Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Real Estate Agent Search Alive and Well on Agentopolis

It's been a slow year in the real estate business as you are probably aware, many popular real estate web sites like Zillow and Redfin have been forced to down size and lay people off because of the huge overhead they built up when business was booming. One popular real estate agent web site, Agentopolis, has been fortunate during these tough times because of their low overhead. As a result Agentopolis was able to generate 4,398,537 realtor impressions from US visitors so far this year. Most of these impressions or views have been focused around real estate agents on the first few pages on Agentopolis so when you really run the numbers, agents on the first few pages have received the lions share of these visitor who are doing a real estate agent search. The good news is that agents can get on the first page of Agentoplis by free simply by having their past clients recommend them. Agentopolis currently lists over 1.2 million agents all with contact information so if you are looking for the easiest place on the Internet to find a Realtor, visit www.agentopolis.com

Another real estate web site that has seen it's traffic growing through these tough times is www.mlsmaps.com. This site provides consumers with free access to mls listings in every state and most metropolitan areas. With MLS Maps visitors can see almost all of the real estate and homes for sale in their area, and use "search saver" features that automatically send them an email alert when a new home comes on the market matching the criteria they have set for a home. The MLS is fast becoming the tool of choice for people looking for a home and only recently have consumers been given access to this comprehensive data base of homes for sale. If you are looking to buy a home, visit www.mlsmaps.com for a complete inventory of homes for sale in your area.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Zillow and Redfin Downsizing

Two of the big names in Internet real estate in the past few years, Zillow and Redfin, have recently announced layoffs in an effort to "live to fight another day". These events were recently reported in the LA Times blog by Peter Viles, senior producer for Real Estate at LATimes.com
Probably no big surprise for most people in the real estate business as everyone has seen their fair share of slowdown related right-sizing but unnerving none the less as both of these companies seemed to be on the fast track to internet success not so long ago.

Zillow is a company that provides consumers with free estimates of their homes value. While Zillow has seen their fair share of controversy regarding the values they come up with, consumers don't seemed to care as they simply want an estimate and most Zillow estimates seem close enough. Real estate agents have been frustrated over the years as they try to advise listing clients as to what they should list their home for, only to have these home owners try and correct the agent using a Zillow example as to what the value should be. Zillow is not the only site to provide free house values and one site, www.mlsmaps.com, offers home owners three different ways to determine value with Zillow being one of those three.

Redfin, an Internet based discount realestate company, created it's own discord within the real estate industry as a successful Internet discount broker. Redfins position is that with all the great tools on the internet that consumers can use to find and research homes for sale, why should a home shopper pay full commission. A great argument if you are a consumer, horrifying if you have spent the past 10 years charging your real estate clients 6-7% commissions. Now that consumers can view most of the mls listings online, without having to speak with a Realtor, maybe buyers agents need to revisit their model. I think a good listing agent is worth their weight in Gold as selling a home in a timely manner for the highest price is no easy task.

All this considered, it is still a sad day to see two real estate Internet pioneers getting slapped down by a rotten economy. Hopefully things will recover for the real estate industry and these companies in the near future. Best as I can tell, that probably won't be for at least another 12 months if we are lucky. Hang on!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Real Estate Agent Searches on Google

You may be thinking that the real estate market is dead but according to how many people are searching for real estate agents on Google, I'd say there is still some life in the real estate market. The search term, "real estate agent" is included in a search phrase on Google 9,140,000 times a month!

Here are the top "real estate agent" searches in descending order from Google;

real estate agent
real estate agent search
real estate agents
lake real estate agent
washington real estate agent
colorado real estate agent
commercial real estate agent
become a real estate agent
new jersey real estate agent
georgia real estate agent
michigan real estate agent
find real estate agent
maryland real estate agent
becoming a real estate agent
find a real estate agent
how to become a real estate agent
nc real estate agent
real estate broker agent
land real estate agent
top real estate agent
best real estate agent
buyers real estate agent
local real estate agent
maine real estate agent
nj real estate agent
real estate agent commission
real estate agent sales
real estate agent listing
real estate agent web site
real estate agent website
real estate agent software
real estate agent directory
real estate agent list
licensed real estate agent
property real estate agent
real estate agent websites
real estate sale agent
selling real estate agent
buyer's real estate agent
need real estate agent
real estate agent buying
residential real estate agent
real estate agent coldwell
real estate agent listings
real estate agent tips
finding a real estate agent
real estate agent mls
how to find a real estate agent
keller williams real estate
agent
real estate agent web sites
real estate agent rentals
condo real estate agent
Realtor