Some Realtors are complaining that Realtor.com is regressing - back to making its Realtor customers mad instead of happy. One broker is trying to get attention from his local association and his franchise to intervene with Realtor.com to stop charging agents' credit cards without permission and to make the pricing of the company's new advertising policy more open and fair.

Earlier this month, Realtor.com launched its long-awaited Realtor Choice, a new advertising strategy that "enables real estate agents and offices to purchase the advertising elements of the Realtor.com(R) Marketing System individually and at prices that directly correspond to the exposure they receive to buyers and sellers on the Realtor.com(R) Web site."

There's just one problem - Realtors don't get to see a rate card. They only receive a quote from their salespersons or via e-mail at renewal time of what the new price of their package is going to be, and for some agents, the new price is a shock.

Lansing RE/MAX agent Sue Barber was up for renewal at $529. This year, according to an e-mail she received, she'll be paying $1,168 for text upgrades only. In the past, she has been able to enhance her listings with html graphics and photos. New restrictions on Realtor.com mean she will no longer be able to do so. So far, she hasn't renewed.

Realtors are charged for exposure on Realtor.com according to two major criteria - the traffic to their areas and the number of listings an agent typically has or expects to have on Realtor.com. While on the surface it seems fair that a customer in a slow-selling part of the country with few listings pays less for exposure on the site, it also doesn't seem fair that some agents who have been loyal to the company are now being asked to pay more than double what they paid last year for less exposure - not more, says one broker.

Fred Fry, principal of RE/MAX Home Professionals in Lansing, Michigan says he and his agents were promised one thing and delivered another by Realtor.com.

Fry bought a large animated banner nine months ago to appear on all the company's listings for a year. Without warning, the banner changed to a static 75X50 pixel image, one-third the size of the original ad, he says.

"At no point were we consulted nor offered a refund, and repeated attempts to get a refund have met with no results," says Mark Passerby, Fry's technology manager.

"Allan Dalton is saying that Realtor.com is so much more user-friendly and better for brokers," says Fry, "but they are cutting back on html which brings more leads to the listings. We were getting more leads from Realtor.com when we were sold the product, and we were promised we could modify the listings. Now they are saying that isn't possible and they are doubling their price on renewals for our agents, and now we aren't getting any leads. My renewal is for a banner ad, and I'm still a member of their PRO version, but most of my agents have already canceled. When they double the price and cut in half the service, that's not a good combination for us."

Passerby says that a Realtor.com representative "reiterated time and again that the action on Realtor.com occurs on the "Search Results" pages and that by getting a Realtor.com Website, the agents would be able to add html to their listings on the Search Results page and generate themselves leads. He even showed our agents how to do some things in html to enhance their listings."

Passerby said he became aware of the problem when agents began to call him and ask what happened to their Realtor.com leads. To date, since the new Realtor.com site went into effect, not one agent in Fry's brokerage has received a lead from Realtor.com, he says. Before, when they could still add html, the agents were getting "lots of leads every week," he says. He also says that many agents were double billed and upgraded automatically without consent, including an agent named Dale Tierney who also happens to be the Lansing Board of Realtors president-elect.

"By my calculations," says Passerby, "an office of our size would have to pay Realtor.com $53,560 more a year for our agents to have text updating capabilities and our broker contact information fully listed on all of our listings."

Fry and Passerby kept a transcript of a conference complaint call they had with the representative and his supervisor Kristen Peerless two weeks ago in which they were told that what they paid for was no longer available on Realtor.com. When Passerby told the Realtor.com team that the rep had told agents about html enhancements to get them to renew or sign up for Websites, Peerless defended the rep by explaining that he was "new," says the transcript. When asked why he would tell agents the benefits of html editing when he must have known his company didn't allow it, the sales rep responded "the agents didn't ask," said the transcript. Furious, Fry said that as a company, how would his agents know to ask whether html editing was or was not supported by Realtor.com corporate?

Peerless reminded Fry and Passerby that agents can still add html on their Realtor.com personal agent Web page only, including adding photos and changing text, said the transcript.

But according to what the agents were told earlier to get them to buy, these aren't the pages with the traffic. The Search Results pages, according to what the rep told the agents earlier, are the ones that generate traffic, not the personal agent Web pages.

Peerless explained that html slows down the load time on the main pages, and consumers don't like that, said the transcript. When Passerby asked if a pop-up ad by a third party slows down the main pages, Peerless allegedly responded, "No, it doesn't."

At the end of the call, neither Fry nor his agents got refunds or adjustments.

Says Fry, "My hunch is that they (Realtor.com) are trying to change their revenue source from users to advertising."

He says he thinks this because of "the way their site looks and their lack of flexibility when they promised a number of things when they were trying to sell us and now they are saying that isn't possible anymore."

"I don't want my money back," says Fry. "I want them to keep their promises that they made to us, I want an html format so we can utilize it.

Greater Lansing Association of Realtors gets involved

"We could be one of their biggest allies," says Fry, "but right now we are very dissatisfied."

He's dissatisfied enough to contact his local association of Realtors, and it responded.

Day before yesterday, the Greater Lansing Association of Realtors published the following tidbit in its newsletter to members:

Members have contacted the Association about billing problems with Realtor.com. Most notably, Members have been charged large fees to their credit cards by Realtor.com without being notified. If you have had a problem with Realtor.com, please e-mail the details to ____________. The Association will use the information we compile from Members to take the issue up with NAR.

"They are appearing to take action," says Fry. "Our leadership is empathetic, and they don't want prices to double," says Fry.

RE/MAX International has a word with Realtor.com

Fry also informed RE/MAX International of the problems he and his agents were having with Realtor.com.

Kristi Graning, RE/MAX vice president of Web Services and IT marketing, promised she would bring the issue up in the company's quarterly meeting with Realtor.com, held yesterday.

When Realty Times caught up with Graning, she was in the car, en route to the meeting with Realtor.com.

"We have a quarterly meeting (with Realtor.com) that discusses a number of things," says Graning. "updates, our Website, and things surrounding our brokers is always part of the agenda, and that is going to be included. I am aware that they (Fry) have issues with Realtor.com, and we'll be discussing some of those things to see how they plan on repairing that relationship with RE/MAX Home Professionals."

Graning says that RE/MAX's priority is "our brokers and agents."

"We do have a good relationship with Realtor.com and have had for a number of years," says Graning. "With any vendor there are customer service issues that pop up. Given the struggles Realtor.com has had over the years, we always try to step in and help the situation to make sure that our brokers and agents are being taken care of, and we hope to see that again here today."

Realtor.com's vice president of strategy and development Marty Frame expressed regret over how the Lansing situation has escalated. "It is most probably due to a training issue," he says. "and the broker-owner has every right to be upset. Change is hard, and there are a host of potential issues. It is incumbent upon us to make sure that everyone is trained properly, and that we support our customers through changes."

Frame also says that autorenewing of credit cards has been stopped for several weeks, now. "We are calling our customers to renew, and that gives us a better opportunity to address any anxiety or negative feelings that a customer may be having."

Tomorrow on Agent News, Marty Frame will explain more about Realtor.com's new pricing and other strategies.

Published: May 29, 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.