It Could!!!   Do you realize that any online property marketing tool has the potential to link out to your competition in 2-4 clicks?  You pay for a nice property website or visual tour with all the great fancy links to area information and fun stuff that are very engaging to buyers. Buyers love your site so much that they click and click until they are so far away from the original listing they were viewing that they may even end up on your local competitor's website searching for more properties and filling out information inquiries....How does this happen? (link to example below)

You may not even care, but I know a few agents who went balistic when I showed them this.  There is something a bit prickly about seeing your competitions logo, smiling agent face and their IDX website search portal so close to your prized, on-line funded materials.  You paid for this individual property website, how can the provider allow the viewer to end up on another local, or national property search?  I have my opinions regarding this but I may miff some people off.

When you post your listing online, whether it is a visual tour, single property website or any online service that offers outside links to information, you risk the chance that they are also a portal for paid google and yahoo ads.  The online marketing material provider is getting paid for placing banners and click thrus from the ads they place on the area information pages linked to your listing.  In essence, they get paid by you paying to get your listings online on their product so they can drive traffic to a bigger cash cow....online paid ads.  If the online listing service is free, which some are, it doesn't upset me as much but if I am paying for it.....no way!  If the ads are generic in nature and not my competition I may be ok with that as well...just don't link to Suzy Realtor, my competition!!!

Click Here to see an example of what I mean.  I tried to disguise this provider but....

Now, there are times when we, personally make a mistake and link out from our corporate and agent websites to area information that may provide competitors ads. If that is the case, you should find other resources that do not provide pay per click ads like "real" govenment agency websites and "real" school information sites.  Check ALL your links.  I even see links right on the bottom of a broker website homepage that ARE the competition.  A lot of tech providers do not understand how critical and emotionally charged this is.

There is so much out there right now it can confuse the heck out of even the best online specialists...imagine how non-tech savvy brokers and agents must be feeling.  How do they protect themselves when they don't know what they are looking for and don't have the time to research and learn it all.   Sometimes I wish I knew nadda about it all.  Makes my head spin how opportunistic our society has become around our seller's listings.