Weekend Thought: Stop Making Us Sign In To See Listings On Your Site
Since most of my readers are real estate agents, you rarely see the headache buyers run into trying to see your listings. And of course, odds are if you take the time to read this site, the last thing in the world you do is hold your listings hostage behind a sign in page.
To top it off, the last thing that you really want to do is teach your competitors who do use sign ups on their webpage to stop. It is probably one of your best marketing efforts giving free data and getting happy clients while your competitor pisses them off the very first chance they get.
But as a consumer of real estate and someone who loves to look at homes, having to fill in the #$%#$% form to see a virtual tour and the specs on a home I may be interested is absolutely and positively annoying.
What made this point even clearer is a great article by Cory Doctorow in the Guardian talking about the information economy. Here is the quote of the week for you to chew on.
And, of course, as Paris Hilton, the Church of Scientology and the King of Thailand have discovered, taking a piece of information off the internet is like getting food colouring out of a swimming pool. via the Guardian Unlimited
I am currently sitting on an international hedge fund that is investing 100% of an income generating property. Proof ...
Here is one from last week claiming thier son died. Sick.
Good Day,
Please excuse my late reply but I couldn't respond ...
I received the same "Lagos,Nigeria for an international Christian follower’s crusade" email as the post above for a rental place ...
FINALLY, someone agrees with me about the constant traffic problems in the DC metro area. The main problem...archaic freeways and ...
would also be interested in buying houses please contact me thank you ..richard 
I do a lot of BPOs and REOs as a real estate agent. Doing quite well for myself. I shifted ...
I received this response today...
Hello
I can see you are interested in renting the ...
I need the picture of beautiful small house in asia/gulf style like pakistan india.bagladesh and u.a.e
please provide me the best ...
It's been a long that I have not visited your blog and I think I am not up to date. ...
I like how the market is described here. It really does make sense that if we can stabilize the housing ...
Comment by Real Estate Blogger on 21 September 2007:
Good points.
No shame in asking for info if the reader is willing to offer, but to force – well, that’s as good as saying goodbye to more than half of all visitors. Plus, the practice is heavily penalized by the search engines.
Comment by Shannon Lefevre on 23 September 2007:
Even if consumers filled those goofy questionaires out which 90% of them don’t for fear of selling their information, who wants to be the one to call them to see if they want to buy anything? UGH! Reminds me of the MCI cold call, would you like to switch your long distance service…aghkpt!
Comment by Kim Curtis on 25 September 2007:
Along those lines, I have built a Mortgage website that allows you to ANONYMOUSLY chat with a Mortgage Planner in your area about questions such as: what are the best rates for California Mortgage Loans? Do I qualify for a HUD Reverse Mortgage? Can you help me with Mortgage Refinancing?
No Forms, No Questionnaires! Just Fast, Free Answers from a Professional.
Try it by visiting http://www.LoanChatLive.com
Comment by Christina Ethridge on 27 September 2007:
It’s an interesting issue. Many agents have tested and determined that more leads are obtained when the sign-in form is required than when it is not there or optional. It’s been tested repeatedly. When it’s required on our sites, 98% of the time it is filled out with ‘real’ information. The other 2% is fake and that 2% is actually going down.
One comment above said the practice is ‘penalized’ by search engines. That’s about the most off the wall statement I’ve ever heard and not to mention wrong.