss anything, except that you get to do it in
your own sweet time. The great thing about a VOW site is that you get access to all of the properties… there is no “opt out” for the Real Estate companies and you don’t have to wait for days to get the updated info. Some of us can also allow access to recent sold properties… The VOW solution is the ultimate in home information, but it comes with a price… just like if you came into my office, I would have some information about you (you could lie… but that’s beside the point) The National Association Of Realtors has set a national policy that all VOW sites require registration.
WestSuburban Real Estate was the first of its type in Illinois and has been helping people find their homes since the spring of 2000. The other site that I use: NapervilleLuxury Homes
more a matter of preference.It’s not a matter of you giving up your anonymity… it’s about empowering you with information for you to enjoy some autonomy. The payoff for us is that we hope you grow comfortable with us and our services, that over time you decide we are the “right ones” to help you with this process.
If not… you can always unsubscribe… I promise, I won’t hold it against you 
Marketing 101 in the Western Suburbs
Sunday, September 24th, 2006I was recently talking to another agent in the office about listings that only offer a picture of the front of the house… We agreed that we always think: ” it may be a bad agent… or it may be a bad house… I’m not really sure”
You see, in the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois (MLSNI) we can add a total of seven pictures.. as well as a virtual tour to the listing. Not everybody likes virtual tours… but pictures are something that everyone wants (buyers and agents included) It costs nothing to use this feature and it can be done at the same time as the actual listing. I was wondering what other people thought about this and posed the question to a national group of real estate agents in one of my networking groups.
These real estate agents all said that if the MLS allows 7 (or more) pictures and the listing doesn’t include that many, they assume that something is wrong with the property. This is a real problem for those sellers in a slower market and it’s one that they are generally not aware of.
One agent from Florida said that if they talk about the pool in the remarks but don’t show a picture they assume that something is not right with the pool.
Another top agent said they definitely make assumptions based on the amount or lack of pictures. Like if the agent only uses interior pictures (or exterior only)
Of the 17 responses to my question 17 (100%) of the agents responded that they assume the worst when photos are not used properly……
One other thought is that these pictures automatically propogate throughout the system, showing up on real estate related sites all over the Internet (assuming that the agent elects to do that…that will be another marketing blog topic!) including Realtor.com if the agent pays a little extra for the expanded listings.
Sometimes it’s what you don’t say (or show) that influences people..
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Tags: Real Estate Commentary, Sellers, Tips