Finding a Real Estate Agent Just Got A Little Easier

Recently Agentopolis made some changes to it's site to make it easier for people to find a real estate agent. Now, from the site map, you can quickly access Realtors by clicking on links by state and by some of the larger cities in each state. For Example, California real estate agents, Florida real estate agent, or by major metros like Minneapolis real estate agent, Los Angeles Realtor or Las Vegas real estate agent. In addition, Agentopolis will be posting video tutorials to help real estate agents and Realtors better utilize their free listing in our real estate agent directory. Stay tuned for more changes as Agentopolis ramps up for the future of real estate marketing.

For free access to MLS listings in most US cities, for information for first time home buyers, visit http://www.firsthomeguy.com/.

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.

New Lead Sources for Agentopolis Featured Agents

Agentopolis also owns and runs a couple of other niche real estate web sites, www.mlsmaps.com and www.firsthomeguide.com . Fortunately for us and our featured agents on Agentopolis, the traffic on these sites is also picking up, contrary to what one might think after reading all the news about the housing industry. When we get a lead from these other sites, we forward them on to our Agentopolis agents, unless there was a client agent on the other site in the same area.
In the past ten days I have been able to forward three leads on to our featured agents. We received two "request to find a home" leads from First Home Guide and sent one to a Tacoma, Washington Realtor, and the other went to a Lynchburg Virginia Realtor. We also received our first "request for market analysis" lead, similar to a "House Values" type lead, to a Wichita Kansas real estate agent.

We are excited about these leads as this is a new business for us and it is starting to take hold which means more exposure and leads for Realtors on Agentopolis.

MLS and Todays Internet Home Shopper

I was speaking to an agent last week regarding another site I'm involved in called MLS Maps. I was explaining to the agent the benefits of the Map based search technology that is now available to Realtors in most MLS markets and he informed me that map based search was useless and wasn't going anywhere. This seriously caught me by surprise as most of the newer listing sites I visit involve some use of map technology with most sites simply using the Google map API and doing a mash up.

Is it just me or is this agent not keeping up with technology and the needs and wants of Internet home shoppers. What really killed me is that he said he worked mostly with relocation clients and they would have no use for a map based search since they don't know the area. This surprised me even more since that is one of the biggest reasons I give for having map based search on your web site.

Think about, you are moving from Denver to Minneapolis as you have just accepted a job with SuperValu. The HR rep tells you their headquarters and your new office will be located in Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis which you have never heard of. For most relo clients there are at least a few priorities including a short commute, proximity to good schools, if you have kids, and proximity to other interests you have like maybe parks, lakes, the airport if you love to travel or need to travel for work, etc. I can't think of any better way to find a home in a strange city then by a map and the address of where you will be working, going to school, etc.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you are an agent and you have a web site without IDX broker reciprocity MLS listings, you are wasting your Internet marketing dollars and your time. The single most important thing to an Internet home shopper is inventory, God help you if the inventory on your site consists of your current listings. And remember to keep your eyes open for map based search solutions for your web site that will make your site more sticky and get you way more buzz marketing, especially if you are the first in your market.

New MLS listings website uses map search technology

As the race to build a national MLS rages on, MLS Maps takes a shortcut to the problem and offers visitors links to local real estate web sites that provides free access to MLS listings which are displayed on local maps. As a result, at it’s launch, MLS Maps provides visitors with access to over 1.2 million real estate listings all searchable on local maps, and they expect to grow the number of listings to over 2 million by year end.

Working with agents who are using WolfNet Technologies MapTracks IDX search solution, MLS Maps is able to provide visitors with the best in map search technology, without having to invest heavily in IT development, which helps keep this an affordable marketing program for local agents who want to capture the lions share of people searching for a home on the internets.

Unlike many internet marketing sites which sells agents small geographic territories like zip codes, or single suburbs, MLS Maps allows agents to own entire metro areas for less than what a zip code might cost at some of the other sites.

Horst, founder of Agentopolis, a national directory of real estate agents, said MLS Maps benefits from a simple user interface and fast connections to homes for sale in most major metropolitan areas.

In addition to listings, MLS Maps also provides users with access to school information, city, county and federal statistical information for all 50 states as well as three different ways to get a home value.