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NAR Technology Survey Reveals Heavy Tech Investment By Realtors

RISMEDIA, May 15, 2006—The number of Realtors® with Web sites has increased 129% over the past five years, and many of the sites display property listings, according to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors®.

The 2006 Realtor® Technology Survey, conducted by NAR’s Center for REALTOR® Technology, reveals that the Internet ranks third in generating leads, behind referrals and repeat clients, and ahead of community involvement. The survey also shows that there is a clear connection between technology spending and Internet-generated leads, and that getting leads from the Internet continues to grow.

Realtors® have invested heavily in Internet technology and security, through Multiple Listing Systems and individually, in the past several years. For example, the survey showed that thus far in 2006, 56 percent of agents spent more than $1,000 apiece on technology and that 30 percent spent $2,000 or more. In addition, 16 percent of agents and 28 percent of brokers are now spending more than $1,000 annually on their Web sites. Realtors® with personal business Web sites – not including an area on a broker’s site – was 71 percent in 2006, compared to 31 percent in 2002, showing a jump of 129 percent.

“Consumers are able to use information portals to look for homes to buy because Realtors® have invested huge amounts of resources in technology to make accurate information available on secure sites, thus bringing added value to the transaction. All this information is available to consumers, free of charge, 24 hours a day,” said Thomas M. Stevens, 2006 NAR president and senior vice president of NRT Inc., from Vienna, Va.

The survey also showed that the amount of investment in Web sites has a direct relationship to the number of leads coming from the Internet. Thus, 40 percent of those who spent more than $5,000 on their Web site showed that more than 60 percent of their leads come from the Internet.

Realtors® are also reacting more quickly to online inquiries. In a surprising change from past surveys and findings, over half the survey respondents indicated that it takes them less than two hours to respond to an Internet inquiry, and only 2 percent indicated that it took them more than a day to respond. That compares with a 2004 survey showing that only 27 percent of practitioners responded within eight hours to an online inquiry and 46 percent of inquiries received no responses.

“While the survey indicates that the vast majority of Realtors® take steps to protect themselves and the listing information provided by their clients and customers, more work remains to be done,” said Mark Lesswing, NAR vice president and director of CRT. “Less than a third of respondents have received information security education from their MLS or brokerage. Only one-third are aware of written security policies that they must follow and less than half have a written privacy policy. Programs like CRT’s REALTOR® Secure can definitely play a role here.”

The survey shows that use of automated transaction management systems, used to electronically monitor each step of the real estate process, continues to rise, moving from 13 percent in 2005 to 26 percent in 2006, with 70 percent of users saying they are satisfied with their applications.

The survey was based on data from field research conducted in April of this year. CRT e-mailed the survey to 20,000 NAR members, including agents and brokers and generated 719 usable responses. The 2006 study is available by clicking here.

NAR’s Center for REALTOR® Technology was established to provide technology leadership, guidance and assistance for NAR members; CRT makes available informed industry insight, research and open-source applications through its mission of implementation, advocacy and information. Information about CRT is available at www.realtor.org/crt.

Video Sharing Sites - MSN Video, YouTube and Google Video - Benefit From Broadband Penetration Increase NEW YORK, March 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that the number of active broadband users from home increased 28 percent year-over-year, from 74.3 million in February 2005 to 95.5 million in February 2006. Broadband composition among the U.S. active online population has seen vigorous growth during the past three years, increasing at least ten percentage points annually and hitting an all-time high of 68 percent for active Internet users in February 2006. From February 2003 to February 2004, broadband composition grew twelve percentage points, from 33 percent to 45 percent (see Table 1). In February 2005, it increased another ten percentage points to 55 percent. This year, February saw broadband composition reach an all-time high of 68 percent, increasing an impressive 13 percentage points over the previous February. Overall Internet penetration in the U.S. has stabilized over the past few years, reaching 74 percent at home in February 2006. As broadband penetration increases, so does the average PC time spent per person. With fast connections to Web sites for online photos, audio and video files, online visitors are devoting more time to their computers. Since February 2003, the average PC time per person among active Web users has increased approximately five hours from 25 and a half hours a month to 30 and a half hours a month. "The correlated growth in average PC time per person is the result of broadband users' greater satisfaction with their online experience," said Jon Gibs, senior director of media, Nielsen//NetRatings. "The 'always on' nature of a broadband connection allows the Internet to become more entrenched in consumers' lives. In broadband consumers' minds, activities such as checking account balances, downloading music, watching streaming video and checking email become just another application of the PC rather than a separate activity that happens when they log on to the Internet." Table 1: Growth in Broadband Composition and PC Time among Active Internet Universe (U.S., Home Only) ____________________________________________________________________ U.S. Broadband PC Time Year Composition (%) Per Person (hh:mm:ss) ____________________________________________________________________ Feb-03 33 25:33:24 ____________________________________________________________________ Feb-04 45 27:52:29 ____________________________________________________________________ Feb-05 55 27:49:58 ____________________________________________________________________ Feb-06 68 30:35:54 ____________________________________________________________________ Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, March 2006 Note: Broadband data is based on individual, active Internet users 2 years and older. Video Sharing Sites Enjoy Growing Popularity With increased broadband penetration, a growing trend is accessing streaming media online at video sharing sites. MSN Video garnered 9.3 million unique visitors in February 2006, growing 44 percent over the previous year (see Table 2). YouTube and Google Video grew from relative obscurity in February 2005 to substantial players in February 2006, drawing 9.0 million and 6.2 million unique visitors, respectively. iFilm and Yahoo's video search saw triple digit year-over-year growth in their visitation, drawing 4.3 million and 3.8 million unique visitors, respectively. "Video sites have successfully tapped into the use of viral campaigns, capitalizing on consumers' impulse to share funny clips with their friends," said Gibs. "Among these sites, it is not uncommon to see dramatic spikes in weekly Web traffic due to a popular online video that has been sent from person to person. Television networks should be looking to embrace, rather than pull away from these sites, in order to generate buzz for their broadcast programming." Table 2: Web Traffic to Video Sites, February 2006 (U.S., Home and Work) ____________________________________________________________________ Video Site Unique Audience (000) Year Over Year Percent Change ____________________________________________________________________ MSN Video 9,279 44% ____________________________________________________________________ YouTube 9,045 NA ____________________________________________________________________ Google Video 6,246 NA ____________________________________________________________________ iFILM 4,336 102% ____________________________________________________________________ video.search.yahoo.com 3,774 148% ____________________________________________________________________ Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, March 2006 Note: This list is a sample of popular video sites and is not meant to be exhaustive. ********************************************************* Nielsen//NetRatings reports February 2006 data for the Top Sites by Parent Company and Top Brands. In addition, Nielsen//NetRatings reveals the Top Advertisers by Company for February 2006. Nielsen//NetRatings Top 10 Web Sites by Parent Company and Top 10 Web Sites By Brand, February 2006 Table 1. Top 10 Parent Companies, Table 2. Top 10 Brands, Combined Home & Work Combined Home & Work ______________________________________ ________________________________ Unique Time Per Unique Time Per Audience Person Audience Person Parent (000) (hh:mm:ss) Brand (000) (hh:mm:ss) ______________________________________ ________________________________ 1. Microsoft 112,388 2:04:09 1. Yahoo! 102,165 3:10:46 ______________________________________ ________________________________ 2. Yahoo! 102,826 3:10:12 2. Microsoft 95,555 0:46:13 ______________________________________ ________________________________ 3. Time Warner 100,015 4:50:21 3. MSN 91,622 1:43:51 ______________________________________ ________________________________ 4. Google 90,490 0:54:31 4. Google 89,059 0:53:11 ______________________________________ ________________________________ 5. eBay 59,120 1:49:13 5. AOL 73,289 6:00:13 ______________________________________ ________________________________ 6. InterActiveCorp 55,906 0:25:58 6. eBay 52,102 1:53:49 ______________________________________ ________________________________ 7. News Corp. Online 52,767 1:23:37 7. Amazon 38,994 0:21:14 ______________________________________ ________________________________ 8. Amazon 45,693 0:23:59 8. MapQuest 36,721 0:13:43 ______________________________________ ________________________________ 9. Walt Disney 9. Ask Jeeves Internet Group 41,249 0:34:05 Network 34,259 0:25:29 ______________________________________ ________________________________ 10. New York Times Company 38,559 0:15:37 10. Apple 34,211 1:04:13 ______________________________________ ________________________________ Example: The data indicates that 38.6 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the New York Times Company-owned sites or launched a New York Times Company-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 15 minutes and 37 seconds at one or more of their sites or applications. A parent company is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single entity. A brand is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content. Reach is a measure of the unduplicated audience that visits a property. The data is expressed as the percentage of the total universe of Internet users who logged onto the Internet at least once during the reporting period. Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance Top 10 Advertisers, February 2006 Top advertisers, ranked by estimated spending, are based on data from AdRelevance, Nielsen//NetRatings' advertising research service. An impression is counted as the number of times an ad is rendered for viewing. Top 10 Advertisers by Estimated Spending ____________________________________________________________________ Total Estimated Advertiser Spending Impressions (000) ____________________________________________________________________ 1. Vonage Holdings Corp $23,022,500 9,473,806 ____________________________________________________________________ 2. Netflix, Inc. $16,669,900 6,961,163 ____________________________________________________________________ 3. GUS Plc $16,144,200 9,264,565 ____________________________________________________________________ 4. LowerMyBills.com, Inc. $12,075,000 2,439,032 ____________________________________________________________________ 5. Verizon Communications, Inc. $11,259,500 3,211,531 ____________________________________________________________________ 6. United Online, Inc. $10,219,300 3,468,026 ____________________________________________________________________ 7. General Motors Corporation $9,580,300 1,600,088 ____________________________________________________________________ 8. QuinStreet $9,389,800 1,880,501 ____________________________________________________________________ 9. NexTag.com $8,912,100 2,840,852 ____________________________________________________________________ 10. Scottrade, Inc. $8,893,200 1,789,189 ____________________________________________________________________ Estimated spending reflects CPM-based advertising online, and excludes search-based advertising, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, partnership advertising, advertorials, promotions and email. Impressions reported exclude house ads, which are ads that run on an advertiser's own or related property and co-branding relationships. Example: An estimated 1.8 billion Scottrade, Inc. ads were rendered for viewing at the cost of approximately $8.9 million during the surfing period. About Nielsen//NetRatings NetRatings, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRT) delivers leading Internet media and market research solutions, marketed globally under the Nielsen//NetRatings brand. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for Internet audience measurement and premier source for online advertising intelligence, enabling clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet and digital strategies. The Nielsen//NetRatings portfolio includes panel-based and site-centric Internet audience measurement services, online advertising intelligence, user lifestyle and demographic data, e-commerce and transaction metrics, and custom data, research and analysis. For more information, please visit http://www.nielsen-netratings.com. NetRatings, Inc. Suzy Bausch (408) 941-2965 Jennifer Fan (408) 941-2951