Launching its new advertising strategy in stages over the next several weeks, Realtor.com is rolling out its site redesign first. While a site redesign typically isn't earth-shattering news by itself, Realtor.com's new design is directly related to a muscular new sales philosophy.

In fact, quite a few early indicators point to what could be a booming comeback for Realtor.com and its services, beginning with its new easy property search for consumers.

Realtor.com has announced "an improved design that makes it easier for potential homebuyers and sellers to browse properties and more quickly connect with real estate agents and offices."

"We ripped Realtor.com apart," says Marty Frame, Realtor.com's vice president of strategy and development. "We rebuilt the search engine, data aggregation methods, and service to direct as many of our 13 million page views a day to our advertisers as possible."

Using a 130-person engineering team, Frame says Realtor.com is launching the front end of what will be the new Realtor.com product.

"If we pulled the template Website (iLEAD) out of the mix as a primary product," says Frame, "and asserted that the property ad is the primary product, then we should focus the Realtor.com search engine on delivering value to advertisers."

In other words, send people to Realtors - fast.

Realtor.com is returning to its roots as an advertising medium. In case you missed it, listings are "property ads" and Realtors are "advertisers." And that's as it should be. NAR's operating agreement with Realtor.com's parent Homestore refers to listings as "property ads," so why should the rest of us call a displayed listing what it is - a property ad?

With Realtor.com, the Realtor community has the opportunity to create the premier real estate advertising medium online and to wean itself off of expensive newspaper ads.

Consider this: - The majority of homebuyers start their home search on the Internet (Fannie Mae). As many homebuyers and sellers use the Internet as newspapers to search for homes as the Internet (NAR Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers, 2002). And, only 4 percent of newspaper readers actually open the Real Estate section (The Media Audit, 2002) That means that visitors to Realtor.com are already better leads of a sort.

"We are in competition with newspapers," challenges Frame. "We have the market share and they have no position on the Internet. Newspaper classifieds Websites have no relevance to the Internet homebuying consumer. We attained critical mass before the newspapers woke up."

Realtor.com also has a near monopoly on the one thing homebuying consumers want to see - listings. Count 'em. 2 million of them. And with multiple color photos and detailed property information, too.

Now - how to turn listings into revenue generators to keep Realtor.com on top.

Frame believes results will do the trick, and here's what will deliver them.

Most of the changes, he says, are focused on the Search Results page, the page following the entry of specific home search criteria; and the Listing Detail page, the page following the Search Results that contains complete property and listing Realtor data.

"We did focus groups and surveys with consumers, and we did the same with agents, brokers, and MLSs," explains Frame. "We saw data analytics on how the site could be improved, and then we wanted to talk to practitioners to learn the best practices in property promotion."

"We also looked scientifically," he adds, "and we saw that consumers were browsing property information but not getting into detail. They were glossing over the collection of data on the summary page, and that told us we needed to organize the information that gives consumers what they need to know to decide - 'Do I want to know more about this property?"

Frame says the new search engine was designed to deliver a clean, fast-loading, scrolling page and now contains double the number of listings. The purpose is to allow consumers to choose the listings that interest them faster, which means quicker delivery of a more certain consumer lead to the Realtor.

The design acknowledges the realities of online consumer behavior, in which the property is the focus. It also suggests that consumers who click through to the property results page - where Realtor information is amplified - are more likely to contact an agent.

In a week-long beta test, results have been encouraging:

• 90 percent increase in property views on search results page
• 90 percent increase in detailed ad views
• 125 percent increase in Realtor e-mail leads

"Summary results are a good thing," says Frame, "because Realtors are the property marketing experts.

"We are the Web guys."

Editor's Note: See Monday's Agent News for information on how Realtor.com's competitors have fallen by the wayside, but new ones are emerging, including Lending Tree. Will Realtors rally round their own portal or be lured away by third-parties? Find out in "Why Realtor.com's Relaunch Is Well-timed".

Published: April 4, 2003

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.