Real Estate section

I have a few questions. Has it even been discussed that there might be sub categories for regional real estate for actual agencies or agents? Also there is commercial and residential sub categories but what happens if you deal with both? Most realtors and agencies do. I am not sure how to make this area more information friendly. But I think joeant does a decent job.

Lastly Lets say that John Smith works for ABC real estate and gets his site listed . Can ABC Real Estate then have their main company site added? One might say they are affiliated, but in reality agents own their own websites, and while they work for an agency they do 99% of their work out on their own.

Thanks to anyone that can shed some light.

Are we talking about http://dmoz.org/Regional/ real estate categories here or http://dmoz.org/Business/Real_Estate/ categories?

Assuming the agent's site contains sufficient listable content, then generally, yes, it can listed separately from the agency's site in the Regional locality where the agent is physically located. If you look through Regional real estate categories, you'll see that occurring frequently.

Regarding subcategories, if a Regional Real Estate category gets sufficiently large, it is usually broken up into subcategories, which may include Commercial and Residential and then Agents and Agencies under those as required. Most locality-level Real Estate categories never get large enough to warrant that kind of subcategorizing.

http://dmoz.org/Business/Real_Estate/ But it seems that http://dmoz.org/Regional/ eventually links in that direction in the end.

Thank you for the clarity. I added my mother's website and it was added. Then the boss of her company tried to add the agency site and it has not been added. I just wanted to make sure that he could still submit even though one of his employess so to speak was already listed. Her site was added in 48 hours, his site was not added. To clarify agent was added while the agency was not.

Boston is pretty large. I dont know how large, large is, but there are 100 links in boston.
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/Residential/

The other problem I saw was that commercial, residential, and property management are separate. But I would say that 99% of real estate companies deal in all three. I am thinking you would say to put it in the one that best describes the majority of their business. But this month it might commercial deals and next month it might be residential. I'm splitting hairs. I dont know a better way to do it than DMOZ does it. But I think there might be some way.

I'm sure you'll probably understand when I say that real estate categories really are not among the high priority categories for most editors to edit. So depth of subcategorization really isn't something worth worrying about. Eventually someone I'm sure will decide to subcategorize Boston into Agents and Agencies (like Las Vegas is) but for now, it's really not a concern.

Sounds good. I obviously dont know how the ODP works. I didnt know if you could make a global change.

You know what I dont get. How do those 2 sites wind up outside of one of those two categories?
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/Residential/

Dont they have to be one or another?

I see this kind of stuff all over the ODP. I often want to report sites in these no mans land but I dont know if they are there for a reason. I will never be an editor. But I at least like to report things to the bad links thread to help out.

How do those 2 sites wind up outside of one of those two categories?

Click to expand...

If a site is not a real estate agency and it's not a real estate agent, then itd have to be listed in the upper level category, right? The presence of subcategories in a category doesn't necessarily mean that all sites must go in one of the subcategories. Sure, that's the way it is in some categories but it shouldn't be an automatic assumption everywhere.

That is what I figured. I just didnt know if it was that obvious. But what if it can fit into a subcategory? Does it have to go there? That category is well organized and its easy to see that 99% of the sites had to be one or the other, but what if that isnt the case?

What about here
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...es/B/Boston/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/

The bottom two listings are normal agent and agency sites and should be listed in residential. Especially the last one he is clearly just a residential agent. I wonder how many sites like that get 'treatment' and placed in higher levels than they should because that listing is worth more than another level down. That guy Will Fastow is one if the top producing residential agents in Boston. It is known that he pays top dollar to keep his website in good standing. So it makes you wonder when you see his listing. He buys links everywhere else. Maybe he or his website management company has an 'in'.

I have no idea if that is the case. You just have to wonder. Becuase it is clear that his site does not belong at that level. Every other agent is listed in the residential section.

Just a thought

After reading this thread and checking out the listing you are talking about in your last post, other questions come to mind other then where this Will guy is placed.

First, if you think this guy might have "Pull", why does he have the shortest description in the entire category?

I certainly am not trying to knock another editors description, but this one doesn't really tell me that this site offers much of anything. He could be listed at the top of every category, but I personally wouldn't think he was anything special with "Sales and rentals in South End". His site offers a lot of information, and I am sure that he does very well for himself, but I would guess it is not because he is listed 1 level higher then he might belong.

What about this...
Hey guys, I noticed a listing of an agent "Here is the URL" that might be better suited at "this category", but his description isn't very informative. If you believe that he does belong at that level, would you mind taking another look at his description. I have personal knowledge about this guy and he makes the best ice cream sundays..... you know what I mean.

I noticed that you are doing a lot of work to help in whatever way you can with bad links and what-not, but I don't know how the "Higher Ups" keep from flipping out every single day with the special treatment posts all the time.

My $0.02.

Smokin78

If you are thin skinned, stop reading now.

You also have to realize that in terms of positioning, RE agents are notorious for wanting to be all things to all people, experts everywhere, and zillion dollar producers all.

We deal with this by looking at the website; run for the hills, here comes another content, content, content lecture.

What does RE agent/agency really have for original, unique, content on the site. Not linked to the site, not part of the template, but actual, real content.

Does it tell anything at all about the agent, or does it regurgitate the "in today's challenging RE market, you need an agent...." pablum that comes with most templates?

Does it even have the agent's real photograph, or is the agent so disconnected from the site that they never bother to change from the stock photo?

Does it tell anything about the community that is not lifted from the Chamber of Commerce website or is part of the standard template?

Does it demonstrate that the agent/agency is more than residential? does it show/discuss horse properties, waterfront properties, commerical properties, residential lofts or whatever the specialization being claimed?

Does it have the agent's own listings, or does the agent have so few (dare we say none?) that it lists all of the agency listings?

Does it say anything about schools, or is all that content linked offsite?

Does it give useful information on mortgages or jsut try to steer the visitor to the place that gives the highest commission/referral fees/kickbacks?

Bottom line: where is the meat? Because once we find the meat, we can best decide where to list the site.

Before I answer. I want to say that I have no proof. I said it before, and I am saying it again. My point is that people wind up higher in the directory then they should. Thus ending up on a page with higher PR with a better link.

Smokin78

The description means nothing. No SEO should ever care about their DMOZ description.

I agree he would do well either way. I also know he pays for site management, so it raises possible questions about how his site wound up there.

I didnt start this thread to even make a point about this site, motsa just took me in that direction. I am trying to help out by cleaning up categories I have knowledge about. But I dont want to post a bad link in the bad link thread without understanding what a bad link is and what is acceptable.

Maybe they finally realize that I am just trying to help out.

I dont think they will make me an editor, but with the information I have learned I will certainly come back and post problems in the bad link thread. I know people who might come and go in this area. I also run a directory about 'web stuff', so my software tells me when sites go down or are sold, information that will help editors remove dead links, or possible hijacks.

spectregunner

I agree with your post totally. I am not sure what it had to do with this thread. But I do agree. The RE business is a for the most part a pile of template churned websites. Bugs me, because these companies charge $30,$50,$75 a month for a real garbage website.

The other problem I saw was that commercial, residential, and property management are separate. But I would say that 99% of real estate companies deal in all three. I am thinking you would say to put it in the one that best describes the majority of their business. But this month it might commercial deals and next month it might be residential. I'm splitting hairs. I dont know a better way to do it than DMOZ does it. But I think there might be some way.

Click to expand...

This quote from you is what triggered it. It isn't what the companies say their business is about, it isn't about how the business breaks out in any given day/week/month/year. It is about the website. What is the content of the website? That is all that matters.

See...that is what I thought. But I thought I was wrong because so many sites over the ODP are in large categories that could be categorized into small sub cats. Especially the category in question. I dont know how they got there to begin with. I guess I can make some more posts with suggestions in the other issues thread.

But it is important to understand that there is no benefit in breaking large categories into smaller categories just for the sake of doing so.

We subcat when it helps the surfers and only then in a manner that has been widely agreed upon.

There is, for example, no requirement that when ...Real_Estate/Residential/ gets to a certain number of listings we are required to add the /Agents and /Agencies subcats -- but when and if we do subcat, those will be the subcats we create.