Hi Tim,
I am a customer and shareholder of Homeseekers.com, and will likewise try to make my comments without bias. However, Homeseekers.com finished 10th in the survey so this might be a bit tougher for me :)
You stated quite accurately:
"Realtor.com has a "Find A Realtor" tool which gives consumers the ability to do just that! "
However, you were off when you stated:
"To say that RE/MAX.com, one of our partners, is the ONLY site that allows a consumer to search for an agent is plain wrong. There are two sites: Realtor.com and RE/MAX.com."
Homeseekers.com has a very thorough realtor search function as well. I would not be surprised to find out that many of the others have their own, as the survey is riddled with such errors.
For instance, Gomez cited Homeseekers.com as having 400,000 listings on their sight when they had 800,000 six months ago and have added over 20 MLSs since. In fact I question there claim of "Thorough, direct examination of the site " outright. How could they possibly miss the large "Agent Search" function right on the main page???
As far as "Phone interviews with firms covering functionality and service levels of their Internet offerings " is concerned, I must say that I made an extensive inquiry to Homeseekers.com's Investor relations department as well as their PR firm and couldn't find anyone who had spoken to Gomez.
Anyhow, the more I write the less unbiased I become so I'll end it here.
John
PS Instead of correcting the blatant (and somewhat embarassing) factual error of Homeseekers.com's number of listings they simply deleted the 400,000 number (apparantly) without explanation. So much for "the latest independent research survey ".
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