Lead generation and redirection is one of the hot new topics to arise from the Listings Wars, raising questions about what constitutes a lead and what is the value of an online listing to the agent as well as to the consumer.

According to Realtor.com, the number one attraction for online consumers is listings. Listings drive the traffic to Realtor.com, which reports a 79% market share of viewers who are interested in online real estate. By deduction, agents whose listings are featured on Realtor.com are exposing their listings to the greatest concentration of home buying and selling consumers online, raising the expectations for some agents that lead generation from the listings should be significantly higher than they are.

In response to some agents' concerns that leads are possibly being directed away from the listing agent, Realtor.com says that isn't the case.

"The most important thing they (online consumers) want is comprehensive content and robust information," says Karen Fulton, public relations director for HomeStore. "That is why we went to daily updates, and why we work to keep the Realtor at the center of the transaction. We make it easy for them at competitive prices to have an Internet presence and to be attached to the largest site with the most traffic on the Internet. Their home pages get the most exposure they can."

The issue erupted with agent concerns over the way HomeStore's new acquisition of HomeFair had been integrated on Realtor.com.

Russ Mann, director of product development for Realtor.com, explains,"The HomeFair model has great calculators and reports for consumers. The two main reports are city and school reports. They have always given the consumer the choice to pay for the reports or to click and email one of the report sponsors. The sponsors have included van lines, relocation companies, inspection companies, and Realtors, among others.

"This was when Homefair was putting their technology on other sites. When we integrated HomeFair, we put some of their calculators on Realtor.com. Then we put the city and school reports, and when we recognized that the Realtor sponsors were present, we had them taken off the Realtor.com link. They are still available on other HomeFair partners."

Mann says that Realtor.com didn't perceive an issue in sending a lead to a van company partner, but is fully aware of the concerns agents would have over leads going to other Realtors.

"There is a certain misperception," says Mann. "The consumer has to fill out a survey when moving, etc. One of the questions is have you chosen a qualified Realtor to sell your home or to help you buy a home? That question is strictly for information gathering. We use the information so we can know about our customers and it helps Realtors generate leads.

"There is a concern that the buyer is being farmed to other Realtors, but the results are not being sent anywhere. Our whole mission is to create products for Realtors to get more leads and make more money. I want to be the best web marketing partner there is. "

When asked is there any expectation on the part of the consumer that a Realtor will contact him or her after completing the form, Mann says, "No, there is nothing in the form that would indicate to the consumer that they will be contacted. We aren't farming leads off of it."

"This product is under continued evaluation and we are looking at other ways to market it so the consumer will continue to value the site," adds Fulton.

Another concern Realtor.com addresses are that there may be too many companies coming between the Realtor and the consumer.

"People come to Realtor.com to look at homes and find a Realtor. We are interested in the consumers who buy and sell homes to have the best user experience," says Fulton. "We have found that even though an email lead may go to the van line, it keeps the consumer right there on the site.

"You have to first get the consumer to the site, keep them on the site and then you have to get them to contact a Realtor. In order to do that, we have to have the greatest share of eyeballs, and the stickiest site. Consumers are spending 30 minutes a month on Realtor.com. On other sites they are spending as little as 4 1/2 minutes. When you look at that quantity of time. they are looking at homes, information, and doing some serious work."

What about lead generation? With the greatest number of viewers, shouldn't Realtor.com agents have the greatest number of leads?

"That depends on what you mean by a lead. There is a great deal of difference in terminology between a lead, a page view and a hit," says Fulton. "Every photo on a page could count as a hit. Then people started measuring page views, then how long people are staying -the stickiness of a site. As far as we're concerned, a lead is someone who is clicking through to send an email or to call offline - it's the consumer contacting someone. If someone simply views a page is that a lead?"

By that definition, anyone clicking onto a Web site attached to a listing could be qualified as a lead. "To that extent, every listing on an iLEAD page would be classified as a lead," says Fulton. "If I am looking for homes in a range, you'll get the basic information in a results page. We include on each home the iLEAD address and link to iLEAD home page. We are providing the same information in the results set as others count as a lead. If that is the case, then we provide the most leads of anyone. By that standard, we are doing hundreds of thousands of leads a day. We provide that in the listings results set. "

"We are trying to bring consumers to the site, with great functionality, and new features, and trying to get them to click through with iLEAD," says Mann. "It's an interesting balance, you have to give enough to make them want to stay but do these other things come between the Realtor and consumer? You have to have that balance. By keeping consumers engaged, you'll get them to click through."

Fulton sums it up. "We continue to be responsive to the industry and bring exposure to listings. When we do something that needs to be amended, yes, we will do it. We are a partner to the industry. That's why we are willing to make changes such as daily listings updates. Recently, we have launched the message boards on Realtor.com for Realtors to communicate. Agents find that when we get feedback, we will respond."

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Published: November 26, 1999

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