Last week, Prudential Real Estate Affiliates announced the purchase of eRealty and its technologies to conduct lead acquisition and management. The company then disclosed that it was considering charging referral fees to its affiliates if it can be proven that the leads would not come into Prudential.com any other way. Prudential would ask, but not require, its affiliates to contribute their own listings and Internet data exchange (IDX - listings shared between brokers by permission) listings and virtual office Website (VOW) direct MLS data download listings to Prudential.com, and then it would register and qualify consumers before teeing them up as leads for affiliates.

Unconsulted on the ramifications of this new strategy was current listings partner, Realtor.com. Realtor.com is not allowed by parent Homestore to participate in referral fees because of management's contract with the National Association of Realtors.

Clearly, Realtor.com would not be supplying the listings to Prudential for its new referral fee/lead capture idea. But there is no word yet on whether Realtor.com will continue to supply listings content to Prudential.

"No one from Prudential called," says Realtor.com President Allan Dalton, " that was a development that understandably took place sans Realtor.com's involvement or knowledge, which we respect."

Does Prudential's choice to charge referral fees put it on opposite sides from Realtor.com?

Surprisingly, no, says Dalton.

"They are doing something Realtor.com is fighting for - better service to the consumer," says Dalton. "Mike Long (CEO of Homestore) has been very passionate and prescient in his understanding that the consumer deserves greater responsiveness than the industry is affording them.

"Unfortunantly, he explains, "we have tens of thousands of Realtors who because of the demands of working with buyers and sellers precludes them from being as immediately technologically responsive to consumers as consumers expect them to be. The Internet can now satisfy requests that Realtors can't sometimes satisfy."

Think about it. "If a Realtor is working with an out-of-town buyer for six or seven hours, their focus must be on the buyers at hand," says Dalton. "If you were having surgery, you wouldn't want your surgeon to stop to answer e-mail in the middle. The real estate industry has a selling functionality and a service functionality, and they can't be integrated at the same level all the time to please consumers."

Are consumers overly demanding?

"They've been conditioned to instant gratification and responsiveness by other industries," says Dalton, "but the response time is incongruous with the career demands of real state professionals. If the consumers aren't responded to, then they are going to try to find other ports of entry to get immediate attention.

"I commend Prudential for looking to both satisfy the consumer and serve their companies and affiliates," says Dalton. "I have not been part of their thinking, so I'm conjecturing they are looking to use their sophisticated technology and dedication to service to relieve the impossible burden of servicing Internet leads commiserate with consumer expectations."

What is key to Prudential's decision is the company's idea that it will help its brokers by qualifying leads in advance for them. Would Realtor.com consider providing a "qualifying" service, too, since it can't collect referral fees?

"We have Realtors saying what we want from you (Realtor.com) is qualified buyers and leads," says Dalton. "We would, if they mandated it. It is not our place to dictate to the industry the way we should provide them with leads. It is their place to dictate to us."

He explains, "We see an acute void that many consumers are dubious about our (Realtors') desire to truly serve them. We are seen as an industry that just wants to sell, but it is unrealistic of consumers to expect all kinds of service. A hospital has service and sales, but the physician doesn't have to handle both. No doctor would be expected to follow up every inquiry whether someone might have a sore back, or something. There is an administrative process that serves the physician and consumer before the consumer is given care."

According to Dalton, the real estate industry is in a conundrum, a Catch 22. "We commend Prudential for looking to address a serious industry-wide problem," says Dalton, "that consumers deserve immediate responsiveness but that Realtors also deserve not to have give it."

Is there room for both Realtor.com and a referral portal on Prudential?

"You have to separate the issue that they already have a heavily visited site," says Dalton, "so that is independent. Realtor.com just sends traffic to their site. The way they elect to handle and manage leads is their decision to make.

"We are the number one real estate Website in the world. Realtor.com is brand equity we have that will always remain transcendental of any initiative any company makes. We aren't a competitor. We are a Website partner."

A partner that wasn't invited to assist with Prudential's lead capture agenda.

"It isn't Prudential's need or predisposition to please Realtor.com or include us," says Dalton, "their agenda is to make sure their brokers and affiliates are pleased and they are sensitive to that. They have some of the greatest companies and most highly respected brokers in the country. And a tremendous leader in Earl Lee."

What is Realtor.com's strategy from here?

"We need to really see the next level of intent of a lot of companies," says Dalton, "and how they are evolving to better understand the moves we have to make to be extremely vital and viable to their internet marketing."

Published: February 16, 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.