Online Buyer Traffic. How Much?

The Internet is playing an ever increasing role in the home search process. According to the National Association of Realtors, 2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 9 out of 10 buyers used the Internet in some way during their home purchase. The study also says 38-percent of all homebuyers first learned about the home they eventually purchased via an online search.

So it is clear, buyers are looking on real estate websites for homes, but the question most sellers have is; how many people are looking at my home?

This is a difficult question to answer with 100 percent accuracy. Real estate brokerage firms place listings on thousands on sites across the Internet and many of these sites do not provide accurate, if any, reporting.

The good news is that many of the most popular real estate websites such as Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Homefinder.com provide detailed traffic reporting.

Currently Coach Realtors has about 1,000 home listings in our inventory, so to provide reporting in this blog post on each home would be impossible. But we can provide some insight into the traffic volumes for our entire inventory. So let's take a peek at some data:

Homefinder.com:

Between February 1^st and February 28^th Coach's 1,000 listings on Homefinder.com generated 174,658 search result impressions and 5,606 detailed views.

Trulia.com:

Between February 1^st and February 28^th Coach's 1,000 listings on Homefinder.com generated 797,361 search result impressions and 28,781 detailed views.

The two sites listed above display homes at all price points. Highly focused websites such as the ultra high-end site, LuxuryPortfolio.com, can also generate a high volume of traffic while displaying less listings. LuxuryPortfolio.com only displays listings over 1-million dollars.

LuxuryPortfolio.com:

Between February 1^st and February 28^th Coach's 101 million dollar plus listings on LuxuryPortfolio.com generated 9,483 search result impressions and 2,717 detailed views.

In closing, when listing your home with a real estate brokerage, take the time to have the sales associate to list each website your home will be displayed on. While many of these sites may not provide reporting, it is important to cast a large net and place your listing on as many real estate websites as possible. Compare the Internet strategy of each real estate brokerage you interview and place your listing with the most comprehensive list of real estate websites.