When Realtor.com recently announced that its i-LEAD Realtors could purchase school reports and moving information to add to their Web pages, which they are already paying to have linked back to them, the company positioned the products as "lead generation tools."

But some Realtors don't see it that way. Instead they see the new reports as one act of revenue generation too many for a company which has already grown rich on the checkbooks of individual and collective Realtors. Realtor.com's basic revenue model is selling web pages and enhancements to agents. Now post-second offering, Realtor.com is increasingly under the gun to show revenues, a pressure point that may be skewing the company's perception of what add-ons Realtors can or will tolerate.

According to a company spokesperson, market tests were performed before the release of the add-ons, suggesting virtually no price resistance or other concerns from Realtors, but some agents post-launch are complaining that similar products can be had less expensively other places.

Tennessee Realtor Jim Lee says he won't be obliging Realtor.com with an order for the new add-ons. "The school report is $299, for the last two years, I've used a similar product at 2001Beyond for under $60 a year, and they send the leads directly to you," says Lee. "I just don't think this is a good deal for Realtors."

As far as moving tools go, MonsterDaata.com (OTCBB: MDDC) offers detailed relocation information, points out another Realtor. The summaries include in-depth demographic data, including information on cost of living, housing, jobs, schools and weather. Marc Siden, MonsterDaata's director of business development, says the five-neighborhood, 12-page reports are available through Realtors who wish to have them on their web sites for $49.95 a year.

When interviewed by Realty Times, Jerome Marr, product developer for Realtor.com maintained, "This is a lead generation package. It is more than just paying for content to put on your site. These products generate leads from listings and the Find a Realtor section. These were put together using information on what consumers actually do on Realtor.com, and then leveraging that to get them to contact Realtors."

The second issue with some Realtors is lead drift, a concern that leads born from Realtor's listings will somehow end up in the hands of other Realtors if the i-LEAD agent doesn't purchase the add-ons.

"I am suspicious," says Theresa Grant, a Lake Arrowhead Realtor and association director. "I'm already an i-LEAD agent and if I don't pay these additional fees, where does this lead go?"

After posting her concerns to other agents on RealTalk, a popular listserve for agents, Realtor.com monitors quickly went into damage-control mode. Within minutes Marr had called Grant, and Realtor.com sales manager Randy Hollister had emailed her. But their responses were not as reassuring as Grant would have liked, she said.

So Grant asked Hollister, "What if it goes to another agent from there?"

Hollister replied, "My understanding was that the leads went to non-real estate companies for their exclusive use, and that affiliates of real estate firms would not be eligible to sponsor the reports. The result was to be that if the listing Realtor didn't get the lead, no Realtor would get the lead."

But how could Realtor.com control the lead once it has left the site?

"It should be obvious to anybody that there is no way," says Lee. "It is plain to me that there is no way they can control that lead once it leaves their hands."

"Last time this happened," says Lee, referring to an oversight that occurred when Homestore purchased Homefair and the free reports inadvertently sent i-LEAD customers leads to other agents, "there was so much heat, that they fixed the problem right away. But these are more tools from Homefair, and I don't want my customers going there - it is too easy for them to get lost."

"I have to be satisfied where the lead actually goes," says Lee, ""If we have to generate another uprising, I guess we'll do it."

Scoffs one industry observer, "Realtors have to realize that Realtor.com isn't in business to provide them with free or low-cost services. The biggest argument I hear is that the company gets the listings for free and has used its traffic to go public, but that's not the case. In fact, securing its number one position has cost the company a fortune."

Case in point. Just as Realtor.com paid MLS organizations to give the company their listings, other initiatives to continue its traffic record are ongoing. Realtor.com has just announced an online co-branded site with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the newspaper serving the ninth largest housing market in the states. The new co-branded site will provide homeowners and apartment dwellers living in the greater Atlanta area with the paper's online edition, read by as many as 1.9 million people. Participating Atlanta area Realtors are sure to enjoy the additional exposure to their listings. Marketing maneuvers like this don't come cheaply, and Realtor.com is obviously aggressively attempting to bring the Web to local markets, and therefore, a greater number of end-users. If the readers don't go online, the online edition will come to them.

Hollister says that is what it is all about - leads. "Sure there are other tools out there, but they don't generate leads," he says. "This (the i-LEAD tools) captures the consumer on the Realtor.com listing. The average listing was viewed 204 times last year. Right on that page they can get to the agent. It is about capturing the lead, not just providing information."

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Published: March 7, 2000

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