Florida Realtor magazine picked the 10 best websites in Florida. Unfortunately, my site or no other REW site was on the list.
Here are the winners:
1. Orlandohomeowner dot com
2. MySanibelRealEstate dot com
3. OrlandoHomesandEstate dot com
4. SarasotaHomes4Sale dot com
5. KassanRealty dot com
6. GingersDestinConnection dot com
7. GregEllingson dot com
8. DeborahBeacham dot com
9. FineHomesofSarasota dot com
10. Powerhouse-Team dot com

I am really surprised they picked OrlandoHomeOwner as the #1 site in Florida. Just a quick glance it looks like they have a lot of unique content. However, I could not find a blog, map search, custom IDX and it looks too busy for my taste.

Many of them are very nice looking sites. Most have good content about the area. Only a couple had what I would consider a great property search. They usually incorporate a Realtor Association IDX. I think only 2 of them have a map search and only 1 of those map searches was good in my opinion. I only found 2 blogs so I doubt the sites are continually updated with new information. It does not look like any of them rank particularly well in Google. I only found MySanibelRealEstate on the first page for a 'Sanibel real estate". I only spent a couple of minutes looking at all of this so I may have missed a few things. In my humble opinion most of these sites are good and there may be a couple of great sites but I don't think these are the 10 best Realtor sites in Florida.

So if you want to rank in the Florida Realtor magazine top 10 best websites make your site pretty, have decent area and neighborhood content, don't rank well in Google and don't use a blog, custom IDX or property map search.

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Marc Rasmussen
Michael Saunders and Company

Sarasota Real Estate

did they give the criteria or just pull from a hat?
well, that is 10 more leads for Morgan. That should be an easy sell.. Want to me number one next year instead of number 8?????

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View Port Orange Homes
Daytona Beach Condos For Sale
Daytona Beach Real Estate

Great list. It matters little what we (REW forum members) think, but what the general public thinks. These 10 sites are a great case study in what public opinion considers 'good.' I guess the idea is to rank high, but also factor in the 'fluff' the general public considers 'quality.'

how did the Florida Realtor do this? did they request Realtors to submit personal sites ?
if not, I believe Politics might have resulted in the top 10 listings..my opinion

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Bay Area Real Estate | Free MLS. Coming to CA and like to know Things to do in California.

Realtors had to enter their site into the contest.

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Marc Rasmussen
Michael Saunders and Company

Sarasota Real Estate

did you enter yours?

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Ryan Ward, REALTOR® - Keller Williams Realty Consultants. (404) 630-3187
Atlanta Real Estate - My featured area is Alpharetta Real Estate and it is where I call home. Read my Atlanta Real Estate blog.

yes

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Marc Rasmussen
Michael Saunders and Company

Sarasota Real Estate

Don't feel too bad. Those were "typical" boring realtor websites, and the contest was probably judged by other realtors. If my experience with many other agents is any other indication, they have no sense of style, no imagination and therefore their opinion of what constitutes a good website is worthless to me.

Btw, the top site was a typical template, too busy with graphics, font styles that change many times on a single page, etc. I've seen that exact template used by realtors all across the US.

FineHomesofSarasota looks like it was done by a 5-year-old, and that cheezy flash intro with her face doesn't help.

Powerhouse-Team -- what the heck kind of name is that for a realtor website?

SarasotaHomes4Sale -- yawn, more of the same, too much text, too much bragging, an oversized photo on the front page.

Don't feel bad Marc. I think REW sites are much better looking and your's has a cool color scheme. As long as you're getting leads from it, all that matters.

Public opinion has nothing to do with it. The sites are voted on by 3 people who sell services like website design, computer training, email campaigns, and advertising.
There is one REALTOR, but honestly his site ghoulish (post holloween humor): berkeleyhomes.com
These are the other judges main sites:
gooder.com
randyeagar.com
As you can see by the judges sites' design (very ugly designs) doesn't seem to be a big factor for them. Tons of content (especially on the homepage) and lead capturing is all these judges are looking for.

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Brevard MLS Search
Satellite Beach Real Estate
Advanced Brevard MLS Search

Thanks for the update. Being new to all this, I started checking these sites out and started wondering what heck is so good about these! I stand corrected!