I think that the agents have to pay for realtor.com. but the virtual tour is so slow and everything seems to be the "same"color. She is working for you, and should respond. Talk to the broker and find out what is going on or ask for another agent. I have gotten burned big time by friends.

Realtor.com is priced by how many listings each agent has. Up to 10 listings a year is one price, 11-20 is another. I pay about $75 per month for my membership, but it is a contract price yearly, you can't purchase it for one listing or for one month.

If your DD house is on realtor.com but doesnt have multiple pictures, banners and an additional write up then the agent doesnt subscribe to realtor.com (Each listing is loaded directly from the local MLS, only agents who pay for enhanced listings get more pictures, write up space and all the extras)

Also, I forgot the most important part. Your agent, must be a "REALTOR", to subscribe to realtor.com Real estate agents without that designation are not permitted on "realTOR.com"

linda is correct. All the MLS listings are "swept" onto Realtor.com with just their basic information and 4 pictures unless the agent or their office subscribe to enhanced listings. Then the agent has to make sure to do the enhancements.

All the MLS listings are "swept" onto Realtor.com with just their basic information and 4 pictures

Actually, its just 1 picture. Usually the front of the house. (whichever pic is loaded first in MLS)

We have four pictures.

That particular virtual tour is downright boring. I also think the home would benefit from some staging. The wall hangings all seem way too small for the areas they're in and nothing seems to POP. I'd expect at least a reasonable reply about the realtor dot com question you asked her.

Wall decor was primarily family pictures before.

In the past Realtor.com would just put up the first picture on MLS, but at least for the last year or so they pull the first four pictures.
If a strong Realtor.com presence is important to you as a seller, you need to ask potential agents if they subscribe to the enhanced listings.

Found realtor's card, and she is a realTOR for sure. I think the DD thought that inquiring about professional photos and tour meant on realtor.com, the only site she knows to use, but I guess now we know different.

Now that I know it would cost her an extra $700-800 per year, I suppose my question now is how important is it to be on there. I did find an article that says realtor.com gets the most visits for similar sites, but none of them get an overwhelming per centage. If it's going to greatly help marketing and ultimately sale of the property, it should be important to us and our realtor. What do you realtors out there think, does it play a role in many of your sales? We're in a town where this house is more likely to be bought by someone from out of town than a local. Way more likely I would say.

I wonder if realtor.com offers different packages for different areas. My area is 1 picture for sure if you are not a member. The OP's house on realtor.com only shows 1 picture. Some of the others posters say they have 4, but maybe their agent subscribes to realtor.com? Im thinking for the $75 per month I pay, I could be happy with 4 pictures on realtor.com and save myself the money.

As for the OPs question, is it worth it? It is very regional. Some areas of the country use realtor.com alot more than others. Alot of agents in my area are switching from realtor.com to other sites that have shown alot of growth.

If you do a search on the internet, does your house show up with little difficulty? Is it coming up on trulia, zillow, homes.com or any of the other sites? You dont really know for sure that it would cost your agent $700-$800 per year. If she lists 40 homes per year, it could cost her thousands. (remember, the more you list, the higher the costs.). Im very picky with my listings for this reason. I dont take unmotivated sellers with over inflated prices. Its just not cost effective for me.

Thanks to all for your help with this. Maybe we are placing too much emphasis on the tour and photos being on that one site.

The OP's listing on Realtor.com does have 4 pictures. The office that I work for just recently started subscribing to enhanced listings and before we did we always had the first 4 MLS pictures on Realtor.com. I don't know why you only get one in your area Linda. It might be something to do with your MLS system.

To the OP, I would ask your agent to change the order of the MLS pictures so that the first four are the best representation of your home.

And it always amazes me how much house you can get for the money in Texas.

Here is a link that might be useful: OP's house on Realtor.com

Terriks, I wouldnt be surprised if it had something to do with our MLS system. Our system is so antiquated. I think its one of the only systems in the country not realtor owned. Its a continuous problem.

As for the OP, the most important picture is missing, the kitchen! People always want to see a picture of the kitchen. If its not there, they assume it needs to be redone. Since the house isnt that old, Im assuming the kitchen has to be decent. Have your DD's realtor change one of the pictures so the kitchen can be included!

Good suggestion about kitchen pic.

I disagree with the comment that the virtual tour is boring. The home shows as very clean, uncluttered and tastefully decorated. Over-accessorizing doesn't appeal to me.

Weedy, thanks for the comment. It was very hard to get where we are now. The realtor's openhouse folks were very complimentary about the house and its appearance, show-ability. People at showings have liked the house. Biggest negative in feedback has been laundry in garage.

Linda, I have slept twice on the comment about unmotivated buyer with overpriced home. I think most people start out with a price that they expect to negotiate. DD and SIL worked hard with their realtor and comps to arrive at that price. Price has not been a negative except in one showing. That said, I won't be surprised if DD lowers the price a bit if there are not more showings this week. She is motivated to sell, but not desperate.

I appreciate the thought going into everyone's replies.

The thing that I find boring about the virtual tour is not the house, but the fact that it is not a true virtual tour. It is just still pictures that zoom in or out. You have to wait for each picture to finish zooming before moving on to the next picture. I prefer to just look at still shots of a home at my own pace.

Frankly I'm not much on the tours either. I like the still shots in a slide-show better too.

It's a beautiful house. I'm very surprised the laundry is in the garage, a house that size should have enough room for a laundry inside. Have you thought about getting a plan together for making a laundry room inside? Maybe if people could see how it could be done (and hopefully for not a lot of money) it wouldn't be such a negative.

I'm also surprised that the back is completely fenced in with a privacy fence when it faces such a pretty view. I would expect it to have an open fence at least across the back. But again, that can be changed.

hddana, my comment about overpriced and unmotivated sellers was not directed at you or your DD's house. It was more to make the point on the cost of realtor.com and how I have adjusted which listings I take because of it. I dont know your market at all and couldnt tell you if you were underpriced or overpriced based on a listing on gardenweb.

I can't recall all the decisions about the garage laundry room, but at the time, DD had never had a laundry room and didn't consider it important. I don't know how one would communicate a plan to put the laundry room any of several places it could go. You never know who will be showing the house and fielding the comments. Ideas?

The fence was a big negative to many of the realtors on the realtor tour. It has not weathered well. A toddler and a dog live there normally (house sitting for relative at present, at home off and on). There is a pond less than 100 ft. from the back yard (can't see in pictures). Certainly taking the fence down would be a buyer's option. Discussion about painting or staining it has so far been a slow starter.

I'm a for-sale-by-owner and I'm on Realtor.com because I paid for a flat fee listing. I've sold a few houses myself before and this is a new thing, that we FSBO's could get it on there. I have a great ad on there--25 pictures, lots of information, good header, price range is in a common search criteria. So I thought things were going to bust loose! I have not gotten any more interest since I put it on there. We have a website and we can tell where our hits come from and all the inquiries from Realtor.com get forwarded to me directly but I haven't gotten one bite from them. I've gotten dozens of inquiries--e-mails and phonecalls and thirty-one thousand page turns on our website but none from Realtor.com. I was surprised. Then the other night I was talking to someone who is getting ready to buy a house and she had never even HEARD of Realtor.com. I couldn't believe it because that's my go-to place first when I'm house hunting. I'm stumped.

I thought your house looked gorgeous and couldn't believe the great price. Texas is cheap! But I didn't watch the whole tour because it was too slow. I wanted to. I was curious what the whole thing looked like. But it was taking too long. If I was house hunting though, I would have stuck with it.

In general, I also hate the virtual tours because like the other poster said, if they're just pictures zooming in and out, I'd rather go at my own pace. Why aren't there any REAL tours?

Love in the House, what did Realtor cost you for flat fee listing?

What is on the other side of the garage wall where the laundry is? Is it somewhere inside or is it an outside wall? That would be a simple and easy way to add an indoors laundry depending on the space there.

I use a real visual tour. I have a program that stitches panoramic photos together, up to a full 360 degrees. Those still shots that zoom in and out are silly... and cheaper than a full panoramic tour. That is why you see them all the time.
OP, I subscribe to the upgraded listings on Realtor.com, but only because it is impossible to explain to sellers that it does not really matter. You see, when a buyer is ready to buy, they more than likely will hire a buyers agent. That agent is going to do a search in the local MLS... and THAT is where the ready, able, and willing buyers are more than likely to come from.

Look at trulia.com and zillow.com

I prefer both of them to realtor.com I have no financial ties to either, I am just a house obsessed searcher. For my local market, one of the local companies has the best site and I tend to go to that one as well. They are able to include all MLS (multiple listing service) listings, not just their own companies.

Search just the address and see what other sites it comes up on to see if you can find the best site to use for your own future searching. There are MANY real estate sites out there, and they are all different. Some contain outdated info, or are not up to date.

Zillow values in our area tend to be pretty low for some reason. Comps showing sales back that up. It makes me wonder how accurate it is for other areas.

Hddana, it cost me $200. I shopped around. It was a little confusing getting it all on there because the company that did it for me wasn't good in the communication department, but I think in the end, the ad looks fanstastic. NCrealestateguy has a great point though about "ready, willing and able buyers" using a buyer's agent who will simply look at the MLS. Maybe that's why I have a ton of people who are interested in my house but none of them can buy it yet because they haven't sold their own houses--they aren't "able." Hmm. I think I might add an MLS listing. That would be another hundred bucks. And of course I'd have to offer a commission. But I'll still save some money and have control.

loveinthehouse... I thought you paid for a flat fee listing? If so, then you are in the MLS, and you will owe a commission if an agent brings you a buyer. You said you are on Realtor.com. If you are, it was uploaded via an IDX relationship with an MLS. To my knowledge, Realtor.com does not allow true FSBOs. You may want to communicate with your data entry person and ask for details.

hddana - zillow isn't accurate in TX because sales price is not public information so they are just pulling tax appraisal values. Only if somebody specifically enters the sale price for their property is it accurate.

I should have clarified. I like those sites to look at listings, and I take the "estimates" of value as meaning very little. Especially in my state since it is also non disclosure state, so only people with access to MLS know the actual sales price. In many states sales price is public record.