What is the single most important feature of a new listing? Many Realtors would argue the price, but without an address, price is meaningless. The address is the foundation of real estate, otherwise known as location, location, location. Yet, many listings on the Web are marketed without this crucial bit of information.

We know that three-fourths of current home buyers are coming to the Internet to seek information. That statistic is straight from the NAR. With more than six million visitors a month coming to the Web to view homes, it would seem obvious that the information they want should be there. But it often isn't. When buyers browse homes on Realtor.com and other sites, they often encounter homes with maps, prices, school information, and the agent's information - everything buyers want to know except where the home is.

Some agents believe that leaving out crucial bits of information such as the address forces buyers to call. This gatekeeping action on the part of the agent protects the homeowner from criminal interest and unwanted solicitations. But these arguments don't necessarily hold water. What criminal is going to cruise homes in Seattle from his home in Orlando, jump a plane, and break in a house? And a criminal who is scouring the neighborhood looking for vulnerable homes can get a lot of information from the sign in the yard. In fact, what better cover than to case a home while pretending to be a buyer? Buyers will knock on the door and ask to be invited in whether they saw the home on the Internet or the sign in the yard. And as far as solicitations go, as soon as the home is on the market, the world finds out anyway, especially if your MLS sells mailing lists as a revenue generator. Just ask any seller, whether their home is on the Internet or not, how many calls and mailings they get from movers, remodelers, financial planners, lenders, and other service providers. If these arguments were valid, there would be no yard signs, no classified ads, and no Internet advertising of homes. There would just be a lot of ads for agents.

The key action is that buyers are forced to call the agent if they are interested in the home, and forcing the buyer is an outdated, non-productive way to market properties. Research shows that today's buyers don't want to talk to an agent first - that's why the NAR has a partnership with Realtor.com. Buyers want to do some investigating on their own. Then they'll call.

There are several things buyers want to know about a home when they perform a search - location, price, number of bedrooms, features, and the size of the home.

Nobody conceals the price - it's too time-consuming to field calls from unqualified buyers. Number of bedrooms? No reason for that to be a secret, either. Features? Most Realtors know how to hit the highlights in the notes section to attract an interested buyer.

Realtors have long given up the ruse of refusing to disclose the square footage of a property - showing properties too small or large for the buyer simply wastes too much time. Revealing the square footage has been proven to quickly separate the buyers from the dreamers.

If these other elements are necessary to marketing, why isn't the address? The address is where the search begins and ends for a buyer, making it the most important piece of information for the buyer to have. In combination with the other information on the home, it is the deciding factor in whether the buyer calls the agent or not. When the address is left off the listing, the buyer doesn't necessarily call, especially if they aren't ready to talk to an agent. They just move on to another home and its mapping features.

What about the serious buyer? Buyers looking at homes on the Internet are serious, they just don't want to talk to agent before they do some investigation on their own. If they want to get out and drive around, they will visit the homes with addresses posted, which is a benefit and a time saver to the listing agents. This is crucial to their search, because in many markets the difference in one or two streets can be thousands of dollars in the cost of homes. It also helps them get a feel for the price ranges and may help them narrow their selection to a neighborhood or even to one home. So agents who leave off the address aren't doing themselves, the seller or the buyer any favors.

As one Realtor put it, "The new consumer will not deal with someone who feels that they have to 'trick' the consumer into making contact to get this piece of information. Remember, the Internet is about information, not egos."

Another Realtor said, "As Realtors, we need to get away from this 'gatekeeper' mentality and start realizing our value isn't in knowing where the house is, but how to buy it, how to finance it, and in short, how to make it happen for buyers and sellers."

Internet users are highly educated, intelligent, informed consumers. Leaving off the address thwarts their investigations, makes Realtors look bad, and those are justifications the industry doesn't need for buyers to go elsewhere.