HousingWireHousingWire
In this executive conversation, we talk to Mickey Neuberger, who lays out Realtor.com’s vision for the coming months and years, prioritizing customer experience, technological innovation, and market adaptation. Neuberger’s insights give us a “peek behind the curtain” into Realtor.com’s strategy to lead in today’s market while continuing to grow and innovate.
We’re proud to be the No. 1 brand trusted by real estate professionals and to be linked with a brand whose legacy goes back almost 120 years.
HousingWire: As we look ahead, what is your vision for Realtor.com‘s future? What key initiatives or strategies are you most excited about that will shape the platform’s evolution in the coming years?
Mickey Neuberger: Our strategy is simple. We’re building the only online real estate marketplace where everyone wins—homebuyers and the industry alike. This means offering consumers the most dynamic maps and information about the homes and neighborhoods they are considering. We’re also delivering the best user experience and using AI to help buyers find their perfect home. Plus, we’re the only portal championing buyer’s agents because we believe independent representation is crucial.
For agents and brokers, it means we serve the needs of both the buyer and the listing agents. We offer a range of lead and marketing products tailored to their business needs. We recognize that the most successful agents often work in teams, so we’re here to support those teams. We also intend to offer all products in all markets. We’ve heard it loud and clear…brokers and agents want to choose the right product for their business, and we have not always given them that choice, so that’s where we are headed.
Our success is rooted in our high-quality audience. We’re proud to be the No. 1 brand trusted by real estate professionals and to be linked with a brand whose legacy goes back almost 120 years. This reputation attracts the most engaged, serious buyers and sellers, leading to more listings for our listing agents and more leads for our buyer agents.
Our approach is working: we’ve held market share despite competitors spending much more. I’m really excited about the progress we’ve made this past year. We’re in a strong position and fully committed to a plan that helps our customers succeed. The best is yet to come.
Marketing objectives for 2024
HW: As we enter the second half of 2024, what are the primary marketing objectives for Realtor.com? How do you plan to achieve these goals, and what metrics will you use to measure success?
MN: We are focused on growth, growth, growth, and marketing is a big part of that. We’re zeroing in on three key areas: growing our audience, engaging with them, and converting interest into action, all while enhancing our brand’s trust and credibility.
Realtor.com is already recognized as a professional and trustworthy platform among consumers, and we plan to build on this with an exciting evolution of our top-ranked “No. 1 Most Trusted Brand” campaign in the coming months. We’re also further tapping into the power of NewsCorp—our parent company—to broaden our marketing reach. Our “Most Trusted” campaign and journalism are getting prime spots in big-name publications like the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, and U.S. Sun. Plus, with new integrations on Fox and Fox Weather, we’re set to increase our visibility even more. This network gives us valuable exposure to a high-potential real estate audience.
Personalization is another big focus for us. Using AI and machine learning, we’re fine-tuning our marketing to offer content and property recommendations that match consumers’ preferences and behaviors. As the market changes, people want reliable information and guidance, and our marketing emphasizes Realtor.com’s role as a trusted resource. Our tailored approach is helping us connect with buyers and sellers in meaningful ways, leading to higher engagement and better lead conversion for our agent and broker partners.
Finally, we’re dedicated to turning our engaged audience into quality leads for our customers. We help buyers and sellers find the right professionals early on and offer options through products like RealChoice Selling, which lets consumers compare listing agent proposals. We also provide tools for collaboration and detailed data insights throughout the real estate journey, helping everyone make confident decisions.
We measure our success through several metrics. First, we track consumer audience growth and traffic. According to third-party metrics provider Comscore, Realtor.com holds the second position in the industry, but we aren’t satisfied with that; we want to be No. 1. Second, we evaluate consumer engagement. Realtor.com leads in pages per visit and nearly triples the average minutes per visitor compared to Homes.com. Our non-branded traffic, primarily organic, is also growing.
Realtor.com is in a great position to continue delivering industry-best quality and value to consumers and our real estate partners.
Innovations and improvements
HW: Can you discuss any upcoming technological innovations or features Realtor.com plans to introduce? How will these enhancements improve the user experience for consumers and real estate professionals?
HW: We’re investing heavily in tech to keep up with changes and push for innovation, and it’s already paying off. AI is a big focus for us. We’ve set up a solid foundation and launched some cool features like image classification, which sorts photos into categories like bedrooms and bathrooms, and finding similar homes based on what users search. But we’re not stopping there. This year, we’re adding visual search so users can find homes through images, and by early next year, we’ll introduce conversational search to make home hunting even more accessible.
And there’s plenty more coming. We’re working closely with our industry partners, including MLS, to explore new AI-driven possibilities that will keep improving the real estate experience.
Adapting to market changes
HW: The real estate market is constantly evolving. How is Realtor.com planning to adapt its marketing strategies to address current market trends and consumer behaviors in the latter half of 2024?
MN: At Realtor.com, this market shift is a chance for us to innovate and improve our services for consumers and industry clients. While the market is tough right now, I’m optimistic. Market cycles change, and we’re getting ready by investing heavily in our marketing and product development.
We expect affordability to improve for consumers with slightly lower mortgage rates later this year. We know affordability is a big issue for many, so we’ve rolled out tools to help buyers navigate the market. Our Buying Power tool lets users see how much home they can afford and adjust their search accordingly. We’re also linking consumers to finance options to help with high mortgage rates, like info on USDA 0% down payment, VA home loan eligibility, and easy access to down payment assistance programs on each listing.
For agents, we’re focused on supporting both sides of the transaction. Our Listing Toolkit helps agents win and sell more listings, and we’re expanding our product lineup for brokers and teams. Over the past year, we’ve made significant progress in our mission to be more customer-focused, improving our lead generation and marketing products across different markets.
We’re staying agile and ready to adapt to market changes. We’re confident that Realtor.com will continue connecting consumers with the right homes and agents while helping our industry partners succeed in this competitive landscape.
Plans for the future
HW: The buyer advocacy campaign has significantly succeeded. What are the next steps for this initiative, and how do you plan to expand its reach and impact in the coming months?
MN: Our commitment goes far beyond a single campaign—it’s woven into the very fabric of our company. We’re all about continuing to innovate and expand, whether by launching more initiatives like our buyer agency advocacy campaign and agent toolkit, promoting down payment assistance on all home listings, offering resources in Spanish, or creating guides for diverse buyer segments. Helping more people achieve homeownership and build generational wealth is vital to our marketing and product strategies. There’s still a lot to do, and we’re committed to making homeownership accessible for everyone.
We’ll keep partnering with professional organizations to create targeted campaigns and research. This helps agents understand buyers’ needs from different communities and adjust their services accordingly. Plus, we’re offering webinars, articles, and success stories focused on diversity and inclusion to give agents tips and examples of inclusive practices. Our dedication to helping customers succeed is stronger than ever.
Mickey Neuberger is the CMO at Realtor.com.
