The landscape of real estate websites is ever changing. It’s safe to say that some of the sites on this list may not be here in a year as the troubling real estate market forces some sites to live off investor dollars as they struggle to hang on. That said, here is a current list of the top 6 real estate websites as measured by unique visitors:
- Yahoo Real Estate                        13,064,000
- Realtor.com                                  12,686,000
- Zillow                                             11,061,000
- Trulia                                               8,586,000
- MSN Real Estate                         5,364,000
- AOL Real Estate               4,055,000
Some notable changes in the past year include Google announcing it will no longer support real estate listings uploaded to its classified listings site on Google Maps as of February 10, 2011.
Another recent change is Yahoo real estate and Zillow announcing a partnership which will bring together the scale of Yahoo!’s audience with the depth of Zillow’s real estate listings.
I found it curious that none of the major real estate brokers like Century 21, RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, Zip Realty and others weren’t higher on the list. I think part of the problem for the big sites is that more home buyers are using Google to find local website that display local listings. I was also surprised I didn’t see HomeGain, House Value or Just Listed on the list as these were also high traffic real estate websites in the glory days of real estate.
The other thing affecting traffic at the major sites is consumers are getting smarter about how they search for homes. More home buyers now know that the MLS is the major repository for local real estate listings so now they are doing more searches like Minneapolis MLS listings or Denver mls in order to see local homes for sale. These searches bring up local real estate agent sites that give them access to the local mls. As more home buyers figure this out, fewer will start their search at the big real estate websites.
Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted as things change. In the mean time, feel free to leave a comment and let us know what your favorite real estate website is.
I believe there three basic reasons why these websites are the most visited ones.
First, most of them are the world known brand names (like Yahoo, AOL and MSN);
second, they have an intuitive interface, so they can be easily used by anyone;
and third, they contain some unique information and helpful tips on real estate for the particular customer needs.
I don’t think there is a person around that would disagree that our housing market has seen better days. Our home was purchased three years ago, at what we thought was the lowest point in the market. Since, then it has only gotten worse. Our taxable value keeps plummeting, which since we are living there forever we are okay with because lower taxes equal more money in our pocket.
However, not everyone is happy. There are people that need to relocate due to business and people that need to move for their own reasons such as a expanding their family or perhaps into a smaller house because children are grown and off on their own. Whatever the reason the main goal remains the same, selling the house.