Homestore management has done an excellent job in 2003 of negotiating away numerous problems caused by previous management, so that the vortal has a chance at remaining the number one resource for homebuying on the Internet.

According to NAR, with one minor exception, Homestore has handled Realtor.com well overall, too.

"Traffic is at its highest, listings are over two million, and the MSN portal deal will be a greater benefit to members," says Bob Goldberg, executive vice president of marketing and product development for the NAR.

Realtor.com traffic (per comScore/Media Metrix) has shown improvement on what was already formidable results.

"For the annual seasonal traffic pattern for online real estate, June/July is the peak and then traffic begins to taper off through December, then in January it picks up once again," explains Tim Kline, marketing manager, Internet Products for the NAR. "In Dec '03, we didn't see the usual dropoff, instead seeing an increase in total minutes, unique visitors, and total visits.

"With the last redesign in mid 2003," he adds, "we actually saw an increase in the average number of views each listing receives per month, going up to 480 in Dec '03 from 285 in Dec '02. Some of the increase in total page views from a year ago is also attributable to the redesign, getting more consumers to interact with and drill into the listings, as opposed to stopping at the summary search results. Both of these are good trends for Realtors' listings."

Says Goldberg, "We're realistic of what the Internet is all about - capturing eyeballs. The national site is a natural place to aggregate listings and consumers are linked directly to brokers in this industry without a referral fee. If we weren't doing it, there would be someone else charging referral fees. We understand the importance of having strong relationships without a toll booth in the middle of the consumer and the agent. We want to make sure that doesn't happen."

REALTOR.com Stats Source: comScore Media Metrix (MM), except Total Page Views – from internal logs.

*NOTE: comScore Media Metrix has restated their data back to October 2001, due to errors in estimating work based traffic and other methodology changes, resulting in major swings in older data. Although we will not go back and restate prior reports, we will adjust historical data in all reporting moving forward.

Published: February 3, 2004

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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.