It was just a matter of time before the large franchises fought back the intrusions of the Department of Justice and third-party lead generation services into online marketing of MLS listings by setting up their own real estate portals.
RE/MAX International says it is the first to provide online access to all real estate listings in their broker affiliates' markets.
Since last August, when RE/MAX International cofounder and chairman, Dave Liniger announced the network would redesign its website to eventually include all residential real estate listings, the company has been diligently developing new technology to enhance the value of remax.com for both consumers and its RE/MAX affiliates.
Consumers can now search for real estate listings with just one click from the remax.com home page. In the first three weeks after launch, the new lead generation and tracking system, "RE/MAX LeadStreet," has distributed more than 50,000 new leads to RE/MAX agents, with no referral fees charged to anyone, says the company.
"We contribute the millions of unique visitors coming to remax.com to a strong advertising campaign using television, print and radio," said RE/MAX cofounder and chairman, Dave Liniger. "Additional advertising mediums will also be used in upcoming months and we are confident that this traffic and lead generation will increase dramatically over the upcoming weeks as we add more markets, listings and compelling content."
Kristi Graning, RE/MAX senior vice president of information technology and eBusiness, says the network of IDX/ILD listings is the most comprehensive in the nation.
"It's fully compliant with MLS policies across the country, and is enhanced with top end lead management tools," said Graning, "We are taking a three-phase approach to the implementation based on market size and agent population. The first phase is complete and includes nearly two million real estate listings, covering 65 percent of the country. Phase II and III markets will be rolling out as soon as possible. When fully implemented, it will mean virtually every residential listing in the United States will be available at remax.com. And, it means consumers can quickly and efficiently interact with quality RE/MAX real estate agents."
In case readers are wondering what happened to the relationship between RE/MAX and Realtor.com, it's listings vendor, the relationship is still intact. Technology from Florida-based eNeighborhoods, a Siegent company, provides about 65 percent of the data base management with another 27 percent attributed to Reliance Network, Inc. The balance of the country is handled by a variety of vendors, including Realtor.com.
"When the project is complete, whether it's a RE/MAX real estate listing or not, it will be found on remax.com," said Liniger. "That is what we said we would do for consumers, and that is what is available now in 65 percent of the country. No longer does a consumer have to visit multiple sites to view all properties for sale. Depending on the user's location, the site will seamlessly connect them to the best possible site to deliver exactly what they are looking for. We have made strong financial and resource commitments to this program because it's the right thing to do for the public, for the real estate industry and our RE/MAX membership. It's one of the largest projects we have ever undertaken, and the technology team has done a magnificent job."
The RE/MAX team says that a host of technology products are also included for RE/MAX associates such as lead management programs and listing enhancement tools. Extensive training programs are already underway on the network's extranet, RE/MAX Mainstreet and on RE/MAX Satellite Network.
As if Realtor.com with its insider agreements with the nation's leading MLSs weren't enough of a threat to third-party companies seeking listings to bolster their lead generation services, RE/MAX only adds more competition to the mix, as well as sending a strong statement to all franchise organizations to take control of lead generation or watch your agents join other organizations where they can get leads for free or as cheaply as possible.
While free listings and leads to brokers on Realtor.com alone wasn't enough of a deterrent to third-party lead generation companies charging as much as 35 percent in referral fees to provide leads to agents, another large site blanketing 65 percent of the country with free leads could prove disastrous -- unless they can come back with more compelling pricing, service or lead generation results.
