For Sale By Owner Now allowed on Realtor.com
Posted Nov 13, 2008 @ 12:20 pm, Viewed by 1513 Visitors, Read 1651 Times.
Recently, ForSaleByOwner.com announced that their listings will now be on Realtor.com
Our dues go to support NAR? NAR is supposed to be an organization designed to support realtors. The site Realtor.com belongs to NAR. (as well as any other site with MLS in the listing)
Our listings feed the content of Realtor.com. Many realtors link to realtor.com (those that don’t know any better). Those inks help the search engine rankings of Realtor.com.
You may be asking yourself--- “Why is Realtor.com allowing ForSaleByOwner.com listings on Realtor.com?”
Let me take a stab at this:
ForSalebyOwner.com is Virtual Office Website (VOW) -- I believe the DOJ settlement does not allow NAR to lock out VOW offices.
So apparently, ForSalebyOwner.com is a member of all of the boards where they operate. ( just a guess here) Their listings get onto realtor.com because they pay board dues locally. The issue that has me stumped is that ForSalebyOwner.com customers can choose whether or not they have a showcase listing. ( for a fee of $599.00)
I wasn’t aware that a broker/ agent could post a portion of their listings as featured listings. When I signed up for featured listings, it was an ALL or NONE deal. There was a certain price per month that I had to pay to get showcase listings. And you have to sign up for a year. That way you don’t cancel when you figure out it doesn’t produce traffic.
How is it that ForSalebyOwner.com has the flexibility of showcase listing on the properties that pay them the $599. fee? Even if Realtor.com is charging them for all of their listings but somehow giving them the capability to cherry pick just a few(customers chose to pay the extra fee ) -- then they are giving them something that they aren’t giving us.
I have seen For Sale By Owner signs at properties. (not ForSaleByOwner.com signs) I have called the owner of that property and they have let me know that they are on the MLS with ForSaleByOwner.com. This is an instance of ForSaleByOwner.com not following the rules. Just because they are a VOW doesn’t mean they don’t have to name their broker on the signs. They are still required to name the broker.
We all know that it takes a painstaking process to sell listings. Not posting. I have a monthly inventory of 14- 16 listings. I have featured listings. I am lucky to receive ONE inquiry a month on the whole batch. The featured listings are a super waste of money. And if you are paying for the banner advertising...... well-- I feel sorry for you. Spend the 1200.00 a month on pay per click.
When people sell their home FSBO they think they are saving the fees. But really --- a realtor worth their weight knows that they are saving those fees and we will simply negotiate it out of them on behalf of our buyers. So it they may as well get some real representation.
What can we do here? We can refuse to advertise in realtor.com. And we can refuse to allow our local board to syndicate to realtor.com. Austin Board of Realtors has it right there on the listings. Every time you load a listing you have to mark “ok” to post it on realtor.com
What’s your take on this?
UPDATE -- 11.14.08 Nar Response to forsalebyowner.com MISLEADING press Release. Still the issue for me is that we have been betrayed by NAR and Realtor.com. Russell Shaw frames this issue so perfectly in his post for Agent Genuis entitiled Hate Realtor.com for Only the Right Reasons.
Dena Davis is a broker in the Austin Real Estate Market with the Davis Company. The Davis Company also has an division committed to helping investors with Austin Investment Property.
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Social Bookmarking12 Responses to “For Sale By Owner Now allowed on Realtor.com”
I don't think it is right that the "official" site for the National Association of Realtors would allow FSBO listings. How does this benefit NAR members?
loudog--- I'm with you Brother!!
Again I am ashamed to be part of NAR. I said this over the issue of Marc's domain as well. NAR takes our money but they sure don't have us in mind when they make decissions.
Amen folks!
Everytime I read something showing the complete ineptitude of our national organization, all I can do is shake my head and "wish" I did not have to be a part of it.
In as much as I hate them, we've had buyers get in our cars with Realtor.com listings. I have debated for years whether or not to advertise in their site. Maybe if I had lots of listings, but for now, I'd rather put my money on a bench.
I have never been a fan of R.com either. We have to be able to do something. I started by Digging this article 
Hilary Marsh
Hi Dena,
Actually, The facts in ForSaleByOwner.com's news release are just plain wrong. REALTOR.com is not accepting listings from sellers not represented by Realtors. See more information about the real facts: http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2008111401
OK, time for me to chime in...I don't really care for R.com or the other sites that would hame us give them our listings to sell us back leads...dont care for them at all. Seeing this 4salebyowner announcement and then retraction is like the ufo landing and then saying it was a weather balloon. Something doesnt smell right here and I am sure that something will come out sooner or later. The real reasons that boards are a member of NAR is for use of the r.com site and since anyone can play in that sandbox, it must be time to move to a different park and play in a different box. Times are changing, and its time for a change...who will take the first step...that is the question, because as soon as the first step is taken, it will become a domino effect!
Just wanted to let you guys know --- Realtor.com has felt the heat on this issue and they posted this response http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2008111301?OpenDocument?LID=RONav0021
Still -- so just as I suspected these listings are listed with do nothing brokers who are working for pocket change and dont have clients that see enough value in them to pay them real money.
R. Correll, Bellevue, NE
I certainly feel that the NRA is supposed to work for us but has slapped us right in the face with this one!
It seems to me that they really don't care who pays the dues their going to give every Tom, Dick and Harry access to r.com.....
Yet another reason for me to move to commercial!
I don't want to write dupe content so I'll word this a bit differently than I did at Bloodhound Blog in response to Eric Blackwell's post. As far as I know, these types of listings have always been on R.com. One of the selections a fsbo has on the FSBO.com site is to be listed in the MLS through a local brokerage/agent approved by the site. The fsbo chooses whatever cooperative commission they want to offer. There might also be an additional small fee if the listing agent has to negotiate.
I guess the site did not offer Showcase Listings before and now they are. I don't know if FSBO.com is picking up the tab or is only using agents that have paid for the Showcase Listing and giving them a piece of the $200.00 charge collected for it. Prior to this, I think any fsbo that paid for the MLS was already in R.com as a basic listing.
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Dena,
You know my take on REALTOR.com, for those of you that don't, here it is in a nutshell. IMO REALTOR.com is no different than Trulia, Zillow and other web properties that aggregate the data we collect for purposes of selling it back to us.
Yeah, yeah, NAR lobbies on behalf of our membership and spends money on protecting and defending our legal issues surrounding our livelihood but that is just away of securing their own financial future (keeping the goose fat).
Personally, I gave up on them a long time ago. I know this might be difficult for brokers and companies that rely on them for lead gen but my advice is to go elsewhere. Truth be told, Realtor.com is losing market share and the ROI isn't that good anyway. The real way to do it is to get out there and generate leads with YOUR website.
There is no better investment than to invest in yourself.