Last week I attended a seminar organized by the National Association of REALTORS at the Doubletree Hotel in Sacramento. The seminar was titled “Survival Guide” and was supposed to be a workshop to teach Realtors the value of social network marketing and how incorporating Internet marketing could help reduce traditional marketing budgets during the current real estate market.
The conference was held from 9:00am to 1:00pm, yet only one hour covered how agents could effectively use Facebook, Twitter, and several other social media portals. To be fair, the presenter was very knowledgeable on the subject and did a good job of conveying to Realtors the nuances of the “soft sell” style of social media versus the traditional direct sales approach. Even so, he neglected to mention his position as Vice President of Realtor.com before proceeding to call all the attendees to join him in worship of Realtor.com for the remaining three hours of the seminar. This bothered me on two levels. First, I’m part of a generation that doesn’t want to be given a free vacation only to find out, with skis in hand and goggles on in the lounge, that it’s only free if I listen to a 90 minute timeshare presentation. If someone is going to hold a seminar to teach Realtors how to take advantage of social media, that had better be the only thing they talk about because I’m going to feel very angry when Realtor.com sales reps are waiting at the back of the banquet hall as was my experience last week.
Second, the idea of selling Realtor.com as the latest and greatest way to market listings on the Internet is pretty shaky at best. I did a little “comparison shopping” with Realtor.com’s competitor, Trulia.com. Trulia.com’s information is a thousand percent better and included actual test scores for schools with links to their websites, crime statistics, and a myriad of other things not mentioned or poorly covered on Realtor.com. Also, the look and feel of Realtor.com is about as user friendly and aesthetically pleasing as IRS.gov.
What amazed me most were not the staggering inadequacies of Realtor.com compared to sites like Trulia, but the fervor with which the Realtors at the conference ran to the back of the room to buy featured listing zip codes that were sold like Google stock on a fire sale. Out of curiosity, when did buyers only look at and buy properties that are featured? Don’t most buyers end up looking at all the homes they can and buying the one they see themselves being happy in? These Realtors were signing up to spend, for some zip codes, hundreds of dollars per month. They were also signing up for a monthly fee structure that is based on their past year’s transactions just to have extra photos and their contact information included with their listings. Maybe I missed something, but isn’t this site endorsed by NAR? So, in essence, aren’t we already paying for it?
Try this on for size: Trulia.com is a flat monthly fee; Craigslist.com is free. Realtors need to educate themselves more about the plethora of cheap and/or free portals on the Internet that won’t gouge them to run their businesses.
Or better yet, join a company that already does all this for you.
T.J. Shanahan
Social Media Manager
tj@rwnc.net
Finally! Somebody else see’s what I see. I bought into the Realtor.com system for survival against my competitors. I never understood why I paid not hundreds but, thousands for the data we provide them for free. Then, they turn around and charge us to display our data. Without our listings they have no business. Not only are they charging the Realtor, the local Associations get charged for FTP downloads to be displayed on Realtor.com. The Realtors are paying twice. Thank you REALTY WORLD! For giving the REALTY WORLD members the skills for survival right now is going to make a difference to all of us.
Yes, very good analysis. I am so glad that the Realty World people are checking up on this stuff and keeping the rest of us up-to-date. We, up here in the hills of Tirnity County, can’t get to everything in person so we rely on the internet and word of mouth. Thanks for your take on the seminar !
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at the bait and switch mentalitiy of REALTOR.com. A company owned by REALTORS being disingenuous to it’s owners. Is it any wonder why the industry has the reputation it does?
Amen! I’ve thought the same thing about Realtor.com. Glad to know I’m not the only one. Thanks.
Real Estate agents are a great target to sell them something to… I don’t blame the companies trying to sell us stuff. That is their business. There are seminars everyday of the week. As Real Estate Agents WE have to be smart as to who we do business with and how we spend our money and time. Even if it is our own company.
Ah Ha—It riles them to believe that we perceive the web they weave—My feelings exactly—It’s a shame really that they were sleeping at the wheel, charging members Way too much and should have had an mls system years ago that could have been used by boards and associations thru out the country thereby offsetting our dues, Hello.—I am glad I am on “The Right Track, with The Right Team, for The Bright Future, which is Right Now”. Smiles
This is one more reason why I am a Franchisee with Realty World Northern California… We have it all… And for those that are just now waking up to the fact that several real estate institutions and companies are selling our own data back to us… wake up…!!
I too was once sucked into the belief that I needed to pay Realtor.com to enhance my listings but as noted above, finally realized that I was paying to promote listing information I already paid for through NAR and I had provided to local MLS’s. Biggest issue I see is the endorsement of NAR of this rip off. A note for unenrolling from this service…. When I notified them that I wanted to terminate the service, I got several threatening emails to pay their fee or be “Turned Off”. I sent them back emails and told them I WANTED it turned off and they told me I had to personally call them in order to do this. They said they could not do it via email. Hello – You sign up via email you should be able to terminated the same way. Hopefully enough people will see this information on Realty World’s blog to know not to go there in the first place.
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Ok…..Thanks for the info. I got the invite and kept thinking “ummmmm, not so sure”. I decided to google the workshop to quiet my suspicions. Glad I did. I will tend to my business this morning instead of the workshop. Thanks again.