NAR's annual Member Survey just came out for 2012 giving us lots of data about members and how they did business in 2011.  I went straight to stuff about their Web presence and the business it generates for them, and it was pretty depressing.  Thus this headline.

However, the data clearly illustrates why websites aren't generating commission dollars for the members, and I've detailed why in this article about real estate Web presence and lead generation.  Check it out, as I'm certain that some small adjustments could make the "typical" Realtor a success on the Web, instead of seeing tiny income returns.

Home Economics: How to rate a real estate agent - Philly.com. Yet another "rate the agents" site is touting the ability to help consumers to choose the right real estate professional.  The data used is shown to be faulty in the article.  Sure, if they have the money to lure enough visitors to the site, they'll make some money on ads or however else they plan on monetizing the site. I'll keep working the new old-fashioned way, with my own website, informative content about my local real estate market, and lead capture that works.

The NAR Member Profile for 2012 is out, and you can download it here.   There is a lot of information about NAR members, but for this post, just a few website numbers I thought were interesting.

• more than half are using social media
• only 10% have a blog, while more than two-thirds have websites, almost two-thirds for five years or more
• the most commonly found information on the websites is the broker's own listings
• typical member brought in four inquiries and 3% of their business from their website
• $200 was the median amount spent on maintaining a website

I admit that I'm a hermit Realtor and not typical, especially since I can track back close to 100% of my business as originating from my website.  However, I find it pretty interesting that so many in our business have had their websites out for more than five years yet can count on one hand the inquiries they get from their sites.  Since the typical agent indicated sales volume of $1.3 million, this would mean that their gross commission income would be around $35,750 using a 2.75% commission number.  3% of that would mean about $1072.50 from their website.  I would feel safe in assuming that most of them realized no income they attribute to their sites.

I firmly believe that it's the low percentage of bloggers who are probably pulling in the income from their sites, while the vast majority take some canned site solution that's inexpensive and easy to set up, throw up their listings, change a little of the text, then promptly forget about it.  Four inquiries is probably the best they'll ever get.  As far as the $200 website cost, I don't have a problem with that, as I don't spend but about half that.  Well, I did buy a new WordPress plugin or two this year, so maybe more.

If you value my time even at minimum wage, then I spend considerably more on my site than $200 each year, as I'm taking photos, making videos and writing articles and blog posts.  However, I just find it far better and more interesting for me to do it this way than to go out and try to mix, mingle, meet, greet and shake hands for the business.  Since I only work with buyers, there are no listings of mine on my site.  I also wonder if it's really true that their own listings have a higher priority for placement on their sites than an IDX MLS search function.  I didn't see this mentioned.

I have written about this before, but it keeps happening so I keep ranting in the hopes that some real estate agents will figure out that some spam avoidance mechanisms are costing them perhaps thousands of dollars every year!  Apparently, someone subscribed to one of my courses, and here's part of the email I got back:

Hello About.com Real Estate Business Guide,

Your message about "Real Estate Blogging 101 in 4 Days: What's A Blog & How Difficult Is It?" was waitlisted.

Please add yourself to my Guest List so your messages will be delivered to my Inbox. Use the link below.

Click here to deliver your message.

Thank you,

I consider my time important too.  But the day I do this is the day I close up shop.  While I might or might not care enough or have the time or inclination to take another step to get my training to this individual, I'm not a buyer or seller prospect.  They are getting these same messages, and it's absolutely for certain that a large percentage of those who do will not take this extra step to get a question answered.  They'll just contact another agent who doesn't consider themselves so important.