Hello those looking for an answer, I am a real estate agent in California and I have used a lot of online marketing services to date. The only one I have had any success with to date is e-Agent, Inc. (http://www.e-agent.biz). I have 3 exclusive territories with them so I don't have to worry about my leads going anywhere else accept to me. Additionally, I get a web site, they pay for advertising of that site on all the major search engines plus they have back end tools to help manage any leads that come in. They provide a web site that is IDX/MLS integrated and it has news and local information on each of my sites that pertain to the town or city I chose. I did use somewhat successfully Homgain.com (the buyerlink program: http://www.homegain.com) and Housevalues.com (http://www.housevalues.com) because in similarly these companies also offer an exclusivity of sorts but not as in depth a program as e-Agent and I only closed about 1 in 100 leads that came in, with e-Agent I closed about 1 in 22. Any other players in the space I would not recommend. I have also used http://www.servicemagic.com, http://www.realtynow.com, http://www.agentconnect.com and a few others that just sell leads and the problem with the leads is they are not exclusive (they can and will sell them to 3 other agents) plus as a realtor I did not get any web exposure only the companies themselves got the exposure. Plus there is no way for consumers to know who they are working with and they get no access to look at homes on these sites so the lead quality is very poor. These companies also do no promotion of any agent, they only promote themselves. Homestore.com (http://www.realtor.com) was the worst of all of them. I paid to have my listings enhanced and I got zero phone calls, no leads, and no method to really track traffic to client and client to sale. That is a waste of your money since your local MLS board sends your listings to them for free anyway. There is no reason to pay for realtor.com's services. Thank you and I hope I answered the above question properly.

These days, a lot of homebuyers start their search on the internet so having a web presence is a given. But to really succeed you must turn your site from a passive source of information into an active marketing tool. One way to do this is to give away online calendars from your website. The electronic calendars all have your logo and are widely used in the community by schools, libraries, associations and individuals. For example, say a teacher decides to use your branded calendar for her online class schedule. This means that your name will appear in front of at least 20 or 30 parents every day as they refer to the class schedule. And that's with just one class calendar. Try: http://www.managedtime.com Regards Peter K.

I signed up with MasterRealtor, Inc. They provide comprehensive marketing programs to Realtors. They specialize in image branding and they carry that brand through to premium websites and supplementary marketing materials. they also have a program they call their cost recovery program. I was able to have professionals like an attorney and loan officer share in the cost of my marketing program and i actually have a postive cash flow from the sponosrhip my masterrealtor program generated. www.MasterRealtor.com. They are much better than Advanced Access, which i have not had good luck with in the past.

One of the best ways for realtors to market themselves and to find new clients is by harnessing the the power of your current client base. A great service that lets you do this is KudosBoard at www.kudosboard.com They provide tools that let you automate testimonial requests and then customer referrals.

4MySales.com is another service that offers the leads, but focuses more on helping the agent develop their own lead generating systems. The philosophy is simply that as an agent you will ge a much better return on investment if you can leverage your own resources to generate leads instead of buying them from a lead aggregator. These days it is not enough to just have a website. You need to effectively create a market presence both online and off-line. In looking at lead aggregators, determine how much each lead is going to cost you, the number of leads that you will receive, whether or not the lead is exclusive, and the quality of the lead. HouseValues entices individuals online to submit their data for a CMA. HomeGain attaches agents to the MLS. All of these enterprises have pros and cons so it is important to find one that meets your needs.

You are looking for a ways to stand out from every other agents out there. In theory, what most agents do is ask other agents what they are doing to market themselves. This puts you in a strange position, becuase as you are looking for ways to stand out, you end up doing the same exact thing as every other agents out there. It seems common sense, but i did the same thing when i because an agent. So, I srated to think about what every other agents out there is NOT doing and that is what has yeilded me the most results. I actually got involved in a marketing plan from Hobbs/Herder and it has helped tremendously. It is "expensive" at first, but after the first year, i compared what i was spending on markting before, (when i was doing house ads and all that stuff that every other agents is doing) to what i spend at hobbs/herder and it was about the same, but my production was much greater. It is worth looking into, they have great websites as well, very professional, coporate looking websites. Mine is still being worked on right now.

www.zillow.com is rapidly becoming the place to be.