Why do I have to register to search
When buyers use the internet to search for homes, a number of websites require you to register in order to search the MLS. With so many sites available to search for Charleston real estate, many web surfers might just go on to the next site where they might gain access without providing their name, email or phone number or on really restricted sites, be required to provide even more private information.
I understand this because I google everything when I'm looking for information and when I find friendly sites, I stay, unfriendly, and I'm on to the next. What do I mean by friendly and unfriendly sites? A friendly site is one that provides a significant amount of information without requiring anything of me other than to click around and find lots of helpful content. Unfriendly, immediate registration is required to learn anything without even a hint of what I might find.
Why might a site do that? In real estate, you have to differentiate between sites that exist to help you with your future real estate transactions and those that simply exist to obtain your information and resell it as a lead. In the industry, these are called lead generator companies.
One of the most well recognized names in real estate is HouseValues.com due to the significant amount of advertising that it does along with a sister company called JustListed.com which is supposed to alert you to any new listings that comes on the market. These companies have the ability to spend massive sums of money on advertising, far more than any real estate agent would be able to. They use television as well as the internet. Do a google search and you are likely to see some lead generator companies prominently listed in the sponsored link results which are actually paid ads (pay for click). You will also find them at the top of the organic search results because they understand search engine optimization (SEO) which means that the most popular search keywords that are entered by consumers are a very important part of the content of their websites. By focusing on these keywords, they are able to secure high rankings on coveted page 1 of the search results.
Go to the home page of Yahoo, MSN or Earthlink and look at a link box (links were removed) such as this. This is paid for internet advertising and how companies like Yahoo and others make money. There is nothing wrong with making money and the bottom line is that without profits, the internet could not exist today but please note that some of these links would take you to sites that are lead generators:
There is a significant amount of press about House Values lately. If you saw one of their commercials, you might think that if you fill out their form, the computer would whirr and hummmm and a few seconds later, a comparative market analysis (CMA) would be on your screen with an estimate of the value of your home.
Everyone wants to know what their home is worth and many consumers clicked through. What happened might surprise you. No, you didn't get an instant valuation of your house but you did get a call and / or email from a real estate agent who paid House Values for the name, email and telephone number of "hot" leads. Most everyone I know loves the internet because you can roam around anonymously and find information such as the value of your house. You might not be planning to sell right away, you might be thinking about refinancing (actually a good idea if you have an adjustable rate mortgage that will reset to a higher rate soon) or you just wondered how much your house was worth. You surely didn't want a "pesky" real estate agent to get involved and bother you, you thought the value of your house would just pop up on the screen.
Now on the other side of this is this agent who contracted with House Values because he/she wanted to increase business and thought that House Values was actually going to be providing really interested real estate prospects. So the agent spent a significant sum of money for few or no real leads and the real estate consumer didn't get the instant information they were looking for. Certainly not a win/win, rather, much more of a lose/lose.
This is how some of the lead generators make money, overpromise and underdeliver. In the case of House Values, their marketing is deceptive, they promise to give you the value of your house online, you don't you get an agent.
So having said all that, what are we to do. First of all, it makes sense to be cautious when asked for contact information on any website. Read the site's privacy policy (let's hope there actually is one - I just checked House Values and they do have one and it's a full page or more and does indeed let you know that your info is going elsewhere - it's a lot to read though and I'll bet most didn't or haven't). Bottom line, if you can't get a significant amount of information from a site without registering, go elsewhere.
House Values is a publicly traded company and their stock price is sinking like a rock. Marlow Harris from 360 Digest posts an outstanding article titled, House Values struggle continues. Marlow's post includes additional links including this fascinating article from back in November 2005 on the company's financial prospects by StockLemon.com.
How search on my website differs
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If you enjoy "do it yourself" searching, I offer two options, no registration for a basic search and registration required for advanced search. Your choice. My privacy policy. In a few words "it stays here". A very popular feature are Auto Notifications sent by email for all new properties that come on the market that meet your criteria.
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Finally, one more little thought, perhaps the first search one should do before looking for homes is to search for a good real estate agent. I hope this explanation of registration helps.
Click here to start searching now.