Recently I was in Phoenix participating in training on Realtor.com. While most of the meeting focused on listing data, reporting and managing accounts I was really impressed with the Featured Home solution. I’m often asked, “What’s the value of a featured home? And what type of traffic should I expect?” Those are understandable questions but can be difficult to answer with all of the different market conditions that can affect traffic to a listing. As a result, I wanted to share some of the highlights and why I’m such a fan of this product.
OVERVIEW
First, Featured Homes are ad positions prominently displayed at the top of the Search Result pages on Realtor.com. These placements display ‘Featured’ listings and provide significantly more exposure than the standard listings. There are 8 available placements for each zip code and an advertiser can select to have all homes or a single home displayed. In addition to the listing, Featured Homes also allow the inclusion of a headline like “New Home” and for builders with Realtor.com Enhanced Listings they also receive builder branding with a prominent logo.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN
During our training I learned that the Featured Homes dynamically determines an advertisers’ most relevant listing and matches that to the consumer’s search. I think this has huge benefits for builders with multiple listings and range of community prices. If you have 50 listings on the MLS but maybe only 5 match the consumer’s query of price, location, bed, bath, wouldn’t you want to display those 5 homes first?
REACH & VISIBILITY
Advertisers also have the ability to purchase neighboring zip codes where their listings may not naturally display. For example, if your community feeds into a popular high school that’s in a neighboring zip code Featured Homes is the only way to provide that visibility for your listings.
In markets with a large populations of relo, it makes sense to purchase city center zip codes since it’s fair to assume those consumer may not be as familiar with the suburbs and surrounding neighborhoods.
TRAFFIC
Featured Homes is a great traffic driver to the builder’s listings and a great way to capture home shoppers who may not have considered new construction. I’ve run reports for builders across the country and on average Featured Homes represent a 30% incremental lift in traffic to their listings. The chart below is an example of some of the different reports we’ve seen for homebuilders. For the builder in Minnesota you can see visits to their LDP (Listing Detail Pages) were 1,426 this month 334 (23%) of those visits came from click originating from Featured Homes. And with Featured Home placements as low as $11/mo. a 30% lift in prospective homebuyers is a tremendous value. 
AFFORDABILITY
Rates are based on a tiered pricing and for many zips is as low as $11/mo. BDX offers reporting that identifies all zips and rates for where a builder has listings. In many instance we’ve found a builder can cover a majority of their listings by targeting just the most affordable markets. Ask us for a complete report on your MLS listings to determine which zip codes will drive the most value for your budget. Many builder use the report to target zip codes with the greatest reach or for hyper targeted advertising to move spec inventory.
FEATURED HOMES AND ENHANCED LISTINGS
As much as I’ve become and advocate for Featured Homes I wouldn’t recommend this product for non- enhanced listings. Advertisers simply won’t receive the same value since you’re effectively driving incremental consumers to your listings and they’re not able to fully engage with your brand or submit a lead. Contact me or your local sales representative to see if your MLS Listings are enhanced on Realtor.com.
For more information regarding Featured Homes or other Advertising Products contact Thane Tennison, Advertising Manager for BDX or contact your local Sales Representative.