From direct marketing flyers to Internet websites to slick television ads, the real estate industry is exploring every possible way to get in front of prospects and convert them to clients. Between newspapers, magazines, Internet service providers, and so on, the media with the most super powers can convince real estate agent advertisers that they can leap over subscription rates to more quantifiable website visitor rates in a single bound and stop speeding consumer bullets with an upraised palm (pilot, that is.)

But while third-party lead generation companies have succeeded in creating new ways to attract and/or capture consumers, Realtors are finding that choosing the right advertising medium is much more confusing and expensive than ever before.

Nearly $11.5 billion (more than agents earn in commissions) will be spent by the end of 2006 by real estate advertisers to reach home buyers, sellers, and apartment renters. That's down from 2003. About 11 percent of that money will be spent online, while about 40 percent will go to newspapers. However, the National Association of Realtors says that the median promotion and marketing expenses for members was $1,150 (no breakouts) plus another $115 for online marketing and promotion in 2005.

According to the results of a survey conducted summer of 2006 by Classified Intelligence and Realty Times, Realtors aren't necessarily spending their money where they want to. Home sellers still insist on seeing their homes in the local paper, despite many agents' insistence that newspaper ads don't bring in buyers.

In allocating their budgets, Realtor respondents got the word out on the street via flyers, yard signs, and billboards -- still the top category of spending, as it was in 2005. Print advertising is a relatively modest portion of the pie. Thirty-six percent of respondents said that up to 10 percent of their advertising dollars go to newspaper advertising.

The largest chunk of advertising money is spent on maintaining a personal website, where 67 percent of respondents spend 30 percent or less of their total marketing budget.

Surprisingly, direct marketing is still a serious expenditure for Realtors. Thirty-one percent of respondents spend up to 10 percent of their advertising budget on direct marketing, while 24 percent spend up to 20 percent. Thirteen percent of respondents spend up to 30 percent of their advertising budgets on direct marketing.

Much spending on the Internet can't be counted because Realtors are getting free services -- nearly 51 percent of respondents promote their services on free classified sites like craigslist.com and Google Base, suggesting that Realtors paying for classifieds in the stagnant medium of print will be less popular as time goes on.

Further, many agents are frustrated with third-party service providers. Not only do the providers build their own brand instead of the agents', many companies have testified against the industry to the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. Other online service providers routinely suggest that commissions need to come down while extending their hands for agents to advertise with them. Agents don't like third-party companies using their listings to generate leads and then sell them back to the agents who generated the listings.

Worse, agents are finding that approximately 85 percent of the leads they get online are ready to buy or sell, according to Marty Frame, chief information officer of Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions (FNRES).

"Realtors," says Jim Townsend, editor in chief of Classified Intelligence, "are seeking more trackable results and better leads from all ad publishers, and principally from print where they feel circulation numbers are no longer adequate to making ad purchasing decisions."

That could mean they're more open to a medium that's shut them out due to high costs.

Television could be the new Internet.

Home shows, like Ebby Halliday's Dallas-based "The Ebby Show" have been around for years as an associate benefit, but new deals in broadcasting are making TV a viable and affordable choice for agents.

Realty Times introduced its television show last year where news and advice meets homes showcase on Realty Times TV , on satellite TV which broadcasts nationwide. Agents get the tracking and longevity they want by putting a link to the ad on their personal websites and use their ad for listing appointments, all for the cost of a few hundred dollars. It's a heckuva listing tool to be able to say, "I'll put your home on TV."

HouseValues went the cable TV route, using its advertising relationship with Comcast to buy spots on numerous cable TV channels. While HouseValues offers generic commercials in certain key markets, agents can overlay personal information or listing information. Spots run for three months and costs whatever the production costs are plus the cost of the spot.

That's the same deal Spotrunner gave to its exclusive client, Realogy. Prepackaged ads can be customized by the agent. Again, agents pay production costs and spot placements.

"The 2005 NAR Member Profile shows the median promotion and marketing expenses for members was $1,150 (no breakouts) plus another $115 for online marketing and promotion," says Walt Molony, senior research associate for the NAR.

This would suggest that agents don't have much to spend on television ads, but television gives agents both personal marketing and advertising for their listings without criticizing them, demanding their commissions come down, or tying prices to short-term benefits.

Because many Internet housing ads have a long shelf-life as long as the agent has the listing, print media is going to continue to be challenged to produce stronger, more trackable results. But television has a wide-open horizon. If Realtors want trackable results, it's hard to get any better than, "I saw you on TV."