Many national real estate portals use advertisements to help pay the bills for third-party listings, but some large brokerages are fed up with how busy the experience can be for a consumer. Citing that their listings are getting lost in a sea of advertisements, some of these brokerages have pulled listings from portals like Trulia and Realtor.com.
Edina Realty, the first large real estate brokerage to break free of listing on national portals, says their decision has been a good one. They cut off their flow of listings to Trulia in November 2011 and Realtor.com in May of the same year.
Realtor.com says Edina Realty and ARG Abbot Realty Group out of San Diego are the only two brokerages currently withholding data from their site. According to Edina Realty’s website, visits increased 21.7% between July 2011 and July 2012, and unique visitors were up 17% at the same time.
But critics argue that home shoppers will be handicapped if more brokerages and agents shun Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com, the three most popular national real estate portals. The reason? Consumers will no longer be able to see a snapshot of the market with listings missing.
