The number of websites relates to the business needs of the individual. Most agents need only one website in addition to their blogging platforms.

It depends on how much time you have.  Personally I barely have one website, and a ton of social media.

many others do a much more thorough job than I do in this area.

I have met companies with over 50 websites, they hire an guy to manage them all...is the return on investment making a difference?  It did at first before the aggregators, and now the results are not so great...A

No, I think you use one website with multiple landing pages for different purposes. I only use one. It keeps the costs down, focus & organization skills up and then I just create & assign specific pages to different campaigns. I do however have multiple (3) Facebook pages and use them for three specific audiences. I'd need to hear a valid reason why more than one is needed, but I'd be open minded about it. If you do not have a website, you are not truly in business this millennium though...you have to have an online presence to be relevant to certain age groups/generations. I know some agents that disagree with this, but they also think the WWW is a fad.

I personally have four web sites but I only concentrate on the two bc of the are more high tech that the others and produce the best results. 

You can have as many web sites as you want and that is fine. However, just be careful not to waste time on sites are not producing or even worse, not capable of producing. 

I think it depends.  If they have a broker's site, they definitely should have their own on top of that w/ unique content.  other than that, it depends how many they can actively manage and would bring in unique visitors.  Most can only handle 1-2 sites.

I have 2 sites.  I may develop some others, but for other business endeavors.

If they want to have to manage more than one, or pay someone to do so, why not - as long as the additional expense results in even more additional revenue...

I only have one, but I also have a business Facebook page.  I feel that having a website and a FB page is enough for me.  I also have Instagram and Twitter, but my webssite and FB has a lot of information so having a second website is unneccessary.

I thought only one, but my company gives us a site, and I actually contracted a couple of years ago on another that I thought would do better with SEO.

Many paths . . . I have a website and a WP blog, FB page, G+ etc.

They can have as many as they want, I do not have a web site and doing just fine.

As an active agent, I had one website and several niche blog sites... all linked together.  Worked great.  I think it depends on the time an agent wants to spend managing the sites.  If you only have time to manage one effectively, that's all you should have.   I, personally, got more SEO action from having several.

Web sites are diminishing in importance. Even an IDX doesn't make much difference. We live in a mobile wrold where accessing with apps is what people do in real estate. My opinion is if you do have a site focus on it only, and curate outstanding content in the context of your specialties.

Since the requirement that all websites be mobile compatible, the definition of website has changed DRAMATICALLY. 

Understand this and when I state I have over 30 websites, no one should be shocked.

A real estate agent should have no less than three with the most optimal being 5 online locations that enable the consumer to validate.

4 due to a large market area and focus.

Sure, why not? You can have sites targeting different aspect of the market. For example a site targeting buyers is not what would attract a seller. I have two sites.

It's easier to focus on one for ranking. Plus you'd potentially have idx fees on multiples too

I am working on developing a few for different neighborhoods.

One good one, plus a good business FaceBook page.

RealtyZap . will you consider landing pages as a website? If so, one should have few different sites.

And if someone works for more than one niche, it's a good idea to have more sites, too.

I do have about 6 active sites.

One is enough for me.

I'd say at least a main website and a home valuation site to get seller leads. I have four.

One website I maintain.  Several sites with profiles of me (like here).

I think Real Estate agents should have as many domains as is affordable for them. It increases the chances of traffic to your main site the more domain names you have that lead there.

I have heard comments from "pro's" on webinars to the effect that we should have a minimum of three.

I have three....one for buyers, sellers and our niche (new construction)....

I have a personal site and a company site (I’m the broker/owner). If I had niche markets I would develop a site for each of those.

I've heard arguments pro and con.  I have a couple, though one would be much easier to manage.

Some agents have no website.  It depends upon their marketing needs.

Right now i have 2, it can be helpful if you have the time to maintain them or the money to pay someone to maintain them. They are all basically a giant ad to attract new clients. For me i LOVE spending my extra time working on my Active Rain Blogs which work the same way to attract new clients