The Wall Street Journal has figured out a way to capitalize on real estate with a vertical-specific site called RealEstateJournal.com. Like other advertising portals, RealEstateJournal.com provides multiple routes to advertisers. Among them are giants Realtor.com and HomeGain, both vying for attention from consumers for listings.

RealEstateJournal.com, says its site, "is a complete online guide to buying, selling and maintaining a home. Content comes from the powerful editorial resources of The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com, both published by Dow Jones & Co. Inc., and alliances with top real-estate information providers. This combination brings accurate, trustworthy information to your desktop, all of it completely free.

"Whether you're moving up, relocating, seeking a new neighborhood or merely curious about your current home's market value, you'll find answers at RealEstateJournal."

In 1999, Homestore contracted with the Wall Street Journal to provide homes for sale from Realtor.com for the Journal's Homes.wsj.com site. In 2001, the Journal bagged Homes.wsj.com in favor of a vertical-specific subsite of WSJ.com called RealEstateJournal.com.

Realtor.com listings can be found on the left side of the RealEstateJournal.com site by accessing the 'Other Journal Sites' button on WSJ.com and then clicking on 'Properties for sale.' Consumers can go to either the Journal's classified advertisers under 'Distinctive Properties and Estates,' or Realtor.com.

This isn't the only place that consumers can access listings. Back on the RealEstateJournal.com front page, consumers can go to the right side and access the 'Market Center,' where HomeGain has the position under the 'View Homes For Sale' link.

There isn't a 'Find a Realtor' link, but HomeGain gets WSJ consumers to its Realtors through an inviting link entitled 'Plan to sell or buy a home?' in the Market Center section. When consumers click through, they are taken to HomeGain's 'Find and Compare Realtors' page, where consumers are invited to compare Realtors' background, experience, and sales commission rates.

To announce the feature, WSJ wrote its online subscribers the following note:

If you're looking for a realtor, we now offer a free realtor screening service, powered by HomeGain.com, that allows you to compare real estate agents' backgrounds, experience and sales commission rates to help you find the right realtor anywhere in the U.S.

This is the way advertising works, as any Realtor who has ever bought an ad that ended up next to a FSBO's knows. What makes it interesting is the spot some of these companies are in.

RealEstateJournal.com is in a uniquely powerful position to get money from competitors like Realtor.com and HomeGain and this is a fine indicator of how much 'things have changed.'

There are few other real estate distribution vehicles out there. Yahoo! is out of the picture because it has referral fee agreements with VOW brokers. Lycos has shut its real estate vertical down. Homes.com is maintaining but not pushing its consumer portal, preferring to build its agent Website business first. HomeSeekers has become Realigent, showing it is doing the same as Homes.com. Realestate.com has been embroiled in a copyright lawsuit brought by The Real Estate Book for improper use of its listings which has left distribution partner MSN in the lurch. eBay is still trying to figure out why the real estate business is so much harder than the beanie baby business. Google sells search words, not listings. There are other examples, but realistically speaking, what other traffic partners are left?

Exclusive distribution agreements, like Homestore once had with WSJ are no more because they are too expensive to maintain, and so exclusive agreements are reduced to advertising agreements, and you find yourself staring across a splash page at your bitterest rival. That's a position that once seemed unthinkable to the company that conceived the Gold Alliance agreement and the exclusive real estate vertical operating agreement with AOL. But if Realtor.com is going to push its listing enhancement products to Realtors, it has to put listings where consumers will find them, even if that means sharing a below-deck berth to get them on the right ship. At least there aren't any links to FSBOs, even if Realtor.com's position might allow consumers to leap from Realtor.com to HomeGain's referral network where the site advertises enticements such as gifts and free access to Realtors who compete on experience and commissions.

Realtor.com's position says nothing about 'Find A Realtor.' In fact, Realtor.com's listings cut to the chase and go right to the listings with no button anywhere to look for a Realtor. But then, Realtor.com doesn't get paid for promoting directories. It gets paid for listing enhancements. Is Realtor.com willing to concede Find A Realtor business to HomeGain, or do the site's operators even know HomeGain is there?

The competition among advertisers to have listings seen on RealEstateJournal.com doesn't end there.

Foreclosurefreesearch.com provides links to foreclosed homes in the Market Center section. And for those consumers wanting to steer clear of real estate agents altogether - RealEstateJournal.com offers not one but two automated valuation models (AVMs) where consumers can see home comparables without going through a Realtor. These AVMs are provided by HomeGain in the Market Center section, or by Domania.com, a subsidiary of HPC Interactive LLC, which is a subsidiary of PRIMEDIA Inc.

Who said that the Internet would replace newspapers? With deals like these, Wall Street Journal must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Published: June 18, 2003

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