Why don’t I have a lot of listings on my website?

As a professional full-time working real estate agent with an active social media following and a popular blog, I get asked a lot of questions. I like questions. As every teacher, everywhere once said, “if you have a question, don’t be afraid to ask it. There is likely other people in the room with the same question.”

Why don’t I have a lot of listings on my website?

If you look at a bunch of real estate agent websites, you will see a lot of similarities. Many of them are built on a template from the brokerage or one of a few big real estate website developers. These guys charge a monthly fee and do all the backend work. They are “plug and play” websites. A new agent can just order one up with a phone call and a credit card number. If you look at a bunch of them you will notice that they are all pretty much the same. One of the similarities are that they have a lot of listings.

One of the similarities is that they have a lot of the same listings. 

Brokerages and agents alike seem to think that showing lots of listings:

1) builds trust

2) implies success

3) adds to credibility

I think realtor.ca is the be all and end all for listings. Consumers may browse listings on realtor sites, just like they may pick up a real estate magazine when waiting for a booth at a Sunday breakfast restaurant. But the whole thing is dubious, superfluous, redundant, misleading and unnecessary.

For me, I put my listings on my sites and I do this for two reasons.

1) So I can blog about the listing, and the neighbourhood and add lots of pictures and a video.

2) For search engine optimization (seo). I want to be found by google.

The seo one is the most important. Go to google now and type in 15 Wheatfield Crescent, Kitchener. It is my newest listing. Just look at what is on the first page of google! That’s confusing.