RealTown's RealTalk

>> Tara Wrote: I also fell for HH, hook, line and sinker. I invested approx $8000.

I wanted to jump in here and share my negative experience with Search Engine Optimization from YellowPages.com. I don't want to post a 12 paragraph rant, but I do want to warn other agents against this company. I signed up for a 12 month program called "Proving Real Value" (at $280 per month) from a cold call. I was pumped about marketing and beefing up my Internet presence and made a bad decision. I don't want others to make the same mistake.

The Customer Service has been horrific. Managers and supervisors don't even bother to return calls. When you ask for a manager, I'm pretty sure they just send you to another agent who is also not interested in the level of service they are providing. They will not cancel the contract despite failing to deliver the promised services. Their Search Engine Optimization department also does not return phone calls and has failed to explain the discrepancy between the statistics they provide and the statistics my website administrator provides. They claim they provide 90 hits per month, when in fact my site gets about 40 hits per month from search engines that are not 100% credited to the advertising. Their advertising is also not adaptive. Changes that I make to my site or marketing approaches are not addressed by this advertising program.

It seems like common sense not to sign up with companies that give you out-of-the-blue sales calls, but they hit me at the right time when I was looking for online marketing programs and ways to boost my web traffic. I just want to make sure that no one else makes the same $3360 mistake that I did.

Thanks also to everyone who is sharing successful ideas that are working in the current market!

Christina Catalano
Your Real Estate Professional
Century 21 Ripley Realty - Austin, TX
(512) 413-3554 christina@catalano.net
www.MakeAustinHome.info

I am never too busy for a referral from a client or friend.

> Carolyne, I've just started working hard on Craig's List marketing and
noticed that as you post it, there is a message that tells you how long your
post will be active. As for the others, I don't know if thre is a way.

When you post a listing on Craigslist you will receive an email to which you must respond in order to publish, edit, or delete your listing. If you save this email, you can use it to delete your listing in case it sells, or to edit the listing in the case of a price change, etc.

 

Maybe this is why there is so much inventory that’s stagnating? SELLERS going ONLINE to get the ((information)). Last I heard from the Pontificator for NAR "Lawrence Yun" he's happy to announce that INVENTORY is finally declining.  Yea but it's not because HOMES ARE SELLING through the MLS!  I would say it's because sellers are going online and finding that it's more efficient to sell online rather than through an MLS Realtor.  Besides NAR has approved most of these online affiliates.   Who needs a Realtor when you got the WWW and a compliant NAR?  Rich you are absolutely right, much to our chagrin "sellers do not walk into a Real Estate office". Times have changed we got to embrace change or be left behind. It’s just a matter of whom we will be left behind with? I hope it’s not all these displaced homeowners! YIKES!!! Who wants to be categorized with those losers?