The launch of Real Estate Network will allow the 43,000 real estate brokerage firms, 376 multiple listing services and numerous real estate franchises that currently participate in ListHub to expand their real estate marketing reach by choosing to send their property listings to one or more network members. Members of the new network retain the right to pick and choose the network members with whom they will share property listings and may refuse to share listings with select network members at their discretion.

In the Real Estate Network launch announcement on PR Newswire, Move CEO Steve Berkowitz called the new network “an industry-friendly initiative” that “maximizes and ensures broker control” over the promotion of real estate listings. While Real Estate Network rules are similar to the Internet Date Exchange (IDX) listing parameters imposed by multiple listing services, the game-changing difference is that Real Estate Network mandates a uniform nationwide listing standard.

Several aspects of the new network are generating talk in the real estate community. The possible demise of multiple listing services seems to be the greatest potential impact the new network might have on the real estate industry. Some industry watchers are also predicting that online realty lister Zillow will suffer from competition with a new, broad-scale listing network. The biggest winners may be smaller real estate firms that stand to benefit from free access to real estate tools developed by their bigger brethren.

New Real Estate Listing Network Challenges MLS is a post from: Properties Online Blog

I read a nice post today by Brad Blumberg from SmarterAgent.com and thought I’d throw my 2 cents in… As the debate about whether brokers should or should not syndicate their listings rages on, I thought it would be a good idea to weigh the Pros and Cons.

For the Consumer:

A few of the above mentioned “Pros” might sound like “Cons” if you are an agent or broker …

For the Brokers and Agents:

So what is the next step for Syndication Websites?

I wonder if sites like Zillow have considered charging a referral fee yet. Or, if they can claim they “found” the buyer, why not charge a referral fee or could they simply refer the buyer to a Zillow agent? Have the big brands or brokers considered this possibility?

Is Syndication Making the Agent & Broker Less Relevant? is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Ask any seasoned agent and they will tell you that Craigslist is an incredible tool for agents. There’s absolutely no comparison – when you place a listing on Craigslist, it gets you more traffic than any other listing.

Craigslist was started in 1995 by Craig Newmark with the modest goal of helping people find affordable housing in San Francisco. It is now the most popular online classifieds website in the world, with over 10 million monthly visitors. Agents can take advantage of this huge traffic by posting free ads and by scanning ads seeking homes and answering them.

In addition to its huge amounts of traffic, another useful feature of Craigslist is that it is divided by localities and categories. So as an agent, you can post to the areas that you service. In addition to cities, the real estate section of Craigslist is divided into specific sections, so there are separate sections for apartments/houses for rent, office & commercial, real estate for sale, vacation rentals and more.

In most locations, posting an ad on Craigslist is free. You can create single ads for specific properties, or an ad listing all your available properties for an area. Craigslist ads are easy to create and require no coding design or HTML knowledge. You should definitely include images in your ad – these have been shown to vastly improve response rates. Choosing a great title for your ad is also very important. Try to write a catchy title that includes the words people might search for when looking for the properties you sell.

Why Does Craigslist Drive the Most Traffic? is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Listing syndication makes a lot of sense for agents. You obviously want your listings to reach as wide an audience as possible, and placing the listing on your site and social media accounts and in the local newspaper, while definitely useful, will likely not reach a huge audience.

Benefits of Listing Syndication

Listing syndication allows you to reach a much wider audience, and spread your listing all over the Internet, including major search engines, and high-profile, high-traffic sites such as Zillow, Trulia, and of course Craigslist.

Zillow and Trulia: Supporting Agents or Potentially Undermining Them?

But while sites such as Zillow and Trulia are excellent for buyers and sellers, are they really that great for agents? We need to remember that these sites are focusing on increasing their own traffic, not necessarily on sending traffic to agent sites. Their goal is to keep visitors on their site. Which begs the question, are these sites great partners for agents – or are they a possible threat?

Recent features added to Zillow make it pretty clear that the site’s ultimate goal might be to become a real estate marketplace, independent of real estate agents, that charges a fee for transactions completed through the site. Zillow now enables homeowners to upload information about their homes, it has the “Make me an offer” feature where homeowners can get direct offers on their homes, and it has also added a Wiki where buyers and sellers can learn about the complexities of handling a real estate transaction.

Listing Syndication Still Useful

So, is listing syndication a good idea? We think it is. You should definitely syndicate to major search engines and to Craigslist. As for property website portals such as Zillow and Trulia, we believe you SHOULD take advantage of the huge traffic these sites receive. After all, you can post your listing on these sites along with your information and a link back to your agent website. But you also need to make it very clear to buyers and sellers that your knowledge and expertise are invaluable, and that going into such a huge, complex transaction without the help of an agent is extremely risky.

Listing Syndication: a Good Idea? is a post from: Properties Online Blog

We are excited to tell you about a new feature upgrade for your agent website. We have just added Listing Syndication to our growing list of website features for our.

We have just completed beta testing our new Listing Syndication tool that will allow you to feed your listing data to the major property website portals like Trulia, Zillow, Yahoo Real Estate and several others.

To take advantage of this free service, login to your account and click on the new “Syndication” tool located on the Main Menu. This is the page you see first when you login.

Listing Syndication – now a free feature with RealEstateSites.com is a post from: Properties Online Blog

However, as any seasoned webmaster knows, creating a website is not enough – you need to make sure the website is actually found by search engines and by potential home buyers.

At Listing Domains, we are aware that you need to market your website, and we are also very aware of how busy you are and how little time you have to engage in marketing efforts. This is why we included so many social media and online marketing tools in our single property websites. The tools are built right in, so that you can easily use them to promote your listings. In many cases, the tools are doing the work for you.

Whenever you create a single property website with Listing Domains, we automatically feed your website to all the major search engines such as Google and Bing. We also add your meta tags for you, to make sure each website is indexed properly by search engines.

In addition to sending your property websites to search engines, we also feed them to major property website portals, including GoogleBase, Trulia, Zillow, and more.

Making sure your website is included in search engines and in property website portals helps your website get the most traffic in the least amount of time.

Get More Traffic to your Property Website with Listing Syndication is a post from: Properties Online Blog

How do you think this compares with Zillow or Trulia?

Google Maps and Real Estate is a post from: Properties Online Blog

1. Sellers Love it
This simple but effective marketing tool will put you head and shoulders above your competition when it comes to securing the listing. Sellers love having a website dedicated entirely to selling their home. With the DEMO website feature, you can build a website absolutely FREE to show prospects at your listing presentations. Impress them and get the listing!

2. Buyers Use it
Property websites drive more traffic to your listing than virtual tours or online classified ads. Online classified flyers and virtual tours rely solely on other websites to drive traffic. They are unable to capitalize on word of mouth traffic, sign rider traffic or search engine traffic. The property address Domain Name coupled with the custom Domain Rider sign make all the difference! Not to mention the SEO benefits your agent website will receive by having all the back links from your property websites.

3. ALL INCLUSIVE!  (No Monthly Fees)
Each website comes complete with all the tools you need to market your listing online. The one time fee includes hosting for an entire year, a top level domain name (555MainStreet.com), listing syndication to all the major property portals, a printable flyer and a custom sign rider. If you don’t need a sign rider, you will receive a discount at checkout!

4. Built-In Social Networking Tools
Each website includes a built-in posting tool so you can easily add your website to your favorite social network. Better yet, your website visitors can easily add your website to their social networks as well. It’s viral marketing at it’s best!

5. Easy Posting to Craigslist
Your property website includes an html snippet of your website so you can easily cut and paste your data into an online classified site such as craigslist.org, Backpage or Ebay. Craigslist is proven to drive more traffic to your Listing Website so make sure to take advantage of this FREE service!

6. Free Listing Syndication
Service includes automatic feed of your website to the major search engines and property website portals. These portals include GoogleBase, Trulia, Zillow, and more! We add your meta tags for you to get your website the most traffic in the least amount of time.

7. Instant Leads with TEXT messaging
Your website leads are sent immediately to your text enabled cell phone. If someone fills out a form on your website, our program will convert their message to text and transmit it to your cell phone so you can follow up while your prospect is still viewing your website!

8. Property Feedback System
Send a feedback request form to agents and open house visitors soliciting their feedback about the property. This is a great tool to help you negotiate needed changes with your sellers.

9. Website Statistics
Your website statistics will tell you how many unique visitors you have had and tell you the top 5 referring search engines. What’s more, you can view your daily activity, monthly activity and total visitors. Our reporting function will allow you to email a detailed report to your sellers to show them how popular their home is!

10. User Friendly
Create a website in less than 5 minutes! Change your design layout, color and other configuration options anytime. Our program will automatically determine if the domain name of your choice is available and register it. Websites are usually up and running within a few minutes!

For a complete list of website features please visit www.ListingDomains.com

Top 10 reasons why building a website for your listings is a no-brainer… is a post from: Properties Online Blog