Hitwise Ratings for real estate search sites have just been released giving rankings to major real estate internet search sites. These are the places that real estate agents and increasingly often, the general public, place their home listings (rental's too) as a major part of any home marketing campaign.
In a world where the NAR has just released statistics that 90% of homeowners use the internet to look for their new home, and a staggering (and increasing) 35%+ actually find the home they buy on line, these search engines and their rankings are becoming increasingly important. According to Hitwise the top ten sites account for 29.1% of all visits to Real Estate sites, the top twenty capture 68.5%. Put that together with the figures above and placement on this list gains considerable importance.
So, who is where and which is the best site to put your listing on?
At the moment the king remains on the throne. Realtor.com continues at the top of the pile with a 6.79% market share followed by Yahoo! Real Estate with 3.8%.
The rest of the top ten are Zillow 3.8% (down from 2 to 3), Zip Realty 2.91%, eBay's Rent.com 2.57%, Service Magic 2.27%, Trulia.com 2.16% (down from 6th to 7th), Homes.com 1.99%, MSN Real Estate 1.78% and Apartments.com 1.32% (up from 11th to 10th).
A sign of the times, HUD's FHA Portal rose two places to 19th and Rental.com was a major winner rising from 25th to 20th place.
Another interesting climber, up three positions to 16th place, is ListingBook Services. ARMLS has just signed an agreement with them and they are available via many Arizona REALTORS® right now. This very customer orientated site excels in efficient Real Estate Agent / client relationships and up to the minute searches, its definitely a powerful new tool and one to watch.
A last word, being on one of these high profile sites is important, very important. But how will people be directed to your home amongst all the others?
Sellers need to consider picking out Real Estate Agent and brokerages that know how to attract the right audience for your home and drive those people to your web based listing, not just place it amongst many thousands of others. After all, there's no point in being on Google if you are not on page one.