and we're interested in your feedback!
Some new features include:
- New AJAX features that let you see how many listings match your criteria in real-time directly from the homepage
- Better registration features including the ability to customize your search experience, save searches and listings
- New Virtual Earth Mapping including satellite and birds eye views
- Better overall presentation and user experience including a wider screen resolution and direct access to the tools and advice you need most
- More robust search tools including the ability to access advanced search features through the nano search widget that sits on top of every search results page
I second Keith. I have a very sour taste in my mouth with Realtor.com
Is move.com still allowing non Realtors on this site?
Realtor.com seems to not represent the best interest of Realtors
Dustin,
Here`s the real question. What will it cost members as in Dollars? Quite frankly, am very tired of Realtor.com less than stellar performance and cost to its members. Reading the above mentioned comments re-confirms my opinion. The beta version could "Whistle Dixie" but if you charge additional fee`s for it`s usuage than it`s just another worthless tool that you folks offer.
Many times it`s almost impossible to locate our listings because you folks don`t give two cents about placement, better yet, the MLS search doesn`t work 90% of the time,thereby leading to Sellers embarassing the agents because they can`t locate their homes. Forget customer service, normally it takes 30 minutes to get through to you folks, sans locating telephone numbers on the site, which hasn`t been redesigned for years!
To this day I still can`t get it to keep my id and password to remember me, why is that?
To rejoice or care what Realtor does at this point makes no sense.
The damage has been done and you`ve rubbed it in our faces for too many years!
Until Realtor.com shows an ounce of respect towards it`s client base, you folks will remain the enemy.
Sorry, about that.
I have to honestly say that of all the clients I have gotten and worked with I can only remember one who said he went to realtor.com
I get much more exposure from craigslist and DOD referral. I am sure that is different in other states.
Agree with Scott's comments - Sellers forever complain they can't locate their home and when they do; they hate the placement. Not my favorite site.
Least favorite call - call from buyer - I saw a home on Realtor.com. Usually waste unbelievable amount of time trying to the locate home they saw, that in most cases is no longer available.
On another note - what's with all the pop-ups? Who likes sites that bombards you with pop-ups?
Sandra
I would have to agree with everything above. While I respect that you guys are trying to improve the site, you have a long way to go. I'm still angry that I was punished for doing a lot of business when realtor.com took my gold or platinum or whatever membership and increased the cost by more than 1000% (yes that's right) to keep that information on the site. Never did understand the theory behind scamming my money for leads that were never as strong as the ones from my organic sites.
I too have never had a happy seller on Realtor.com. I have to prep them in the listing appointment that their listing will take a while to crop up and it won't look as good as it does elsewhere. Buyers aren't going there once they get past their first online effort at house-hunting.
Never could and never have understood why realtor.com seems to think it's above actually working WITH Realtors.
Jeff et all...
I hear that there is definitely some pent up animosity... There's no way I'm going to solve that problem with this post, so I want even try... Nonetheless, if people are having specific problems with a REALTOR.com product, I'm more than happy to pass the information along to people who can likely deal with the issue... In terms of specific questions/comments about the beta release, I'm more than happy to answer and/or clear up issues and I'll try to sort through the comments to date to see if I can shed any light on anything! :)
Note sure what you mean by that... I'm guessing that you're concerned that the New Home listings (Move.com is the official website of the National Association of Home Builders) are often from builders as oppose to Realtors, but I could be wrong about your concern. In any case, those listings are not mixed with Realtor.com listings (never have been) and none of that changes with the beta release of REALTOR.com...
I'm not aware of any new "products" associated with this release... The impetus is simply to provide a better user experience.
For all those fee's paid to NAR and local boards you'd think Realtor.Com could provide a basic list of available agents per city and offer upgrades (a set cost per listing or something or heck a SMALL commission off each sale or something like that). I'm a Rookie and when I went to realtor.com and saw what it would cost me; I went to my promotional supplier and ordered 300 Cardinals Schedule Magnets for $60. For agents in the more rural areas - your services really don't do me any good and the cost will never be worth it.
As others said; (but in my own words) - you really wouldn't exist without Realtors so why bite the hand that feeds ya?
Edited to add: I realize that you are not personally responsible Dustin but maybe you should print this thread out and give it to whoever is :).
Dustin:
Thanks fro pointing this out. I never look at REALTOR unless I have listings I need to upgrade/update. Will take a look to see what they offer. How will this impact their pricing?
Jeff
I just had to look at what the yanks were up to with a national mls advertising web site.
If anyone would like to view a national website for advertising with something like 98% of all MLS listings, look north. No further north. www.mls.ca (the .ca means it's Canada)
Costs every Canadian REALTOR less than $25. (that's per year)
Check the map for New Brunswick (east coast, north of Maine)
I'm still seeing a lot of moaning and complaining and people asking for updates to Realtor.com...
Did anyone check out the beta site? :)
When I click the " What's Your Home Worth?
How To Make Your Home Worth More!
Immediately view recent home sales in your area."
What I "Immediately view" is one of my local competitors scabbing off any potential sellers.
"My name is Joyce Nussbaum of Coldwell Banker Wallace&Wallac and it is my pleasure to provide you with this information on home values in your area.
As a real estate professional, I can provide you with a Free Home Value Report which includes more recent sales and currently available properties to help you better..............................."
You guys haven't changed a bit; you're the "official website of Move.com" and nothing else.
Next thing you know the new prez will be wanting his own statue. ;-)
No problem, I still have some Play-Doh left.
BTW, Jim & George Wallace won't like you misspelling their name. ;-) "Coldwell Banker Wallace&Wallac". There's an "e" after each Wallace.
THIS. (http://publicmls.realtown.com/) needs to be Realtor.com's replacement. Cost to NAR members $0 per year and no stolen leads or consumers directed to our competitors.
Just a simple, national map with links to each board or association's IDX websites. No "featured agents", "featured homes", high fees, just all the listings all the time.
Thanks Jim... Despite the off-topic nature of your comment, your perspective is always appreciated.
I figure that now is as good a time as any to clear up that the President of Realtor.com is no longer Allan Dalton. This past February he took on a new project at Move and Errol Samuelson has replaced him as President of Realtor.com.
I did take a look at some of the Public MLS site you mentioned and I'm positive that would do just as you intend... Scare off consumers! :)
Obviously the site already exist (so no need for Realtor.com staff to build it). Equally obvious is that the site generates virtually no traffic because the search functionality does not meet the needs of the average consumer (especially when Realtor.com exists!).
It's pretty clear that you do not want consumers to go to a national MLS search site (which is a fine position to take), but don't cloak it in the guise of benefiting Realtors. The reality is that it is expensive to drive traffic to Realtor.com and Move (formally Homestore) has traditionally done a wonderful job working with NAR (as well as partner sites like MSN and AOL) to ensure that consumers search for housing on a website that highlights Realtor listings as oppose to other competitor sites where Realtors have no control over what gets listed.
While some of the website improvements from this beta site will fly under the radar of many consumers, I think the type of improvements included in the beta launch will help ensure that consumers are seeing Realtor listings well into the future.
Nice tap dance Dustin.
FYI http://publicmls.realtown.com/ is run by a group of longtime Realtors. I don't see anything scary to consumers there at all; just what they're looking for, unfettered access to all the listings in a specific area.
http://publicmls.realtown.com/ is run by Realtors and Realtors have all the control in the world over what appears there for that reason.
Realtor listings are being seen by consumers right now and on lots more places than Realtor.com.
Jim, no need to tap dance here... Why do you think that the publicmls.realtown.com gets almost no traffic compared to Realtor.com?
(Hint: it has to do with the consumer experience!)
Russell,
I couldn't agree more! I think we should be talking about this whole Web2.0 thing (AJAX, mapping, eternal betas, etc.).
Out of curiosity... Did you hear that Realtor.com launched a beta site with AJAX features, mapping (and it's in Beta!). What do you think of that beta site?
Good call Russell and thanks for the feedback!
I work Move, inc; the company that manages Realtor.com (note that the site is owned by NAR). So, there are definitely some professional motivations for wanting to hear people's feedback. (If I didn't mention my Move affiliation yet, it is only because I just assumed people would pick it up pretty quick!)
In terms of my feedback, you can be pretty sure that I give advice to the guys building the site on how they should fix the site on a regular basis. In private conversations, I'm almost definitely a bit more critical than I will be here on ActiveRain, but I think you're assessment is right inline with some of my thoughts... It's a definitely improvement over the old site and assuming that we can make these kinds of improvements a habit, then Move is definitely going in the right direction.
I really like some of the simple AJAX features (like the quick update that tells you how many listing results you will see based on your input on the initial form!)... Some of the map features are also interesting (like the icon that grows into a mini-bubble that grows into a full-fledged mini-listing description). Personally, I'd like to see the mapping a bit farther along. But I'm a GIS guy by training, so my expectations are pretty darn high! :)
Dustin - you'd be in the know. Any further word on NWMLS pulling its feed from Realtor.com. If I remember, Marlow and Lennox both hinted last fall it would be pulled in April..and since April is now upon us... Though, Lennox said he'd continue to feed R.com with JLS' listings.
Re: the beta site, the amount of scrolling to view the listings and map and the iframe are all distracting. I don't like it. And, what's with having to register with move.com in order to post a comment in their blog?
Ben,
I haven't heard a thing about that recently, and it quite likely may have happened. However, Windermere was already advising (requiring?) their agents to not put their listings on Realtor.com before the NWMLS decision was made and considering many of the other big players in the local market didn't follow along, the decision by the NWMLS does not appeared to have had much impact. A quick search on my former zip code (98117) showed 51 listings on Realtor.com and 62 on an IDX site, which is about the same percent (due to the previously noted Windermere issue) as before the NWMLS announcement. Overall, my personal take (i.e. not speaking as a Move employee) is that it made for a few wonderful posts by Marlow, but won't change things much.
Jane,
Great point about the small photos! I'll definitely pass that along to the product developers!
You bring up a great point about making sure the site works for all kinds of users! I've sat in the usability studies where we bring in a variety of people from different backgrounds and it is often shocking (to me) how difficult some people find it to navigate different website interfaces. For example, despite the fact that maps seem second nature to me, I'm now convinced that there are many people who will never understand how to navigate a home search via a map interface.
Your comment about the photos also made me think about the recently released Realtor.com Search Gadget (also in beta and, sadly enough, only available for the Vista operating system at the moment.) The interface on this tool makes it even easier to search listings by the photos!
Dustin,
Why does Realtor.com still show this later dated almost 1 year ago?
Comments from, Mike Long, CEO of MOVE, Inc, to NAR Board of Directors, May 19, 2006
Thank you Tom, Dale, Pat, Bob and the entire Leadership Team for the opportunity to address the board this morning. It is a real honor for me to update you on the progress we, together with the National Association of REALTORS®, are making managing your website, REALTOR.com®. Because of the truly remarkable leadership of Allan Dalton, the best team of Internet marketing and technology professionals anywhere on the planet, and the best partners anyone could ask for at the NAR, REALTOR.com® is stronger today than at any time in its 10 year history. Under Allan's leadership, REALTOR.com® has been transformed into a comprehensive real estate marketing system. Its culture has been transformed into one that is acutely respectful of REALTORS® and has achieved customer service levels that were unthinkable only a few years ago.Together, we are fighting what the popular media is calling a "cultural war" where the combatants are defined by either having a "consumer bias" defending the rights of consumers to have access to all the information they want, unbundled services and lower fees or a "REALTOR® bias" dedicated to preserving the status quo, limiting competition, protection of fees and restricting the consumers' right to know. The absurdity of this popular characterization does not diminish its widespread promotion. The media's implication of a conspiracy of protectionism only rivals that of the "Da Vinci Code." Attacks by the national media are not new, but I was struck this week by an invitation to an "industry" conference scheduled to be held this summer in a prominent west coast city entitled, "Is Real Estate Ready for Honesty." The clear insinuation being that the real estate business has been conducted "dishonestly" up until now and that increasing transparency of the industry's information not only increases consumer knowledge, but injects "honesty into the system." I don't know about you, but as Peter Finch said in the movie classic Network, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore."
Let's use Google as an example of this extraordinary threat. Google is the self-appointed "Do No Evil" company. Let's analyze changes in their behavior and business model over the last few years. Google started as a wonderful search engine. Their goal was to build the best search engine on the planet. Search engines are designed to convert cryptic requests for information into a comprehensive list of websites that are likely to have the complete answer and then quickly and freely allow the consumer to switch to the site most likely to have the best answer. Simple and quite elegant! They then encountered a problem - No revenue model. They were an unintentional not-for-profit. The founders carefully observed another company-Overture, now called Yahoo Search- and started selling those simple little text-based ads on the right rail of the search results page along with selling the first couple of apparent search results as "sponsored links." Today, Google has a market valuation of 120 billion dollars and revenues of 7.5 billion dollars. 97% of their revenue comes from those simple little ad products. Google solved their initial revenue problem but they now have a new problem. Investor expectations for the company exceed their current ability to grow revenues from just presenting search results. There are questions about how fast the number of online searches will grow and should all those websites that get "free traffic" from Google search results be required to pay something. Late in 2005, Google quietly announced Google Base. Google Base is not a search site, it is a destination site. The difference is quite remarkable. Search engines are designed to quickly move consumers through them to someone else's site. Destination sites are designed to keep consumers on their sites as long as possible for more advertising revenue. This suggests Google plans for Google Base to become a destination site for every major industry category, particularly the most popular ones - real estate being one of those.
This letter sounds like you folks are at war with everyone... Can you clarify what Realtor.com position is?? Better yet, a letter dated almost a year ago speaks volumes what you folks really think about you`re subcriber base,which isn`t much!
Scott,
You gotta help me out... Where do you see that letter? Can you post a link? I wouldn't doubt if we archived press-releases (we may *have* to legally), but your comment implies to me that the text is in a more prominent location than an old press release.
Good Morning Dustin,
Here is the link you requested.http://resource.realtor.com/?lnksrc=REALR3LF2C0001.My comment simply implies that Realtor.com doesn`t think too much in taking down letters that are almost 1 year old!
Don`t get me really started with Realtor.com. For example,your lead generation system is biased and I`m quite positive that many times, leads are being sold to 3rd party companies or even shell companies of Realtor.com, much like Homegain.
I base it on the fact that I see how many hits we receive on our listings and the lead generation vs hits don`t add up.
Based on you`re numbers I should see at least a 1% response to our listings. We see nothing close, which indicates something is not correct.
Again, please understand that it`s nothing new for us dealing with Realtor.com. Next year I plan on discountinuing Realtor.com "Showcase" after 4 years. It doesn`t make sense anylonger to justify it`s cost vs ROI.
Forget beta versions, concentrate on updating your current system. 6 pictures are no longer enough, you`re inner fighting with VT companies regarding server requirements etc, shows such a lack of concern for clients that it`s downright scary.
Scott,
No sweat at all... I'm not a bit surprised that an old letter would surface on the site! As a matter of fact, I've got a ton of old stuff still up on my website! Despite the fact that articles get dated (and the links go bad!), I've never taken an article down, so I'm not in a good position to tell the Realtor.com team about an article that is not yet one years old, but you should feel free to! (I recommend using the "feedback" tool that persists on the bottom right-hand corner of the new Beta version of Realtor.com) ;)
Dustin,
Did you actually read this propaganda? Aren`t you a bit concerned?
I realize your position,but that letter is very outdated....
This post and the comments bear coming back to to. I didn't have the time this morning to read all of the comments.
Scott, I'm honestly not a bit concerned... I remember reading that text way back when it was first published. (I had JUST started working at Move.)
Right or wrong, once something has been published on the web, it tends to stick around and I'm sure Mike Long is aware that he would be quoted (in full) on those comments.
My wife grew up in Soviet Russia and tells me stories of growing up with propaganda... In my understanding, the open exchange of ideas (no matter how radical) is not propaganda. Not allowing a conversation, or revising history to delete events and ideas (and even people) are much more telling features of propaganda.
Are you suggesting that Realtor.com would be in the "right" if they eliminated this part of their history from their website? For me, they would be *approaching* propoganda if they were able to insist that you could not quote the ideas in the text in the comment section of this post... Luckily, we don't live in that type of world. I see nothing approaching propaganda going on and I'm honestly not sure what point you're trying to make with your comments.
Dustin,
I would strongly suggest that Realtor.com attempt to enhance an existing product that actually works than launching Beta versions of a product many of us are calling Customer Service each week. They must get tired from all the same issues that come across they`re desk.
I do Thank You for your opinion and I wish you the very best my friend.
Scott
Dustin: I realize that you work for Move, Inc. and that you are simply doing your job. Kudos to you for taking this approach. I think that you can see from the great preponderance of feedback here is that there is a major problem with Realtor.com. Unfortunately, I think that the problem is the basic relationship between NAR and Move, Inc. Move's motivation is to make as much money as possible, whereas NAR's interest should be to better serve the Realtors that are it's members.
With the current relationship that NAR has with Move, it's forgetting it's fiduciary responsibilities to it's members. I looked up Move's Annual Income Statement as submitted to the SEC and you guys had a gross profit of.....get this......$225,100,000.00 THAT'S OVER 225 MILLION DOLLARS! Granted that is gross, but that gross profits, not revenues!
If anyone would like to see this income statement and the estimated earnings for 2008, please visit my post
http://activerain.com/blogsview/69009/Is-Realtor-com-A
Something needs to give!
R.B. "Bob" Mitchell
ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.
Bob,
Thanks for your opinion! You might be surprised to know that I'm not "simply doing my job" and that for the most part, I've been discouraged from discussing Realtor issues with the AR community. Nonetheless, I thought more than a few within the AR community would be interested in the beta launch of Realtor.com. Of course I knew this would mean I would bring out the squeaky wheels who are frustrated with Realtor.com, but I'm not one to get intimidated by other bloggers very easily. And yet I also know there are more than a few Realtors who are more than happy with the quality of service they get from Realtor.com or they wouldn't continue purchasing the service.
The reality is that in running RCG for almost two years I've dealt with my fair share of bubble bloggers (who are much crueler than Realtors!). One of the things I've learned is that despite the load voices of a few bubble bloggers, there are many, many people who are happy with the service they get from their Realtor. If I was to let the bubble bloggers dictate the conversation (and intimidate me from talking), I would never have made much progress running Rain City Guide...
In other words, I'm here to talk about the Beta Release of Realtor.com. If that means that people like yourself are going to hoist your own Reatlor.com baggage on me, I guess that just goes with the territory.
I just got back from a meeting with one of our industry experts who follows both the Realtor.com product set and MLS issues much more closely than I do and he provided some great feedback on some of the questions people had. I've summarized his responses to people's comments below...
Regarding Ben Kakimoto's comment:
As of April 23, the NWMLS will no longer send data to Realtor.com. Most of the large brokers in the area have already (verbally) agreed to send a separate feed. VERY recently, the actual forms that are required for each broker to fill out have been finalized and posted on The Enterprise website: http://feeds.theenterprise.com/ (Note this information was also sent via email to all the local brokers in our database!)
Regarding Jennifer Martin's comment:
The service is available and it is free for all Realtors: http://www.realtor.com/findreal/WhichPages.asp
Regarding Scott Daniels' comment:
Although "leads" do flow through our system, Realtor.com does not sell a lead generation product...
The Realtor.com staff I was talking with also asked that I let people know the customer care hotlines are actively monitored, so please feel free to use the contact methods described on the site if you're having any issues!
My takeaway to date from the comments about the new beta:
Some of the changes to the new site (sorting, Virtual Earth maps) are seen as good things although the photos are still too small! All good feedback!
Thanks everyone!