Weekend Thought: Stop Making Us Sign In To See Listings On Your Site
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
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
whatever do you know him or were you there? correct we were not there so why are you so sure ...
This property is a wonderful property that just closed escrow for $ 16.5 Million. The asking price was way ...
Unfortunately, there's only one reason Oliver isn't telling you the 'other side.' The victim's version was true. He is what ...
I find all of this very interesting. I have recently moved into a community that is considering offering lease/buy options, ...
Realist, you've got some points in about the article. Seeing as how anyone at NAR is probably a bit biased, ...
I would speculate that RE/MAX agents lower their commissions most often because of how the brokerage is set up - ...
Your definition of "facts" is rather loose - pretty heavy on anecdotal observations and subjective terms. And classifying Lawrence Yun's ...
I have always wondered how all these houses built in one week hold up- do they build them in one ...
Damn mainstream news and media! That is why I listen to NPR! 
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.