I’ll do whatever I can to offer a convenience to my customers.

Regardless of what they are used for, I agree that the embedded tracking capabilities are key to a QR Code strategy, and ultimately ensuring that the QR code converts to Leads and hopefully sales.

Bob Sheddy
Commercial REALTOR
Alberta, Canada

Ed, very good article and love the fact that you have pointed out that Yelp.com is the new yellow pages.

I think there may be a difference between yelp.com and trulia (etc) that would be great to have a specific article on. Like Jason said, Yelp.com is a validator of the service provided by an agent/company (the real estate industry being a service industry), Zillow and Trulia are places that consumers look to obtain a product. That being said, Yelp.com in the real estate industry is for branding (tells the quality of service of past experiences), Trulia/zillow are for originating.

My company, just recently got on yelp and the feedback alone has been helpful. Now the decision to advertise is the question. Perhaps a bit of both what I will call “originating advertising” and “branding advertising” would be the best recipe.

Looking forward to following comments…check out our yelp reviews at http://www.yelp.com/biz/david-setti—turnkey-mortgage-solutions-inc-campbell-2

Cheers,
Drew

One of the benefits of Trulia for example is one step feature of claiming my listings. Google Base sounds like I would have had to input a listing like I would onto an MLS, which could have been too time consuming for some agents.
Not sure how I feel about them going away just yet. Only time will tell.

Maybe if Google had done a better job promoting their add a listing feature, more agents would have used it.

As a real estate professional in San Francisco, you may find it surprising to know that a Yelp advertising sales agent referred me to this article during a sales call this morning.

I whole heartedly agree that Yelp is superior to Yellow Book and DexKnows. Critically, though, neither are real estate oriented sites, but rather generic “phone books.” Your observations about them is important and explains their stagnate web growth.

Yelp vs. typical real estate sites (like Trulia and Zillow) is a very different comparison.

First, let me say that I do love Yelp. You can find my personal profile page at jasonSF.yelp.com or my business profile page by searching Yelp for Jason Allen-Rouman. You’ll see on my personal page that I have one friend and a couple of reviews and on my business page I have a few client reviews.

When on Yelp as a consumer, I tend to look for restaurant reviews. As a professional, I rarely remember to prompt clients for a review. In the end, I am, shamefully, a user of the data and not so much of a contributor. Based on 40,000,000 hits nationwide over 30-days, (statistic cited by the Yelp rep during our call), I’d say I am soundly in the majority and Yelp is probably better for it, as 40,000,000 reviews every month would be overwhelming.

My experience is common, however. If it strikes my fancy to go out for dinner, I check Yelp. If I need a new doctor, I might check Yelp. Both of those are driven by a desire to obtain a specific service. In real estate, people who want to SELL a house are looking for a service and MAY check Yelp first. However, people looking to BUY a house are looking for a product (a house) and start on real estate specific sites like Trulia and Zillow.

Buyers are no doubt retaining real estate professionals in a service capacity, but that understanding comes second to the house hunt. More often than not, Buyers start their property search online and select an agent through a number of on- and off-line gateways. These include Yelp reviews, Yelp ads, Trulia and Zillow listings, the individual agent’s website, brokerage sites, word of mouth from trusted friends/family, or other social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn, etc. Often this research VALIDATES the decision to go with a specific person, but there is no data that demonstrates that it drives it.

Although Sellers are clearer about needing real estate services and therefore begin their foray into selling their property by looking for an agent, it remains unanswered how many select their agent based on any one source of information and, specifically, if something like a Yelp ad is superior to an ordinary Yelp review page. This holds true for “upgraded” Trulia pages (Trulia’s version of advertizing). Unlike retail sites, like Amazon, there is no purchase tracking, which underscores another difference in buying a home: it is not a retail experience even though it is presented as one with the burgeoning Trulias and Zillows of the internet.

There is absolutely no question that online advertising is the present and the future. The question remains what is the best form of it. So far, my Yelp rep can’t point to a compelling reason to upgrade from the basic presence on the site.