Good Saturday morning David. I think a lot of the success of the online companies is due to sellers wanting more exposure.

They can only sell them back to you if you let them.

David Barr As long as real estate agents keep purchasing their leads and using their services, we are stuck with them.

People sit on MLS board allows syndicating..... They sells to these sites for a fee. Realtor.com stop selling listings to Z so they go direct.

Until members protest and wake up their income is not where it should be they will continue finding premier agents.  Redfin acts it is their own listing and they bring their own buyers agent with a generous rebate to customers. You notice your name on your listings is barely visible on these folks sites.

I have not paid for leads.

Good for you David! A topic worth taking on! I stopped paying at least for those leads which are not leads at all! 

I do not buy leads from them. But surprisingly I just had a client who reached out multiple times to ''me'' via Realtor.com and no one ever called him back to show the house. I explained that upset buyer that i never received his emails. 

No, I learned how to come in above them by taking SEO to the Top with Katerina Gasset.

You do not have to buy leads from them. They will continue their practices as long as they are profitable.

These companies, along with the major brokerages, have TONS of money to dominate the top 10 results.  Little companies or independent agents don't have a chance.  Only exception I've seen, is one realtor out here at #10, but he has 150 links pointing into his site from various contractor link exchanges (one exchange gives him a link in EACH state).  Somehow Google hasn't caught on to this, since it violates their rules.

But I digress... I always recommend to people NOT to spend the money.  There are ways to game the system, but for the most part those leads are junk anyways.

No.  Those companies operate in the USA but I am in Canada.

I don't buy leads as it is a waste of money and I don't believe in making these companies rich...I am way past Sick of these companies

David,
As long as there are so many new agents coming into the business every year, Z & T et al., will probably stay in business. 

David - Well, first of all, I am not buying those leads, so they are not getting any of my money. Secondly, I can't tell you what I really think about agents buying other agents listings on those sites because it would be completely bleeped out.

You need to have the courage to bring this to your broker and franchise. They have the means to fix this. But this practice is beneficial to brokers who CREATED the problem and only effects resources that are completely replaceable....the agent.

Are you ready for a non-mls alternative?  Or do you need a bit more conditioning, further pummeling about the head and shoulders, before you see the clock is ticking.

BH and CB and not far behind is RX, will be the last to allow agents this option.

It does not affect me.  I buy no leads, have plenty of business to keep me busy, off the streets and out of trouble.

David

i agree local is better but I do not think your business website has the same traffic as Yahoo , Trulia, Redfin or others not mentioned have and you could spend slit of time boosting you SEO and not get anywhere near their numbers. I just think we have the work smarter and seek business elsewhere and remember we have one advantage that these sites don't have and you state it well by saying you are local and have more knowledge about your local market than these site

Not really. My business model does not depend on a short tale search.

David,

We are aware of them, and have devise many strategies for our clients to be in control of their own destiny.  They have become no bigger than a  spayed/neutered flea when it comes to their success!  A

I REFUSE to do business with aggregators. You should too. Those ARE YOUR LEADS. And they provide such inaccurate information. My plan to address this is to laugh - out loud - at consumers who use them. 3:)

Some may call it the Ostrich approach - but I prefer to concentrate on the things where I have control.

Well, they don't sell those leads back to me, because I'm not buying.  Plus, we have the right to not syndicate to these sites if we so choose.

It is up to each individual how they spend the money. Most agents are not paying them so they are not using them. As to their engine positions if one wants to pay to get there they can do that as well.

Yes, but there is nothing that we can do about it since they are supported by advertisers, as well as the Realtors/Brokers who pay for the leads. They are huge cash machines, and get a huge amount of traffic.