Gomez Advisors, a leading provider of e-commerce research and analysis, and Realty Times, the Internet's largest real estate news service for consumers and industry professionals, are co-sponsoring a new survey which will help Internet home buying service providers better understand the shopping habits and needs of online home buying consumers.

Dr. Mike Kraft, Director of Consumer Research for Gomez Advisors, and Blanche Evans, editor of Agent News and associate editor of Realty Times, will begin "Quick Polling" online home shoppers at both companies' Web sites. The results will be tabulated into a series of reports, some of which will be posted on the Gomez.com site.

"An increasingly large number of people are searching the Web for their home buying and financing options," explains Kraft. "Our goal is to help consumers do their homework by providing objective data by which to compare firms, and introduce the consumer to the sites that best meet their needs."

Gomez.com, like Realty Times, is a site that serves both consumers and industry professionals. "Consumers benefit from the Scorecards on the Gomez site, which rank merchants based on extensive research by Gomez’ industry analysts," says Kraft. "Then, that research helps interested companies who want to improve their offerings."

"We feel the Gomez / Realty Times survey, along with other surveys we will co-sponsor, will lead to a better online experience for consumers, which will help the overall market mature and grow," says Evans. "That's a win-win for everyone."

Gomez Advisors & Realty Times will continually gauge the consumer experience offering new Quick Polls on a regular basis. From consumer feedback, Gomez will consider adding new Scorecards to meet consumers’ needs in the growing online real estate area.

The criteria for evaluation will include ease of use, customer satisfaction, on-site resources, relationship services, and cost to consumer. Consumers will also be able to compare company rankings in side-by-side comparisons.

Gomez.com has already achieved recognition with recently published results from its Internet Mortgage Scorecard, which announced E-Loan and iOwn as ranking first and second respectively.

Each Gomez Scorecard is updated quarterly and published at Gomez.com.

The first co-branded Quick Poll debuts today on Realty Times.

Gomez.com/Realty Times
		When you shop online for a home, where do you begin your search? 1. Search engine / real estate portal   2. National home listing sites / franchise brand site   3. Local community site   4. Local real estate broker or agent site   5. Newspaper classifieds

Published: November 12, 1999

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