Blanche Evans Hammers the “Benefits” of Realtor.com

Author: Jay T. - The Editor

Posted on May 21, 2008 
Filed Under Realtor.com

Blanch Evans, the Senior Editor of Realty Times, unloaded on the new “benefits” Realtor.com is offering agents.

And I for one, think her opinion is spot on.

Wow, now we get a whopping FOUR photos for free! Puhlease.

Evans ends her editorial with:

Realtor.com isn’t bringing any game. They need to come up with something better than four free photos, and quick.

No doubt…  an upcoming revamped interface on R.com may be good for consumers. But as the “Official site of the National Association of Realtors” is seems like there should be something of value for …..  Realtors…….

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Comments

5 Responses to “Blanche Evans Hammers the “Benefits” of Realtor.com”

  1. Jim Duncan on May 21st, 2008 3:29 pm

    AMEN. What she said.

  2. Matthew Rathbun on May 21st, 2008 6:52 pm

    Jay, I actually sat in on the meeting at Mid-Year when the rolled out this ‘new’ format. It’s pretty, but that’s about it.

    Stats show that it takes at least six photos to get the consumers attention. I brought this up at the meeting and asked why four photos. The answer: It was an arbitrary number used to give an even flow to the site.”

    I know that I am going to get an e-mail from someone telling me that I shouldn’t say this, but this is what happens when NAR gives projects like this to private industry.

    The focus isn’t on providing a service (that the awesome CRT staff at NAR could handle)for the members; it’s about profits.

    So, I have to ask… if Zillow and Trulia become more accurate and more relevant to consumers, THEN will NAR focus back on the member?

    See, regardless if we like it or not, other services are meeting the consumer where they are and giving them what they want. All the while, agents are more concerned over getting the buyer who looks at their listing at RDC than servicing the seller who hired them to sell the house and not use the listing as bait to get more buyers.

    Full access to RDC should be a basic member service. The associations should be making themselves more relevant to the member and making the realtor more relevant to the consumer is the trick!

    BUT, you as a voting member are key here. During the RDC meeting, not one person questioned anything on the site, except me. ALL of the other questions were about personal branding and how to keep the client. The real question should be: Why aren’t we all able to use the whole site and what are you doing to stop the increased popularity of aggregation sites that are killing RDC?

    whew… I’m exhausted. I’ve been holding that back for awhile.

  3. Matthew Rathbun on May 21st, 2008 6:54 pm

    BTW, I commented before ranting, so I’ll have to apologize if I am repeating Blanch.

  4. Paul Francis, CRS on May 29th, 2008 2:37 am

    Unfortunately, it’s been set up to benefit who pays the most and IMO, all of the ads are intrusive and annoying.

  5. Logan on May 31st, 2008 8:02 pm

    Seriously, don’t we pay enough with our Realtor dues to atleast get some real value on the “official” Realtor site, without having to pay a hefty premium?

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