Be VERY leary folks, Realtor.com is only in the Internet Real Estate for the Billions of Dollars that it Brings to Them, their website are to get Internet Traffic to Sell Ad Space and their websites are in NO way for the Real Estate Consumer.
The Press Release below was most likely released and written by Realtor.com (NAR) and it is my belief that Cendant which is Now Apollo managment has some ownership interest in Realtor.com and HomeGain.com - I will try and find that news source again to share with you folks.
MOVE.com is also owned at least in part by the same owners of Realtor.com and they all pretend it is another site to give REALTORS more power to market you. This is NOT true folks, as an Ex-Realtor - Broker Owner I know that REALTOR is in it for THEM and not for the Real Estate Consumer. Buyers and Sellers are Finding Each other online for FREE and there is no need to use a Realtor. Realtor.com and ALL its multi-million dollar websites and BILLION dollar industry DOES not Care about the Real Estate Consumer or the Realtor on the ground
Keep in Mind that companies such as MOVE.com as you will see in article are publicly traded companies so they are about BIG profit and they get them from advertisers, web visitors and selling products and services that they mostly do not provide they just have a great domain name.
The Article says that Realtors pride themselves on being industry innovators, this is true in that they are ahead of the pack making Billions online but they are using the Realtors in your neighborhood and Your listings to do this. They are not innovators in the sense that they do not encourage you to list say California Water Property on sites like CaliforniaWaterProperty.com this would NOT make sense to them. They push their REALTORS in the field to push you to be on their sites when that is NOT the best place for a buyer to find you.
THEY need your content to seller OTHER stuff to people who do come to their site. The article claims that the New Realtor.com site ads value to the consumer .. What? where is lobbying for the best interest of the Real Estate Consumer INSTEAD of the Billionaire Dollar NAR ... where is an insurance that really does protect consumers or making Realtors accountable for their unethical behavior .... NOPE it is all about Realtor.com which is a money making - hand over fist gold mine in internet marketing..
They act like more and better photos ... what? you can put a slideshow of thousands of photos on your own website for free and NOT get lost on their site.. plus they charge REALTORS to put your listing on Realtor.com - NAR Corporate is NOT good for the Realtors trying to be honest and simply buy and sell and they are CERTAINLY not good for the real estate consumer.
In the Article they talk about BRAG about Time Stamped Listings. SHOULD you care... NO Way.. a Realtor can pull a listing and re add it later that day or the next and it will be fresh, you can NEVER trust the DOM (days on the Market) as reported by the Realtor Database...
Are they Really going to give you - the consumer SOLD data.. as they say we will see if this plays out to be true.. I know that the MLS database I have been involved in have NO quality control over the data, no one is watching the Realtors on the Ground in the Real World as to what SOLD data they enter into the MLS nor does anyone check this all mighty data for accuracy.
The Article Says... "The new Realtor.com sets the online standard in real estate search for consumers and this is great news for Realtors," and what this really means to you is that they are a really big deal - a BIG money making website and they want more, the online standard means people come to our site - we make big money and you lose it... this site is in NO WAY good news for Realtors or Consumers... Realtors need to wake up to the tactics of Realtor.com and get into the search engines ahead of them .. and you can't necessarily pay for it... if you try they lock you out somehow during different times of the day.. more on that later..
Article also says...
ABOUT NAR
The National Association of Realtors(R), "The Voice for Real Estate," is America's largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
If NAR is your Voice in Real Estate - YOU are in VERY big trouble.. the 1.2 million members they brag about have no choice but to be members and the NAR is such a big company that YOU lose ...
Article link to Titled Article
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/realtorcomr-launches-new-site-consumer/story.aspx?guid=%7B38183AEA-31A0-44A6-956C-89CEFC275097%7D&dist=hpprLOS ANGELES, Oct 27, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- A redesigned REALTOR.com, the nation's #1 real estate Web site, will launch today into public availability as visitor activity within the new site continues to increase. The National Association of Realtors(R) (NAR) and Move, Inc. the leader in online real estate that operates Realtor.com, announced today that the new site now delivers even more value and power to Realtors marketing their brand and client properties.
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