In my very first post on this blog, I told you that I was being inundated with numbers. These numbers were the number of web site hits that PropertyGuys.com have claimed publicly, as well as some more objective numbers (from comScore.com) that I was sent in an email from a representative of ByTheOwner.com (who, I might add, was trying to get me to abandon PropertyGuys and put up one of their signs).
Since then, I’ve found a reasonable measuring stick to hold up against these companies. There’s a handy web site that I was informed of called Alexa. This site allows anyone to compare the traffic to a number of web sites, and gives you a pretty little graph of the whole thing too. Seeing as I couldn’t get any evidence of PropertyGuys’ claims, I decided to use this site to see how the top FSBOs stack up – and how that compares to the “industry standard” MLS.ca (and REALTOR.ca).
In my very first email communication with the local PropertyGuys franchisee, I was told that:
“We have over 100 franchises across Canada. As a result we have approximately 52 million hits to our site a month. This is very comparable to MLS, which has about 60 million hits per month.”
Seems like a pretty apples-to-apples comparison, doesn’t it? Now, if you have a lot of web and computer knowledge like I do, you might just agree that the term “hits” can be misleading. Even still, the comparison that I was given – and the main reason why I decided to pay PropertyGuys to market my home for sale on their web site – was because they claimed to get very similar web site traffic as MLS.ca.
Now, unfortunately I can’t give you accurate web site stats without physically or electronically breaking into the corporate servers of these places and checking for myself. But what I can offer are comparisons that will show you the scale of the difference in traffic between various sites. Finally, an “apples to apples” comparison.
By the way, before you read on, I’ve tried numerous times to get PropertyGuys to substantiate their claim with some hard evidence. I still welcome it, but from everything I’ve seen and experienced so far, I don’t see how there’s any way that their comparison is valid.
Graph 1: Comparison of FSBOs
My interpretation: PropertyGuys and ByTheOwner have been duking it out for quite a while. GreyBruceListings and OntarioPLS aren’t even on the radar.
Graph 2: PropertyGuys vs. MLS
My Interpretation: It doesn’t take a data analyst to see that there’s a huge, and I mean HUGE difference in the amount of traffic received by MLS.ca and PropertyGuys.com. I also gather that if you want to sell real estate in Canada, as I’ve been told by many people, you need to be on MLS. Considering the very expensive barrier to making this happen, I’d like to see some justification of the cost of placing a listing on MLS.
I’d still like to see some traffic statistics similar to what you’d see with Google Analytics, or Webalizer. Unfortunately, PropertyGuys would need to come forth with this information, and so far they have not been forthcoming.
After having our home on the market for about three weeks now, the listing has had 227 “hits”. To avoid an all-out episode of rage, I’m going to make the assumption that the listing was actually viewed 227 times – even though their other stats seem just a tad overstated. But I’m digressing again. The point is that I’ve been keeping a bit of an eye on the counter, and the times that the listing was viewed the most was when I was advertising this blog!
Oh, and since this post is largely about those big pretty graphs above… I’d love to know why the PropertyGuys web site only provides a counter. Yes, a simple counter straight out of the late ’90s. No historical information, no demographic information, no graphs – and get this: it even counts a hit when *I* view the listing!
So, what now? If those property marketing guys aren’t living up to their promises, where does one turn? Well, there may be an answer in the future… but for now, this is your cliff-hanger ending.
(P.S.: If you’re really pressed for time, email me and I can give you a teaser)
I found your blog on MSN Search. Nice writing. I will check back to read more.
Eric Hundin
Very interesting – thanks for this. I’ve been looking for this type of info for some time but the internet is saturated with propaganda from various resources and it’s rather hard to wade through it.
I am currently listed with both bytheowner.com and propertyguys.com and have been listed for approx. 3 weeks. In my opinion, for the services offered, and the package prices quoted in my area, BTO has better value. Keep in mind that these package prices are sometimes negotiable, and one of my coworkers was able to get a free listing on one of these websites after he had listed with the other.
The web traffic to my listing has been fairly equal from both sites. The bytheowner.com “hit counter” is much more sophisticated and gives you information on new visitors versus repeat visitors, etc.. which is very handy to have. I will also say that my Kijiji ad gets hundreds more hits than either of those sites.
The representative I have at BTO.com is quite good, and also gave me a list of properties within a 1km radius that were recently sold – what their selling price actually was. I have never had an encounter with a BTO employee that wasn’t extremely positive.
The BTO website also has a forum where sellers can share their tips, woes and successes, and they have a licensed real estate agent on staff that often posts information and motivational tips.
I’ve known a few people who have listed on both sites and in general, most believe they are fairly equal in the success rates with respect to exposure. (ALL of the people I know who have listed on either of these sites have sold successfully within a reasonable amount of time.)
One thing to factor in is which site is more predominant in the area you are selling in. I happen to live in an area where propertyguys.com has many more listings than bto.com; therefore one may assume the web traffic to property guys is going to be a bit heavier. I listed with BTO because I like their website and their overall image, I listed with property guys because they are more popular in my area. I have only one sign on my lawn.
In areas like the niagara region, privaterealestate.ca is the top FSBO website, while the others – not so much. In Barrie, BTO is extremely popular. List with the predominant one in your area, but don’t stop at just one listing. There are many free FSBO websites: try homesbyowner.com, which offers a free package and their site actually carries across to oodle where all of the mls listings show up.
For the record, and as an aside, I have found print adverts to be a waste of money – the two days I had full colour picture ads in the paper were coincidentally the days I had the least amount of traffic to my sites.
Anyway, good luck with your sale and thanks for the blog – I’ll be watching it regularly to see what other information you can dig up.
Do you feel ripped off by Propertyguys because they mislead you with false information about their “hits”? If I paid $500 based on false info, I would demand my money back and perhaps try to report them.
Frank
Alexa is just one site that tracks web traffic. I guess the question is where they get their data. Alexa’s info comes only from people that have the Alexa tool bar and use it to search. Here is an excerpt from their website:
“Gathering Web Usage Information
In addition to the Alexa Crawl, which can tell us what is on the Web, Alexa utilizes web usage information, which tells us what is being seen on the web. This information comes from the community of Alexa Toolbar users. Each member of the community, in addition to getting a useful tool, is giving back. Simply by using the toolbar each member contributes valuable information about the web, how it is used, what is important and what is not. This information is returned to the community with improved Related Links, Traffic Rankings and more.”
If you look at Ranking.com they say that PropertyGuys.com is 17,691 in overall web traffic. Seems pretty high but impressive because they have come up from 43,000th in a year. ByTheOwner.com is listed as 40,704th, an improvement because they came up from 192,000nd, but still well behind PropertyGuys.com. With out a doubt private sale is growing dramatically.
I have been listed for almost 2 weeks with PropertyGuys.com and have 476 hits on my page. I have also had one person present an offer. Unfortunately we were unable to come to an agreement.
Mike:
Your point, if I understand it correctly, is that Alexa.com does not necessarily give the most reliable web site traffic data.
I agree.
The point of this post was to show the _relative_ difference in traffic between MLS.ca and the other private sale web sites. This is because in my initial conversations with the local representative, as well as all of PropertyGuys’ literature, they represent their web site traffic as being “close” to that of MLS.ca.
Thank you for pointing out another traffic ranking site, Rankings.com. It’s encouraging to hear that the numbers are improving for private sales firms.
Again though, the point was to provide a relative comparison – or “apples to apples”. Doing this with Rankings.com yields the following on the date this is written:
“Web Rank” from Ranking.com
MLS.ca – 1053
ForSaleByOwner.com – 7017
PropertyGuys.com – 17,691
GreyBruceListings.com – Not Ranked
So, using this method for comparison, PropertyGuys.com still does not get anywhere near the traffic of MLS.ca.
I will agree that MLS gets more exposure, as it should. How long have they had a monopoly on the business? I had a quick look through the PropertyGuys.com website, specifically the “How It Works” section. I did not find anywhere that they claimed to be “equal” or “comparable”.
Below is an excerpt from their website comparing them with the agent method.
“Yes, the agent system can be an effective solution. Surprised we’d say that? Well, we’re not the ones with our heads in the sand. The question shouldn’t be whether or not their system provides good exposure but rather “why do I need to use their system?” it costs way too much. We’re an effective and low cost alternative to their system. Our system provides you with a level of exposure that we believe can eliminate the very need for using an agent. Our web site gets millions of hits a month and we send automated notifications to buyers looking for homes all across the country. By the way, agents also use our web site to find available properties for their customers.”
In regards to the Ranking.com stats I believe that ForSaleByOwner.com is an american company so that means that PropertyGuys.com is the most visited FSBO site in Canada and second only to MLS. That sure makes me feel like I spent my money wisely!